The day started off with a check of the weather, showers to 10 am then clearing, good oh, I thought , got out the nice clean bike ,and down it came. Arrived at Hazelwood Pk, it was getting heavier, a few more riders turned up , there were 5 of us now, ”it will be gone by 10am I stated”.
It was now bucketing down, 10am arrived, and we decided the weather report was” Fake News”. For my sins I was picked to lead the 4 other drowning riders, on the straightest roads to Lobethal Bakery(?), which there are few. We headed for the hills via Greenhill Rd, but we could see very little , then it got worse.
As we entered cloud cover, the road became a torrent, with mud streaming across the road. Still we weren’t wimps, like some, { see note below }. We battled on to Balhanna, where one of the riders said he was losing road traction, and wanted to see his 64th birthday, he headed off in the direction of home. We were now 4 riders.
The trip to Lobethal went quickly and the rain got even harder. On arriving at the bakery we proceeded to flood the insides of the facility with the amount of water draining from our clothing , the prize for the most amount of water deposited on the floor, was won clearly by Rob, as people had to wade past him to get to the counter.
At 12.30 the sun came out, and we decided we would head home , no challenge riding in the sun, all the rest missed out , look at the memories we will have of the BIG WET OF 2018 .
Note: I’m not sure who Martin is referring to, but maybe that person had more sense than to venture out on such a foul day. Ed.
Martin Blindell.