Cycle News 

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Cycle News October 2007

 

A NEW SEASON

 

The countryside is already showing autumnal changes with falling leaves and chilly nights and soon the colours of the leaves will transform the scenery.  Come and join the rides along the quiet lanes to enjoy the views of Shropshire and the company of fellow members of the club.  This issue includes articles about the activities of members and if you have taken part in an event or had an interesting ride, please send a contribution about it.

 

EASTER 2008

 

An event organiser is required for the Easter weekend in 2008.  This is a popular event, usually held in a youth hostel.  If you would like to volunteer or receive more information about the organisation of the event, please contact our secretary, Rob Jones, or a member of the committee.

 

A.G.M. – 11th NOVEMBER – 11 a.m., Upton Magna Village Hall

 

Please send nominations for committee members to the secretary, Rob Jones, 5 Mount Way, Pontesbury, SY5 0RB by 11th October.  All members

are invited to this important meeting.

 

 

FOR SALE - good reads for cyclists - £1 each or £5 the lot:

 

Great Cycle Tours of Great Britain – Tim Hughes

The Wheel in Two Worlds – Ron Kitchener

French Revolutions – Tim Moore

The Wind in my Wheels – Josie Drew

Cleopatra’s Needle                                       )

A Bike Ride 12,000 miles around the World )  - Anne Mustoe

Two Wheels in the Dust                                )

                              

Contact John Farr – Tel. No. – 01743 247275

 

 

CTC 27th TRIENNIAL RIDES 2007

 

CTC members over the age of 50 can take part in these rides of 100 miles in 12 hours, which take place around the country every three years.  They are social events and riders leave the start in groups every 5 to 10 minutes.   There are pre-arranged elevenses, dinner and tea stops.

 

We entered the Chester event on July 1st and booked two nights at the Youth Hostel on Saturday and Sunday, intending to cycle to Chester on Saturday afternoon.  However, it poured with rain all day on Saturday, so we went to Chester by train.

 

After a wet night, it was dry when we left the hostel on Sunday morning.  However, there was a very strong southerly wind.  There were thirteen in our group, led by Harry Watson aged 78 – oldest rider from Chester DA.  We rode south to elevenses at Overton Village Hall and dinner at Llandrinio.  We were relieved to turn north and a tail wind back to Overton.  Harry set a fast pace and we began to suffer by teatime, as we had been unable to build up our fitness because of the wet weather.  We decided to leave the tea stop early and go at our own pace.  It soon began to rain heavily again and we got very wet.  We managed to complete the ride with an hour to spare.

 

After the presentations to the oldest riders, we returned to the hostel (110 miles for the day).

 

It was pouring with rain again on Monday morning and we got wet cycling to the station.  We are both very satisfied to have completed the ride once again in spite of the weather and our lack of fitness.   

                                                                         

                                                                        Jenny and John Leese

 


WELSH CYCLING FESTIVAL 2007

 

26-30th JULY

 

We decided to visit the Festival before meeting up with our family who were camping in a Yurt (Mongolian Tepe) on a farm near Carmarthen.

On Thursday 26th July, we boarded the 8.35 train in Wem (having previously booked our bikes) just before the rain started.  It poured all the way to Carmarthen and we passed lots of flooded fields.  We arrived in Carmarthen just before 1.00.  We set off to ride the 27 miles to Llandovery.  The rain soon turned into heavy showers but we had a strong tail wind. 

 

We booked into an excellent B&B in the centre of Llandovery.  We had a wide choice nearby, of good eating places for our evening meals.  Our fellow residents at the B&B were Roger and Jill Kieran (Chair CTC) and Chris Jaggo, son of Ralph Jaggo who was one of the founder members of the Shropshire DA.  His distant cousin is organising the Newport Nocturn Cycle Race on September 1st.

 

Chris Jaggo spent the first ten years of his life in Market Drayton!!  The landlord of the B&B was brought up in Market Drayton as I was until I got married!!  We had lots in common.

 

Llandovery Rugby Clubhouse was HQ for the festival and CTC members camped on the field.  The festival was well organised, weather cool but dry.  We had stunning views on the rides.  The routes were varied, lumpy and the roads extremely quiet.  On Sunday evening, Dave Hill gave an excellent slide show of his trip to the Himalayas in 2006.  We would like to thank everyone involved in the oragnisation of the event.  It was a fitting tribute to the memory of Graham Mills.

 

We left on Monday morning to cycle the 35 miles to Cwmduad (nine miles north of Carmarthen) for a further three days in an excellent guest house, more cycling and meeting up with our family.  We returned home by train after a week of excellent cycling, stunning views and dry, sunny weather.

 

                                                   Jenny (and John) Leese

 

 

EMRYS JONES

 

Emrys also took part in the Welsh Festival but sadly he had an accident.

 

He was riding with a group and unfortunately crashed, causing serious injuries, particularly to his face.  Emrys is now back home and he sends his thanks to all those who phoned, visited and sent cards wishing him well again.  We all wish you a speedy recovery, Emrys.

 

 

SPECIAL-K

 

An occasional leader of our Sunday day-rides has a reputation.  But his hegemony has been challenged, not only in the initial letter of his first (and also sur- ) name, but in the nature of his rides.

 

So what is it I’m referring to?  Mud.

 


 

Our new contestant is one of our lady members whose first name also, as it happens, starts with K.  She’d turned up in the Square unsuspecting that she’d find herself filling the vacant role of ride leader to Prees.

 

“Have you been up this track before?” she enquired as we approached a lane whose surface had been ground down from decades of traffic and neglect.  Something new!  We swung onto the rough, old road-bed.

 

We pottered pleasantly, if not jarringly, for a mile or so, benignly enjoying the isolation, momentarily shared with a surprised tramp crouching on the ground in front of his rudimentary home, all his possessions arranged in picturesque mounds around him.

 

But the special-K factor was yet to strike.  The vehicle-width track narrowed to a single path.  The single path narrowed some more and the day grew dark as the foliage met above our heads.  The scenery we’d been enjoying disappeared beyond the nettles with lashing vipers’ tongues and thick hedges that scored our arms and legs.

 

In any case, ever-deepening cauldrons of mud focused the mind and eyes.  A series of decisions; mud-swallowed wheel-rims or mud-soaked shoes?  We each made our own choice of whether to ride or push.  It didn’t make a ha’porth of difference.  The daylight at the end of this tunnel revealed a thick coating everywhere.

 

Back on tarmac, our bikes gathered speed on the long, steep descent through the upcoming village.  A cluster of executive 5-bed palaces stood momentarily on the left.  Bullets of mud ricocheted off our mudguards, towards the sterile driveways and glossy 4x4s crouching on them. The nearest they’d probably ever get to honest mud.                              Rob Fris