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Post by manuel6b2 on Nov 12, 2009 14:00:42 GMT 1
Meet as usual at the Civic Centre in Lisburn at 6:50 with start at 7 pm. The heavy showers I can see out my window now should be cleared by late afternoon with no rain forecast for this evening.  |
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Post by manuel6b2 on Nov 13, 2009 13:58:45 GMT 1
Lunch time Thursday saw some very heavy downpours but thankfully these had cleared up by 3pm and it stayed dry for the rest of the evening. Numbers were down tonight with only 5 of us out. Team “The Losers” were there along with Jonathan and me. Trevor had threatened to show but didn’t and we knew Savage Pete was not coming this week, to which Dennis remarked “So, no racing then”.
We set off around 7:10 with Dennis and Stewart up front, me and Jonathan behind and Alan (big light) bringing up the rear. There were more dog walkers out this evening which interrupted our flow. However, at one particular corner we saw a rabbit sitting in the middle of the path blinded by our lights. Dennis and Stewart slowed, which I thought was for the rabbit, but it turned out that there was another cyclist coming the opposite direction which caused the squealing of brakes and Alan landing on top of me! The poor rabbit had stopped dead because there were lights approaching it from all directions but after the pile up, it scarpered. Luckily there was no one hurt, no bikes damaged so we continued on. After the steel bridge it was still Dennis and Stewart up front with the rest of us tucked in behind. At the footbridge Dennis shouted back “Let’s head for the Waterfront” much to the disgust of Alan and myself. The pace was fast as we headed on toward Stranmillis. The path had been fairly greasy from the leaves and earlier downpours but it took a turn for the worse past the first entrance to the Meadows when, just around the duck feeding spot, we hit the first of three very large and deep puddles. It seemed that the Lagan had encroached onto the path. We were all in the puddle and just had to keep pedalling to get out of it. The first one was bad but we had to push on through the next two praying that we did not hit something hidden under the water. Our feet were soaked and given the cold air this was not pleasant. We spend the rest of the night dreaming of dry socks! We soldered on down to the Weir, crossed it and then started the road back. The traffic was light and we made some good time. As we headed back towards Stranmillis we chose to take the Meadows to avoid the big puddles. A fast dash through there and back onto the tow path we me leading and Alan right behind. We didn’t hang about much and were off as soon as Jonathan came down the hill. Dennis and I were in front keeping up the pace but not racing. Stewart left at Hilden and the four of us got back to the car park for 9:05. We got 25.8 miles done with around 14 average. With the feet still wet, cold and numb we didn’t stop to chat. Back home for a very welcome shower and hot food. Great night out.
See you all on Sunday for the Trail Quest.
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