Off Road.

I have only just noticed that I didn't post this Blip at the correct  time, I put the picture into the cycle club annual competition and WBH, the rider in the middle wanted to know where it was. My intention was to send him a link so that he could look it up on the map and I discovered that I had not even finished writing the text. It is now the 21st of December and I don't have a picture for today..

It was my turn to lead the cycle run today, which was to Manor Sware, with a sharp climb up to the picnic stop a few miles from Peebles. The original plan was to have afternoon refreshment in Roslin which would mean I could have a wee something alcoholic and then walk the few yards home. One of our members had been at West Linton the day before and had presumed to tell the owner of the cafe there that we would be in today. After some heated discussion, we decided to stick to my original plan and the red-faced member phoned up to apologise and later,  at lunch, earnest discussion was again raised over the precise venue for the coffee stop but still my original plan prevailed.

One of our long-standing occasional members had fallen off on the climb up to the Blip spot and punctured his elbow, one of our well prepared members, on finding that conventional patches didn't cut the mustard, effected a repair with insulating tape (it was green if I remember correctly).

Later on, unbeknownst to me, a group including one of our ladies became detached from  the main body of riders and the said lady also fell off causing minor injury to her bike; a temporary repair had been sufficiently successful to enable them to arrive at lunch just as we were about to leave. We waited while a slightly more permanent repair was made while the late arrivals ate their play pieces; this not only enabled her rear wheel to rotate but also allowed the brake to work.

By the time I led the main group into West Linton, several riders had made a break for it and were already ordering refreshments. As I passed the cafe, those riders following me stopped as one, intent on having coffee there, I considered it very poor form to mutiny in this fashion, but then, the coffee and scones are very good there.