Sunday’s club run was “The Marmite Ride”; the flat, exposed and often very windy route to the Welney Wetland Centre is loved by some and comically despised by others! Nonetheless riding in the cross winds would have been good experience for those racing in the St Ives CC-promoted Circuit of the Fens event later this month. The warm and sunny weather attracted a good turn out with over 30 riders meeting at Richardson Cycles and more expected to join en route. We split up into four smaller groups and headed out of St Ives towards Somersham.
After passing through Somersham and Chatteris we headed into Manea. A little bit of route trivia … the video for Radiohead’s Karma Police was shot on the road into Manea. Thanks to Simon P. for that little gem. The ride through Manea and onto Welney was uneventful (that wasn’t to last) before making the left turn onto Station Road and the final run to the Wetland Centre. The long, straight, flat road guaranteed a bit of friendly competition and the sprint for the cafe stop opened up in earnest. Most had thoroughly mis-judged the distance and ran out of steam well before the finishing line!
The cafe stop was one of the most eventful we’ve had for a while … First of all, a communication breakdown between yours truly and the staff at the cafe meant they were expecting us the week before. The result was a lack of cake but fortunately there was still just about enough to feed a lot of hungry cyclists. While enjoying something to eat chat turned to where all the good local climbs are – obviously in direct contrast to the route we were riding. As the group was leaving Jake discovered he had picked up a slow puncture. What followed was possibly the longest tube change in the history of cycling, not helped by a valve core that resolutely refused to stay put. Finally, with the aid of a different tube and some help from one of the old hands Jake got his puncture fixed. Unfortunately, during this epic tube change, the last group to leave informed us Gary D, on only his second ride with the club, had slipped down the stairs; bicycle cleats don’t offer much grip. Gary was in a lot of discomfort and an ambulance was called. We were to find out later the result was two cracked ribs. Nonetheless Gary is still looking forward to getting out with the club again when the ribs have healed.
We set off again with the social group taking the opportunity to get a bit of a tow from the C group for a few miles on the quiet country roads. After the two groups had split again a two man break formed with Martin and Bob pulling out a small gap. Their advantage was short-lived as they took a wrong turn around Wentworth. Bob claims he had the longer version of the route programmed into his Garmin while we were riding the shorter version. Personally, I think it was just a convenient excuse to get out of the wind and back into the safety of the bunch! We continued to work together as our route took us through Haddenham, Earith and Bluntisham with the flat roads helping us set a brisk pace. We were briefly delayed by a dropped chain but got moving again quite quickly. More mechanical shenanigans ensued in St Ives with another chain attempting to come off. Finally, the derailleur was thrown into the rear wheel and thoroughly destroyed. Wheels don’t turn very well with a derailleur jammed in them and the bike came to a rapid halt resulting in some fairly rapid unclipping and a lot of tread burned of the rear tyre. Fortunately for the author and victim of this misfortune by that point I was within walking distance of home!
