Saturday 29th February 2020

Storm Jorge didnt put off the 6 keen B riders who trucked up on the cobbles this morning (Paula, Dave Hodgson, Trev, Peter R, Donald and me) All GCC riders were asked to pose for a photo shoot involving a fair trade banner, Pip dressed as a banana and all holding a banana! No surprise that this resulted in the lovely Paula and Dave cracking plenty of rude jokes for the rest of the day!
It was a no-brainer to combine into one ride and we agreed a route out to Chipping and Longridge rather than the scheduled ride. This tactic enabled an early bail out if the weather turned for the worse quicker than expected, however apart from a bit of hail/sleet near Chipping, we escaped relatively well from wet conditions (other than some very big puddles). It was only the wind that gave us some issues but a few tweaks to the route kept us mainly upright.
Roots cafe served us well as always, although Paula being given a table ticket of no' 69 brought a few more smutty remarks and sniggers!
Out of cafe and into a full on head wind over towards Gt Ecc. Dave turned off near Sowerby needing to be home early and we then said goodbye to Peter and Donald at Elswick (Peter adding a few extra miles on going to Blackpool and Donald dropping off at home in Fleetwood). I escorted Paula and Trev to Little Ecc and they continued to Pilling over Cartford Bridge. I was relieved that Trev would ensure the navigationally challenged Paula reached home safely, not having added another pass round Chipping! I returned home via a very flooded Meagles Lane just to get another 7 miles in to top my mileage up to 50. All in all, a very satisfying ride, with great company and not too much of the crap weather to contend with! Thanks everyone. ??????