Sending this one out on St Valentines day. A favourite time of year for lovers, flower sellers and the card factory. If you are able to tear yourself away from reading your cards on Sunday we have some love themed rides for you!

Cycling has always had a close relationship with romance, many love stories have roots in cycling culture and I’m not just talking about you and your favourite bike, the most obvious one is the tragic love story of young Romeo the road cyclist falling for Juliet the mountain biker, they came from different sides of the track and family and friends couldn’t understand the attraction, sworn enemies the two young cyclists couldn’t help fall in love but it didn’t end well, Romeo became the record holder on at the local bike park so Juliet left him out of jealousy.

Lovers Marie and Pierre Curie were the first married couple to win the nobel prize, What you may not realise is that they were both keen cyclists, sharing the passion of riding together as an escape from work in the lab, embarking on cycling adventures across Europe, often saying cycling provided a surge in brain power. If Marie hadn’t spent all her time inventing radiation therapy she probably would have invented disc brakes or clipless pedals.

Cleopatra and Marc Anthony started up all 11 year romance when cleopara found out the Roman General had a passion for cycling, dressed in gold embroidered lycra the queen of Eygpt was led into Tarsus by a Peloton of youths dressed as Eros, with Domestiques spraying purfume towards the gaping crowds lining the route. The sight of Cleopatra’s gold plated Specialized S Works Aethos was too much for Marc to resisit and they become the most glamourous couple on the weekly coffee ride.

So where should the 10am longer ride go to this Sunday? Love Lane of course! We head to Chipperfield to pick up Love Lane on a route of 39 miles of loveliness. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45569130

Thanks to Dave B (or Mr Romance as he likes to be known) for the medium and short routes this week!

10am Longdown Lover Loop 28 miles https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45593136

10.30 It’s the Halton Heartbreaker 24 miles https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45593165

Please remember we are a group of friends not a cycle club so while we stive to publish fact checked postings and reliable routes occassionally there may be the odd inacuracy. Your patience and understading is appeciated.