Some of us arrived early enough on Friday to take a short ride before we all met at dinner. Two welcome guests from Team Cake, Irene and Steve, made our numbers up to 13. In this case unlucky for our Club Chair, Adrian, whose doctor had ordered him off the bike. Nonetheless he joined as a support driver, directeur sportif, soigneur and official photographer; at one point, he even drafted Dave Townsend and me back into the peloton in the team car. Fortunately, he was also commisairre so we were not disqualified! His presence added a new dimension the the weekend - Merci beaucoup, M. Le Président.
The weather favoured us, no rain, warm enough to sit outside but not too hot for hard riding.
The weekend followed the usual pattern - on Saturday, coffee and cream cakes in Samer, lunch in Etaples, and a ride back vai Boulogne and along the coast road over the Cap Blanc Nez followed by a very fast descent into Sangatte.
On Sunday we rode through Flandres with a morning haze lying over the canals and enhancing Adrian's superb photographs. A climb on to Mont Cassel over the pavé took us to our pre-booked lunch on a terrace overlooking the Pas de Calais. Finally a non-eventful ride brought us back to the hotel in good time for everyone's ferries.
One last note: the hotel restaurant has a new chef who produced two excellent 3 course dinners for us.
I have booked rooms for 4-6th September 2015. Put the date in your dairies!
Mike Ormerod