Well that's it! I've managed to record every ride I did for a year. I won't lie to you - I didn't think I would and it was a chore at times. I hope it wasn't too much of a chore for you to read it? If indeed you did? I'm no journalist but I think my main problems were finding the time to do it and my aging brain recalling what had happened!
The last ride of the year, the last ride of this blog, the last day of the year!
It used to be a tradition that we did a ride up in The Peak District every New Year's Eve but due to work etc this hasn't happened for a couple of years. This year it fell on a Saturday so I sent round the email and five of us met up at Peak Forest.
Yesterday was time to wear off a few mince pies! Quite a few folk who said they were going to be there tilted at the last minute leaving seven of us to meet up at Birches Valley. The plan was simple: a lap of Follow The Dog and The Monkey Trail.
After The Show Onion's attempt at bringing in change by suggesting a new start venue for this week's night ride was poo-pooed by The Committee we found ourselves meeting up at The Red Lion. It was a kind of weird scene in the car park: a load of scruffy mountain bikers assembling bikes amidst folk in their finest heading for a Xmas meal.
Our Middle East correspondent (who doesn't do too much corresponding!) Jimmy is back from Oman for Xmas and fished out a bike from The Magic Shed to ride with us. It was a mild night for us but still felt cold for him! I guess the muddy gloop was a change to dry sandy conditions too? He hasn't lost it and was late turning up!
It was an icy, cold morning as I met up with a dozen of the lads on Saturday morning for breakfast at The Fox & Hounds. Unfortunately I hadn't been able to make the annual Xmas do the night before so I was feeling better than some sat around the tables waiting for their fry ups.
I was keen to hear tales of the night before and who had taken a trophy home but the hangovers made everyone fairly quiet! Eventually I discovered Baz was "Rider of the year" and had got "The Trophy". Mick had got "crash of the year"; more for persistence and repeated attempts than for serious injury!
