Eight riders met up in Rawdon this morning, all with hopes and dreams, mainly around eating bacon sandwiches in a cafe in Airton.

A SRAN group consisting of Hamish, Nathan and Ryan headed off in an anti-clockwise direction, AIR riders Ian, Alan, Dom and Steve headed clockwise. Dave L, always the maverick, set off on a solo ride to Bolton Abbey.

The weather forecast was mixed and initially it was damp and cold, but as we got closed to Airton the sun came out and we warmed up.

Ian bet us all a round of coffees that we would get straight through the level crossing at Cononley (having never got through without a wait, I was quietly confident). Sure enough the barriers were down and Ian lost.

The wet roads posed a challenge to Alan who was initially adopting a speedway approach to cornering and eventually settled on just going a bit slower. New tyres was the diagnosis and as you can imagine everyone had an opinion…

We arrived at the cafe to find the SRAN just leaving, we headed in and settled down for some welcome food in the warmth.

The ride back from Airton is one of my favourites and today didn’t disappoint. Nice quiet roads, great views and some sunshine all contributed to a very enjoyable ride back to Leeds.

Total distance for me was 65 miles with 5800 feet of climbing average speed was 13.5 mph.

Cheers Steve