Dillan wanted to test his new chainset, chain and cassette this morning so we rode up to Cross Furzes and found that everything worked pretty much perfectly. Leo the dog wasn't outside his farm at Scoriton today when we rode past, so we do hope he is still OK.

After the climb from Michelcombe to Holne, Gavin showed us the enormous hedge he would be laying next week as part of a course he is doing, then we called in to the Community Cafe for some refreshments. The last two times we visited it had been closed for one reason or another. Today it was open, but they couldn't do hot food as they have no chef yet, and they couldn't do proper coffees as none of the volunteers knew how to operate the machine. We found John, George and Ziggy in there and had a nice chat over our refreshments.

The return journey took us back down through Hembury Woods and home for 1pm.

Special Notice

Our club has been providing activities for cyclists of all ages for more than 34 years now, and we have some great adventures to look back on. Many of our members still cycle regularly to this day and have happy memories of their time in the club.

The number of riders has subsided over the years from the heady days of the 1980s and 1990s when getting more than twenty riders on a Sunday was not unusual. We have had no new riders for well over two years now, and since our last tour in July there have been no riders out for any of the subsequent Sunday rides until today. This therefore seems like an opportune moment to bring the club’s regular activities to an end, giving me a well-earned rest from the regular commitment of organising and supervising weekly rides.

Whilst the Section will close from today, I do understand that many ex-members will from time to time want to get together for cycle rides, tours or other events, possibly including a tour of Switzerland next year which was provisionally planned in early 2019. These will be arranged informally as needed between those interested.

I’d like to take this opportunity of thanking the many hundreds of members who have contributed so much to the success of the club over the years, and to wish all our members the very best for the future.

Michael Jones