Saturday 27th of February

No ride last weekend (thank to the 3 inches of snow that fell Saturday night) so Big Al thought he'd better throw in a few extra miles this weekend for good measure. Iron Man Lewis and Robbo met the Wrexham boys in Overton. I won't bore you with full details, suffice to say the first 5 minutes of conversation concerned the whereabouts of our absent rear gunner Ian (although to be fair, if I got home at 1.30am after watching the rugby I wouldn't have made it either!). I remain fairly confident that his French preparations are under control and he will surprise us all when he puts in a PB on Alpe D'Huez in this Summer.

We steadily made our way via Penley, Hanmer and Whitchurch to the Raven cafe at Prees, where we enjoyed a full breakfast and mug of tea for less than the cost of a spare tube. After Prees, the pace inevitably picked up. Mark led a long and valiant attack on the draggy climb past Prees village, before Robbo demonstrated a little over-exuberance on the road to Wem. As soon as things had calmed down, Mark again did a sterling turn on the front, only to be rewarded by a group acceleration up a very steep hill. Ron continued to show tip-top form for so early in the year, dancing up each and every rise like Fred Astaire on a cocktail of Iron Bru and Pro-plus!

As the group rolled into Ellesmere Robbo had a choice a) go home to a hot shower, hot coffee and an afternoon of rugby on the telly or b) ride straight past his house and carry on over the Brow to Whittington with the rest of the bunch in the ever deteriorating weather. The ascent of the Brow was steady and was rewarded with a fast approach into Whittington, before turning for St Martins and the stinging little climbs ahead. A subsequent telephone conversation between Robbo and Big Al later in the afternoon confirmed that there were tired hearts and legs by the time we all got home. All in all this was quite a tough day in the saddle in pretty bad weather, 60 odd miles and just under 18mph average. But as Lewis might sagely say, Winter miles = Summer smiles.