Club run reports - 26th April

Category 3 ride led by Graham Knight
 

This was another of those "what to wear days" - a chilly start but summery weather forecast for later. I went with summer kit supplemented by knee warmers and a light-weight wind-proof. This worked reasonably well, though the head-wind en route to Finchingfield made for cold arms for a while after the wind-proof was discarded for being too hot. Mustn’t grumble though.

Three of us set out and rode through Braughing, a couple of Pelhams and Newport. Somewhere between Newport and Debden we were caught by Barry who had decided to handicap himself by arriving at the start 15 minutes late. By now it was decently warm, though the head-wind was still evident - arguably a good thing really as we were looking forward to a tail-wind on the return. We took the direct way to Finchingfield, via Little Sampford. This was a route from the club's route library so I hadn't spent much time studying its details. Had I done so I would have remembered Hawkins Hill would need to be negotiated before we could sit down to tea and cake.

As expected on a sunny day, Finchingfield was replete with motorcyclists. Fortunately many seemed more interested in chatting about their bikes than eating, so the delay before our food arrived was not quite as long as I had feared. In any case it was pleasant enough sitting in the sun and watching a long, slow convoy of Ferraris - out on some sort of club run we presumed.

The hoped for tail-wind materialised on the return so we made good time on flattish roads through Lindsell and Duton Hill to Broxted. We were then on more familiar roads as we headed for home via Stortford.