Blue is the new green

Excuses for not riding on Ian’s pathfinder at the weekend abounded at Union Corner this morning but it was time for the off before I had to make mine. And it wasn’t the reason why I lagged behind the rest on the way over to the other place. 4 of us had left Falmouth and double that number was assembled on the turn when I arrived. Jan is off skiing so this was our full compliment. St Agnes was suggested as a destination and accepted without debate. It is usual that OGIL don’t know where they are going but today it was the fog to blame as we made our way through Halvasso, down to Longdowns and on to the Greek Church. It eventually cleared, however. At Pullacross Simon was seen nipping back into his home, with a “I’ll catch you up”. He was quite vague just why this was, and I will not try to guess. We lost Paul for a while at Chacewater but regrouped and headed on through Blackwater and Mount Hawke. However, we had spread out again by the Mingoose turn. The OGIL WhatsApp group came into use, with a message from Fred “Mike has broke his chain” and “Ian says go on”. “Go on” means round the Beacon but even here there was a divergence of views, Kath and Andrew going one way and Phil3 and myself going the other. Surprisingly we all arrived at the Olde Bakery café in St Agnes at the same time, even Simon. Unfortunately the Olde Bakery Café is now under Newe Management and food choices are restricted to pasties, sausage rolls and cake but we were told that a new café had opened at the bottom of the hill in Peterville, The Green Room.

The Green Room was justifiable busy and with no available tables we initially chose to take up all 3 of the outside benches, after the owner had dried them off and turned on the outside heating. After a while a party of ramblers left and some of us decanted back inside. The food was good and the prices too. Even though there was just the one couple serving and cooking the service was excellent. The Mawnan Smith contingent chose Eggs Royale and Eggs benedict, whilst the rest of us had eggs on toast or just toast. Conversation was mainly on trying to remember who had attended the Quiz night last week and the need to have a list of who is on club rides. I could do with one of those.

Our table was reserved from 12 noon, which prompted us to be back on the road, up to Goonbell and across to Blackwater again. The cause of the strange noise my bike had been making became clear by the time we reached Scorrier; the bottom bracket had collapsed. I thought about turning for the shortest route home but couldn’t catch the others until we got to Mt Ambrose. By keeping to one or two gears the noise wasn’t quite so bad so declined Simon’s offer of giving me a lift from Pullacross. The next WhatsApp message was that Nigel’s chain had come off and jammed his gears, followed shortly be “Ian’s got a puncture”. There seemed little point in me going back so carried on, together with Adrian, Phil3, Mike and Keith. An eventful 47 miles for me. Dean

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