What a beautiful day! 14 riders turned up; I was terrified! Lovely to see Franco.
We had a great first half of the ride. Everyone was brimming with confidence and vitality. Then, Mick “the chain” Gornall, the inevitable happened - yes his chain came off!
Mark taught me about the gravitational pull of the moon and earth.
The category 2 team of 5 riders covered 60.2 miles on their tour of Essex at an average speed of 18.9 mph. It was a good testing ride, and the team team worked well together.
On the category 2 ride out to Gamlingay, Bedfordshire, we covered 80.2 miles, averaging 18.2 mph with 3400 ft of climbing approximately. It was a very windy ride, especially going out to Gamlingay, but the team worked well together. We had one puncture at the top of Coombe Road, Therfield. Overall, a good day in the saddle.
Nine riders met at Ware for a rather hot ride to High Easter. We lost one due to a chain gremlin but the rest carried on through Essex on good roads to our watering hole. We then lost another one who had a better offer of a BBQ in Halstead. The last of us rode back in temperatures equal to those in the Vuelta!
I was not expecting that many today because of holidays and the TT. I was therefore surprised as the numbers amassing at the start grew and grew. By the time we'd reached the end of Ware High Street we were numbering fifteen.
After expecting some sunshine for today's ride, it was disappointing to wake up to the sound of rain. I was amazed to be met at the start by none other than the bionic man himself, Franco Fiorentini. Not fully up for the club ride but back on his bike and making a great recovery. It was great to have another of our regular riders back today. It's been a long time Kev, hope to see you again next week, mate. It's a short ride back next week too.
Eight Wheelers turned out for an anti-clockwise trip to Dores Kitchen High Roding, some recently returned from “Mont Ventoux”! Just to prove this they donned newly purchased Ventoux kit, so I had high expectations of these individuals and they didn’t disappoint particularly around the Toot Hill area. Mind you, the 36 miles to the cafe with a following wind made this “Easy Peasy”!
Seven of us took a tour to Ickleton on a wind assisted outward bound journey that could have done without the rain, but as the current weather is not perfect it was (at least) not a cold day. Got wet, soon dried out in the wind. Got wet again...etc etc. Did 58 miles and got back about 2:15pm.
Not sure what to expect on my ride to the start. How many would be wanting to do 62 miles today? I was surprised at the turn out of twenty-one, a melange from all club ride groups. It did soon become clear that the majority had shorter ride ambitions. However, all agreed to follow the pre-audax audax route as far as Mill Green Tea Room, some 50km from Ware.
