Winter Begins

After the national hill climb, I had an enjoyable wind down weekend in the Peak District. I had my hair done and went for a couple of easy rides one with my Mum over long hill (a regular at the Vets SQT’s at Manchester) and a longer ride on the Sunday with the couch potato and Buxton CC into Cheshire.

I like this time of year where I can just simply enjoy riding the bike again – this year more so than usual! Not very easy sometimes on my heavy steel winter bike.

The following weekend we took a long trip up to Ingleton (about 30mins North of Lancaster on the Lancs/Yorks border) with just under 20 Buxton CC riders. Their weekends away are always tough. The Saturday ride was 65 miles and included the rather steep Beggermans Road between Hawes and Buckden (although the view down the other side was well worth the climb). We stopped at the bottom in Buckden at The West Winds Yorkshire Tea Rooms where we were treated to homemade sandwiches, soup, apple pie and UNLIMITED COFFEE!!

The Sunday run was a more rolling route into Sedbergh. Being on Eve’s home turf she joined us for the ride and showed most of the boys how to climb!

All in all an enjoyable weekend (although will perhaps opt for a B&B over a Hostel next time).

This weekend was spent back home in Manchester. I went to cheer the girls on, who were racing at the Friday night track league (MTRL). Then a nice leisurely 10.30 (ish) start the next day for a ride out to Rivington with Mel, followed by a few hours on the turbo at the Maxgear stand at the revolution - yes, another excuse to wear the awesome WASP speedsuit in public (and got a good view of the racing). You didn’t need to see the track to know when Cav won the scratch race – I’ve only heard the crowd roar so loud when Chris Hoy races.

A great night was topped off with a hot dog and chips!