A case of Sod's Law
I arrived early having made all the necessary preparations required of a ride leader. The route was well rehearsed, in fact I knew it backwards - something that would soon unknowingly come in useful.................
Gradually fellow cyclists were arriving and I was getting bike & equipment out of the car, opening and closing doors. Suddenly and inexplicably I found the central locking had gone down with the keys,helmet etc in the car !- something that had never happened before.
Not wanting to tempt Sod's Law further by riding without a helmet and all equipment and with nearly all cyclists present at almost 9.30, a rapid change of plan was needed. I phoned the Breakdown co. to release the lock and Fran kindly offered to step in as leader. Fortunately I had the map with the ride route highlighted. The plan was for Fran to approximately follow the route to Peaslake and return via Abinger Roughs. Once having got the car door open I would do the route in reverse and hopefully meet somewhere?
In almost exactly an hour the Breakdown co. had arrived and gained entry to the car. I hastily put on helmet etc and tore off towards Peaslake. I arrived at Peaslake 10 mins before the rest of the group and it was great to meet up again! After the tea stop and with time pressing it was decided to chop off a section of the return route before joining the Abinger Roughs. So with Fran and I as joint leaders we headed home - a strong headwind made progress a struggle at times. We made it back to Ryka's just after 2.00. Thanks go to Fran for her assistance.............Mark.