On the 19/5/10 it was my great honour to be selected by Cap and Vice to enter an election to decide ride leader for the coming week. My opponents in this election were Dafydd Williams (Furry toy party) and Andrew Griffiths (Too fit party). The three of us were called upon by Cap to set out our election manifesto's, I can't recall exactly what was said but it was something along these lines.

Daf (Furry Toy party)
If I get elected I promise to bring girls along to the ride.

Andy (Too Fit party).
If I get elected there are going to be a few ups.

Reg (Can't get my breath party):

Tonight, our club is at a turning point. The decision we make will live with us all for at least a week. For many months now we have been heading in the wrong direction, led astray by extreme idealists bent on physical fitness. This has resulted in members becoming disillusioned, depressed and in some cases injured but most importantly damn thirsty.

So let's build together a new generation of Moos. Let's switch a new generation on to Moo ideas. Let's dream a new generation of Moo dreams.

We'll be tested and challenged. But we'll never give up. We'll never turn back, barring mechanicals or serious injury. So let the message go out from this pub: a modern, compassionate cycling ethos is right for our times, right for our club and right for our village.Oh and if I get elected there will be less riding bloody bikes and more drinking!

The voting came in as Dafydd Williams(Furry toy party) 5 votes, Andrew Griffiths (Too fit party) 1 vote, Reg Pitman (Can't get my breath party) at least 20 votes, could have been more I only had one contact lense in.

I accepted the mandate from my electorate and thought long and hard about the route the club would be taking the following week though on reflection maybe shouldn't have and just gone straight to Maenllwyd instead.

26/5/10

29 riders turned up at the legion on a cloudy but dry evening. The herd then headed with some grumbling up Turners lane. There was a short wait at the cattlegrid for the backmarkers then it was on towards the tips. We had to leave Bag of Leaves behind here as he had snapped his rear hanger. Skirting round the left hand side of the tips we came to a lovely if short stretch of singletrack that Russ had introduced us to. There was another short wait at the reservoir (Tom joined the herd here) for Ant who lost his sense of direction, but as he had earlier in the day been in casualty having his head glued together it was surprising he was riding at all. Over to the Church House for a quick pint then straight to the Monty (Mark turned up here) for another quick pint. I then headed of to the trig point on rudry common. However I failed to inform the slower drinkers in the club of this and when they exited the Monty the herd were nowhere to be seen and so this group made their way to the Maenllwyd, no doubt in order to get some drinking practice in.

On the way to the trig point fellow moo's expressed an adverse opinion to climbing the mountain so it was decided democratically to ride round front of mountain to the beech trees descent. I lost a few more moos at this point as I had told the Cap, who was at the back of group, that we would be regrouping at Cometsons farm then descending ridgway to Maen. I apologise unreservedly for this as I once again changed course on reaching Van road deciding to go straight to the Maen instead. After a more sedate pint in the Maen we headed over to Garlic where most got down without too much trouble, even with Mark surprising riders with an encouraging yell and friendly tap with a branch, though Beaker kept complaing that if I went any slower he was going to crash, then back to TA for grub.

I look forward to be re-elected in the forthcoming elections.

REG