Saturday 24th August 2019

The day before I was to lead the C ride to Wray I was out on the Lune Cappuccino run which is basically a flat out road race to a café & back; at one juncture one of the lads drew alongside me & asked if I knew that my shorts were transparent, which, as I had never cycled along behind myself I was total unaware of, I mentioned that I was leading a group of ladies & lads the next day to Wray & he replied, “you’d better wear a different pair then or their view down the Lune Valley might be less visible than your own”! So replete with more appropriate attire I turned up for the start, there were the usual C suspects assembled along with 2 Bs & we picked up a couple more along the way, however, my intended pace which was to ensure we arrived at the café early before the motorists ate all the scones was somewhat stymied by the fact that Bill who had last been cycling with us about 10 years ago was struggling to keep up after his 10 year hiatus. Hence a lot of protracted regrouping & we hadn’t even got to Claughton yet, so once we arrived at the Wray turn I began my ‘scone sprint’ further out than usual to get to the café before those damned motorists did, so I flew into the café car park in a sprint that Caleb Ewan would have been proud of, to find there was nobody there at all, complete waste of energy & more scones on offer than you could shake a mini-pump at. Suitably refuelled we rode through Wennington & Gressingham & as we were passing Aughton we stopped to admire Petula’s View, which is similar to Ruskin’s View but he was less famous! By now the temperature had risen to about 26C & I had unzipped my cycling top to let some heat out & some air in, but the sight of me actually displaying bare skin instead of several layers of thermals was too much for Bob & Yvonne who demanded a selfie to record the likely never to be repeated moment for posterity, this exploded the ongoing myth that my epidermis is in fact made of lycra. Onward we pedalled through Halton & Lancaster but by the time we arrived at the Millennium Bridge the temperature was starting to affect the peloton & some requested a short break; after around 10 minutes we were to set off again when Yvonne cried out that her bike was missing & went into blind panic mode, we were just about to inform the police of the theft when she was heard to say, “Oh it’s here”! Now it is not unusual for Yvonne to not know where she is on a ride, but not actually knowing where her bike is, is for her a definite first. So now united with her steed Yvonne joined the rest of us on our return to Garstang, however, although it was late in the afternoon & 50 miles already covered, it was deemed necessary to stop at Scorton Barn for ice scream, this is not a misprint, it’s just that every time we go there someone always screams "have you seen the size of these bloody things”!