Misty, cool, but no wind and with a forecast of Tropicana to come we met at the cricket club ready to go. We were John Clarke, Nick Kay, Denise Motley, Rob Drohan, Pete Hanks, Robin Heyward and Martin Crapper. There was a decent turn out for the red ride too.
After a little tootle round the village we set off towards Oldcotes with Nick (who downloaded the gpx file from the TVC web site) muttering something like “this is not the way”. Ride leaders though are infallible- of course it was the right way!
There was a lot of conversation going on in the ranks and distance didn’t seem noticeable, Malpass Hill included. Robin and Nick went on ahead and turned onto Thornbury Hill Lane. We did pause to tell them that that wasn’t the right way either and continued on on the straight and narrow!
With traffic lights on green we went on to Langold and Carlton before turning right along Owday Lane. We did a bit of a regroup beyond the junction and another at the far end. By this time those of us with bare arms were feeling justified and we waited while those in thermal this and thermal that stripped off. It was only Robin so we didn’t bother watching!
We turned left and headed for the big roundabout on the Gateford Road with Rob way out in front. So when asked which way it was easy to point and say “follow him”. Over safely and straight onto the footpath - always a safe bet. And a couple of hundred yards further along with no traffic in site we crossed over, through the brambles and along the abandoned road to meet Shireoaks Common.
Denise pointed out the newly refurbished café but we were not for stopping there! Onwards and in this case downwards before turning right on the left hand bend and onto one of those roads which needs urgent repair - Thorpe Lane. Still very little traffic and we were at the café stop in no time. We were lucky they were open - I’d like to put it down to high speed cycling but more likely it was one of the shortest first halves (halfs?) we had done.
We found an outside table, it was warm, went in for refreshments and then sat and watched the planes. And there were quite a few, the control tower was busy. He got his coffee delivered though, we had to fetch ours!
All good things came to an end and in the spirit of continuity we turned right rather than left heading for the Worksop road. Here we found more traffic so continued in single file regrouping just after the big roundabout on the outskirts.
We meandered through the town - over the pedestrian street and turning left then right to head north. And faced with a road closed sign and the memory of an enormous sink hole we engaged common sense and the signs and went right.
Well I’d seen the crater already and this gave us a bit of a hill. You can’t have too many as long as they are not too steep!
Being strung out we regrouped as we reached the main road and then set off in single file towards Blyth. Nick and Pete left us here heading off home in North Lincs leaving five of us to go on to Oldcotes. Rob and Denise left us at the Oldcotes lights going their separate ways and we turned for Tickhill.
Not wanting too short a ride we diverted up Blythgate Lane and seeing as there was no traffic and good visibility we road as one, I hesitate to say three abreast, catting as we went. And to finish the ride off we included the back streets of Tickhill ending in he ride in a lay-by on Sunderland Street where Robin had parked his car!
We all went home hopefully agreeing that it wasn’t too bad a morning out!
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