Club run reports - 20th September

Category 6 ride led by Tony Dos Santos

Well we all woke excited for the first Tour de Hertswheelers, six thoroughbred riders ready and raring to go. No, wait, Kate decides to turn up at 9:02am! There’s always one eh, normally Mr Eldon, but this time he was early! I know, shock horror! No one was out on the lash last night, probably because Marcia couldn’t make it!

So off went at a pace that had us at warp speed Scotty! Talking of Star Trek, did you know that Klingon is now an official language? I bet you didn’t! 
I’m writing this absolutely shattered after completing this ride which took in some monster hills, but no biblical (love that word) weather. In fact the weather was absolutely superb, hitting a heady 25° C. 
So onto the ride. After last week Peter E finding he had a cracked frame on his bike, a friend of his kindly loaned him a bike. How nice is that or what! Sorry, we rode down into Sawbridgeworth and Pete said his saddle didn’t feel right; we pulled over and found his saddle seat post was falling down. Mr Horn inspected the post and we found the tightener thingy, that holds the post, had cross threaded or something and we needed a new holder thingy (technical term). So we popped to the local bike shop, which unfortunately didn’t have one. So poor old Peter had to abandon the ride. Down to five, the famous five. As Kate reminded us, we didn’t have Timmy the dog. Whatevs Kate! Then Lisa said she couldn’t understand why she was feeling like she was cycling through treacle. So we inspected her bike and found her rear brake was binding (AGAIN), so for like thirteen miles she had been cycling whilst braking. That fixed, on we went. Down through North Weald yada yada yada. We got to the Airfield at 11:45am, only to be told food wasn’t being served until 12:15pm as the lunch menu was coming. So after a bag of crisps/cake, we set off. Then once again, poor old Lisa’s brakes were binding again. Quick fix and off we went. Then onto the hills of Epping and Great Amwell. Leigh felt a little pooped up one of the hills. I sat behind him and then s**t the life out of him. Made me chuckle, sorry Leigh. 
We got to Roydon and the route said “make a U turn”which we ignored and continued. Then Leigh, who was “pooped”, shot off like a greyhound out the traps and no one could catch him. Whaaaat! 
Not a single puncture today. But the usual mechanicals which will pop up with the more miles we do. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable ride. On a last note, thanks to Rich Henderson for providing the route. We absolutely loved it. I’m sure whoever does it next, will smash our heady 13 mph average speed.

Category 3b led by Graham Knight

The government rule of 6 now meant that Cycling UK withdrew their maximum of 15 rule and we were back to a maximum of 6. This meant the cat 3 had to be split into a faster and a slower group. Slower we may have been, but the four of us certainly took on some hills climbing up to Great Chishill from Barkway then across the rolling countryside through Elmdon and down to Ickleton. This was another gloriously sunny day so we abandoned our original plan to stop at the Mocha in Saffron Walden and went instead to Café Riverside on the road to Great Chesterford - a good choice as we enjoyed a pleasant refuelling stop by the lake in the sunshine.

We decided to forego the delights of riding up to Saffron Walden on the return and rode instead straight down the B1383 to Newport. Here Ian continued straight on the Bishops Stortford while Alex, Richard and I headed back to Ware via Clavering and Hadham.