Club run reports - 3rd December

Category 6 ride led by Bob Brown

Nine keen Wheelers assembled at Allenburys, most cursing the BBC Weather Forecast, which had given them false hope of a pleasant morning. It was cold, grey and bone-chillingly damp! 
Out via Much Hadham, Little Hadham, Albury, Furneux Pelham and Braughing, the nine arrived late at Something Lovely largely because of miscalculation by the ride leader, Captain Bob.
Excellent refreshments and service as usual and time for a chat with a Watton Wheelers group who were already in there.
In view of the poor weather and the sticky state of the roads, the group elected for a straight run down the old A10, rather than meander around the lanes in order to make up the advertised 30 miles. Tony Dos Santos says he’s going to apply for a refund of part of his subs!
No punctures or mechanicals and no-one was lost! Peter Walton completed the ride on a bike with dodgy gears a day after completing a 200k audax and then riding home in the dark from Witham. Only Peter!

Category 3 ride led by Peter Bloomfield 

For about three quarters of this ride the weather was officially Not Nice then the drizzle cleared so that we finished the ride mud-splattered but dry(ish). 

Four riders left Allenbury’s but within a mile we were up to six, picking up late starters Barry and Ian on the way. Out through Stanstead Abbots, Widford, Perry Green and Sawbridgeworth (where we cooled off with a lengthy wait for two trains to clear the level crossing), Sheering and Hatfield Heath then through Hatfield Forest before a brief section of main road to Thremhall Park. At the café we arrived seconds before a large North Road contingent but the staff coped well with the melee and we were served quickly and efficiently (bacon sandwiches being the Cat 3 fuel of choice, all six of us choosing the same - on granary bread, of course). 

After the stop Ian P left us, having done the second half of the ride first (living in B. Stortford he’d ridden down to Ware solo then back with us). The rest of us rode round the Northern perimeter of Stansted Airport before Elsenham, Manuden, Furneux Pelham and Braughing brought us to Puckeridge and the “so familiar you could do it blindfold” run down the old A10 to Ware. 50.9 miles with a distinct lack of mechanical or puncture type problems, which was just as well given the filthy state the bikes were in!

Category 7 MTB ride led by John Farnham

For the second running of our tour of old railway lines to St Albans a good size group of 8 Wheelers assembled in the drizzle at Hertford. On the outskirts of town we picked up the Cole Green Way, which is a bit rough in places but rideable and then becomes made up with tarmac on the approach to Welwyn Garden City. Through WGC and Hatfield on a combination of purpose made cycle routes, back streets and various miscellaneous routes dreamt up by the planners, to pick up the Alban Way into St Albans and on to Verulanium Park. It was good to see Club President, John P, who had ridden out from home and reserved us a table at Inn On The Park for our refreshment stop. Return to Hertford via the outward route, again in some drizzle and occasionally heavier rain, but nothing too bad weather wise for an early December day. 33 miles.