Rivington Barn

Leaders Sean and Tony
 
Attended Gill Michelle Julie Andy Alex Chris Derek and Peter
 
After a glorious week of weather I was shocked to see an overcast wet morning. I arrived at Ponkies and was surprised by the number who had turned out.
Tony and I agreed to lead and we asked Alex to back mark so he would behave and not fly off. Charlie Brown was also there to see us off.
We headed to Preston via the docks then onto Penwortham.Tony took up navigation as he new the area well. Andy was doing his usual scouting ahead.
We could gauge if we were going to fast if we stopped hearing the girls chatting.
Derek needed to put his rain jacket on so we stopped roughly half way to Eccleston.Straight after that the rain stopped.
Once at Eccleston I took over navigation as I had recced it the previous day. I insisted Andy stay behind as i was not all that confident on my directions.
The route took us down to Coppull then across to Adlington.
After zig zagging through all types of Urban and country side terrain we arrived at Rivington Barn.
The food was good and reasonably priced unless you only got toast ya Julie. It was a clean and friendly place with a lot of visitors.
Once filled up on beans and tea we proceeded to venture over to Belmont. I felt this was quite a challenge for FCG but we rose to the challenge really well.It was not a race and everybody went at their own pace and enjoyed the views at the top.When we all got our breath back we set off to Belmont.
At Belmont we turned left onto the Belmont rd which is a main road and cars travelled fast to my worry.The wind was on our backs and believe me it was down hill all the way back to Preston so we were strung out really well so not to be a problem for cars.We got to London road and took the left turn by the river and had a leisurely ride through Avenham Park up to Broadgate then back down the dock Rd. When we got to the bridge over the docks I got tangled up with the train tracks and came off. I was OK just grazed, and my pride was dented. Well I could hear the pub calling so it was heads down and the dash to the line was on. Chris lead us out with Derek going too early again and Peter creeping up on the outside. But it was Alex the rocket who took it (only coz we were dragging him round all the way, just kidding)
All back to the pub where Charlie was there to meet us.
Good ride everybody.
 
Mileage 54
 
Average 13.8
 
Total for the charity tally 540miles.

Sean