Mid-October rides

Starting with last Thursday, John Morton supplied the following photos:

l-r: John Morton, Drew Leslie, Jeff Dickens, John Larkin & Ian Sharp

l-r: Drew Leslie, Ian Sharp, Jeff Dickens, John Larkin & John Morton

No match report supplied but it's pretty obvious that Platform 22 was the coffee stop, and Strava reveals a riverside route via Trustach and Sluie, covering 34 kms with 381 m of climbing.

On Monday, Mike supplied the match report and photos:

"What happened to Jeff?

In keeping with recent rides one of our cyclists detached himself from the group, this time through an unfortunate technical issue with his chain. It was no surprise really that someone should get lost today as it was clear from the outset that our leader, Ian S was determined to cause mayhem prior to his holiday.

First up was a trip through Morrisons car park, 4 of us missed the turn off but managed to pick up the scent of the trail. The ride to the Drum Garden Centre was by Hirn to Coupers Road which was without any dramas and a fine coffee and scone were enjoyed.

The return by the Deeside way once again saw fragmentation as we approached Drumoak with Ken and Jeff taking the shortcut and the rest of us going by the football park and once we met up at the main road junction we set off, no one noticed at this point that Jeff was missing! 

What followed was a fairly swift cycle to Crathes with everyone trying to keep up with Drew on his new bike. I set up the camera and we waited for Jeff to arrive, and we waited, waited, waited until it was obvious he wasn't coming! 

After the photo a search party was sent to Drumoak, me and John Larkin, but to our surprise there was no sign of Jeff at all when we got to the caravan park so we assumed that he had been picked up by aliens and transported back to Strachan. With a few shakes of the head we made our way back to Banchory.

It was an otherwise splendid outing with our Strava showing 50km at a healthy 19.4km/h."

Jeff had earlier supplied this explanation of events:

"So…. abandoned unceremoniously with a mechanical, today!  (Popped chain link, as it happens, on the way back from Drum GC).

Ken Page had set off up the Slant  to the Drumoak caravan place, while everyone else ignored him and stuck to the Deeside Way, so I elected to go keep Ken company.  I was powering up the hill behind him, and had just got on his wheel, when my chain crunched and I ground to a quick halt, just before hitting the road down to Park Bridge. Ken never looked back and kept going.  I saw Sharpie cross in front of me, but he never looked round either. I stopped to assess the damage, realised it wasn’t going to be a roadside fix, and called home for a rescue vehicle. I walked round to the Park Estate main gate at the Banchory end of Drumoak where my guardian angel picked me up about 20 minutes after the incident.

Mr Reilly tells me a search party came back to look. I don’t know how long it took them to realise and head back to Drumoak caravans, but I was on that route awaiting for my pick up a good 20 mins post incident, and saw no-one then or on the drive back to the Slug Road river crossing.  Not much anyone could have done, anyway.

hey ho…..  repair job before the next ride..."

l-r: Mike Reilly, Ken Page, Ian Sharp, Drew Leslie, Iain Wright, John Larkin, Ken Black & Jack Simpson

Their (main) stats were 35 kms and 181 m.

The Tuesday 10 o'clock Trundle was well supported this morning, with 7 of us showing up. It should have been 8 but there was no sign of Hugh, no doubt knackered after a week's golf in Turkey. We even cycled past his house on our loop up to Torphins, but there was no sign of life.

Nothing special to report - other than it being Rob's first outing since 15th August. Usual team photo:

l-r: Ian Stewart (note tights!), Rob Pollard, Keith Gray (for once in shorts), Dick Taylor, Scott Hunter, Ken Page (seated) & John McWhinnie (in non-regulation red)

There was a brief discussion about adding the railway line/golf course loop but the plum scones were sitting heavy so our stats for the day were 32 kms and 307 m.