Alas the Tortoise Tea Room is living up to its name as it cannot cope when a group turns up. However the ten who went to Parrishes at Thaxted had a good morning out.
The usual annual Wheelers' trip to watch the races is planned for the evening of 9th June. Elite Criterium, Womens' Criterium, Penny Farthing Race, Folding Bike Race and more ...
Watch out for further details closer to the event.
On an east\west course with a moderate north easterly wind, Peter scraped by with 24:15 and Merv came in with 26:17. In perspective, Le Hutch (18:37) beat 2nd place by over 2 minutes.
Lots of riders out, and lots of punctures. Eleven riders and four punctures on the slow ride made for a lot of standing around in the cold and a long day. We arrived back at the start in order to wave off the four on the afternoon ride. The five off roaders experienced five punctures between them and although seven speedsters turned up for the fastie, Mark managed to bypass the puncture problem by breaking a spoke instead. At least it was something different! The weather was not especially bad on the day, but the last few days have washed so many flints onto the road. Bullet proof tyr
Sixteen Wheelers met in the Salisbury Arms in Hertford to warm up prior to curries in Bollywoods. All enjoyed the evening without serious mishap.
Many thanks to Danny for the organisation.
Those of you who wish to combine the word very (as many times as you like) with the words wet and windy (but not cold ) would get an accurate appreciation of the weather conditions. Despite this, four diehards took part in the easy pacer and fortunately did not suffer from any further problems.
Nick C's latest adventure ... " The race was held in East Hanningfiield, sunny Essex and consisted of a six mile loop which we had to ride seven times. The roads were dry, sunny and hill-free - which made a refreshing change from last week's slog! I still have a lots to learn and was disappointed to miss out on a breakaway which came in 43 secs ahead of me. I rolled over the finishing line 24th out of 60 riders. I really wanted to beat my 18th place last week but all this racing takes time and I'm trying to run before I can walk.
Another large turnout for the number of rides provided. In reasonably warmish and mainly dry weather everyone made their way to the destinations without any incidents.
Ian Penson took part in Trailbreak's Princes Risborough 45K Enduro MTB event. Whilst not exactly a race it was electronically timed and Ian came 10th out of 84! He reports that "conditions were a bit slippy (wet chalk) with some deep water but not too muddy". He started early so the course was not too chewed up.
Nick Cramer reports on his latest road race, which took place around Great Chesterford. This 62miler was the toughest race I have done to date. It consisted of 6 hilly laps, including a big, two-stage hill, complete with a strong northerly wind.
The F1 (A or B) is never the fastest course when its very, very windy. On an essentially north\south race a northerly (or southerly) wind can put paid to many riders hopes of a quick time. This was Tony's first attempt at an Open 25 and he recorded a time of 1:08:41. The term "Brick Wall" entered his mind at the halfway turn.
It was a good and fast journey southbound on the A11, always with the nagging thought that the return would be payback time. And so it came to pass! A strong northerly wind put paid to any thoughts that Peter had of a fast time. He eventually crossed the finish line at 1:00:44.
About 30 riders hit the roads today on a bright but cool and windy morning. Unfortunately this rather overwhelmed the (in this case) aptly named Tortoise Tea Room. Next time we'll have to organise ourselves a little bit better. Still, it was good to see so many of us out today.
We saw something today that has not been around for much this year - rain. This brought out a selection of punctures on both the easy (six out) and medium (twelve out) rides. The medium ride was delayed the most, and we got back over an hour later than expected. With the rain came the cold, so not the most accommodating day for riding.
