Thursday Ride 5th Sept

Just back from a non cycling holiday along the south east coast of France and north west coast of Italy, it was great to find that the hot sunny weather was still with us in the U.K, a scorching 29c on this Thursday’s Ride!

Seeing the French and Italian bike club riders, tackling the very long and very steep climbs along this very scenic part of the Mediterranean coast, certainly brings home the  pleasures of being a cyclist. I only wish that I could have joined them.

But one thing to welcome me home was the price of a cup of tea here in the U.K. Three euros in Nice, more in Monaco and it tastes awful, they just can’t make a decent cup of tea south of the English Channel! So today it was off to Bridges at Edenbridge for an excellent, large pot of tea, at a rock bottom price to go with the excellent home made rock cakes. Five of us, Brian, George, Mark and Philip (in alphabetical order) plus myself, where we met John and Meike. A grand total of 7 so we did not match the 9 who made it out on this week’s Tuesday Ride.

  But just look at the quality!

It always great to hear what other members of our bike club are up to, but even though we have a weekly update for members to pass on their latest news, very few do! So it was interesting for us to discuss over the cuppa at Bridges, what Philip has taken on board. He has just acquired a 1930s tandem which he intends to renovate. He has stripped it down and showed us a photo on his mobile of the dis-assembled machine. I hope to have this and more details shortly, or better still perhaps Philip can provide photos  and his thoughts on what he plans to do with this bit of past cycling history.

Next week the tea stop is at Tan House Farm, Newdigate, with Mark Hancock leading the ride. Meet at Tesco, Purley, at 10 for this cycling saunter into deepest Surrey.

Des.