Central London CTC blog

Hertfordshire by the Back Door — December 2nd

It was at times wet and windy but a surprisingly large turnout and excellent lunch made for a great winter’s ride.  Before all that there was lots of behind the scenes action. 

Monday – Weather forecast is bleak with rain and gale force windsTuesday – Surprisingly I start receiving messages from people from outside the group who have spotted the ride details.  Late afternoon phone call from Nick gives bad news about rail engineering work.  Late evening plot a revised route starting and finishing at Broxbourne.  Weather forecast is crap. Wednesday – Route confirmed, message from Sue about meeting up at lunch and I mail “North London Ride Out Crew” with details of the ride to Broxbourne.  Forecast remains dreadful for Sunday. Thursday – Late afternoon/evening another call from Nick informing me the 4-star has been cancelled due to Bob Davis being unwell/bad weather forecast. Friday – Weather forecast is still dire. Saturday – Start off to check revised route and get less than 2km from home before deciding I am too lazy so return home.  Chain breaks within 300 metres of home so I have to get a replacement.  Weather forecast is still bad with gales and heavy rain expected.

Sunday – Clear skies and no rain yet but the forecast is for rain shortly and the winds will be strong. With all that I set off to meet those who had decided to ride out from Finsbury Park and as I still had Nick’s Carradice saddlebag I was carrying a full bad weather kit in stark contrast to setting off on Dunwich Dynamo with just a light jacket and the contents of a miniscule underseat bag.  There were a few drops of rain in the air. Riding to Finsbury Park was pleasant and I suppose as there was no real open space to cross I did not feel any wind.  Once I had met Naomi, Keith and Steve there was little to delay us but I did send Nick a text to let him know how many were riding out and also reminded Sue and Simon that they needed to confirm that they were going to appear for lunch. The ride to Broxbourne was great on the flat route through the grubby industrial eastern parts of Tottenham, Edmonton and Enfield.  In fact there was so little happening on the road we reached Broxbourne early as we sped along with no interruptions at nearly 30Kph. While waiting at Broxbourne I checked for a response from Nick and was amazed by the fact that there were 9 on the train so there would be 13 riding and an extra two at lunch which considering the forecast was almost miraculous. Sure enough by the time we came to start riding the rain was about to start so I had begun to think about what I needed to do to ensure that we got to Cottered early enough as The Bull where lunch was planned is a very popular pub and they had warned me to turn up early to make sure we were going to get fed.  Later when I phoned them with numbers they were very concerned that we would not be trailing muddy and wet cycling gear through their well decorated premises. On the road we had an early problem when Roger punctured before we got to St Margaret’s and as he knew where we were heading we left Kay and himself to deal with the problem and then they would make their own way to Cottered. 

Rain was now beginning to be a problem so I decided on the easier route up the old A10 through Thundridge, Wadesmill and High Cross would get us to our destination in better shape than the country route that was originally planned.  Unfortunately by the time we got to Old Hall Green Camille had decided that the rain was getting the better of her and decided to retrace her steps to Ware and get a train back from there.  Not long after that the rain stopped and we were eventually greeted by some wintry sunshine At Nasty we discovered that we had lost another but I cannot name him despite having met him before but a lengthy wait did not see him reunited with the group so Keith, who had stayed behind, and myself pressed on to rejoin the rest of the group who had come to a temporary halt at Westmill. An apology is due for both my forgetfulness of this guys name and also an apology if you are reading this and feel a bit annoyed by us not waiting for you but I can assure you that we did.  I reckon that if we had stopped at Westmill for any longer than we did there were a few who would have decided that the temptations of the teashop there would prove too much so we pressed on. The rest of the morning was dominated by the first wind we encountered when we crossed the A10 at Buntingford and had to do 2 or 3 K on the main road before arriving at Cottered.  All I will say about that bit of road and the wind is that I was glad Linus was there to take a few turns at the front as it was a complete  *********.  The wind was so strong that it took the tail end of the group about 5 minutes longer to get to Cottered than those at the front. 

Sue and Simon had beaten us to Cottered and they surprised me by announcing that they had ridden from Rye House when I had expected they were going to go from Stevenage. Lunch was excellent and while we were eating Kay’n'Roger turned up so we had the whole of the ride together gain.  During lunch some lengthy discussions took place resulting in several deciding that the temptation of battling with the cycle routes into Stevenage was a better prospect than an afternoon in the wind on the return to Broxbourne. The afternoon featured only 5 of us but the group went faster and apart from a short stretch soon after we started we managed to stay out of the clutches of the wind.  All that changed at Much Hadham when we turned southand also decided that the planned tea stop at Hopley’s Garden Centre was not a good idea as we would leave ourselves rather too much riding in the dark and windy early evening weather. From Much Hadham it was a slog back to Broxbourne and again I was grateful for Linus who took the bulk of the wind so I could shelter behind him and get some rest.  Despite what Nick says I reamin to be convinced that riding fixed is much better into the wind but I suppose that the extra 30km I had done in the morning may have had something to do with the tiredness and lack of power as well as the wind. Eventually we arrived back having suffered in a heavy, sleety shower as we came through Lower Nazeing. In all we rode just over 83km from Broxbourne at a respectable average speed of 22.3kph in what at times were conditions that were every bit as bad as the forecasters had promised us.  Thanks to everyone who turned out and a special thanks to Sue and Simon who paid their 50p’s so they can be recorded as having done a 3-star ride for this year. 

Riders – Ken Peters, Kay Bettis, Sue Dorey, Naomi Wolf, Camille Savory, Simon Binning, Nick Bloom, Keith Butcher, Kelvin Dane, Roger Fretwell, Charlie Keep, Linus Rees, John Snuggs, Stephen Taylor