Club run reports - 2nd July

Category 4 ride led by Ian Bembridge

We had a decent turn out with seven riders assembled for the ride to Hot Numbers Roastery in Shepreth. The outbound route was fairly direct and uneventful, and with the wind behind we managed an average of over 16 mph.

The problem with this café is that it gets very busy, and when we arrived to discover there was an hour’s wait for hot food, we de-camped to the nearby Phillimore Garden Centre with a secluded outdoor area hemmed in by endless plant pots.

The way back was a bit more interesting, routing via Ickleton and Arkesden. I can only apologise for the chaos caused by an unexpected slowing down at a T junction with a house famous for dispensing free Victoria plums. I know it is not yet plum season, but I couldn’t resist a passing glance, and hadn’t realised that Alex was close behind ready to slide into me. Unfortunately, Brian was close behind Alex, and he too decided to join the crash, promptly writing off his best Rapha shorts!

Alex was more concerned about his bike than his body…. brave boy! When Denis pointed out that we had all been admiring a certain area of Brian’s anatomy during the ride, Brian had to agree that it was perhaps time to invest in some new derriere wear!

Things got back to normal until Peter suggested a minor detour in the Brent Pelham area and split the party of seven into four groups! Graham and Brian decided to press forward in the confusion, Barry had decided he preferred the traffic lights at Little Hadham to the potholes in Braughing High Street and headed due south, whilst Alex eventually did a U-turn somewhere before Little Hormead and duly caught us up. Having said all that, Peter’s suggestion definitely improved the route.

With six of the seven riders together again, there was the usual discussion regarding “what the bear would be doing” as we passed through Puckeridge, but I’ve been banned from making comments, so my lips are sealed.

All in all, a most enjoyable day out, good company, a good pace with an overall average above 15 mph, warm and dry.

Report on the Dunwich Dynamo, overnight on 1st July, by Tony Dos Santos

Phil Smith, Kate D’Arcy, Lisa Ridoutt, Tony Dos Santos, Leigh Pegg, Elio Domenicano, Peter Bloomfield, Gary Smith, Yann Bedford. 

We had been planning this for months. Carolyn Kelleway, unfortunately, had to pull out as she had a knee operation the Tuesday before (we hope it heals quickly). 

Friday evening - The plan was to get two cars ready and waiting for Sunday morning. Lisa, Tony and Leigh, decided to get the cars up to Dunwich on Friday evening. We met at Leigh’s house at half past six. After driving off, within a hundred yards we had lost Lisa who had drove straight into a dead end. We love you Lisa :-). Could the drive up and back get worse? Erm yes. We got to Dunwich in good time. Parked the cars and jumped in Leigh’s car for the return journey. Then Leigh stated “did I tell you, I don’t like driving and I don’t like driving at night”! We went down many a country lane and then got onto the A12 (eventually). I was starving so, I popped into KFC for some “fast food”. I waited twenty five minutes to be handed the food, which I can only say is the slowest service ever. Lisa and Leigh were not impressed. 

Then we found out the A12 had been closed. A massive detour through Colchester and then back on it. We eventually got onto the M25 and there were signs flashing away saying junction 27 closed. We feared the worst and got there and luckily the cones were just going down. Phew! Then the signs started flashing saying junction junction 26-25 closed. As we got closer, the lanes filtered down to one and we thought disaster. However, the road gods had shone on us one again and they had not closed the road. I got home at a quarter to midnight. Leigh and Lisa drove off, probably getting home around half twelve. Leigh, you are an absolute legend driving back. 

The day/evening/morning of the ride - Bikes ready, bags packed. Eight riders decided to descend on London Fields. Tony and Leigh, decided to get there earlier and take in the carnival atmosphere and have a pizza. Lisa, Elio, Phil, Kate, Yann (Gary) decided to get the later train. Peter Bloomfield rode down. Gary Smith, was riding with the “beer drinkers” and obviously was of faster pace, even after drinking ale. Lisa, obviously being well prepared, pulled out her glasses and then realised she had sun glasses for a night ride! Kate’s friend Yann had decided to come and ride with us. We renamed him Gary and he took it in jest. Peter couldn’t find his back pack and was starting to panic, then found it was actually on his back! Roars of laughter ensued! 

We set off from London fields at five past eight, all excited as for many it was our first DD. The traffic in Hackney was murder, and we lost “Gary” for a few minutes, all of us shouting “Gary” until he appeared out of the mist, well, the park! Also the Lea Bridge Road was bad and the ride up to Epping had lots of traffic. At Epping it was then decided Lisa was of Scottish descent as she was a “wee lady”! We all went to the loo and Phil had already run out of food; he went and replenished stocks in the local Tesco. 

