When you know that it's very windy, it’s a good idea to do a ride where you get the headwind out of the way on the out journey, but when the ride’s already been advertised and the café booked, you just have to bite the bullet and do the ride.
This was a lovely ride with light winds, dry roads and hints of spring sunshine as the day progressed.
Graham and Peter rode out to Victoria CC's Ugley hut, which meant an early rise to make the 9:00 am start time. On arrival they found the usual cozy, glitz-free welcome with free coffee, tea and biscuits. By lunch-time, and at the end, the atmosphere remained but the food offerings now included home-made soup, rolls and an irresistable selection of cake. Excellent value and all within the £10 entry fee.
Met up with Alex (& briefly MarkT) for a 07:30 start from Dunmow. With a reasonable tailwind, we headed north via Lavenham to the Snetterton race circuit at an average of 16.5mph. It was a bit slower on the return (13.5mph) especially as it got windier (& lumpier) but we were pleased with an overall average of 15mph considering that we weren't racing. Got back (via Newmarket) at 16:40. It was a fine day, not too cold nor too warm, with the first 100kms being relatively flat. A good audax to start spring with. PW.
When the weather is like Sunday's and the ride still goes ahead, it is tempting for ride leaders to target in their report those who, after looking out the window, choose their quilt ahead of donning lycra. This is, of course, a very puerile and smug thing to do. Readers of this report can therefore feel assured that Sunday's lily-livered, fair-weather, lie-a-bed, lightweight snowflakes are safe from such abuse. Just wanted to make that clear!
Ten Wheelers embarked for a circuitous route to Something Lovely at Puckeridge on a dry but windy last Sunday in February. Progress out via Babbs Green was temporarily halted because of an early puncture, where we were passed by Mark T' s group chuffing up the hill towards Bakers End. The usual ribald comments were exchanged.
After many days of freezy weather we were promised a day of relative mildness. It was quite windy on both the SW & N bound sections, and the hills in the Chilterns didn't help much either. After getting to Chalfont St Peter via Radlett, Bushey, Oxhey & Harefield I turned north to Amersham, Chesham & Woburn. Large black clouds then formed and chased me E to the Guildens where they caught & drowned me. The last 25 miles weren't much fun. PW.
Brrr, my Garmin shows the temperature for the first half of this ride as -1°C but after the café stop it warmed up - to 0°C! There were times when the east wind hitting our faces made it feel much worse. We could have been in bed - what were we thinking going on a bike ride on a day like this?
Can't be bothered to explain the name of this Audax other than to say there were four pubs with the name "Compass" that were used as info controls. Not feeling up to it I didn't ECE this one, and I believe I made the right choice. My poor choice, however, was in not liaising properly with John & Alex so we missed each other at the start as I opted to commence at 09:30 instead 0f 10:00. Due to my lack of good health I decided that I would probably suffer quite badly somewhere en route, and that I wanted to be alone when it happened and not slow others down. And lo & behold, my su
Dealing with life's difficulties can be tough going; I am still coming to terms with Only Connect moving from a Monday to a Friday. The current catastrophe is the the Great Lettuce Shortage. I suspect it was the underlying cause of category 6 numbers jumping from 5 or fewer in January to 14 this week. Cycling can help put great challenges into perspective, or at least take your mind off the impending doom of an iceberg famine.
What started out as me going to the LV Velo on my tod as a xmas present to myself ended up with eight of us making the journey together (sorry nine, we took a spectator). On Tuesday I set off from Hertford East on the train, picking up the others en route. We arrived with plenty of time to spare (intentionally). This gave us the chance to watch a couple of the sessions before our hour began at 13:00. This wasn't necessarily the best thing to do as despite being on an almost empty circuit people were crashing and making some of us onlookers more nervous than we already were. Eventually
Set off down the old A120 from Thremhall Park at 07:40 expecting ice and a headwind - and got neither. Got through Braintree and then dropped down to Kelvedon for the start of the calendar event at 09:30. Again this went fairly smoothly although the cold easterly wind did start to get up a bit. Got back to and then set off from Kelvedon at 15:15 for the return via the lanes. Got to Leaden Roding at about 17:00 by which time it was getting a bit more than just cold. The last 90 mins back to Thremhall did have its freezy moments but overall it was a good day out. The Oyster audax was ma
