Club ride reports - 9th July

Category 4 ride led by Pete Kelleway

Despite a last minute concern that we might be starting at 8.30, we assembled at 9.30 at Allenburys. It was great to have Peter Bloomfield and Amanda ride with us. The chat before was ‘are we going to get wet’ ; three of us obviously thought so as we had fitted mudguards. Fortunately we were wrong.

Although the route out was shorter in distance, it felt there was more climbing. At one point the shout of ‘not another hill’ was heard. However the good news was we were at the top of the hill and a had a nice gentle descent to follow. Before we knew it we were at Blackmore. Our timing was perfect; we got an outside table and were in the queue just before another cycling group arrived. Ian was determined to keep us waiting though; while we all had ‘coffee/tea and cake’, the full English was ordered. It did come quickly though and had two sausages! We think this was the reason Ian was full on on the way home. What Ian didn’t have was a black pudding. Graham enlightened us to the fact that there was a black pudding world championships. The thought of people eating tonnes of black pudding was dispelled when he told us it was used to create objects. Phew.

Pit stop over, we set of at a good pace. Denis was soon to become the ‘knight in shining armour’. As Amanda needed more fuel as her energy level dipped he produced a Turkish delight. We were not surprised he felt able to share it after the sugar feast (although I must confess the white rocky road looked wonderful) he had at the cafe. Onward we went without incident until, after going over a speed bump in Sawbridgeworth, my rear mudguard (okay I thought it was going to rain) dislodged and acted as an emergency brake as it jammed my rear wheel. Apparently I left quite an impressive black skid mark on the road!

All fixed we continued back to Ware. Safe and sound we said our goodbyes. Thanks to everyone for a great ride and making it easy for the ride leader.