The Beacon Message Board

I heard it was a tad nippy last Sunday? ...but despite hangovers from the club dinner and ice carelessly left on the roads, 23 intrepid souls mustered at the Black Horse for their weekly fix.

Particular thanks to Dave Cox and Si Walker for taking over leading duties on the Intro ride and C-ride respectively, and a great big warm welcome to Nathalia and Georgia for their first Beacon ride on the Intro...hope to see you again soon.

As usual, Nick's B-ride proved popular and in those conditions, well done for counting them all out and counting them all back. Guess what, we have a full compliment of leaders for this week...hooray - let's hope for an ice-free ride.

By the way, Cycling Weekly have sent me a load of freebies from Power Bar (15 bidons, 24 gels, 48 energy bars) following their ride with us in November which I'll bring along to the AGM on Thursday evening for anyone attending...free to a good home.

This week's rides are:

A: Wellesbourne - Phil Richards
B: Lavender Hall Fisheries - James Tate
C: Alcester - Colin Groves

The C ride to Alcester will be on the shorter this Sunday at around 50 miles. I'm recovering from a particularly nasty virus and this will be my first ride out for a month so bear with me. Still, I've lost some weight - probably from all the wrong places.

It's ages since the A-run has headed south east, so as Ade's trip to Wellesbourne was knocked on the head last week, thought I'd try again.

Route is approx. 65miles, flatter than normal, with big breakfast baguettes at the café. Route is here:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/17981652

A typical B run to Lavender Hall today, with plenty of banter and piss-taking present amongst the faithful. In attendance today was:

James Tate (L)
Nick Shenton
Alan Weaver
Neil Orchard
Andy Wrightson
Paul Johnson
Phil Elwell
Rob Wade
Simon Price
Carolyn Clegg
Mark Connell

A splendid A run to Wellesbourne to the cafe in the precinct, where we seemed to picking up riders as we went along. Making it the cafe were

Phil Richards (leading)
Jess Rhodes-Jones
Matt Clegg
Stuart White
Keith Adcock
Dave Hughes
Steve Philpott
The King of Tonga
Ian Taylor
Matt Regan

Apologies for my surreptitious methods to encourage future leaders, but it's working, with two firm commitments from the A-riders, with others promising to check their diaries!

On todays C run were:

Colin Groves (L)
Laurie Derbyshire
Paul Derbyshire
Dave Cox
Giedrins Kudelis (hope I've got that right)
Michael Preece
Jemma Johnson
John Hitchcock
Si Walker
Helen Jamieson
Mark McConkey
Mark Gardner
Adrian McHugh
Mike Bacenski
Neil Evanson
Anne Hughes (peeled off on the way out to the café for an early finish)
Simon Turner (as above)

We split the group in two, thanks Dave for leading the 2nd run.

We have some C run volunteers for Jan to March - I'll post on the relevant thread. I didn't even have to resort to violence.

Sod's Law at work.

Ahead of last weekend's B run to Alcester, I asked Nick which café he was planning to use. But in the end I couldn't join the group, because I had too much other stuff going on.

Ahead of this weekend's C run to Alcester, I didn't bother to ask Colin which café he was planning to use, because I thought there was a strong possibility that wouldn't be able to make it. But in the end, I could. And two minutes after I had ordered my bacon sarnie, everyone sailed past and went to the café down the road.

However, I didn't have to sup alone because John Hitchcock had the crazy notion that a cool damp day in December wasn't ideal for al fresco dining, and decamped to the café where I was already installed.

Yeah it wasn't ideal sat outside - Helen was cuddling a teapot and the rest of us made out it was fine through chattering teeth. John made a sensible decision - although the service was good, and they're a friendly bunch. I should have rung ahead - i'll give myself a stiff talking to for next time.

Colin, thanks for leading today; a lovely ride. I didn't think it was too bad sitting outside and warmed up after a couple of miles on the return journey.

Good run today Colin thanks great route and entertaining cafe!

Apologies for coming past the C run yesterday on the Bristol Road without so much as a 'good morning'.

I arrived late at the Black Horse, saw you in the distance and gave chase, only to realise once catching you that it wasn't the A-Run so a panicked chase then ensued.

After bumping into the B run as well, I actually (briefly) attended all 3 club runs yesterday. I don't think I've been on one all year so I was trying to cram a few in at once.

Thanks for leading the A Phil and for the record, the display read 87.5kg when I got home

Colin G wrote:Yeah it wasn't ideal sat outside - Helen was cuddling a teapot

That teapot was amazing!

Thanks for leading Colin. Longest run I've done on a bike for a little while!