Well I can honestly say that this weeks club run was an awful lot more pleasurable than last weeks, for me at least. Bright sunshine but still cold greeted us this week. Also a much larger turnout. Always good to see. The bunch leaving Becketts included, myself, Beans, Smithy, Todger, China, Wilkes, Ali, Bob, Chris Duffield, Baywatch and Goldy as we set off to Fillongley. As we sped along we managed to pick up the esteemed Mr Bradley (petshop to his friends) and friend, Mick Caswell and the old stagers, Nick Selibas and Mick Wright on fixed gears. This made for a very pleasant large group on the way out. The pace was easy and the banter plentiful. Though most of the time we were trying to stop Dave talking about his trip to Verona to see the Worlds last week. Git! Bob did not last long, citing some excuse about decorating he fled before we got to the hilly stuff. Alistair also escaped early without even making an excuse.
Things were quiet until the final hill before the cafe and a few riders got a little carried away on the hill and missed the turning. Obviously enjoying ripping the legs off each other in the off-season. The cafe stop was at the very pleasant Station cafe in Fillongley. There were some interesting conversations. It was alleged that one of the male members of the club could be more attractive that Mark Wilkes' wife. A scandalous proposition that was vehemently denied by all present.
The route back seemed to pass most of the club's homes as people veered off at frequent intervals. There was one small incident of note. Mick Caswell was trying a recreation of the Beans, China, TT position and ended up tangled up in Mark's back wheel and was unceremoniously dumped to the floor. Fortunately neither was injured and there was only minor damage to both bikes. Due to the route back the pace did not really pick up in the last few miles as usually occurs. Coming through Solihull town centre slows things up a bit. A break did occur, by luck rather than judgement I fear. It did not contain many riders usually seen at the front at the end of a club run i.e. myself and China. After China put in some sterling work to maintain the break I WENT TO THE FRONT (Dave) to keep the pace up on a hill, only to see the mighty midget himself, Beans, sprinting up on my outside. I kept my head down for a while in the chase, but was not making any impact. I looked round for some assistance from the rest of the group only to find myself on my own. I can only assume that everyone else either got lost or caught in traffic. I continued my chase of Beans alone but could not catch him. Nice to finish at the front though, not off the back.
When Smithy arrived several minutes later, he constantly denied that he was left behind, trying to blame it on riding a fixed. Bringing up repeatedly the fact that he has beaten me in a TT as an obvious reason why I would not be away in front of him. Some day Dave you may learn to be gracious in defeat.
Yours in not so much pain this week and feeling a lot better thank you. Meg.