13 Calder Clarion and Knaresborough friends experienced
ill luck on the annual Flanders weekend, victims of a night
time theft of bikes as they slept. Two bikes minus wheels
were recovered from where thieves had hidden them close
to the hotel, but the wheels and 4 other bikes had gone.
 

Things hadn't gone too well the day before either. Gary
Kemp took a nasty fall during the Tour of Flanders Sportiv
ending his cycling for the weekend. He'd been attempting
to give Martin Price a madison sling on some greasy
cobbles! Earlier, Richard Hancock was stopped by a
Belgian television crew below the Patterberg.They were
delighted when he confirmed that riding the Flandrian
cobbles was just like Hell.It wasn't all gloom. There was a
lot of fun, not least provided by Martin on the day of the big
race. He had lost his bike in the theft and so he borrowed
Carl Lindop's mount. After riding to a number of vantage
points to see the race go by, he spent the afternoon in
front of a pub screening of the race and quaffing prodigeous
amounts of beer. He joined his clubmates for a 25k ride
back to the hotel and treated everyone to a miraculous
display of bike handling, firstly on a long cobbled descent
which he did out of the saddle with nose close to
Carl's front wheel and then showing how to take a 90
degrees bend, at speed, involving a 145 degree sharp
turn right and a 55 sharp turn left to avoid a fast
approaching wall.

Later, at the end of the ride, he took on the challenge
thrown down by Tim Moss and Ian Steeper who  took
a flyer for the honour of being first rider back to the hotel.
Martin responded, spending the last mile trying to pull
them back with the rest of the group enjoying Martin's back
wheel. He managed to draw level on the final left and ride
hand turns into the hotel car park. With adrenalin pumping
through his veins he didn't spot the change from tarmac
to gravel on and final left hander and found himself sliding
on his side ploughing a trough through the ravel as Tim,
Ian and all the followers eased past safely.

The bad luck continued on the drive back to Zeebrugge
after the weekend when Richard's bike fell off John
Clayton's car on the motorway, denting the following
BMW's bonnet and wing, writing off the cycle.