All right Jed, by special re"quest".
The snow flurries and easterly breeze meant numbers were down on last week, and perhaps Mother's Day had an affect too. So a small,quick, group went off on an a route out to somewhere apart from Rainow - the rumour was the Ice Cream Farm via a scenic route. A larger group, with a couple of new riders, and some who haven't been out for a while, went to the Lavander Cafe at Dunham. The route was fairly direct- Lach Dennis, Knutsford, Tatton Park, Ashley and Hale and - into the wind. I seemed to spend a fair amount of time off the back but it was still a bit of fresh air. Leaving the cafe the temperature seem to have taken a dive and it took some time to warm up.The return was direct so it was a "short" short run. As usual the banter was good. Others may add more detail.

Thanks Derek, you're a gent'. Let's hear about the other run now.

Ok Jed, the long run also went a a short run, as derek said, to the ice cream farm. We decided to avoid the hills around Macc due to the snow. There were only 4 of us, myself, titch, tony & new addition to the long run, Phil. Apparently, it was too cold for Jules!!! 😆
We headed up through Kingsley and kingswood via hilltop lane, Titch was up there first, followed by Tony and myself, while waiting for Phil, we debated the benefits of Titch being 2.5 -3 Stone light than Tony and I. When Phil Arrived, he was having second thoughts about riding with us and was talking about turning back, we persuaded him to stay on. We continued over past Summertrees Cafe via Yeld lane and Waste Lane, Phil had a mechanical with his chain jamming. On through cotebrook up the A49 dropping into Tarporley over the hump back bridge at Bates Mill and on to the Cafe.

The Cafe was quite busy, so we were asked to go and sit in the loft "on the nice comfy sofas", which they certainly were, the only thing that spoilt it was the arcade with the disco music blast out, god i must be getting old 🙄

We returned pretty direct, back past Bates Mill, head wind most of the way, we tried a bit of through and off but failed miserably 😆 Tony then lead us back doing some good work on the front. Phil dropped off at Eaton back home to Middlewich, the remaining 3 stayed together until i left them at the bottom of whitegate.

I was home and had my bike washed for 2:30, and my wife was more than happy to see me so early.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/282640630

Thanks Jim.

A wise move to steer clear of Macc and the hills.. 😕

snow on the tops.

I managed to get out for a couple of hours later in the day, up towards Bosley. Howling headwind/ crosswind most of the way. Absolutely awful ride.

was a good ride and with a tailwind on the way here my garmin was reading low 20' to mid 20's but obviously little less on the hills. 😛 good run led by jim getting slightly lost when we got to tarpoley when we thought it was malpas. Oops. but after my suggestion of heading straight back with no beans on toast at beeston the other 3 decided to put their foot down and quickly said 'no, you look like you could do with a bit of warmth' typical mistake made by myself very often, but with 2 pairs of gloves and 2 long sleeve jerseys i was surprised that my hands were actually cold. nice fast pace to the cafe and like jim said a slower pace back due to headwind and our through and off idea wasnt working particularly well with the wind. thanks for a good ride jim.