Club run reports - 17th April

Category 6a ride led by Danny Hood

With ten minutes to the off it was looking like being a rather small group. Ten minutes later we had 15 eager beavers ready for the ride out to Bishops Stortford.

A quick conversation about splitting the group into a more manageable 8 and 7 was deemed favourable.

Michael volunteered to lead the, for lack of a better description, the second division team, while I was to lead the Champions League contenders. The outward and homeward routes were done in opposite directions, with the hope of arriving at the café about the same time.

With one of the elite group puncturing on the way, there was a feeling that we'd be arriving at the café in second place. This, we thought, was confirmed when we spotted one of the other group pacing outside the café. It turned out he'd decided the reserves were not up to his high standards and had left them, to make his own way there. 

Within a couple of minutes of our arrival the SLOWEST group arrived and everyone was fed and watered.

We all said our farewells and made our ways back to base via the alternate route we'd come by.

Once again we arrived FIRST. Tony needed an adjustment of his saddle when he arrived at Allenbury's. He'd been riding with it in the upright position and had all the fun he could take that day. So it was removed from where it had been stuck and leveled off for his ride home.

Great weather, a great turnout and slightly over the advertised 30 miles.

Category 6b ride led by Michael East

The split into two groups as described above was not as it seems, for on an overlap on the course out, we spotted a group of old buffers dealing with a puncture. Saga Cycling Club, we all surmised. Turns out it was the so called Champions League group. We sped past, assuming that in spite of their dodgy this and arthritic that, they could sort out their problem.

Our group reached the Bridge Cafe in Bishops Stortford via Sawbridgeworth and Gaston Green. We ignored closed road signs as it was Easter Sunday; there was always a way through on the very day the stone was rolled away from the tomb.

Danny had researched a stop that would be open, and so it proved at the Bridge Cafe. The menu and ambience was much like Cafe Mocha next door. A good choice.

The return route took in Farnham, Little Hadham, Kettle Green Road and Cold Christmas. Apart from a couple of slipped chains, there was only one major incident when a roadside squirrel launched itself into Tony’s spokes. Tony survived, but the squirrel, sadly, did not. Unfortunately no one had brought a bag for roadkill.

Yes, we arrived back a little later than group 6a, but quantity does not always supersede quality. Eight riders, including Chloe on her first ride with us, 33 miles and great company of both groups.