It was good to see some new faces at the start of this week’s club run, and encouraging that some had also returned for a second or third outing with us.
Having split the groups into the usual A, B, C packs for the off, it very quickly became obvious that the A group was too large, at about 16. Groups generally work better if they are around half that size, so I made a vain attempt to split the A group into 2. Nobody took any notice, so one large A group set off into the wind together. We somehow left Mark behind outside Richardsons, I think he was still fine-tuning his hand built wheels. I was only aware of this when he intercepted us at Waresley, having gone straight down the B1040 rather than via Gransden.
Just after Wrestlingworth we finally took the decision to split the A group into 2, which made things more manageable. By the time we reached Old Warden for the stop we were glad to get out of the wind.
Heading back out as one A group, we soon split as some pressed on. The wind mostly at our backs, we made good progress on the return, apart from Andy who gave us the accompaniment of his gears slipping whenever the road went up! The blast between Gravely & Hilton was just that, a bit of a blast – John seems to be drawn to his home village sign like a missile on guidance to its target!
There was quite a bit of standing water down Low Road as we arrived back, more so than when I had ridden over earlier in the morning I think, particularly at the St. Ives end, which ruined our usual sprint just before the VW dealership. We were taking it easy through the water, forcing us out into the centre of the road. A van coming towards me had to slightly slow to allow us to pass through, and as
I thanked him by holding up my hand, the driver gave me a ‘V’ sign with one hand, whilst holding his mobile phone to his ear with the other!
As I write this the weather forecast for the weekend has just been on – when will this perpetual autumn ever end? No sign to the end of it yet as it seems we are in for more wet & windy weather. I guess it’s character building!??
I would love to hear your experiences of club rides, as I expect others would as well for a different perspective rather than just me droning on!
Hope to see you on the road soon, unless you were the driver of the van on Low Road at about 1PM last Sunday!
Best Wishes.
Richard Neil
