I don’t know about you but as the Christmas period starts to close I begin to twitch and by the end of boxing day my patience within the family dynamic begins to fail. For this reason my Christmas plans had always factored in a ride-out, mainly to stop my name appearing in the news alongside the words ‘Christmas massacre’.
The premise was a single run of the Rutland TT route, which is a 123 mile circuit from our usual Haddon Services meeting spot. I was delighted that there were 7 bikes , 2 with pillions, meaning 9 hardy souls looking for a little post-christmas decompress.
After the obligatory briefing we set off, the rain leaving us in peace at least for the time being. All was well as we turned left off the A47 at Morcot, towards the Welland viaduct and on to Uppingham. Somewhere between Uppingham and Market Harborough we angered the weather gods and they turned against us. Patchy fog became the order of service and in some places, oddly, it was foggy going into a bend, but clear coming out.
As we left Market Harborough a technical glitch meant we took a short detour along a back road which was masquerading as a ploughed field. Luckily it wasn’t far to our half way stop at Café Ventoux. Freshly refueled on various quantities of coffee, cake and bacon sandwiches we set our sights on Melton Mowbray.
With the fog now lifted and replaced with rain, we made a good pace for the rest of the route via Grantham, the infamous Bitchfield bends and Stamford. At times it felt like we had the roads to ourselves. It was a challenging but enjoyable ride, and only went to prove that you don’t need good weather to have a good ride.
All that was left was to hose the bike off before I put it away, slip on my drinking trousers and enjoy the rest of the bank holiday.
Mark Bearman