Club Notes - 23rd November 2003

Well the weather people got it wrong, but I’m not complaining because it was brilliant if a bit cool whilst they had forecast rain, wind hail and snow ok so I made up the last bit but it should have been pretty nasty, which would have been a shame as this weeks club run was to Noels Garage now its not everyday that some one offers free refreshments and even provides a route to get you there so we were hoping for a good turn out and poor weather would have kept numbers down as it was of the 11 who set off from the High Street 4 were not strictly members. Karen Lovett who had recently returned from a well earned holiday after her and Marks full and successful season, Gavin Pringle home for the weekend from Sheffield, plus Oliver and Georgia Thomas who are frankly a bit to young to be members but looked happy in the trailer on the back of Gary’s mountain bike, besides Gary and yours truly other fully fledged club folk were Phil Gayes, Marc Brigand, Graham Holden, Adam Ken way and Andy Bain.

Noels route took us out through Rudyard and up Dunwood lane, however as Gary climbed up the slopes he realized that although he had been out with the trailer in Cheshire recording average speed of 15-16mph hills are different so was forced to retire with the rest of the route being a bit hillier and as he pointed out we would have been out there all day, Adam also left at this point after miss-judging the temperature and now feeling the cold. So we were down four before we reached Endon! The route then took us up Park Lane and down into Caverswall via Cellerhead, with only short sections on main roads very pleasant it was too. Eventually we reached the main Cheadle–Tean road at this point Karen had to leave as she had only come out for a quick spin. The rest of us crossed the road towards Hollington ,some of the party said that this was a rolling section others of us that are more gravitationally challenged thought it was bloody hilly but we made it through to Rocester coming out by JCB, from here it was more or less straight back to Ipstones and Noels, those familiar with that area know that this part was also “rolling”, I knew Noel had a wicked sense of humour, on this last section we lost Marc and Gavin who had to get back for social duties. So we end up just 4 at Noels, which meant more of Pam’s excellent Cake and hot teacakes for us. Suitably refreshed it was a quick spin through the lanes and Ched Heath to Leek, altogether a very enjoyable run, which just begs the question why we didn’t have a few more members along.

Hopefully to answer this question and try and determine what people want from a club run or if they want more or less than a few formal runs such as the Birthday ride and Muffin rides, we are having a meeting at the clubhouse on the 1^st of December I know the topic is an old chestnut but it’s worth one last attempt to “sort it” before the club run season gets going proper. We even have special dispensation to bring a takeaway in for those who can’t quite squeeze it into their hectic lifestyles so you can attend whilst having your tea! Hope to see you there 8’ish.