Club run reports - 21st November

Category 6 ride led by Mike East

On the ride to the start I noticed the wind had changed direction since yesterday. Not with the same consequences as it does in Mary Poppins - repentant parents, lots of kite flying and a jaunty  song. No, the wind was now coming from the north, bringing an icy chill. The planned ride would be headwind out.

This was the first run out since Cop 26 ended. I had hoped to see riders sporting bikes made from recycled plasticine, with tyres stitched from second hand dungarees, driven by a chain made from real daisies, lubricated by sustainable palm oil. Alas, no, another dream dashed, at least until next year’s summit (at Beverley Hills?).

Numerous groups had gathered at the cold but sunny start. Nine starters.....remember that for later.

It was a straightforward ride to the ever popular cafe in Rushden. We arrived in time for the second sitting, just as Aberdeen Cycling Group were just pulling away. I would love to be writing about a recreation of Uncle Albert’s floating tea party from Mary Poppins at this point, but there was just not enough laughter around in the cafe to make it happen.

Two ate speedily for a swift return to White Hart Lane. Seven set off towards Walkern. Confusing leadership resulted in the following:

One took a direct route to Hertford with a leaking rear tyre

One turned left for the Cromer windmill, missing Walkern all together - ride leader apologies!

Three, aware of the route, set off with the blessing of the leader back to the start, expecting to catch a fourth rider slightly ahead. The trio missed that sole rider.

The ride leader caught up the sole rider, representing the official peloton rolling into Ware. Just two.

A ride with a very dodgy second half - but not as dodgy as Dick Van Dyck’s Cockney accent.

Category 4 ride led by Tony Dos Santos

So today was my inaugural lead ride for the Cat 4. I woke up this morning with the joys of spring, oooops it’s autumn!
The usual suspects turned up, ‘Rapha Rogers’, ‘Bloomfield the Knee’. Also there was ‘Carolyn the Crazy’; she was so looking forward to this one as she had designed the ride for me, so she knew it was a win-win for her! If it went wrong, I’d get the blame, if it went all well, she would take the adulation! More to come! 
I was advised to change my glasses to sunglasses as it was so bright, I took this onboard and changed the lenses. 

We set off from Allenbury’s bang on the nose at 9.30 and so it began. We met ‘Mad Mooresey” outside her place and we were the magic eight. We had to pick someone else up on route (yes, it was Hilarious Horn), just past Fanhams. Then we were nine. 

Along the route ‘Fast Barry” advised he was on his trusty steed that was twenty years old, and had been in the Alps (or somewhere like that). More to come on this one. 

We got to Matching Tye (or could have any Tye as there’s so many of them) and I noticed poor old ‘Mad Mooresey’ was suffering and luckily ‘Fast Barry’ kept her company. As we all regrouped at Bishops Stortford, Mooresey showed us her mums place. Then the, err, ride leader carried straight on, not looking at his Garmin and took six others the wrong way! Ooooops. We turned around and met the other two who had correctly turned (note to self, stop having nice chats with everyone). The wind was howling by now and we were up against it. 

More roads were traversed (big word for me, eh!) and we got to the Country Kitchen at 11.45. We walked inside to two reserved tables, a lovely warm environment and a Christmas tree. Wow, what a lovely place. We all ordered the lunch menu and when it came, it was absolutely superb. All fed and watered and happy, apart from Daniel, who’d ordered cake! 

We set off and Daniel, advised he had left his £8,000 (ok, ok, so they could have been a little cheaper than that) sunglasses at the Kitchens, so he turned round and went back to get them. Ten minutes later he came back (we all had frost bite) only to tell us they weren’t there. Damn! 

We left Rebecca at the cafe. She didn’t look well and was going to ride to her mum’s (we all know where she lives now) and then get a lift home! 

Down to eight, off we went. Not a great deal happened on the way home, apart from Barry telling us about his twenty year old bike. So we got to the top of that horrible hill ride type thing and Barry let us try and lift his bike up. I kid you not, it was like the sword in the stone, no one could lift the damn thing up, apart for Peter B. Obviously he became king! 

We said our goodbyes to Carolyn and Daniel, and apparently Barry went with them! 

Down to 6 we got to Allenbury’s at 2.

Now this is where it gets interesting. Daniel messages us and advised that when he got home, his £8,000,000 (or thereabouts) sunglasses were on the side board in the kitchen. So, we now have to change Daniel’s calls sign to ‘Dozy Daniel’! 

All in all, a lovely ride and I have to give a special mention to Carolyn for creating the route. Thank you all so much. 
Signing off from the throne! Over and out,and love and kisses. 

Category 3 ride led by Graham Knight

The category 3 ride headed out of Ware on the same route as the cat 4, leading to quite a large group of Wheelers on the road up to Fanhams. Once we had disentangled ourselves the five of us rode on through Hadham to Stortford. The promised sunshine had disappeared to be replaced by a cold, and definitely not promised, drizzle. John H's machine informed him of a slow puncture near Stortford and he headed back home. The rest of us enjoyed steadily improving weather until the bright sunshine was fully restored by the time we reached Broxted. We then enjoyed the quiet and mostly downhill lanes towards Little Easton before making the short climb up to Dunmow and the Paradise Café.

Here we were re-joined by Adam who had enjoyed the Broxted descent to such an extent that he missed to turn to the little Easton and reached Dunmow via the big one. Emerging from the warmth of the café we were forcefully reminded that this was a cold and windy day. Fortunately we had the wind behind us as we headed south from Dunmow, so we warmed up a little then enjoyed a brisk ride towards home. Brisk that is until we reached the wind blasted Parsonage Lane where it was a tough job to make any progress at all. Things improved once we turned south towards Perry Green and the strong tail wind must have helped us on the climb up to Widbury, though it didn't feel like it at the time. We got back to Ware by 1:45 with a moving average of about 14.5 mph.