Two arrived at Rawdon at 9.0, Dominic & Alan, who met another 2 at Pool, Chris & Nick, and, ‘With a little help from my friends’ and due to a forecast for rain at lunch time, a decision to do a shorter route to Thorpe Arch was agreed.

Setting off in unseasonally cool, overcast June weather and heading out via Castley, Kirby Overblow and Sicklinghall to Wetherby and with a slight tail wind we made good progress onto our stop at Tim’s cafe. Always a good stop when a pint mug of tea and a BIG bacon & egg sandwich costs under £7.

After talk of Telephoto’s, pixel resolution, shutter speeds and more, we headed back from ‘East of the River’ to Boston Spa and Bramham under heavy skies, eventually meeting the torrential downpour a couple of minutes later. It was so bad we could have been ‘Walking on Water’, we sheltered under trees hoping for some respite but it never relented, so we just pressed on as we could not ‘Hold back the River’ of water running down the roads.

Chris left us at Shadwell to head for home while the remaining 3 ploughed on through the rain to Rawdon and home.

The ‘Temptation’ of a hot bath too great to miss once there, to warm up my ‘Cold Cold Heart’.

It was an unusually cold and wet ride for mid June but enjoyable in its own way.

On the day, 48 miles and 2750 feet for me.

Cheers Alan.

(with apologies to Wet Wet Wet fans)