Gargrave Loop – 28 Oct 23

DETAILED REPORT BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT DREW MANN (aka ANONYMOUSE).

The day dawned (well I’m not sure there was any dawn at 07.00…) foggy and damp in Wibsey. 

Only three at the lock up this morning, Simon, Drew (hereafter the “author”) and Steve D the towman of trailers for today. Six tandems were required and six were loaded and ready to go – so we went…

More fog in Queensbury, where whilst stopped at the lights by Tesco, some bloke knocked on the car window and said “One of your tandems is falling off”. Cue panic and a detour into Black Dyke Mills Yard for an inspection that revealed no such thing…perhaps it was an October Fool….

Arrived safely in JD Tandems’ carpark at the same time as the rest of day’s crew were arriving. Car park more full than usual as someone has apparently opened a baked goods stall in the corner of the yard, of which more later…

Usual unloading and faffing was done and as Muz and Tariq had brought their own SPD pedals with them (which apparently they have both bought from some shifty geezer in a previous car park for a totally bargain price, mate) someone was told off to remove the basic pairs from the relevant tandems and fit the SPDs. 

The author was getting a bit peckish at this point and so detoured to the stall in the corner where he purchased a bacon, cheese and onion quiche (individual size) which turned out to be very splendid indeed.

Strolling back to the group there was the sudden discovery that whoeverit was that had been assigned to add SPD pedals, whilst managing a perfectly fine job on one tandem had, for reasons unknown put one SPD on one side at the front and the other on the other side at the back on the second tandem! Much hilarity and it seems that no-one knew who had actually done this….hmm.

I would have taken a picture but I was too busy rolling on the floor, holding my sides and guffawing…

Chaos was averted – and after a quick briefing from the leader we were off on the Gargrave circuit in the sensible Drew clockwise manner – to avoid riding up Nappa Bank on the way home.

The idea was that the leader would lead from the front but it soon became apparent that everyone was going to go up the hills more rapidly than the leader and his valiant stoker so the Author and Martin watched as five tandems disappeared into the distance. 

This apparent desire to ride away from the author lead to our only “issue” of the day when we lost Louise and Jules. The fast lads had taken the turn down to Halton East without waiting and Louise and Jules had got behind to the point where they didn’t see them go left and thus carried straight on.

The author and stoker were even further behind and arriving at the same turn saw nothing except wet tyre marks in the road and went after them unaware that there were no longer five machines in front. A regrouping did then occur at the far side of Halton West and the “leader” was bemused by being asked where the ladies were as he though everyone remained in front. 

By the miracle of wireless telephone it was determined that the ladies were still on the main road at the Long Preston junction and so were instructed to proceed into the village and take the left to Wigglesworth. This meant that they beat the main group to the café in the end as it’s a straight line and we were going the long way round!

Anyway, the usual excellent fare and service at the village hall saw six well-fed teams depart for the return trip. 

Nothing terribly exciting happened on the return except when we turned off the main road on to the tiny grass-grown lane to Hellifield where the slight rise from the turn was covered in thick mud causing several crews to lose traction and put a foot down but no one actually did any falling down due to the cunning and skill of the captains and crews concerned. 

We avoided any rain and any fog and indeed by the time we got back it was nearly bright! Although the temperature remained at 6o day it was not really cold. Rain was encountered on the drive home but we didn’t care about that.