George changed his mind about coming at the last minute, so John had to stay home with him too. There had been some rain earlier in the morning at 6.30 and it was forecast to be cloudy until lunchtime, which it was. We considered a few routes but it didn’t take long for everyone to settle on Totnes for a café stop.

We rode out via Colston Road and the Dartington Cycle Path at a very good speed with everyone on top form. The youngsters all climbed into a tree along the riverside path to pose for a photo. The only shower of the day arrived at the most opportune moment – just as we were arriving at Morrisons, our chosen café stop.

After some excellent value food and some unusually friendly banter between Callum and Will we set off around 12.30 and returned via Littlehempston and Totnes by the remarkable time of 2.15, which shows that everyone was on good form. There was a games social until 4.15 that involved Modern Warfare 2 and Ghost Recon.

This evening we rode to Scoriton, up the steep hill to Holne and then on to Hembury where we rode to the hidden glades at the end of the left-hand fork from the top gate. After spending twenty minutes playing Frisbee we took the middle track down through the woods, which was actually quite rideable, and then followed the riverside track towards the car park. It was along here that a tree root caught hold of Michael’s toe-strap, bringing the bike down with such force that the left-hand side of his handlebars was distorted totally out of shape. No amount of brute force from those present would bend it back, so he had to complete the rest of the journey with a very odd-looking handlebar.

We got home for 9.40 and played the usual games until 10.05.

Callum was here early, then Jack rang to say he had a puncture and came up to mend it. It turned out to be so slow that it didn’t really need mending for the ride, and he didn’t have a pump, but as we had got the wheel off we changed it for one of Ash’s tubes while Michael fixed the puncture.

We finally left around 10.55, planning a short ride in view of the rather miserable weather. George felt tired so John took him home from the bottom of Dean Hill. The rest of us continued to South Brent Co-op for refreshments. John met us there while we were sheltering from a patch of real rain.

We returned home via Lutton and Nurston, getting back for 12.55. There was the usual games social after the ride until 3.35.

In view of the low turnout, Ash and Michael did a short ride up to Cross Furzes and back at a good, steady pace.

Callum was very pleased to come up when he found the ride was cancelled, as he was sore from Paintballing yesterday. We spent the morning playing various games on Xbox and PC, including several games of Modern Warfare 3. The social finished at 2.35.

Weather was not great this evening so we contented ourselves with riding up to Cross Furzes and then home via Buckfast for 8.45. Ash couldn’t resist calling in to his house along the way to check out a new motorbike that was waiting for him there!

We finished the evening with some computer games until 10.00.

We welcomed Adam back to the club today, out for the first time in nearly a year. He was on his father’s mountain bike as he had written his own bike off in a crash. He made himself very useful by pulling Michael’s handlebars back to virtually their original shape after Friday’s unfortunate incident in the woods.

The forecast was for sunny periods this morning but some showers during the afternoon. Adam preferred a short ride and liked the idea of Holne, so we rode out via Buckfast, Scoriton and Michelcombe at a very good speed.

We took a few tree-climbing photos at Galant Le Bower and then proceeded to Hembury Fort. From there Adam didn’t like the idea of the slalom track so Michael took him by road while Ash rode the track. We got home for 12.10 or so and played several games of MW3 until 3.30.

Ash’s brother Liam joined us this evening for his first ride with the club, using the club bike. We took the old road to Ashburton, followed the lane out to Belford Mill and then joined our usual woodland track back towards Ashburton. Today, however, we were in for a shock as the whole first section of the wood (all the coniferous trees) had been felled since our last visit. The area looked barren and bleak so we were glad to get past the rough section and re-join the unspoiled deciduous track further down.

To extend the ride a bit we headed across to Holne Bridge and then tackled Holne Chase in the upward direction. This all got a bit much for Callum who ran out of energy a third of the way up, but eventually we reached the top and returned via Hembury Hill for 9.30. Congratulations to Liam for doing so well.

We rounded off the evening with some games until 10.10.

Callum arrived late at 10.28 but just caught us as we were leaving. We had a bit of a damp start so we headed up Rattery hill and then made good speed to Rattery. By way of a change we took the right turn to Crabbers Cross, continued down to the Edeswell viaduct and then took the link road to Shorter Cross.

At Avonwick Adam and Callum rode the Cobbly Walk track and we then rode up the lane to South Brent where we all bought refreshments from the Co-op. From there we headed back via Harbourneford, arriving at Buckfastleigh by 12.45.

Callum had been very fast and very friendly today which helped make this a very enjoyable ride. We played games of Modern Warfare 3 after the ride until 3.30 today.

There had been rain earlier and there was rain forecast for later, but for our ride it was just grey and cloudy all evening with no real rain at all. Liam was out on Callum F’s bike today. We rode along Colston Road and spent a little time chatting with Michael’s relatives at Colston Farm as they were all outside.

Callum was complaining about a cracked rib up the hills so we went to Staverton Bridge and rode along the riverside path to the park. We then took the usual route home via Abham, although Liam broke away from the group to take his own route back to Crofters where we all met at around 9.20. We finished the evening with the usual computer games.