Words by Eric
Crew; Butty, Mr I, Slim, Stunt, Big Nick, Kersh, El Pres and new chum Rudi , Coley, Eric, Doog, TJ,
Team Car; PTD, Shaun
Lame excuses; All heros tonight
Route; New Buxton Road, zig and zag, Cocktails stop 1- Teggs car park, round the Nose, RHS descent reservoirs to Leathers – Cocktail stop 2, Bob’s bench backwards, Visitor Centre – Cocktail stop 3, retrace steps to Leathers.
Conditions; Evil!
Stats; None thankfully, too wet to hang around. Offs; Stunt, near start of Tegg’s Nose descent ..resulting in de-raied saddle
A big peloton assembled for the chaps Christmas Dinner ride. Nice to welcome some old faces back and also the President’s new mate Rudi over here from Russia working on some computer thingummigiggery.
It was never going to be a big ride tonight with three cocktail stops planned en route to “Christmas Dinner” at the our spiritual home of the Leathers but with a forecast of evil getting worse, a low level mission was set. By the time we got moving there was a steady drizzle and as we got a little higher it had a hint of sleet to it. It was definitely winter boots time.
Whilst we were on a cocktail mission with no backout plan it was amazing to see two other groups of riders out in this crazy weather, presumably just for fun; talk about cycling catching on in this country !
On arrival at the car park the team car was already in place, head to wind, with the cocktail bar manned by PTD and Shaun. The first offering was brown, rapidly christened after Coley’s sheep piss puddles of last week, but IMHO rather tasty. Up next was green, I think – this one a little more sudden on the palet with a final shot of rather unnatural pink.
The rain turned from steady drizzle to steady downpour as we headed onwards with the RHS descent proving a popular post cocktail choice . As we climbed up towards the forest Rudi treated us to tales of great routes on deserted trails at home but with some heavier political and current affairs thrown in it became patently clear that despite his young appearance he still has some serious Communist party leanings. On nearing the Leathers we saw a single light and soon we arrived at cocktail stop two where Doog had flasks of steaming mulled wine waiting. The mulling had been done the special Scottish way and soon sodden cockles were warmed – although to any passing traveller we must have been a slightly surreal sight; a group of middle aged men, soaked, standing in the pouring rain having a jolly time drinking out of plastic cups by the light of headlights – outside a pub with roaring fires and cosy chairs.
No time to loose but waning enthusiasm saw us take a quick sprint via Bob’s bench to the visitor centre for our second rendezvous with the team car. On getting there it smelt like team spirit so we knew we had reached Nirvana. More green and something very blue were the order of the day and both slid down rather well too.
All that remained was a quick blast back to the Leathers with tea on the table.
Apart from the weather the new simple format Gentlemen’s Christmas Ride was a great success without the menu faffing and stuffing innuendo of previous years; just choose off the normal menu. Also special thanks to Paul and Shaun and to Doog for the cocktail/mulled wine mastery.
When we finally came to leave Rudi went outside to check the weather and came back to say that it was still pouring down – nobody contradicted him because – “Rudolf the red knows rain dear”