Last Sunday was a red-letter day for St Neots Cycling Club. We had our first Introductory Ride, a Club Run and a number of members riding the Beds CC reliability ride.

1. Our first Introductory ride was organised by Ruth Stapleton and it was great to see such a marvellous turnout and we hope that everyone enjoyed their first ride with the Club. We hope to see you out again on 3rd March (or before if you feel up to one of our club runs)

2. A number of club members decided to test their legs at the Beds CC Reliability ride

3. Our regular club run organised by Trevor Porter

We reckon that St Neots Cycling Club had about 40 people on the road today across the two counties in spite of the brisk cold winds.

The Market Square was mobbed at 8.30 on Sunday morning with 17 riders turning up to sample our first Introductory group ride and another 17 for the Group 2 ride.

Introductory Ride

Ruth holding court; a rider practises "On Yer Left!"

Ruth was holding court in the centre of the Square providing advice and hints on what to expect on the ride. Before long, the riders headed out of the Market Square and off towards Eynesbury led by Alec and Gareth S, club members providing support to Ruth on the day - Steve P also with the group to help along.

It was good to see Gareth out on his first club organised ride for several months after his wee mishap a while back. It was also very good to see young Morgan Bacon back out with us this Sunday after suffering last Sunday with the floods and the cold.

The group formed up properly once we got out of town and with a little coaching and gentle persuasion even those who were riding in a group for the first time closed up on the wheel in front and experienced the benefit of the significant draft from following another rider. It was good to see two disciplined lines of riders giving good hand signs and shouted warnings - better discipline than our experienced riders sometimes show.  Well done.

We headed out to Abbotsley where there was a little ice - but as Andy Mac wasn't with us we all negotiated that safely. We then headed out further east via Great Gransden and Caxton to Bourn with the wind on our backs. Turning round now, we picked up a headwind and headed back west via Longstowe and Gamlingay. The cold wind was hard work but in spite of that and a few tired legs we arrived back in St Neots as a single tight group. 25 miles at a nice steady pace and well done to all who turned out. Keep getting the miles in and see you again soon.

Club Run

In Group 2 it was good to see Paul and Ruth (although Paul is still wearing his St Ives kit!) and David Smith out with us again. Also good to see Stuart, whose partner, Joanna was on the Introductory Ride.  Word is that he's a strong rider, so we hope to see him again.  We headed towards Great Staughton and then onto Keysoe and the road around Thurleigh airfield. As someone mentioned this is normally a fast paced bit of road but today the wind was almost cutting us in half as there is no protection from the wind and it was cold. However the group remained intact and there was plenty of people willing to take the wind at the front to maintain the pace. Up to Milton Everest and then as we headed towards Sharnbrook it was agreed that the Group would split for the remainder of the ride home leaving 11 in one group and 6 in the other. Richard Ostler at times "forgot" that he was not leading Group 1 as he upped the pace (he claimed later that Stuart was pulling him along) but thankfully there were a few road works with traffic lights that were often at red and that allowed others to catch up.

We even managed to pick up Jason Gadd on the way back who claimed that he slept in this morning and was late at the Market Square - however, he redeemed himself as he had his membership cheque with him (one wag was heard to say that it was the first time Alistair had smiled all day after Scotland were thumped by England at the rugby on Saturday).

Richard rides a single speed in the winter on the Club run and he was complaining about spinning out as those with gears left him on the Bushmead sprint.

Don't forget the next Club Social Evening at the White Horse next Thursday the 7th February.  All welcome.