The first Shropshire & Staffordshire Group ride since the Covid outbreak was successfully held in July.  5 tandems took part including Phil and Sue who joined us for the first time.  Their Hase Pino with electric assist was much admired, especially when we managed to find a hill or two in the otherwise flat Cheshire countryside.  Despite the cool wind, we all enjoyed our picnic at Beeston castle whilst maintaining social distancing and also found time for an ice cream on the return journey at Overwater Marina.  It was lovely to meet up with everyone again and swap lockdown stories.

Well we got very lucky with the weather for January's ride. The forecast frost did not appear due to the fog, which lifted just enough to ride by the 10:30am start time. 6 tandems enjoyed a non-stop 22 miles from Market Drayton. Whilst it was not frosty it was cold enough to make everyone wish they had asked for heated socks and gloves for Xmas. The hot soup at the end of the ride was very welcome and warmed everyone up. We also welcomed Steve and Debbie who joined us for the first (and hopefully not the last) time.

Well we all had a great Christmas lunch on Sunday at the Old Rectory in Wem. It was nice to see everyone in normal clothes rather than lycra and I must say you all scrubbed up very nicely! Looking at the rain pouring down outside it was agreed that not riding to the lunch was a good decision. With all the bad weather, it has been a difficult time to find days to ride recently but we managed to go the whole year without cancelling a single monthly tandem club ride so we can't complain too much.

Location: Bishops Castle
Postcode: SY9 5HA
Map Reference: 52.5006, -2.9964
Ride length: 31
Ride ease: Easy

Location: Bishops Castle
Postcode: SY9 5HA
Map Reference: 52.5007, -2.99709
Ride length: 53
Ride ease: Easy

Location: Bishops Castle
Postcode: SY9 5HA
Map Reference: 52.5007, -2.99661
Ride length: 35
Ride ease: Easy