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On Thursday 30th the new club tandem had it’s first outing with Ronnie and Trevor on board for a road Trailquest organised by Alan Pentland of LVO. They were to be 1 of three tandems taking part, myself Bob on the 2nd Dromara tandem with John Ruddell of Ards cc at the helm and on the 3rd tandem were Banbridge team Gerry Beggs and Stephen Curran. The time limit was two hours in which to accumulate as many points as possible by visiting as many control points of different values in any order. Full results here
A quick browse of the map and a route selected myself John and thought we were of to a great start, picking up the first 3 in no time and then on to the higher scoring controls. As the hills approached so did the first of our problems as the tensioner on the rear mech was playing up meaning we had to stay in the 53 tooth on the front. No sooner had that happened than the chain started jumping on the rear mech with the 21 being the only gear it would work as we couldn’t chance 1st as the mech was rubbing against the spokes. Some tough climbs were to follow and then some fast spinning on the down hills. Miles later we stopped and discovered it was not down to wear as thought but the top idler wheel had dropped off the mech meaning the chain was only catching on the top teeth. A piece of barbed wire later to take the place of the wheel and we’re on our way. Still the same problem in the climbs with high gearing but making up more time on the flat and down hills. With only six minutes left and at least 3 mile to the finish it was going to be very tight to make it back in time even with a strong wind on our backs. More problems, a puncture! Well we made it back 6 minutes late meaning a loss of something like 30 points, but fun all the way. After a couple of pints it was time for some tasty soup and sandwiches followed by the results. To our surprise Trevor and Ronnie had won! A great result, especially when you take the recent MTB Trailquest results into consideration. They had chosen the right route aided by Ronnie’s fitness and Trevor’s local knowledge as he lives in the area. Well after most had gone competition set in again as Stevey Curran tried to show us a trick he had picked up while on one of the famous Majorca training trips. The idea was to balance a half empty pint glass on top of a horizontal coke bottle which in turn was balanced on top of a vertical coke bottle. The photos below best explain the next couple of hours.
The start of perhaps 20 minutes of trying
Bloody hell, he did it
The last shot just before the glass covers more table than the Guinness Notice the angle of the pint glass compared to the ones below
As any one that knows Gerry will tell you, this is only a bluff. He would never
risk the black stuff!
See, empty glasses
getting brave
...and lucky! Time to clear that room and head back to the bar. Stevey lifts the
glasses as he wants another try but Gerry tells him to let them sit, we'll get
more.
... and more we got. With the result that the building just didn't seem to work
after that.
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