The weather was a little more like summer this morning as 16 gathered at the Market Square. At least it was dry. The sun was shining from a cloudless sky although there was a stiff southwesterly blowing.

This has been amongst the windiest years so far that even the old boys in the club remember.

A warm welcome to Jon Keefe , Andrew Poodle and Duncan Shorrocks who joined us for the first time on a Club Run and who all reported that they enjoyed the experience and are threatening to return again, which is good news.

Good to see Phil Laycock back with us for the first time since April.

We had a puncture to repair before we even left the Market Square and this was something of an omen for the ride. Anyway we set off as a single group towards the TT course past Abbotsley Golf Club and on to Gamlingay and Biggleswade.  Group 1 and Group 2 split near Southill and headed on towards Cardington. The road down to Cardington is always fast and there always seems to be strong side winds so mini-echelons of three or four form as people ride tempo - if it wasn't for traffic coming the other way we'd have been eight across the road.

Group 1 was going full tilt beyond Cardington when Ade Taverna and Bomber touched pedals, and Ade came down with a crash. There was no lasting damage to him, but he had bad road rash on his knee and elbow, and a pair of bent handlebars and other scrapes and bangs. Thankfully he was able to carry on, but a few miles later on his inner tube blew out and he only avoided another incident by skilful bike handling. To complete his day, Italy lost 4-0 in the final of Euro 2012 (but kudos to them for getting there). Despite his protestations that we shouldn’t mention his crash and blowout in the report, the general view was that that sort of censorship wouldn't be fair (plus it gives us interesting copy!).

By this stage we were split into three groups and some went straight home via Wilden and Colmworth while others took a small detour to Bolnhurst to increase the mileage. A relatively short day for everyone with between 40 and 45 miles covered. Eleven met back at the Market Square for the usual coffee and post-ride discussion and debate.