Club run reports - 12th January

Category 6 ride led by Danny Hood

We began the day with skies that changed from clear blue to dark grey in a matter of minutes and emptied heavy rain onto the gathering posse. Luckily the ride remained fairly dry, although a tad cold. We set off with ten riders that soon became eleven, then twelve, and, by Much Hadham was back down to ten again. The pace on the outward leg was pretty decent. In fact a few of us managed to get in front of Gareth on more than one occasion; granted, he was taking it easy and towing a trailer and baby, but little victories!.
The Café Mocha provided their usual efficient, wallet friendly service and we set off home on more or less the same route we'd come by. Bloody wind! Not from the sausage sandwich, but into our faces the whole way home. Jesus, it was hard going. I was all up for taking the quick route back that avoided riding straight into the tempest, but the motley crew that made up today's team were having none of it. More hills and headwinds they yelled, so they could be heard over the hurricane. And so I was shanghaied into following the majority vote. 
The later time of next week's Xmas/ new year/ awards/ get together/ booze up means that there will be a cat six ride next week. Until then amigos, adiós.

Category 5 ride led by John Farnham

A heavy shower on the way to the club run start brought that sinking feeling that not many Wheelers would turn out on a mid January day, but in the event nine members were lined up and eager to go. A blustery west to south west wind partly assisted and partly hampered our outward route through Barwick, Dane End, Buntingford and Sandon to Mill End Plants. As per usual most of their punters seem to be cyclists, with only a handful of civilians in evidence. Good food and service are the hallmarks of this cycling friendly cafe and this was certainly the case today. The expected headwinds for the return leg did not really materialise as the wind direction seemed to have shifted round to more of a north westerly and so our progress through Ardeley, Great Munden, Colliers End and Barwick back to Ware was fairly swift. 44 miles in total, one or two mudguard related gremlins, no crashes but, unusually for category 5, there were three punctures - maybe some Christmas present money should be spent on winter tyres!