Short Ride Report by John Elaine crossing the Soar in Watemead Park This week the short ride was to the Methodist Tea Room at Birstall. John C., David, Elaine, Derek, Dennis, Margaret and John N. headed south through Quorn, ignoring the road closed signs and skirting the road works. There were more road works in Mountsorrel and the group led by Terry could be seen ahead. They climbed out of the valley to avoid these while our group negotiated the road works, which meant that at the Bier Way roundabout the groups almost merged. More road works held up riders at Rothley, but here Terry's group headed east while we carried on south, negotiating the new cycle paths skirting the Broadnook Garden Village. The riders followed the Sustrans route into Birstall where they found that the church hall looked very full. However a lady indicated that they had an "overflow" room and on entering found that a table had been vacated that could accommodate the seven of us. David, Elaine...

Longer Ride Report by Alan Despite the absence of the three wise men (John, Derek and Howard) and the cast iron assurance of rain at mid-day, the turnout at Holt Drive was surprisingly large. Dave M, David, Trish, Rob, Divendra, Mick and Jones joined me on the odyssey to Twyford. Four bits of good news accompanied us on the trip. Ø    Nobody got a puncture Ø    There was almost no wind Ø    It was unseasonably warm Ø    It didn’t rain   I thought no one could match Mick for riding a pile of c**p each week but I must admit Dave M pushes him pretty close. I don’t think the latter’s bike has ever seen a cleaning cloth or been introduced to an oil can. Coming up Bridge Street in Barrow we had the first of the stoppages where his chain came off. Dave nonchalantly announced “it always does that on hills ... it’s best to avoid them”. Unfortunately for him, and us, I forgot what a hilly ride lay in front of us, and so the chain said farewell to the s...

We will once again be having our Xmas Lunch at Rothley Court . You can use this form for booking your place and selecting your courses. Derek is organising the event and you can pay him either by giving him cheque or crediting his account direct. Details are towards the end of the form. You need to reserve you place by 20th November. YOU MUST CLICK THE SUBMIT BUTTON AT THE FOOT OF THE FORM FOR YOUR ENTRIES TO REGISTER. Once you have clicked on the submit button you should get both a confirmation screen in your browser and receive an email confirming your choices. Unfortunately it seems you may need a google account to use the form. If you don't succeed in getting an automatic confirmation please email your choices (a screen shot of the form should suffice) to  wxmaslunch@ctclr.org.uk .

Longer Ride Report by Alan The only way I can convince my wife to get out of bed and join middle aged men and women on a bike ride, on a Wednesday, is to convince her of 3 things. The ride will be short, The weather outside is warm, There is no possibility of rain. On this latter point I put my faith in the hands of (giggly) Carol Kirkwood, the weather woman on BBC Breakfast, who stated categorically that today “would be dry with sunny spells”. Looking out of the window, and seeing darkening clouds building up, together with the rainfall radar showing big blue blobs moving west from Lincolnshire, I knew she was fibbing. No wonder her first husband left her. At 9.15am at Holt Drive there was just Rob, Wendy and me present and raring to go. At 9.28am the numbers had swollen to at least 30, (possibly more) with people pacing around impatiently waiting for the arrival of Holt Drive’s answer to a very slim, and better looking, version of Kim Jong Un. Eventually 8 others joined m...