Eighteen out on a bright, sunny day. Seven went to Writtle whilst the remainder went to Buntingford. The excellent conditions made for good and enjoyable riding.
Around 35 Wheelers and friends met in the club-room on Thursday 16th Feb to sell, swap or otherwise foist unwanted bike bits onto each other. Younger members were staggered to observe the oily, cob-webbed items that older members apparently believed were marketable; they were even more staggered when this often turned out to be the case. In amongst the vintage stuff there was some nice newer stuff and several bargains were struck to mutual advantage.
A cold and icy morning soon warmed up as eighteen riders took to the roads for the three rides. It was good to be out riding after the previous couple of weeks and hopefully we'll all be able to put in some decent training to sustain us through the coming months.
Nine Wheelers met at All Saints' Church, Hertford on Saturday 11th February and much enjoyed hearing member Nikki King singing with with the Quattro Correnti Chamber Choir. The choir performed works including Bruckner's Mass in E Minor in which they were accompanied by East London Brass. Four increased the pleasure of the evening by meeting for a meal in advance.
The QC choir has another event scheduled for July which will include a picnic so a second Wheelers' outing is likely.
With so many Wheelers making a judgement call based on the previous evening's weather, it was a surprise that both rides still went ahead. With three on the medium and four on the easy, it turned out that the main problems were the mist, rain and cold as opposed to ice and snow.
Considering that the weather was cold, foggy & damp it was a surprise to see so many riders out this morning. With well over twenty leaving Ware, and four more taking an earlier (longer & faster) ride to Clavering, HWCC was well represented on the Hertfordshire roads.
Six out on the easy paced ride, twelve medium and two on the fast ride. A sunny, windblown but dry morning. One puncture and one skittish horse but no major problems.
Broadmeads car park in Ware was awash with colour as over twenty riders turned out - some even in club kit!!! A dozen of the group took a meandering medium route to Bps Stortford, whilst the remainder went out at a more leisurely pace. Apart from a puncture and a broken chain, there were no major difficulties on a dry, sunny and not overly cold morning.
Thirteen took the medium ride and nine chose the easy pacer. With only one person (puncturing twice) there weren't any other problems on a cool, dry morning.
Fifteen started, but it was soon down to fourten, then twelve and then two more left the main group. Of the remaining ten who made the pubstop, nine stayed at the pub for a quick half, or so.
A foggy start turned into a cold but sunny morning as Tony prepared himself for his first open event in 20 years, albeit a 2up with Brian. They completed the reasonably flat, apart from a short steep hill, course in 26:51.
Merv rode the VTTA 30 (Leo CC) on the Newmarket course. It was a very warm afternoon with very little wind.
These conditions enabled Michael Hutchinson to break Competition record by almost two minutes in recording 55:39!! Merv reports " Unfortunately my performance was not on that standard, as I only managed 1.19.18. However this was my fastest for a couple of years ".
James Wilson of Banjo Cycles.com won the 60 mile event in a time of 2 hrs 42 min. 50 sec. Second was Toby Parnell of Cambridge University C.C.at 3 sec. Campbell Noon (Team Virgin Active) was third at 9 sec.
Three 'Wheelers' rode in the Eastern Counties 10 on the A11 at Six Mile Bottom, last Saturday afternoon. It was a warm afternoon, with a light breeze from the turn. Times recorded were:- Phil Young 22:45 Merv Player 25:29 Chris Walker 27:13
