Words By Alex, Photos by Pete & Butty
Crew: PTD, Slim, Mr Inc, Butty, Stunt
Lees: Lee, Vaughan, Simon M, Bern, El Pres, G, Dunc
Route: BL, Zig, Teggs, Ressies, White Rabbit ascent to Dan’s Bench, RHS singletracks under the trees, Ressies, Sutton, Sutton Lane Ends, Chez Lee
Conditions: Sub zero, clear, dry, frosty in the open, muddy under the trees.
Stats: One Off (Slim), One frozen dropper post cable (Stunt)
Notes:
A 150% increase in riders since last week..but still a smallish crew of five.
Despite teasing us with tyre buying choice and which way to fit them, our Incredible friend was still on the old and worn ones tonight, and after he recounted with serious sweary passion his disgust at the hedge cutting thornfest of the Canal N55 section from Congleton to Macc, we had the perfect opportunity to suggest that maybe he should go tubless with the new rubber…(because the first time you go tubless there is never any trouble or swearing at all 😉 )
Route choice is debated, and Croker hill is abandoned (temporarily) in favour of more local haunts…and possibly more knee recovery friendly.
Puddles well frozen on the zig make satisfying cracking noises after a climb to get heat into the fingers. Frost crunches on the top of teggs, it’s dry and grippy cold which is very welcome.
Lead riders have to stop at the bottom for two young stags to clear the course, then we hit the lower section at speed and almost get caught out by the sudden change to greasy mud!
Lovely views across the hills in the moonlight, we can see bike lights on back of the moon and nessit.
White rabbit (although now totally gone) keeps us warm again, and we are ready for Whisky Mac’s at Dan’s bench..although care is needed not to lose any to the ice on the slats!
A feast of ribaldry is served lubricated by the warming spirits, including delving into equine design flaws which are could be described as Smeg!..well I wouldn’t play with that if I had hooves!
Buoyed by laughter we head under the trees…but its not a great move, super slippy and a fair bit of mincing ensues.
Stunt discovers his dropper post cable has now frozen somewhere inside the frame (so the old “homemade deicer” solution is discussed but dismissed!)
Back to frozen and fast round the ressies, then on the road we swing left at the Church house through to Sutton Lane Ends. We find two cars stopped in the road..and edging past we rapidly see why, as above us power cables are angling down towards a pole in the middle of the road! A upturned car beyond and flashing blue beyond that tell us that someone has been going too fast! The “lucky” boy was able to walk away from the wreck, but we suspect the breathalyser may not be happy reading.
Quite a few residents from the houses have come to see why all their power has just gone out!!
Chez Lee we get uber tidy garage to thaw bikes in, choice of lager or TNR’s own contribution of Brewdog’s finest 🙂
We catch up with Vaughan’s eventful recent past (2 stents good!) and also those who weren’t able to ride..including a rare appearance from G (with “interesting” french beer)
After excellent meaty or veggie chilli choices Silverback in double acoustic mode treat us to some top tunes. Dunc arrives fresh from Ghetto Golf team building with pictures to prove it!!
It is well beyond the witching hour when most depart (some twice having forgotten phones!)
Slim gets caught out by a kerb close to home (or was it a brewdog?)
Butty has a big barn owl for company on the lonely drag back to Poynton.
A top evening all round, and many thanks to Lee for inviting us all 🙂