Tony was slower than the rest of the peloton and was playing catch up. 

Off we went, until around the 40 mile mark we discovered we had lost Phil. We fed and watered ourselves in the hope that Phil would catch up. We tried to phone him with no luck. Leigh endeavoured to pay the lady with his phone and realised he had his calculator (on the phone) open and his card was in his bag. Tony paid and Tony was laughing so much.  Worried to say the least, we rode off and asked riders if they had seen Phil. People were looking perplexed. 

We kept on riding and all that could be seen for miles and miles were red bike lights in front and white ones behind. It was amazing seeing the lights and not a car in sight. 

I have no clue where we were when Phil phoned and said he was in a pub. We had just ridden past the pub and Peter B went and found Phil. We then established we must get a GPS locator for Phil and secretly stick it to him on every ride. 

We rode on through the night, Tony always playing catch up with the rest. 

It was decided that at Needham Market (78 miles) we would have our second stop. We got there and Tony rode up and saw the sausage rolls on display and was just about to order one, when Elio and Peter decided that in fact we weren’t going to stop there but were going on a further five miles on at Gosbeck, Tony was not a happy chappy, but as it was a decision made, we all carried on. 

We got to Gosbeck pretty swiftly and we fed and watered ourselves. 

Dawn was starting to break as you could see the red in the sky. 

We rode and rode and then at 4.43 we all stopped and watched the sun come up over the horizon. It was great to see and it rose swiftly until we saw the whole of it. Encouraged by the fact the sun was now up, we realised we were now within touching distance of the finish. Well about 30 odd miles away.  Lisa, in the knowledge that she had her sunglasses, didn’t put them on! 

We made our final stop and Tony put on his nice new blue Endura jacket and Leigh piped up said “My dogs poo bags are the same colour as that”. Everyone fell about laughing and from them on Tony’s jacket was called the poo (it wasn’t that word, but I think you can guess) jacket! 

We had now passed the 100 mile marker, with only 11 miles to go. We were nearly there. 

What we didn’t realise, was that the last miles were lumpy, to say the least. On we pedalled traversing the ups and downs. I can’t say they were hills really, as they were more like undulations, but they were hurting the legs. 

The last mile felt like the life force had been drained from our legs. But, still, on we went and down the hill into Dunwich. I arrived at 6.30, the others a few minutes before. We had made it, and the beach was in sight. We went to the beach and sat there for thirty minutes all exhausted. We had done it. We went to the pub and had a snack. Had a picture taken, but Phil had already left, so Gary became Phil for the picture. Amazing atmosphere the Dunwich Dynamo is, and if you ever want a ride with a fantastic atmosphere, this is the one for you. 

This was not written on the throne! 

Category 6 ride led by Ian Bailey

In the absence of Dulwich Dynamos (no idea why - their ride started at 6 pm last night so they could have ridden straight back to Ware for 9 am) seven hardy cat 6-ers set off on a warmish, windy-ish but not wet-ish ride to Mill End Plants (42 mile route).

There was a small detour up Musley Hill, Ware’s steepest climb, at the start.  I assumed that Tony, who provided the gpx file, had sneakily added this but unfortunately there was a judge present who was able to provide impeccable evidence that I had missed a turning (and my phone had re-plotted the route).

We had planned to meet eeeeezzzy Dan at Much Hadham but he was late (not e-assisted) and so were we; he met us near Albury. Now we were 8.

The ride progressed smoothly until a very rough descent a bit after Great Hormead.  A series of potholes holed Mark’s rear tube.  In his words:

Found out how many Wheelers it takes to fix a puncture - three (to use a tyre glider), five (to fix a puncture), two (to get through three tubes for a puncture), three (to use a pump) and three (to use gas canisters).  

I think Mark particularly enjoyed Chris’ six demonstrations of the tyre glider and I’m pretty sure Mark will be ordering one immediately.

We did finally reach the cafe in time for me (and sadly no-one after me in the queue) to order a pasty.  Fortunately there was plenty of cake.

The wind-assisted ride back was uneventful, though we did lose eeeeezzzy Dan after he stopped to put on a jacket.  A phone call confirmed that he had inadvertently chosen to race cars on the A505 rather than following the rest of us towards Cromer Windmill.

The rest of us rolled back to Ware around half past two.