Club run reports - 22nd January

Category 4 ride led by Alex Powell

The build up to the ride was more exciting than the ride itself. The leader had covered many more miles checking out roads than the 30 or so finally covered. More time was spent scrutinizing weather forecasts, liaising with Lisa to decide how much risk to take, writing overly long Slack posts, than the hours spent cycling.The leader was up at 5 am, trying to decide between his various possible outfits and how to balance having the right clothes for the temperatures, whilst staying visible but also having some club kit showing whilst also making sure it matched. Then having decided and paced the living room in club kit for an hour, raring to go, he remembered it was more important to show off his Rapha winter jersey (free gift). So the last 20 minutes was spent changing into the jersey and exchanging dark gloves, overshoes and beanie for yellow ones and glaring white/red tights (not a pretty combination).  

At the start it was a relief to find that aesthetics  had come second to practicality as Denis was in fly fishingesque over trousers, Graham was impersonating Dick Turpin and Ian had bought a brown oversized phrophylacticlike skull cap (undersized as a skull cap unfortunately for him). It was rather lovely heading towards Wadesmill with the trees bejewelled with white ice. The roads had been so heavily gritted over the week that they were glistening wet, rather than icy. Graham was confused as he thought I was the leader but Ian kept going to the front. Later Brian wondered why the cat4 Slack channel was so full of discussion. I explained that in Cat4 we don't have anything as old fashioned as a totalitarian leader but a ride curator, who presents his point of view of a ride based on the lived experiences he perceives via Slack, very much like a conceptual artist bringing together different elements (the route, the start time and place, the cafe, the randomness of who turns up) into a wholly unique configuration of space and time (the magic mushrooms have started working it seems). 

After passing Hare Street the consensus was to take a left through Wyddial. We were lucky in that 2 days later a huge explosion took place a mile after Wyddial as normally buried giant drainage pipes burst leaving enormous quantities of mud and ice. The cafe was reached and a table secured, despite us being a mite early. 

Luckily for Brian (who had been chasing us along the same route), Ian was unable to set off afterwards, for quite a time (does this seem familiar) as he had to battle again with his Garmin. Brian was looking far too smart for our group in his lovely Endura top as he came down the high street, so it was a relief to see he was riding a bike he couldn't fit a front mudguard to. Close up he looked like he and his jersey had caught a bad case of black spot. 

We had decided that we would go back via Hare Street but turn up towards Levens Hall Green after Puckeridge. Even the junction at Dane End,which is often a bit damp was clear of anything nasty. We took in the exciting sights of the new cycling underpass and A602 before joining the A119 for a straight run for home and a parting of ways at various points near Hertford. The leaders relief of the formal ride having been completed safely was tempered by realising that the A602 to Stevenage after Watton is not so pleasant so a lane route towards Walkern would be needed. Here at the bottom of Blue Hill the only dangerous full road ice was found, or it would have been three hours earlier, but now thankfully was just thick slush. Hubris nearly turning to Nemesis once more.