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Week-ends away, social events throughout the year. These may have a cycling theme: visits to races; talks by cycling experts; bike maintenance demonstrations and so on, or may be purely social: curry nights; concerts; etc.

Interesting ri de on Sunday

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Not a good day for cycling.  A heavy overnight frost put paid to many riders' cycling aspirations.  About a dozen turned up at Hertford with most attempting the easy.  Apart from one or two tricksy bits, the lanes were mainly navigable but as soon as we turned from Datchworth to Watton we realised the folly of our ways.  From Watton it was straight back to Hertford for an early bath.  One or two tumbles, but thankfully nobody was seriously injured.

Due to Ian's sudden inability to retain his food, six leaderless meds met at Much Hadham to study his proposed route to Writtle.  Good route, one problem.  Nobody fancied the return, into the wind.  As Ian had returned to his sick-bed and after much soul searching, it was decided to head north to Royston instead.  The fifteen easies, being made of sterner stuff, had no such problem as they made their joyous way to Hatfield Heath.  It was a fresh winter's day - bit of rain and not too cold.  No mechanicals that I know of.

On a very cold, icy morning and with Clive's First Training Ride from Ware, not so many turned up for the med or easy at Hertford.  The few easies met, had a conflab as to whether to cancel or not and then made their way carefully on their chosen route.  The four meds found that the slightly larger roads were ok but an element of care was necessary on the lanes.

Xmas Lunch today so only seven took to the roads on the sole HW ride.

Not much not to like today.  Weather glorious for the time of year.  Nearly forty out to take advantage of it.  Over twenty turned out for the easy so the group was split with both groups arriving at Ardeley within a few minutes of each other.  The fast\med consisted of three but they started earlier due to family commitments.  Thus many of the usual fast\meds joined in with the meds, so thirteen went to Shepreth.  Sadly many of them chose to ride at fast\med pace.

Few drops of rain, and most stay at home!  Nine Hardy Ha-Ha's swam, snorkelled, floated their way to the rearranged destinations.  The four on the medium decided that Royston was a channel crossing too far and so stopped at Puckeridge where they were met with open arms at Something Lovely.  Didn't even have to sit on bin liners!  The five easies felt that swimming to Whitwell wasn't a good idea but that Codicote Garden Centre was just about doable.  It was good to see that the appalling weather didn't stop a few getting out although I expect that our sanity will be questioned over and over

Five braved the journey to the start of the medium at Thaxted.  From there they went to Stradishall for their constitutionals.  This left the rest to either easy or med\fast.  Most took the easy option with twenty-four riders strung out on the lanes to Buntingford.  Eight of these stopped at Westmill in order to ease the possible congestion.  All met up in Bunts and rode back.  In very wet conditions, Mike's rear tyre gave up so he fixed it.  Then it did it again.  By this time the easy ride had left its leader behind with just one for company.  The tyre was refixed but when it gave up the

Only meds & easies this week.  The weather must be a-changing.  The biggest group consisting of 15 took off to Harlington in the depths of Beds.  Made a change to ride on some roads not normally associated with us.  When we arrived there was a wedding pageant at the garden centre so JohnH was allowed to park his banana next to the vintage cars so that it could be babysat!

At 08:00 the rain was falling by the bucketful.
At 09:00 it had stopped.
At 10:00 it resumed with more buckets.
Nearly 30 turned up at Ware as the rain had stopped, and then got soaked on the outbound journey.  The meds never made it to Royston but the easies (being made of sterner, more waterproof stuff) got to Sheering for their morning constitutional.  The return journeys were fairly uneventful and moderately dry.

Another year done.  Our "new year" starts next week.  With about ten audaxing there were still nearly thirty out on the club rides.  Two braved the med\fast and seven attempted to scale various mountains under Barry's tutulage, leaving another nineteen to take the easy path.  Two of these mistimed the trains to the start but soon caught up, Franco provided an early bath but otherwise it wasn't too eventful!

A bright & sunny, but coldish day saw many riders out on the lanes.  The morning journeys were largely uneventful apart from punctures - an occupational hazard when there are nearly forty out.  Fifteen took off with the easies whilst twenty-two made up the meds.  The only really cold place was at Ashlyn's - not their fault but we chose (or were told to choose) to sit outside.  This left us at the mercy of the wind which by now was picking up speed.  The return journey into this wind was made more difficult by the fact that it was gusting up to and above 30mph.

Well it finally had to happen.  Mike punctured.  S'pect he'll return the tyre to the shop as it's only done about a million miles.  Then Bob punctured in sympathy.  Who'd have thought?

Cool start turning into a glorious October day and the HW juggernaut slowly ground itself into action.  With six rides to choose from, different start locations and a varying selection of venues to aim for about forty riders took to two wheels and a chance to ride on a fairly wind-free, sunny day.  One intrepid bunch began their ride at Puckeridge and headed northwards into the wilds of Cambs.  Another went east from Ware to Essex.  The med\fasts looped around Herts & Essex while the MTBers did the ups and downs between Ware & Puckeridge.  The C&Ters did a gentler journey Braugh

There weren't none cos of the Road Race!

An almost record turnout today.  The two easies amassed 21 riders and the medium accounted for a further 11.  The med\fast was well attended and at least 1 did the fast.  With a further 7 off down to Herne Hill for a spot of track race tuition (although most will never do the real thing!) it meant that over 40 took part in club related events.  A good autumn morning, sunny with a light breeze, obviously encouraged everyone to make an effort.

With twelve club members involved in the Hill Climb, it was thought that numbers may be restricted in the club rides.  Not so.  Alex took a party of ten to Ickleton.  Only two punctures.  Wendy took a group of sixteen to Scrumptious at Dunmow where they were royally welcomed and penned into a separate room (for smellies?!?).  The easies covered just over 50 miles whilst the meds took in just under 60.  Good weather.  A headwind on the outward bound but comparatively easy on the return.

Karl produces a superb climb to claim the title. Emma successfully defends her women's title.

Congratulations to Tony on his second win!