The medium ride Sunday 12th October took 10 of us to The Cafe in the Park Malpas. 9 left HQ promptly at 9am on one of those days where someone had forgotten to turn the weather on (no sun, no rain, no wind, just that gloomy low grey cloud)!
Picking up Phil C and Ruth at TOP we took the usual route north east via Stithians, across the A393, left just before Frogpool, left again just before Bissoe then up via Twelveheads to Chasewater. Sadly we lost Barbara at this point who was forced to turn back by her new saddle that turned out to be somewhat less comfortable than the marketing material had lead her to believe it would be 🙁
The remaining 10 of us climbed the hill out of Blackwater up to the new bridge at Chiverton then picked up the cycle route running parallel with the A390 towards Truro. Just past the hospital we dropped down onto the Coosebean Greenway then picked up St Georges Road into the city centre before going round the one way system, apart from Damien who decided to try his luck through the middle and successfully negotiated the cobbled roads! Across the Trafalgar Roundabout (where we shared pleasantries with some of the St Austell Wheelers) we then went down Malpas Road to the Cafe in the Park.
We must have picked a good day because the service was faster than some had lead me to believe it would be!!!
Back via the Newham Trail and those wonderful hills(!) on the south west side of Truro towards Bissoe we arrived at Perranarworthal then had to decide whether to return to Penryn via the hard bas**rd hill or double hard bas**rd hill (you all know the ones I’m referring to don’t you?!!). Most of us opted for the former but then felt so bad we had to climb up Hillhead Road on the way back to HQ to redeem ourselves!!!
Many, many thanks to Denise, Sonjia, Richard, Trevor, Damien, Phil E, Phil C, Ruth, Don and Barbara for being such an enjoyable group to ‘lead’ on a great ride. I put ‘lead’ in inverted commas because in reality everyone did their bit so made my life pretty easy!
Finally – I make no apologies for so few photos – we were to busy enjoying the cycling!