OGIL ride report 4th January 2023
It started out as a normal OGIL Wednesday morning. There were ten of us at ToP, including new recruit Simon (henceforth to be known as Simon2, for obvious reasons) aboard his massive (compared with our road bikes) eMTB. Without any debate that I can remember, our illustrious leader announced our destination as the Helston boating lake, and we set off on a circuitous route to make sure we got the minimum mileage in before our coffee stop.
On the way up to Halvasso we gallantly pulled over to let a rather large Warburtons truck go past, a decision we came to regret as it soon had to stop because of oncoming traffic. Passing was a bit difficult as the truck completely filled the lane – the driver had obviously not used his loaf planning his route (or was it just the GPS having a laugh?). The truck then proceeded to reverse a considerable distance back to the lane to Chyan Farm, a manoeuvre which really took the biscuit. It necessitated us having to turn round and beat a hasty retreat, but eventually the jam was cleared and we followed the van slowly up the hill, as a number of vehicles had to pull into passing places to let him past.
The flood across the road at Halvasso gave us a foretaste of what was to come in terms of standing water following the recent deluge. After what must have been one of the slowest ever ascents to Halvasso, we congregated at the weigh bridge to prepare for our dice with the traffic on the A394.
We continued over the Stithians causeway and up to Nine Maidens, from where we gained the spine road towards Black Rock. It was on the hill on the early section between the Bolenowe turn and the turning to Troon that it became apparent that Fred had chosen probably the most exposed stretch of road this side of the Tamar to ride into a brisk south westerly. A few us realised too late as the wind hit us about half way up the hill that we needed to be in one or two gears lower (that’s assuming we still had some lower gears), and it looked like we might come to a standstill. However, with much muttering under the breath and grunting we all made it to the top, only to find that what is usually a nice fast dash to Black Rock required quite a lot of pedalling effort just to keep going. It was with much relief that we turned off to Releath.
After Releath we had the pleasure of ambling down partly flooded lanes strewn with grit and sundry debris as we struggled with the steep hills through Prospidnick towards Helston. At least there was shelter from the wind.
We arrived at the Helston boating lake café to find it fairly busy, so we commandeered the corner sofa, using adjacent tables as an overspill. Don and Dean (the Elder) appeared separately to swell our numbers, and everyone appeared to enjoy their snacks and drinks (surprisingly, nobody complained about the prices!).
The homeward ride was on the usual route through Helston and along Muddy Lane, which must be at risk of losing its moniker as it didn’t compare to the state of the lanes just before we got to Helston. We adopted our normal strategy of engaging in some team time trial work on the A394, and on arriving at the Retanna lay-by enjoyed listening to Ian’s usual critique of our technique (or lack of it).
Despite ending up with a very dirty bike at the end of the day, an enjoyable ride and no rain. Hurrah! About 60km for me.