Thanks
@ColinJ for a great ride. Weather was perfect and the route was just right for spring and getting back into longer distances. It was good to see everyone and the lunch cafe was up there with the best I've ever been to.
Yes, great ride and company and the weather planning machine worked a treat.
Thanks for organising.
Thanks
@ColinJ for sorting out this ride. My first decent ride since I don't know when. 80.3 miles (129kms) door to door so the longest ride for me in ages. Got home just after 5pm. Nice to see everyone.
Sunk one of these recovery drinks :
View attachment 687520
and had a sumptious dinner prepared to prefection by the lovely Mrs Colly.
Thanks for your company!
@Moodyman couldn't make it, but
@Dadam made an unexpected appearance to boost the number of riders back to 6.
Yes, the weather was kind to us. I like riding in pleasant sunny but mild conditions like that because I don't have to plaster myself in sunblock and I don't end up in a pool of sweat either.
We had been going along at 28-29 km/hr for a while when it suddenly struck me that the motor on
@Dadam's e-bike would have been cutting out at that speed. I asked him if he was okay and he told me that he hadn't really been using the motor much. It was there in reserve if he needed it though. I'm not sure how much of his battery capacity got used on the ride?
Another shout out for the cafe... If you are riding in the Tadcaster area and fancy a nice lunch stop, check out
Roast Coffee Shop.
@Buck had a puncture immediately after we set off again after the cafe. We couldn't find out what caused it and a replacement tube went down just as quickly. It could have become a real problem but fortunately the second replacement tube stayed up. No idea what caused the first puncture, but I'd guess that the first replacement tube got nipped when Buck was levering the very tight tyre back onto the rim?
We lost track of
@colly on our way to Kippax. We were going to phone him as soon as we got past the traffic lights at the top of the hill when suddenly he reappeared in front of us coming up to the lights by a different route. He had missed our right turn and taken a later one further down the original road.
A train arrived just as we got back to Garforth so I very quickly said goodbye to the others and caught that to Leeds. I just missed a train to Todmorden in Leeds, so I caught the Blackpool train to Hebden Bridge instead. I could have changed to the next train to Tod there but I'd worked out that it would be at least 5-10 minutes quicker to just ride home instead, which I did.
It felt about the right distance for me too. With the extra bits to and from stations my total for the day was 110 km (68 miles). I feel pleasantly tired now, but not shattered.
A snap of the bunch:
PS
@Julia9054 -
THIS is the type of rack on my bike, and where I bought it.
