With Callum O’Brien’s friend Reece kitted out with Callum F’s spare bike we rode to Ashburton, up to Belford Mill and down the woodland track: everyone including Reece really enjoyed it and wanted to do it again, but we didn’t really have the time today. We then took the Terrace Walk back into Ashburton – a few took a tumble near the end but Callum O’B had warned them.

We returned past Ashburton Park, and as it was empty today we spent some time there. Lawrence managed to drop his money on the roundabout thing but after an extensive search he managed to find most of it.

We got home for 1.15 and spent the afternoon with a mixture of trampolining and Lord of the Rings: at first Reece thought he wouldn’t like it, but ended up loving it.

As this evening’s ride was the last of the season Michael had tried to make it special by allowing everyone to bring hot and cold food to eat at Staverton Park. Unfortunately it didn’t go quite according to plan.

Zac brought a Complan in a bottle, Michael took a flask of boiling water and some pot noodles, others brought crisps and chocolate and everyone was quite excited by the idea, which had been advertised on our website.

We got off to a bad start when several had lights missing or not working. Riding along Colston Road Lawrence fell off on a corner, probably because his lights were not working properly, so he was sore and bruised and rode even slower for the rest of the ride. At Staverton Park Jerry broke several of the most important club rules and received a temporary ban from the club as a result. Whilst the noodles came out great, the grass was damp with dew and there were insects flying all around us, so we ended up sitting on the wooden steps into the park.

After playing Frisbee in the park for a short time we headed home along the fast route past Hole Farm. Stopping on the hill above Riverford Callum O'B was riding around without a front light and somehow managed to crash into Jack’s stationery bike which did have lights, causing some damage to the mudguards. The least said about the ensuing argument the better. Suffice it to say that when we had eventually made our way home through Buckfastleigh Michael was very glad that he wouldn’t have to run another evening ride for six months!

The weather was very hot and sunny again. Everyone had money so we decided to do Haldon forest with a car-assist. It was 11.10 by the time Michael had finished talking to Zac and Callum F about Friday! We wasted a bit of time when Michael went up to the A380 and the had to double back to the A38, but eventually we parked up, unpacked the bikes, bought some pasties and set off around 12.10.

The routes have been completely revamped since our last visit. All the tracks start in the same place and in the same direction now, and the red track (which is the one we decided to do today) is now much easier and consequently much more fun. Clearly they have taken advice from health and safety experts.

Much of the route was new, in fact pretty much all of it was, but it still went past the bottom loop near the old black jumps. That route, which used to be red, is now black “extreme”, so Ash and Callum did it and found it had been made easier than it used to be! Overall we liked the new route a lot, but we were delayed partway round when Zac and Callum F got pinch punctures at the same point. We used Ash’s spare tube for Callum’s bike. Zac tried fixing his with sticky patches, but sadly they lasted all of four minutes and Michael had to replace them with the spare tube in his pannier -which turned out not to be punctured after all.

We got back to the car park at around 2.05, went to the café and Ash saw three old school friends there so we got 10% discount. He had a caramel slice, Michael had a milkshake and Callum O'B had a huge bowl of chips and resented even a single chip being taken!

Finally we explored the two trial areas with jumps and ramps before packing the bikes at 2.35 and getting home for around 3.10. Callum O'B went home to get some money, then they all left around 4pm.

Callum O'B stayed home with toothache today, but when Zac brought his friend Fionn on the ride we still had a respectable number of riders.

The plan this morning was to head for Venford Reservoir, but Lawrence was recovering from a cold virus that he picked up on Friday and was a good deal slower than usual. He lost us when he waited in Scoriton until we came back for him - he said he didn't know he was supposed to go on! On the climb from Michelcombe to Holne he slowed to a crawl so clearly we weren't going to make Venford today. We spent some enjoyable time in the park by way of compensation.

Fortunately the Holne café was close at hand and everyone wanted to go there, so we settled down for coffee, cakes and scrambled egg on toast. We then returned home via Hembury Woods where Tao and Ash rode all the way around the edge of the fort.

