27 October 2013

27 Oct 2013: St Albans to Cow Roast

On a gutsy, gusty and blustery Sunday morning six of us met at the war memorial for a trek out to Pages Park and Cow Roast.  The ride got underway briskly as we were well aware of the forecast for the day.

We headed out to Redbourn and then onto Markyate and up past Whipsnade zoo to fly down Bison Hill, which funnily enough is where the Bison for the zoo are kept.  They knew something we didn’t, as it’s not often that they stay in their enclosure.  From here we made a beeline for Leighton Buzzard.  Now the ride had been quite blustery and we were thankful to reach Pages Park.  Once inside we all ordered something to keep us warm on the next leg of the ride, some of the braver souls ordering beans on toast (as if it wasn’t windy enough already).  A great treat was the presence of Stuart Hammond who had ridden out from Stevenage to join us for the tea stop.

Richard at petrol station
Richard in the wrong place for refueling
autumn colours
Autumn colours

As tea was over and we decided to push on quickly to Cow Roast (yes, that is the name of the place), we discovered that the wind had other plans for us as it had decided to pick up and generally make things a little challenging.  As we went through Mentmore some rather boisterous gusts made life a little nervous for some, to be honest I hate the wind and I don’t like the prospect of being blown off my bike.  So after being battered about a bit we ended up at the lunch stop, a pub called Cow Roast Inn in Cow Roast.  It was quite a pleasant affair although the food did take its time coming out, but this allowed us plenty of time to warm up and get used to the idea of not cycling.

bending over bike
Wet roads and guess what?

As soon as lunch was over we all headed back out into the elements for the last leg back to St Albans.  This journey was along a familiar route of Berkhamsted to Hemel then up Bunkers lane to St Albans.
Surprisingly enough we beat all the naff weather and couldn’t have timed the end of the ride more perfectly as the skies were soon to open as a prelude to Monday’s gales.

It was a good ride led by Carol.

Neil 27/10/2013

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