Saturday 29th June 2019

As the B riders cleared the cobbles eight of us remained for the C ride to Knott End, weather was perfect for a ride to the seaside. Good job I did the recce yesterday as my technology failed me and Komoot would not load the planned route I had downloaded from the club website. Need not have worried as everyone bar me had completed this ride many times. Progress was swift and we arrived at the cafe at Knott End in just over an hour Stuart said it was the first C ride he had ever been on where we arrived at the cafe stop without a rest stop or stop to regroup, perhaps the real C ride was in France and this was the B3’s! One more animal story it was the first time I have ever seen a cow on its side on a big table having its hooves trimmed with an angle grinder! When we got to the cafe I realised why the swift pace had been set as the fantastic value pre-11:00am menu was still available, six item breakfast plus a slice of toast plus a tea or coffee £4.80! I do not know how they do it. We were joined at the cafe by Bob and Malcolm (how do they do that?) who had arrived via the ferry. So now we were ten but why was it so much more difficult to mobilise for the return trip, must have been the large portions (Keith left half his cream scone!) or was it the keen interest in Pip’s electric bike from all the bikers? A minor mutiny was avoided as we took the right turn to ‘the heads’ complaints about the flies and the poor road surface were exaggerated and the best part of the route took us to the rustic charm of Wardley Creek. I love these C ride routes! Phil left us at Out Rawcliffe cos he lives there, Tamsin, Keith and Stuart left us at the Cartford toll bridge leaving six to complete the run back to Garstang, 31 flat miles at 13.4 mph with no stops other than the cafe stop. Normal service will be resumed next week when the French contingent return.