This week nine riders hauled themselves out of bed on an unseasonably cold Saturday morning, our destination, the Factory Cafe in Barnoldswick.

After a quick discussion and confirmation that both groups were doing the same route, Ian and I set off with the SRAN group with the intention of returning back from the cafe with the AIR riders.

The ride started badly for Tom after he realised he had set off with his wife’s phone in his pocket. It also went badly for me when I realised that the SRAN route was significantly longer and hillier than the AIR route I had downloaded. Hamish had ‘tweaked’ it slightly to avoid an ‘A’ road.

This slight tweak resulted in an extra 5 miles and a 800ft of climbing plus a detour down a ford / river (see photo above).

As a result of the ‘tweak’, we arrived at the cafe only a few minutes before the AIR group and so we sat down together to eat some well earned (large) bacon sandwiches.

Fully refreshed and refuelled and after catching up on Nick‘s near miss with a Volvo after getting distracted by something or someone, the AIR group set off back to Leeds, with me and Ian tagging along.

On the way back we bumped into Hamish and Dan who for some reason were heading down a hill we had just come up.

The weather stayed cold but dry for the duration, and we made it back to Leeds around 3pm. My legs thanked me for returning with the AIR.

Total distance for me was 65 miles and 6100 feet of climbing.

Cheers
Steve

p.s. On the way back home from Rawdon Ian decided to go through a restricted height barrier with Chris’ bike on the roof of his car, damaging one of his brake levers. I am expecting that his excuse was that his vision was affected by ‘Steamy Windows’.

(This week’s apology goes to Tina Turner)