Port Sunlight Wh. club run
Ride highlights
1
Tinkersdale shortcut A typical Sunlight off-the-beaten-path back lane, knowledge passed down through the generations. Short, steep and bumpy, I doubt any cars have been up this way to the Warren.
2
Banter No ride with the Sunlight would be complete without the good-humoured banter that is bandied around for the whole ride. Yes, with the Sunlight it is possible to laugh out loud while climbing!
3
Neverending Lane This slightly uphill, nearly 2km cut-through is often the last stretch home after long days in the North Wales hills, many a rider requiring a push along here back to the Eureka cafe.
and simple black, white and red. “I’ve still got an original one,” says John Johnson, known as JJ to the rest of the club. “It’s the same colours but with the letters all embroidered on.” John joined the Sunlight in 1959 as a 13year-old. “The club was good then but it’s even better now. It’s the social side and the camaraderie — it’s always the people that make a club.”
Skirting the back of the Clwydian hills we head on through to Loggerheads, cutting through a series of winding and undulating fast lanes before eventually passing through Queensferry and onto the ‘Never-ending Lane’, guiding us home to the Eureka cafe.
It’s not just the rides and racing that the Sunlight is famous for, I’d also heard about their weekends away, so I quiz Tabiner. “They’re the last weekend in March before the race season kicks off. We had over 30 this year riding to Buxton. Some of my best memories, best holidays and best laughs have been with the Sunlight, and although the Sunlight has had that tradition of a hard racing club, I think we’ve also evolved from that.
“From the outside we look like a tight clique, and we are a tight-knit group, but what I’ve found is that once you’ve joined you’ll be welcomed in and it’s like you’ve been in the Sunlight forever.”