Club run reports - 24th November

Category 6 ride led by Mike East

Enjoy a hearty breakfast, put the Archers omnibus on the radio, get out your biggest bowls and you are ready for Stir Up Sunday. A few hours later you have embryonic Christmas pud or cake or both. You can then settle down for an early viewing of It’s A Wonderful Life. Festive season started. Or you can get your bike togs on and log a few miles on a dank November day.

Six chose the second option. The published ride leader was indisposed and so Mill End Plants replaced Lynn’s Cafe in Ongar. The roads were coated in claggy muck, leading to a complaint from one rider that he would have put on mudguards if he had known the ride was off road. To which the only (polite) response is: you can always ask for your money back.

Fantastic food, drink and service as ever. One puncture on the return journey. 34 miles done.

PS - The next report from this ride leader may well be delivered through your free broadband.

Category 5 ride led by John Farnham

Eleven Wheelers assembled at the start for our second ride to the nearly discovered Cafe Gusto in Harpenden. Our outward leg proved to be more eventful than last time in that the small lane from Bulls Green to Woolmer Green was closed and necessitated riding up Robbery Bottom lane, which was a new experience for most of us. Soon back on course we then got tangled up in the massed hordes running the Knebworth half marathon shortly after Nup End. In the confusion our group got split up with some following the intended route and others following the road to Hitchin. A few phone calls managed to reunite the group on the road from St Pauls Walden down to Whitwell. No more dramas until we reached the edge of Harpenden when the 'P word' was shouted out. Fortunately it turned out to be of the slow variety and the insertion of some air got the offender to the cafe. We just about all squeezed into the cafe which was extra busy due to it being the day the Harpenden Christmas Lights were being turned on. Our return leg was halted for a short while at Ayot St Lawrence by the sudden realisation that someone had left his smartphone at the cafe. However, upon ringing the number the offending article was found lurking in the depths of his rack bag. As a result of the various diversions, delays and a lunch stop even more leisurely than normal we arrived back in Hertford in somewhat fading daylight. 43 miles, one puncture, no mechanicals or tumbles.

Category 3 ride led by Graham Knight

Paradise regained! Once more a group of Wheelers made it all the way to the little piece of heaven that is Great Dunmow. Seven set off from Ware on a misty, gloomy morning cheerful in the knowledge that there was neither rain, gales nor frost to contend with. The route out was via Bishops Stortford, Elsenham and Little Easton. Our faith in the superiority of Essex road surfaces was severely challenged when, near Dunmow, the road to Paradise appeared to be paved largely by pot-holes. Two punctures resulted so Paradise was postponed. Fortunately the riders involved had the good sense to coordinate their deflations in order to minimise the disruption.

The Paradise Café, appropriately, was amply provisioned with the sort of food designed to speed you from this world to the next - though they did offer one or two items that were actually not fried. This is of no consequence to cyclists, who shrug off such assaults on their bodies by burning up the calories. This we did on the return, this time south of the Stansted Airport through Great Canfield, Little Hallingbury, Spellbrook and, so as to maintain the fun as long as possible, up the hill to Widford and on to Ware. We were eight on the way back as Andrew's son joined us bringing quite unreasonable levels of youth and fitness to the group.