I did not want to go for a ride yesterday morning.  Oh no.  Not having been woken up by the predicted torrential rain outside, and with my bike all nice and clean and oiled and everything.  If it had just been me, I’d have bailed.  I still considered bailing.  Seriously considered.  But since four others had signed up for joining me, and I’m a conscientious soul, I didn’t.  And neither did two of them.  Since it was still seriously raining when we three met in the Square, we decided just to head straight for coffee at Sweets.  A Sweets that was full of other very wet cyclists, including a contingent of the Tor 2000 lot, and three of the Brent Knoll branch of the ACG.  Lots of familiar faces then, and plenty of friendly banter as we all waited for coffee, cake, etc…yep, service was as ever, with a smile but somewhat slow.

As we sat there, getting colder, with water pooling a little embarrassingly beneath every one of us, the weather outside got better.  By the time we left, en masse, the rain had stopped so rather than taking the fastest way back home, we took the long route together with the BK Velo three and couple of others.  It was nice to have the extra company, and the wheels to hide behind as the wind got up, though keeping up was hard work!  It was oddly amusing though, as the ACG is more known for losing riders en route than for going forth and multiplying… 😉  They all peeled off eventually to make their way to their homes, leaving us original musketeers to head for ours a little more slowly.  Of course by the time we got back, the weather was proper brightening up and the rest of the day turned out to be glorious!

Cycling time: 1:35
Distance: 25 miles
Avg: 15.7 mph
ODO: 6830.3 miles

But hey, it turned out to be a fairly good ride, a far better one than looked likely at the start.  Even if I did get soaked.  Even wearing my waterproof.  Yes, I did actually wear it.  I do learn, it just takes me a while 😉  It was a good call as that and the base layer I opted for, in addition to the usual layers, meant I stayed warm enough.  See – it’s back to that time of year, layers are once more the answer.  And Rule 9 rules again.  I think I’ll be saving my new sunglasses for next year…