Evans Cycles Cannock Ride It!

Saturday saw me complete the 'Evans Cycles Cannock Ride It!' event. This was an off road cycling event and covered a distance of so many miles. Being hardcore, the long route was chosen to be followed.

I travelled up to Cannock with Mr O, where we then met Aid, Robin and Ron. There was originally going to be 6 of us. Aid said that the other 2 folk from Newbury had bailed because one had gone soft and the other was a happy camper. Not sure what happened to the Meekon.

The day was a series of unfortunate events really. Don't get me wrong, we all had a great day. The weather was fine and the company was all good. However, all (with the exception of Aid) experienced one problem or another.

The first victim was Robin. After only a short while his rear mech fell apart. This was temporarily fixed but after a little while caused more mishap. Robin's rear mech came loose and got caught into his wheel. Final result was that Robins rear mech was no more and his wheel suffered damage too - a spoke was broken so much that it pierced through the wheel rim. We (Chris) managed to convert Robin's bike into a single-speed so he could continue the ride. Despite all the extra effort required, Robin was still able to pull a smile.

The next victim was Ron. Ron didn't suffer any mechanical problems. He suffered jibes and taunts from the rest of us for bailing out early and deserting us. Ron wanted to race round in rocket style (he had a certain football match to watch later). The rest of us wanted full value for money.

The final two victims were Chris (Mr O) and myself. We were both having a severe case of chain suck which, well, sucked! In addition to that, my free hub was menace - it kept slipping big time. My free hub problems were supposed to have been addressed a few weeks back but the bicycle shop obviously didn't fix this issue. Chris was also suffering with a bent rear mech.

We continued all the same, until we reached the end. The end wasn't really the end. It was the end for those who were completing a short ride. We had planned to cycle the long ride which would have meant a further 8 miles on lovely single track. However, we all decided to quit here due to the mechanical issues, Rob being seriously whacked and the fact that I wanted to take my bike back to the bike shop same day (had to be fixed before Bear Bones 200). Oh, and we were hungry and the idea of a pub lunch was just such an awesome idea!

Cycled a total of 32k.