Club run reports - 2nd January 2022

Category 4 ride led by Lisa Ridoutt

Cycling to the start of the Category 4 ride, with the sun shining, I was looking forward to a great morning.

Disaster struck immediately. I arrived at the same moment as Ian, we were wearing the same cycling tops (not a club jacket). It was a case of go home and get changed or spend the next few hours looking like Harold and Hilda (Google “ Ever Decreasing Circles” if you’re under 50)!

So Harold and Hilda it was…….

We rode to Essendon Golf Club, lovely surroundings but no cakes!

We cycled in a figure of 8 which gave a couple of riders the option to have a shorter ride and we said goodbye to Stu and Kate back near Hertford. They left us contemplating a large red sign outside Hertingfordbury - ‘Road Closed Due to Flooding’. Deciding to ignore this, believing it hadn’t rained much in the last few days so was obviously out of date, we ploughed on…..MISTAKE

Although the depth hasn’t been verified we’ve settled on 3 feet. At this point my leadership skills came into their own and when ’Harold' offered to cycle through and test the depth of the flood I positively encouraged him. 

‘Hilda' and the gang duly followed, and we all got very wet feet. ‘Harold' complained the least and he was the only one without any form of waterproof coverings on his feet.

The rest of the ride went smoothly, 40 miles, 13.1mph and great company.

*Peter Bloomfield also has the same cycling top so we could re-enact The Three Stooges next Sunday.
 

Category 3 ride led by Graham Knight

Ten starters for the first category 3 ride of 2022 with some faces not seen for a while - great! Not so great was that within the first half-mile Richard had chain problems and he, Dave and Steve withdrew to seek a fix while the familiar faces continued. The plan was for a long anti-clockwise loop north of Stevenage towards a café stop in Wheathampstead. Sadly Andrew was not fully recovered, suffering pain and discomfort. He admitted defeat in Walkern and made his way back to Ware. The rest made it to Wheathampstead in reasonable order encountering Lib and Sam as we passed through Graveley. Charlie's was closed and the the Loafing Bakery had a long queue but, fortunately, the Brewhouse café up Church Street was open. This was new to us and impressed.

Problems along the way had delayed us somewhat so the return route was shortened, with Emily towing us back along the B1000 to Hertford.
 

Category 6 ride led by Tony Dos Santos

This is going to be a short one. I’m not on the throne, however, I understand Lisa for the Cat 4’s, in true tradition wrote her report on the throne. Good on you Lisa! 

Twelve riders rode off from Allenbury's; it was nice to see Lee Cutler, haven’t seen you in yonks. Also Dr. Anderson turned up AKA Neo; once again nice to see you, Grace. The usual suspects were there. Routemaster Kelleway turned up, as usual, looking fit as a fiddle. 
Nothing really happened along route. We got to Thremhall at 11:10 am and heartily ate our food. Some ate less than others. And Ian didn’t have a full English; I know shock horror. 

On the way back, we had one puncture, and two who didn’t eat enough at the cafe and were shattered. A quick feed and they were off again. 

All in all a lovely ride as normal. Nice to see this number of Wheelers out in the 6’s this time of year. 

As said before, not written on the throne. Over and out.