Club run reports - 20th November

Category 4 ride led by Alex Powell

The leader had volunteered to lead this Sunday because it had been forecast for unsettled weather. However, in the same way a molecule binds with a receptor, a perfectly shaped, correctly charged hole of sunny weather bonded with club ride. Unlike the previous Sunday,  there was not much to report in the way of incidents. A perfectly formed quad headed on a mix of wider lanes and B roads, skirted Hitchin, survived a short stretch of busy B that leads to the turn for Pirton and arrived at the cafe stop. Only now did we find the major incident of Peter Bloomfield’s Garmin not starting - how he had managed to still cycle was a shock to us all. The cafe was very nice and warm inside and the food was well prepared and looked good. There was outdoor summer tables which we nearly used as it was still bright and warmish. Outside was a second ordering area and that prepared all the sustenance. The way back was a brisk run over the Chiltern hills (Gravel Hill, Hexton) and through Lilley Bottom and Whitwell. To avoid a major flood we diverted briefly through Codicote and then decided to avoid a B1000 finish for bigger lanes towards Hertford, before parting ways close to the official finish.

Category 3 ride led Graham Knight

Vestiges of a British Puritan tradition dictate that the exceptional delights of the Brewhouse Café should not be enjoyed without some solid hard work, ideally leavened with a dose of pain. Thus it was that the route from Ware to Wheathampstead was nearly 40 miles and included about 2500 feet of climbing. Especially memorable were the long climb up to St Pauls Walden and the 10%+ gradients of Horn and Bullslough Hills.

Cat 3 has not been a popular way for Wheelers to spend their Sunday mornings of late (I wonder why?). Today was no different and just 3 of us rode out of Ware to enjoy the increasingly sunny weather. The Brewhouse didn't disappoint and the obvious lusciousness and volume of Graham's carrot cake drove the other two to supplement their bacon and sausage baps with cake of their own. Having prised ourselves away we were further delayed by Brian's bike lock which seemed to be playing some sort of digit shuffling game. Miraculously Barry managed to guess the right combination and we were back on the road.

The delay meant we all felt justified in chopping a bit off the return journey, so we rode straight back through Welwyn and the B1000 at high speed with a nice tail-wind.

Category 6 ride led by Carolyn Kelleway

Pete and I arrived at Allenburys at 8.50 and no one else was there. Sadly our great leader Tony couldn’t make it as his son was ill so I stepped in to lead. Glad to hear he is well now.

Gradually people arrived and eventually 10 harder Cat 6ers were ready to enjoy the much needed sunshine.

We set off and headed up Fanhams Hall Road. I decided to make a slight alteration to the route to avoid Babbs Green and reduce puncture risk. But there was dissent in the ranks and 4 naughty boys ignored the teacher and so we had a split group. Detentions to be set!

However when we regrouped at Much Hadham, Daniel was with them. He had decided to ride up Kettle Green to meet us so good job the naughty boys went that way or we would have missed him! Detentions cancelled.

Lesson to self - don’t change the route! Or if you are joining a ride, stay at the meeting point! 

Unfortunately Dan got a puncture on Stanstead Hill. 4 lads stayed to help (although I’m not sure all 4 actually helped) and the rest of us set off to Thremhall with the hope they’d catch up. Sadly they didn’t and arrived about 20 minutes after us. Something about porpoising! Poor excuse 

Food arrived quickly. Unfortunately the puncture group got a bit of a telling off for not walking on the cardboard, putting helmets on the table and rearranging said tables so they could sit together. Hey ho, we will go back. We love the punishment 

Journey back uneventful thankfully - good pace too.

Thank you for a very enjoyable ride everyone.

Carolyn