28th January 2016: Ruthin (brisk)

Riding from home to the Gallery tea shop was all against a strong wind and the weather forecast was not good after 11:30 ish!!

At the Gallery tea café George was locking his bike up as I arrived and we were soon followed by other keen CER riders braving the elements. Jim had a ride and shared with other mods in the café so being one of only two brisks I asked Pink Tom if he would enjoy a 50 mile round trip to Ruthin. Thankfully he agreed so at 10:30 we set off through Hawarden and down Wood Lane to Buckley. Then through dry lanes to Mynyddisa to the cross roads at New Brighton. Over the road to Soughton and through Gwernymynydd (what names!) then started the uphill ride via Maeshafn where we chanced upon a damsel in distress with a flat. Tom immediately offered his services to assist in a repair job of her front tyre but the lady’s husband was en-route to pick her up. So much for green slime in your tyres.

The route between Gwern and Maeshafn found us biking up the only muddy lane (+10%) of the ride, which forced Tom to walk up the hill, not something he has done of late.  A little down hill roll through the village of Llanarmon-byn-Ial (Raven Inn) heading towards Llandegla taking a right turn at a cross lane had us heading towards Ruthin. With the exception of a slight drizzle we arrived at the Castle Hotel (Wetherspoons) for a welcome lunch.

Enjoying the luxury of good company, ale and food we were forced to leave in a down pour. We had covered nearly 30 miles and 2853 feet of ascent to Ruthin so we decided to cut short the ride and join the A494 and head straight home, rather than the intended ride along the Clwydian Range. This was the roll Tom was not looking forward to but the sun came out with a little blue sky that spurred us on towards Ewloe. The road was light in traffic and road surface good so this improved our average speed for today, which wasn’t normal for us.

We went our separate ways at the roundabout at Ewloe to cycle back home. The round trip to the Gallery was 43 miles with over 3921 feet of ascent covered at an average of 14.6mph. The weather again was not as bad as expected – wish they would get better at forecasting!!

ID