Report for Sunday 19th January
For the first Sunday in a while it was frost-free and 45 riders (including a few new faces) gathered at the Market Square. Welcome to (Spaldwick) Paul, (Sandy) David, Adrian & Dan Smith (and friend) who I hope enjoyed themselves and weren’t put off too much by what they experienced. Welcome back to Robin, Rita & Joanna too.
Social media rumours of Chris Preston’s attendance turned out to be true; although he subsequently formed part of the crack ‘Rapha Convalescing Squad’ which headed out towards the cultural gem which is Raunds, only to find it shuts at the weekend. Good to see Andy Mac back on a bike and together with Tony, Trevor & Chris they all made it back to the relative civilisation of St Neots for a coffee.
Your correspondent opted to ride the medium route and after a group riding the longer route and another doing what looked like being a ‘faster medium’ had set off, our group of 15 set off out of town towards Sandy going out via part of the TT course past the Golf Course and Tetworth Hill. Ice and Incident (but not wee stop) free we made our way at a good pace up the hill to Cockayne Hatley and then down through Wrestlingworth before heading out to the Mordens (without spotting any Hobbits) and on to Ashwell where the curse of Garmin saw us briefly split up.
For those looking for early season form, Steve Lyons seemed to have the legs on everyone as he sprinted away for the first few village signs but Jon Pang soon had him reeled in and before the ride was over ‘Team Jeggings’ were able to grab a few too!
Regrouping we then formally split into two groups as we headed towards Hinxworth and then over the A1 into Langford. Having safely navigated the impatient drivers of Henlow, a good pace was maintained as we made our way to Moggerhanger and then Blunham. A red light brought everyone to a halt at the Bridge, before one of our number saw the opportunity to get back amongst the ‘village signs’ after his initial successes and shamefully became a pedestrian in order to get across the road first.
From there it was up to Chawston and a truncated Bushmead Road run from the Red House which was over before it began as Jon & Andy got the jump on everyone and were off whilst the rest waited for another of our number who was struggling with the adjustment to riding with the extra weight of gears on his bike. From my distant viewpoint I think Jon took glory, but am willing to be corrected if necessary.
It was good to see Andy Holt & Justin Lomas when we arrived back at the Square; wishing Andy a successful & speedy recovery and hopefully see them both out on Club Runs again before too long
See you all again next time
NB – names may have been changed; not to ‘protect the innocent’ but because this correspondent is to remembering names what Les Dawson was to piano playing, Chris Preston is to sunshine and Steve Walker is to fashion!