Club Run Report for 16th March 2014

A fine spring morning brought out faces old and new to the Market Square for Sunday's club run. A fair contingent decided to do the St Ives 100 mile ride but we still had 30+ riders, a decent turnout. Simon took on the responsibility or welcoming and organising (thank you!), plus he took a slower paced group out on the medium route, while I started out with a quicker paced group along the same 48 miles of (mostly) tarmac.

Quick is of course, a relative term and while I initially started out with 7 people, another group latched on soon after and upped the pace quite considerably. The group now having around 15 riders. Despite calls to ease up because people were already struggling & being dropped, we clattered through Abbotsley and headed through Great Gransden, Bourn & Kingston with the pace not being suffiiciently even to establish a rhythm. It settled down after crossing the A603 to a pace that suited most of us, although with the wind on our backs the route home promised to be a little more testing. Through Harlton & Haslingfield, over the A10 at Harston meant that as we changed direction towards Fowlmere at Newton, the wind was against us and so it proved, the pace slowed. Back across the A10, Chris took quite a heavy fall just before Shepreth. Fortunately though both he and the bike were fine and after a quick rest and a drink we set off towards Orwell. Following a slight navigational error, Dan experienced a rare visit from the p*ncture fairy, rare especially as he runs slime tubes.

At this point we decided to split into smaller groups, a wise move as the road through the Wimpole estate is both narrow and busy on a fine Sunday morning. The climb out onto the A1198 isn't to be sniffed at and heading up towards Longstowe can be quite a drag too. As we turned off and headed off towards home, the wind was relentless through Little Gransden and back towards Great Gransden & Abbotsley. Joe did more than his fair share at the front here and I couldn't complain when the pace built up for the sprint down Potton Road and I was left to my own devices. I couldn't see who won as I was too far back! Back at Nero's a well earned coffee in the sunshine was in order. Rather like a concerto, it was a club run in three movements the first being chaotic, the second, eventful and finally the third, testing.

Simon reports that his group kept it steady and the only item of note was a lengthy comfort break near the level crossing at Harston.

Tony.