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Very hot today and over thirty riders took to the roads over the four groups.  Whilst eight went off to Rayne from Much Hadham another sixteen came through the village a bit later to discover that two major(ish) charity rides were also passing through the village in opposite directions.  It was all too much for the bike of one of our riders and it died of a broken derailleur.  Not having been made properly aware of the easies code of conduct, she hadn't realised that the riders stop at every turning to regroup and if someone has not arrived, then they retrace their steps.  However, the lady

Again the numbers reached the thirties over the three rides on a mild sunday morning.  Only two casualties this week (ie two more than most weeks) as MarkT and his bike briefly parted company and Cube Danny's tyre exploded with a sound similar to the sonic boom of a couple of weeks ago!  Most others enjoyed a leisurely 
ride whether to Hinxworth, Whitwell or on the Royston course.

Richard suffers a mechanical and Tony wins with a course PB on his new TT machine.

Almost a eureka moment!  A race that wasn't heavily influenced by the direction and speed of the wind.  Don't get that very often.  Phil fared best with 57:47 followed by Peter at 1:01:33 and Merv 1:04:58.  On the E2 it was a quicker return than outbound, but at least the outbound was encouraging as well.

It's good to see that each week about twentyfive riders take part in the Sunday morning club runs.  This week the groups weren't split evenly as about twothirds took the easy option and a third the medium.  Only one rider turned up to do the fast but he ended up doing the medium anyway.  Fortunately it didn't rain, but the strength of the wind was the main area of difficulty.

Trying to get 15+stone of underpowered lard up a hill and into Sunday's strong headwind really didn't work for me and if I didn't have non-racing cycling goals this year I wouldn't have turned up.  As it was, many others didn't start including most of those that I would have been competitive with.  There were some good times but mine wasn't.  It was OK heading north on the A11\A14\A11 but it was very hard southbound.  Into the wind the uphill slopes seemed like mountains and finding any shelter was impossible.

On a cool, breezy night Mark Jones won in 21:09.

Brian on his own at the track but brings home two wins!

A warm, calm evening helped produce some good times including PBs for Mike and Ian

It was good to see that the 25 or so people out were spread reasonably evenly between the three rides.  Not the best weather today although it wasn't cold.  The downside was that it was cloudy with a strong south wind.  On teletext in the evening found out that a sonic boom caused the enormous bang that occurred whilst we were at the cafe at Buntingford.  At the time we were pretty certain that it wasn't thunder!

The dynamic duo Brian(50x15) and Tony(49x15) were back for more.

Lots out today, probably inspired by the good weather.  A bunch of nine set out in the morning to ride the Century ride (the HW 160 Audax in preparation for next week).  Another bunch just short of twenty made their own problems at Emily's by creating the queue that caused all the holdups.  With everyone out and about in the morning, there were only two out in the afternoon.

Brian and Tony were at the track again. Brian won a prime.

Close racing but Tony was a clear winner once again

Three Wheelers took part, Phil, Steve & Merv.  Phil put in a phenomenal time of 22:19.  Steve's time of 23:50 was one of his better ones and Merv's time of 25:25 would have won his age group except that some 82 year old bettered his time by two seconds.

Within this event was incorporated the HW Garrett Cup (because we don't organise our own 25).  Tony turned on the style and romped home in 1:00:30.  He was followed in by Brian (1:02:13) doing his first 25 for donkeys, an unfit and not race ready Barry (1:04:56) and Peter who finally managed to finish before the timekeeper went home (1:07:28).

Tony is just outside the hour but manages a convincing win.

Richard H gives the full story of what it was like to do the 400 mile, 5 day trip.

Phil Y strikes back with a win on an evening that threatened by rain.