Central London CTC blog

Some pictures from (evidently rather wet) Little Green Rides, taken by Paul Stephens:

More pictures, and lots more information about the Little Green Ride, at http://littlegreenride.blogspot.com

Seven riders set off from Welwyn Garden City and followed the cycle routes out of the Hatfield / Welwyn area. We continued along off road tracks and minor roads to the outskirts of St Albans skirting Symondshyde Great Wood. Lunch was at the Aylett Garden Centre, not elegant but quick and good value.

After a few more miles we reached North Mymms Park, a Jacobean house, surrounded by extensive gardens, that is now a conference and training centre. Once a year the grounds are open to the public in aid of the Red Cross. The sun shone, the band played and we had tea on the lawn – it really was a tough ride!

After that the ride dispersed. Three got the train from Welham Green, one rode home to North London and the remaining three took the cycle way alongside the old Great North Road back to Welwyn Garden City.

Seven of us met up at Maidenhead station. It should have been eight but one rider missed out when her train from Ealing Broadway was cancelled. The group had a transatlantic flavour with an American, a Brazilian and a Canadian amongst our ranks. We left Maidenhead by a complicated cycle route and then crossed the bridge over the Thames and rode along the Thames Path. We made brisk progress and got to Eton before our planned lunch stop, “The Waterman’s Arms”, was open. So, instead, we followed the Jubilee River to Dorney and ate at “The Pineapple”, a pub that specialises in an enormous range of huge sandwiches. One of our number was not up to the challenge and needed a doggy bag. We continued along the Jubilee River. This is an artificial watercourse built to alleviate flooding by the Environment Agency but it has been landscaped to look like a natural river. Better still, they have put in a cycle path alongside it. more »

Alison had done a splendid job in organising both the weather and the landscape. It was sunny and hot and the route followed the Cole Green Way, a former railway track from Welwyn Garden City to Hertford and then the path along the River Lea to Ware and Amwell. It was the nearest thing to a hill free ride one is going to find outside the Fens. more »

RSF/CTC joint ride 17 May 2009

This was a joint ride of the Rough Stuff Fellowship [RSF] and the Cyclists Touring Club [CTC]. Most RSF members tend to be in the CTC as well so there was quite an overlap of memberships. The weather forecast was changeable and so it proved. It was raining when we assembled at the Brown Box Café in Harpenden, sunny shortly after we set off , raining again soon afterwards and so it continued all day. Most of us ended up keeping our waterproofs on as it seemed to start raining again whenever we took them off. more »

The one star trio enjoyed a really sensational ride. For the eyes, plenty of green and blue and white – blue sky, blue carpets in the green woods, white clouds, cow parsley rioting in the verges. For the nose, we were lucky enough to come upon a verge-trimming tractor, so we inhaled the scent of new-mown grass. more »

This was a most select ride – just four of us, Jacob Bigio, Sandra Roscoe, Pat Wheeler and Charles Harvey. Since we had amongst our number a doctor, a medical student and a hospital librarian, much of the conversation was medical though happily the ride was incident free and none of this knowledge was required. Though there were some engineering works on the Thameslink line, the train arrived at St Albans on time. It was very cold so the arrivals jumped at the chance of a coffee in the Café Roma before the ride set off. more »

Autumn slipping into winter today, and we six enjoyed a relaxed start to our ride with a coffee stop at Cafe Roma on St Peters Street .  Two cyclists from Shenley already there.  Off out the Sandridge Road and down Sandridgebury Lane, you get a lovely view of the village nestled below Woodcock Hill, church spire in the middle.   more »