15 June 2014

15 Jun 2014: St Albans to Lacey Green

Eleven of us met on a great Sunday morning. This was a special for Bike Week and the first of our dual rides, happening from now on the first Sunday each month, which included an option to be led back from the mid-morning break.  It was good to see familiar faces from the tour and some more of the club riders who hadn’t come along.  We set off at a breezy pace going towards Tring via Bovingdon and skirting around Chesham.  Not too far into our ride a traction engine was spied on its way to Redbourn for their steam show.

cyclists
Mike taking the lead
calves
Cute calves
First break was in a delightful little farmhouse coffee shop type affair, and outside were the nicest couple of calves you could want to see.  It was here we sadly said goodbye to the half-day portion of our group, it was great to see a substantial number going back meaning that maybe the provision of two rides on a Sunday might not be a bad idea.  As I understand they had a good ride back and clocked up 40 miles back to St Albans, so good on them.

The rather more masochistic of us decided to pound on towards Lacey Green taking in many climbs and zipping down a few familiar steep ones, not sure if I like that.  We passed Chequers, the place where the PM goes sometimes, you could tell by the rather military style gates and fences surrounding the place.

The pub was fantastic and served up some awesome Nachos, a busy pub and a rather brash welcome but they were really good to us.

Heading back home took us through Naphill, Holmer Green, Little Missenden and Amersham.  We stopped off at the Church in Flaunden (not much has changed with the place but I swear they made their own cakes this time, so I think there’s hope).

It was a great day’s ride that lasted a nice 66 miles but there were many lovely climbs, especially as Carol mentioned were going to the highest part of the Chilterns (although it wasn't as high as Leith Hill had been on the tour).



Neil 15/06/2014

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