This week’s hall of famers were Ian and Paul T carrying out the commitment to get out on our bikes more this year.

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This week’s hall of shame; well where do we begin?  A place at the top of the table of bottlers goes to Sicknote (Andrew) who managed to convince us he was coming along for the ride right up until an hour before we were to get picked up then called in with non specific gastrointestinal issues (the Barrys).  We reckon Sandra had offered him “extras” if he stayed in and did the ironing.

Second place goes to Paul M who once again has refused to get on a plane from Singapore and join his buddies on the ride.  I note with interest though that he can bugger off to Indonesia for the weekend!

In third place was Bob who came in with the double barrelled excuse (speak to Andrew Bob, you need to use your excuses sparingly – one per cop out) of man flu and painting Auntie Anne’s back parlour.  That’s not a euphemism for anything dirty, he really was painting at Auntie Anne’s house.

Fourth place in the league of bottlers goes to Mike with the almost reasonable excuse of having tickets for the rugby international.  Bit gay though isn’t it, watching all those burly chaps wrestling one another to the ground.

This wasn’t the weather we’d ordered.

The ride this week was a little less adventurous than last week’s trip to Richmond, being our usual route around Hamsterley.  As we were leaving Darlington, commenting on what a big Jessie Andrew was for bailing out again, it started to snow and proceeded to get heavier as we got closer to Hamsterley.  By the time we arrived the snow was laying and people were huddling in their cars for shelter.  Not us guys though; we were made of sterner stuff (and Caroline had said if I wasn’t home by 12 I wasn’t getting any dinner) and headed straight off out onto the trail.

We did our usual route – the two big climbs either side of Forest Drive and the red and black runs down from there.  The whole ride was pretty drama free and there were no comedy falls to write home about – I nearly went over the bars when I forgot to unlock my suspension before going down the black run with the bomb hole – and we managed to get all the way round both sections in one and a half hours.