Tao was late today, arriving at 10.40 instead of the usual 10.15, so we decided to do a local ride rather than the originally-proposed car-assisted ride to Exeter. Tao was pushing for something harder and full day even though Lawrence and Callum O’B probably weren’t fit enough for that, so we compromised by heading for Totnes with the option of going a little further if everyone was up for it.

We rode out along Colston road, delayed for a few minutes when Callum’s chain broke.
Then at Dartington, on the cycle path near the water wheel, Jerry’s tyre went flat: apparently he had broken off the end of his Presta valve earlier when pumping it with Michael’s pump but hadn’t mentioned this fact to Michael. To make matters worse his rim wouldn’t take a Schroder valve, so we had to take Ash’s Presta tube out to replace Jerry’s and then put Ash’s spare into Ash’s wheel. This was all rather a waste of precious tine. There was some amusement when we noticed that the tube Jerry took out had sellotape covering a small hole – he blamed Jack for suggesting the idea!

The wind was really picking up now, but it was still generally bright and sunny with occasional cloudy spells. We went to Morrisons café which turned out to be amazingly cheap. Lawrence bought a full fry-up and ate everything except the mushrooms and tomatoes which he gave away to Jerry. Callum had a hot dog, the rest of us had drinks and cakes. It was good to get a Latte for less than £1.50!

Tao and Michael decided on the shorter route home, so after spending a little leisure time at Totnes Quayside we took a link track Tao knew from Bridgetown through Bourton to the Gatcombe Tracks. Unfortunately this included a huge climb which really discouraged Lawrence – he ended up walking most of it. He does have some problems with his bike though, and he liked the idea of Michael doing some repairs to keep it going until he gets his new bike.

Ash and Zac did jumps at the bottom of the track into Littlehempston, then we returned straight home via Staverton with Lawrence picking up a bit of speed as we got closer to home. When we got home at 3.15 Callum was being asked by his parents to return home for a trip to London. For some reason he didn’t want to go and preferred to enjoy the social at Crofters, but after some persuasion he agreed to go on the understanding he would get to see Tin Tin on Wednesday. The rest of the group watched the conclusion of Inception while Tao went home and returned with a delicious-looking Apple Crumble, made with apples picked from Michael’s trees.

Zac rang at 9.50 to say he had a puncture but his Mum would take him to get two new tubes from Big Peaks and he would therefore be a little late. He got here by 10.25 but took another half an hour to change the tube, so it was 11am when we finally got away on our planned route to Fermoy’s Garden Centre.

We took the usual route past Caddaford and through Staverton. Near Ambrook we came across a farmer who was struggling to get his Land Roved out of a field. Things were harder for him because he had a trailer attached that contained six bullocks. Ash decided we should stop and help him, so most of us spent some time heaving away while the farmer sat at the wheel. Jack stood back and watched, saying it was the Farmer’s problem, not his! It took a lot of effort and a great many attempts, but just when Michael was about to pull out our troops we managed to get it out.

We arrived at Fermoy’s at 12.40. Lawrence had the small roast at Michael’s suggestion but then moaned constantly that he needed the full roast despite his small size! When he had polished off the small roast he attempted to prove his point by going up again for £2 of chips! Unfortunately he ended up proving himself wrong: even though he shared them out he still couldn’t manage the few he kept back for himself. Most other people had pasties, although Ash, in contrast to Lawrence, couldn’t manage all of his.

The pet store had changed in that the furry animals and birds had now moved down with the rest of the pets. We headed back around 1.50 or so, following the usual route through Denbury and Broadhempston. Callum F was still looking around for some off-road. He had declined the woodland tracks at Orley Common on the way out, but now he was organising a group who wanted to ride Beaston! Lawrence was getting tired, the majority wanted to get home and the track would have been very muddy today, so Michael had to overrule on this occasion. He did promise a Dartmoor off-road ride next week however if the weather was suitable, and that seemed to satisfy everyone.