Despite the forecast of rain and strong winds, there was a good turnout at The Gallery Café .Most riders opted to follow Neil homewards via Tattenhall and I think DH and his team of carers went to destinations unknown. Chris, Alvise (Al) and I headed out towards Llandegla and The Community Café.
Since there was no pre-planned route, we rode over Dobshill and into Pennyffordd to pick up the main Corwen road which we followed until arriving at Treuddyn. Chris had a puncture and while he was repairing it, Steve Hughes stopped in his car. He was trying to locate Nick, who had apparently left his gilet at the café and was trying to find him and return it.
Onwards and upwards, we pass through Treuddyn and then take a back road that leads to Rhydtalog and the long descent towards the café. Lunch was a quick affair as the café was empty and service prompt.
Back on the bikes, we had a brief sprint on the main A525 before joining the little-used road that leads past the Landegla Mountain Bike Centre then it was all downhill through Minera to Llay and on into Hope.
We split up here with Chris and Alan heading towards Chester and me to Rossett.
As predicted, the rain arrived on time around midday and stayed with us until I arrived home.
As predicted, the rain arrived on time around midday and stayed with us until I arrived home.
Today’s ride covered 31 miles with 2660ft of climbing
KP
The following (unedited) report is by our favourite Venetian, Al (Ed: keep them coming pls)
What an honour to be forced into writing about today’s events , I beg for mercy in advance
It all started off with me having to do a 180 and run back in the house for some unwanted toilet appointment, ahhh fantastic… this made me late for the randez-vous with my associate CHRIS , and as you all know by now he is stickler about being punctual,
Unwilling to let him down we sorted a closer meeting point and off we went , we took sealand road, and in a heartbeat we were over in saltney ferry and off behind broughton park towards Deeside only at that point realising I had forgotten my gps, -the day keeps getting better- a couple of turns later we started climbing towards hawarden and the legs felt alright Chris’s rear derailleur not so much, so ignoring the sweet song of uncooperative cogs, we pushed to the cafe.
I was surprised by the turnout as it was either the biggest group I had seen since joining in the summer or maybe was the fact that the easy riders had taken over a tiny cafe ,
Having worked in hospitality, I recognised the signs of pain that 20 people showing up at the same time had inflicted on the poor lady behind the bar, so I opted for the easiest order possible. Also of note: the man known as “lastmin.com” showed up at an acceptable time when supervised 😂
After a little chatter with Fiona, Elwynn and others it became apparent that the weather forecast had lied to me. As a result, a few opted to head home before the rain hit. Others joined Neil on his way back towards Tattenhall but a rumour that Ken was planning to go solo to llandegla tempted me and Chris to hop on his wheels and ruin his solo ride.
We rode out of hawarden towards Penyffordd and off on a classic little stint of uphill, we were quiet to begin with; I was a bit nervous about my stomach, Ken was now in charge of 2 more riders and Chris …. well its Chris.
A few miles in we started to get chatting and Ken made sure to warn me about the amount of climbing awaiting us ahead, I was pleased as I confessed i think I enjoy the suffering. We took a turn towards Leeswood , Ken had intended a route up constitution hill (with an alleged 10%- 12% incline) so I was a bit surprised to see us riding past it. Looking over at the incline of the climb, I definitely thought to myself “that’s definitely not the suffering I would have enjoyed…”
As a punishment for my silence on the missed intended route, we were gifted a stop for a puncture on Chris’ bike.
As we got to work on the repair, a questionably skilled driver pulled up -at speed- behind us, hitting the curb right behind us. As he got out, we could hear him ranting “have you seen Nick?” (Or maybe it was Jack I’m not sure what the riders call him after last week). Turns out it was Steve on a mission to intercept him as he had left his gilet at the cafe.
Once all was sorted, we got back on our way and to climb we went up Pontybodkin and then towards Treuddyn on crowed road, here we started to see beautiful views of progressively darker shades of grey all around us quickly follow by mist that morphed into a light rain, making the last few miles of climbing even more interesting.
Extra layers became unavoidable at the top but it was a good excuse to admire some more of the grey all around. Full of beautiful views, we were ready to head down into the village and have some food and a hot drink. Here Ken explained the inner workings of the fascinating llandegla community shop ,cafe run by volunteers and how it combines a shop, cafe and post office all in one, leading to a tangent about his neighbour -whom is a pro rider- never giving him even a t-shirt out of all the gear he gets by sponsors ! lol
After lunch was literally all downhill, we went down the A525 a small detour of back roads and little off road skirting the llandegla MTB trails ,before returning to coasting downhill, for a good 10- 15 minutes of descending the smoothest roads without turning a pedal, pure bliss.
Down the hill I lost my bearings a bit , but we sure made a left turn and kept brum o to our right till we got through Hope , until we reached higher kinnerton where we said our goodbyes to Ken and thanked him for the nice ride and taking care of us before heading , towards saltney via Bretton and then a final goodbye to Chris before I got myself home .
All in all we did around 65km.
No picture but imagine 3 handsome smiling chaps definitely dry and happy 😆
Alvise B.
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