It was nice to see
@Vantage again for the start of the ride. I tried to avoid burning out what was left of his tyres by keeping an eye on the speed this time, but it did keep creeping up.
@skudupnorth was making his return to forum riding after a break for what sounded like some really fun medical procedures. It was good to see him again and he enjoyed his chance to do this route, having missed the July ride because he was on emergency childcare duties that day.
We followed a variation on our intended outward route at skud's suggestion. It spent longer on the canal towpath and A57 cyclepath than ours did. We showed him the other route on the return leg and he said that he wasn't even aware of the cyclepaths we took so he may well use them in the future. (We all agreed though that some of those sheltered paths might be a bit scary to ride alone (especially in the dark) because of the risk of being ambushed by a gang of lurking ne'er-do-wells.)
@GuyBoden is definitely an optimist ... I would have described the rain as lasting one and a half hours,
including some torrential outbursts! I was glad that I had borrowed the Crudguards from my mountain bike.
The rain storm happened early enough that we were drying out by the time we got to the marina cafe. The seats outside were still wet but conditions were by then bright enough that we didn't want to eat inside so we just wiped the surfaces down. The food was nice and good value (£5.80 for a large all-day veggie breakfast, a mug of tea, and a can of Coke). Guy's meal was delayed (the order note had fallen unnoticed to the floor) so he eventually went inside and reminded them. We were given a free second pot of tea to drink while we waited, which also prompted some cake buying. The only downside was that we got plagued by more wasps than I have seen for the whole of the rest of the summer. Still, nobody actually got stung!
There was a blustery wind blowing all day which held us back a bit for the first 2/3 of the day, but was a welcome boost on the return leg.
We got quite a bit of sunshine for the last few hours. The day definitely had an end-of-summer feel though and it is getting darker noticeably earlier now. In fact, it was dark by the time we got onto the wooded Roe Green Loopline path back up to Walkden so I had to ride behind scud and Littgull to benefit from their front lights, mine being strictly a to-be-seen-by low power led flasher.
Brian and I didn't have long to wait on the train and the drunks on the journey didn't cause any trouble, though it was a bit distracting having a woman with a short skirt draped over her male partner opposite us and having her legs fondled for the duration!
I did 172 km (107 miles) in total for the day, my tenth qualifying ride for the Lunacy Challenge out of the thirteen required. Nickyboy's Scarborough ride next Saturday should be number eleven. I'll just have to squeeze two more in after that before the weather gets too cold, wet and windy for me.
Some photos should be posted below shortly, once the other riders have woken up!
