Story for Phoenix CC : Rubble spin

After a week off with the cold, another week off with frost/icey road conditions then a couple of Weeks of solo cycling, I got out for my first Phoenix CC spin it quite a while, a cheeky wee day off Work so out with the Rubble [all the Retired people, work dodgers and invalids :-) ]

The Rubble do things differently, the House of Sport is not a good enough meeting point for this Mottley Crue, instead they meet 'at the old Coca-Cola factory near Lisburn' like everyone knows where that is right?!! Anyway turns out it is along the Lagan Towpath a great facility when in the mood for a solo pootle but I still believe it is not suitable for a large group from a cycle club but hey who am I to dictate these things.

It was a pleasant Morning for a leisurely pootle along the length of the Towpath rather than raise the stress levels fighting with the Morning 'rush hour' traffic on the Malone road. There were still some signs of Autumn along the towpath just begging me to stop, whip the Phone out and capture an image or two.

So we rolled out from the meeting point and rather than do what roadies do [ride on the road] we were up the towpath to Lisburn, dodging the Walkers, Dogs, Black Bags of Dog Poo, Broken Glass, Gravel etc 

But lo and behold Captain Brian had no Whistle with him, how could we all ride our Bikes without a regular blast of a Whistle for company? We simply couldn't! So it was off up the Ballinderry Road to allow Brian to call home and collect his spare Whistle as the proper Whistle could not be found.

Our route took us past the Eastern shore of Lough Neagh where we stopped for a 'nature stop'.

Then home via Mazetown where the sluggish Winter pace briefly picked up with a few short over unders but with bodies shelled 'out-the-back' that was short-lived and the group reassembled.

No good club spin should go without a decent brew and something sweet to chow down, with the Rubble spin done and dusted a few club members decided a pit stop in Finaghy to refuel was required. But enroute to Finaghy leaving some traffic lights in Dunmurry I manged to break a spoke, must have been the excessive power in my big guns?! :-)

Pootling back home to save any further damage in the spoke department I realised just how filthy the roads had been all Morning and what a big cleaning job I now had to do.

Not to mention getting that spoke replaced and the Wheel trued up again.

But it sure beat working in the Office, and with 71 miles clocked up it was a nice handy endurance spin, a break from the intervals and hill reps of late.