Club run reports - 16th September

Category 3 ride led by Peter Bloomfield

Six riders, travelling through two Lavers (High and Magdalen) , three Rodings (White, Abbess and Beauchamp) and twelve Greens (forget it…) on a morning that started out clear and blustery and got sunnier and windier as the day progressed.  Actually, after a while we were reduced to five when one got a call to say a leaking pipe needed him to return home (the curse of mobile phones!).  The rest of us carried on twisting and turning through the Hertfordshire and Essex countryside to the halfway point at Brett’s Farm Shop Café in White Roding where we sat outside in the sunshine while the friendly and efficient staff brought us toasted things and buttered things involving beans or bacon, yum.  Off on our return leg the route did more wiggling through the aforementioned Lavers before North Weald, Thornwood Common and Epping Upland then turned for home with a straight North-Westerly run up through Roydon (getting caught at the level crossing  -  of course!) then Ware.  61 miles and no bits fell off or burst along the way so well done the Famous Five.

Category 6 ride led by Mike East

Category six rides often push the boundaries, go off piste, live on the edge. It is rarely 30 miles at 11 to 12 miles an hour. The creative ride leaders concoct ever more cunning routes to mock the authorities, venturing far up country at a pace to test the hardest roadies - 35 miles at 14 mph. To date no arrests have been made, no prosecutions, no defrockings. For this particular Sunday the ride leader inspected his tea leaves and some old entrails knocking about the house and foresaw a visit from the club rides inspectorate. (He also foresaw the denouement of Bodyguard - he did not expect the reappearance of the Home Secretary).

To avoid any embarrassment and summary roadside executions, the ride adhered to the rules, covering 30 miles (OK, it was 2 cubits over). It also averaged 11.999 mph. Out via Barwick Ford and Levens Green, back via Little Hadham and Stanstead Abbotts. Something Lovely made the group very welcome, providing most of the banter and turning out an array of individual feasts. 

We met Bob at the cafe after his time trialling duties and enjoyed the company of Sue on her first ride. 10 riders in all and no mechanicals.