Demanding, or what? And that's just the easy ride. Some awful conditions, and a crash, and a puncture, and a broken chain, and a split tyre. And not all the same person. Hope CB's hand repairs itself soon. Was painful just to look at it.
Despite the worst efforts of the weather, ten riders still braved the elements. With four on the medium and six on the easy this was quite an impressive tour de force!
A calamitous start. No JohnF and when the news broke late on Saturday evening many dropped out of the meds to go with the easies. Due to John's chronic last minute back issue, the meds took to the road rudderless. Then Peter stepped into the breach. So it was still rudderless. On a glorious morning three started in Hertford at 07:15 picking up a further two at Wadesmill and yet another one at Much Hadham. All arrived at Thaxted at 09:00 to be greeted by four more. Not knowing JF's proposed route another one was improvised on the road. With a strong sou'westerlyish breeze good time w
Lots out. Lovely day. Cathy took a crew to Clavering Lakes & Lee made his maiden voyage as an easy leader (with Wendy The Navigator). As both John Mac & Lee would agree, all you have to do is supply an idea - and then find someone else who knows the way! Easy, or what? The easies consisted of eleven, the meds accounted for seventeen (in two groups?!?), the RouteA's were three and seven flew like the wind on the fast.
Lots out, spread over several rides. Apart from the fast trip from Hertford, all others met at Ware. This led to a rather large group taking up a lot of space in the car park. This large group soon split into its component parts with John's led med taking fourteen to Melbourne and Bruno's easy taking seven to Puckeridge. A few took on the delights of RouteC and the dozen that were left set out on the Women-Only 100 km Rapha ride. On a glorious day few encountered any mishaps and John didn't get us lost! This should encourage others to step forward to the plate and offer to be a leader
Three on the fast, two on the med\fast, eight on the med and twelve on the easy. The med was supposed to go to the end of the world but was aborted due to the seriously foul weather that never arrived. So it met up with the easies at Whitwell. Some riders swapped rides.
The Old Skool TT put the kybosh on the fast & med\fast trips today. The easies kept away and went to Ardeley with Chris. The two med rides led to one being taken by Ian to Hatfield Broadoak whilst Peter led out the Apres TT's to Whitwell. The famous five took off to the Fens for the day under John's tutulage.
The numbers are still high despite that it's summer and there are many other bike events\sportives etc going on. Mind you, who could resist following Barry to the aptly named Comfort Cafe at Fourwentways - except that it had sunk without trace. Still, everyone enjoyed the ride although the only alternative was McDonalds. Others took Mike's easy option to The Blue Egg, Gt Bardfield. This was a 50 miler that split, then split again. However the weather was OK and with another eight on the med\fast we had over thirty out this morning.
