Club run reports - 3rd September

Category 6 ride led by Tony Dos Santos

The night before the ride, Carolyn predicted 15 riders would turn up. I didn’t think it would be that many. 

Today was going to be a hot one. The forecast was 25°C. It was a tad chilly on the ride up to Allenbury's, but soon warmed up. 

I turned up at twenty to nine with no-one in sight, I was thinking maybe eight or nine riders would arrive. But, then everyone started piling in, I mean EVERYONE, yes, the whole club had turned up. OK, not the whole club. But at the start there were fourteen riders plus three to meet along the way. Nice to see Adrian, who hadn’t been out since June, although he did have an excuse: he was on holiday for like four weeks! 

It was also nice to see Den F back, who unfortunately had hit the deck a few weeks ago before the ride. 

Jane and Bruno decided to come on the ride to Hatfield Forest - lovely to have you both with us. Also Janine was coming with us. Amazing, the number of riders who showed up. Prior to the ride, David, had cracked at least four awful “Dad jokes”. I told him he was banned from telling any more truly awful jokes. Obviously, he took no notice of me, and the whole ride was a joke fest from Smudger. 

The weather was superb, not a breeze and the sun was bursting through. 

We had Phil S with us, so Lisa, Elio, Kate and I knew we had to keep an eye on him, as at any second he could make a wrong turn ;-). 

We met Peter B and Steve G at Lower Road, where Lisa, Elio, Phil and Kate agreed to go a little faster to alleviate the bunching caused by rider numbers. Off we rode, and only one more to pick up along the way. 

At Hunsdon, I heard a voice along side me, calling me a slow rider; truly factual, it was none other than Kev O’S and Chris B, with Sam B trailing behind (as normal - love you Sam ;-). They were banging on about how slow I was. So I decided to show them that I could keep up with the Cat 1s. I put my foot down and, for a massive 300 metres, I kept up with them. Obviously, I didn’t want to embarrass them and backed off!! Wheezing and coughing at keeping up with the Cat 1s, I slowed down and waited for the peloton! 

We rode eight miles before Daniel H joined us. He was only coming to the cafe, and then would peel off before Cold Christmas Lane. 

A lovely ride, a reverse of the whole course which we normally do, with special thanks to Peter B for checking the route, which had showed the ride on the roundabouts going round the wrong way. Garmin eh :/)! 

We got to the Hatfield Forest cafe at about 10:45 and it was packed already. However, the queues went down quickly. We got the food pronto, but, a lot of banter meant we didn’t leave until midday. Oh well, the weather was amazing and the banter was good. 

There were some undulations after we left the forest. Carolyn is getting back to her pre-op fitness, and it showed she was starting to become stronger and stronger. There wasn’t a single mechanical on this ride (that I know of), nor a puncture. We arrived back in Ware at about a quarter to two. 

A lovely ride, fantastic company and superb weather. Average speed today was 12.7 mph (taken from Kev’s Strava) 

Thank you all for coming and making it easy for everyone concerned. 

Obviously, written on the throne. 

Love and kisses. 

Category HC ride led by Ian Bembridge

When we first talked about a long-distance ride for this year, I was determined that it should be to somewhere other than Maldon. So I asked super mapper Pete K to see if we could get to Burnham on Crouch and back in around 100 miles. He thought it couldn’t be done, but at a first pass came up with a route of 106 miles. He insisted on refining the route to avoid nasty roads and it went up to 109 miles. He then decided to avoid even more nasty roads and we got to version 3, 114 miles! 

At that point I decided that we didn’t need any more revisions, so the stage was set for what turned out to be a terrific ride on a warm and sunny September day. 

We started out with five riders, knowing that Denis was only going to be with us to the first café stop at Blackmore Tea Rooms. A popular stopping point this, where a bacon sandwich costs almost as much as a full breakfast, and as there wasn’t time for the latter, it was coffee and cake, then on into the wild lands of Essex, through strange places like Ingatestone and the Hanningfields, where Pete and Brian were getting very excited trying to spot the lake! 

We rolled into Burnham just before noon and found somewhere to eat beside the Crouch. 

The route back to the north of Chelmsford involved passing through the middle of Maldon after all, where the Essex hooligans were in full voice. Ian was instructed to “Keep up!” as Graham, Brian and Pete sprinted up the hill through the High Street, and when a bunch of young drunks hurled abuse from a passing car, Brian declared “That’s the third time we have been shouted at in this place!” 

After a last stop for a drink in Great Waltham, it was back to more familiar territory where places like Matching Green feel like home. But Peter had yet another trick up his sleeve, with some interesting short cuts in the Sawbridgeworth area at the end of the day. 

The average speed was around 16 mph, with a few variations depending on which Garmin is considered to be the official recorder. 

Thanks to my fellow riders Pete, Brian, Graham and Denis for making this a different, challenging and interesting day out.