Chiltern Lanes
Posted on Monday 2 February 2009 by Aidan Cusack
David had completed his 40km warm up ride by cycling out from London while the rest of us, Richard, Paul, Alex, Derek and Aidan all met up as planned at Beaconsfield station. We set off with a cold and blistering wind biting our heels as we headed North West towards Holmer Green. A red kite was spotted circling overhead on the outskirt of the village as we continued on to Little Missenden. After a brief spell on the A413 it was a climb up the narrow Hyde Lane to Hyde End.
In Front of Flaunden Church - photo by David Kurtz.
A nice straight run down Hyde Heath Road and Copperkins Lane and into the northern outskirts of Amersham. Downhill to the east side of Chesham where we briefly followed the river Chess before crossing it and turning north through the lovely village of Latimer and climbed up to Flaunden. Turning into Holly Hedges Lane we sped through Belsize and to the pub stop at the Two Brewers in Chipperfield. As we sat down to lunch a brief flurry of snow descended and we wondered if the weather men had got the timing wrong by a few hours!
The snow disappeared as quickly as it arrived and was replaced by bright sunshine which as luck would have it stayed with us for the remainder of the afternoon. With the sun cheering us up we made quick progress after lunch southwards to cross the Chess for a second time and that short sharp climb up to Chenies. We met a road gritting lorry on the way down – an ominous sign perhaps of the weather to come. A quick spin westwards to the outskirts of Chalfont and Latimer before turning south again towards Chalfont St Giles. We elected to miss the customary tea stop here and keep the pace up as we passed Milton’s cottage museum and sped westwards along Botterells Lane towards Coleshill.
Passing Hertfordshire House a nice descent followed through the woods before arriving at Penn Bottom. A longish but low grade climb up towards Penn before we turned left and with the sun still shining retraced our path back downhill to Beaconsfield Station.