04 Sep 2011: St Albans to Broom

Blue fields near Codicote

We met at St Albans for the start and after a quick discussion of the weather prospects we decided to crack on with the ride and took a pleasant route to Hitchin. The riding was OK as the wind hadn’t had a chance to get up yet and going through Wheathampstead was quite pleasant.  On our way to Hitchin we made a small detour around St Paul’s Walden then back out to Hitchin.

 We arrived at The Hitchin Kitchen, our tea break. It was here that we met with the rest of the gang and our measly 3 swelled to a handsome 8. It was good to see Tracey and Stuart back out again and the morning chat focused on the weather again. It has to be noted that on the weather maps on T.V the entire south was covered in blue (rain and heavy) there was also a hefty sprinkling of wind bars. This vital information was understood and duly ignored by all of us.

Outside Hitchin Kitchen

After break we pressed on towards Broom, this being the lunch destination seemed like a great idea, but first we had to do a wiggle to Ickford. It was as we were going through Ardeley and Church End the slow realisation that the weather reports had been correct started to dawn on us. As the wind got windier, the rain (not wanting to be out done) got rainier, we got wetter and wetter and soon we all swam into Broom. This was one welcome stop and I have to say the folks in the Cock were very understanding and let us hang our dribbley gear all over the place.

While we were sitting munching and chatting about this and that, the  rain eased off and after sometime seemed to stop. This was a trick planned by Mother Nature (Bob), and we fell for it, seeing the state of the weather we decided to head for Whitwell (next stop on the route). As we left the Cock the heavens opened and one of our party decided that enough was enough and we became THE SODDEN SEVEN. The ride to afternoon tea was more like a water sport than anything else, as we courageously cycled through small puddles posing as miniature lakes and battled ghastly gusts of wind. The route to Whitwell was fairly straightforward and included one hill (I cannot remember where that was, but there was definitely a hill or two).



It was a wet gang that plonked their wet bums on seats at Emily’s tearoom and to be sure, we were very grateful to be there, we were the only customers and were served straight away. All that was left for the day was to head home, which we all did in our various ways.

But as Sod’s law would have it as I got in the SUN came out, that Mrs Nature she’s a fickle cow.

04/09/2011
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