Club run reports - 12th January

Category 3 ride led by Graham Knight

It was certainly cold at the start - below zero - and the roads close to my house were white with frost. Caution needed therefore. However, once I reached the A1170 into Ware the road surface was wet, not frozen, thanks to gritting. The main impediment to speed was now wind-chill which was remedied to an extent by moving my buff from my neck to my head.

Ian was the only rider to join me at Allenbury's. We followed a route that had been changed the previous day following comments from Barry and Alex on my earlier suggestion. They had been riding during the week and had noted icy stretches where the salt in the grit had been washed away by water flooding across the road.  Past experience suggested the roads due north from Ware, the old A10 and the B1368 through to Fowlmere would not suffer from this problem, so the route would now be a straight out-and-back to the Hot Numbers Roastery.

The cold air reversed normal cycling prejudices. The climb out from Wadesmill, for example, was a welcome relief from the numbing descent that preceded it. Fortunately, as we headed north, the temperature rose a little and by the time we reached Barley the verges were frost-free. A mixed blessing this as the frosted scenery we had passed earlier had been beautiful. Once we reached the bleak, open countryside north of the A505 the temperature dropped again and frost reappeared on the trees (such as they were), so we were pleased to arrive at our destination.

Hot Numbers was packed and by the time we had found a table there was a long queue for ordering. Fortunately our table was being guarded by Alex who had ridden direct from his home and would join us most of the way back to Ware. All this took time, which at least enabled us to warm up a bit. We subsequently discovered we could have avoided the queue by ordering online from our table. This evidently works well as my second cup of tea arrived about 2 minutes after it was ordered.

As we set off for home it seemed to be a little warmer, at any rate the ice had melted from the out-door seating. As we left we exchanged greetings with three other cyclists, the first we had seen all day.  The return was a reversal of the morning ride, not only the route but also the weather which became colder and more misty as we went south.

Despite the cold we were pleased with our day. It was good to be out and to see familiar landscapes transformed by the frost.