25 Jul 2015: Saturday fun ride to Potters Bar

This week we welcomed three keen new riders to our sensational saunteriffic morning rides, with one rider under the impression that we were leaving at 10.30. The meeting point Jenny’s Hatfield Market Square, time 10.00 a.m., so Jon had to get straight back on his bike.

Richard, Terry, Marianne, Neil and Gill at Cafe Larsa

Riders Gill, Marianne, Terry, Jon and myself made for a really happy bunch of cyclists on a bright and breezy Saturday morning ride. We took off towards Welham Green via Travellers Lane, this is quite a straightforward route out of Hatfield and takes in a path around the back of the Tesco depot that leads straight into Welham Green. Negotiating our way through the small high street and up past the Sibthorpe A#rms towards Brookmans Park, just before the train station I hung a left and took a lovely winding lane down to Water End (so called because the stream disappears into a sinkhole hereabouts). After a little wiggle through there I was cheeky and took them up Hawkshead Lane. It’s quite a steady climb up to the Royal Veterinary College then back to Brookmans Park. Soon we were in Potters Bar and wheeling our way through the traffic towards a welcome tea stop.

Now I like to make sure that the tea stops are of great quality but in this instance unfortunately I failed. The Broadway café is closed for a refurbishment, so deftly we re-traced our steps and stopped at a quaint little place by the train station. At the stop we had a lovely chat and shared our thoughts on cycling. The furtive Mr Stubbs also joined us here. Suitably watered and fed we set off on our home run, this entailed going up Baker Street (completely forgetting about the hill), and turning on to Dancers Hill Road to follow it all the way down to Trotters Bottom (what lovely names). Here we have a Tri Bridge (for horses, cyclists and walkers) that spans the A1, over we pop but at this point one of our number discovered that changing the chain on front rings makes climbing much easier. We made a steady climb up to Ridge and then down to South Mymms, where I unwittingly broke the law by taking everyone down a one-way street (naughty, naughty). After South Mymms we headed for North Mymms via Swanland Road and Waterend. As we came by Hertfordshire University, we noticed that some works had blocked off the road; the ladies found a way around this obstacle and soon we were back at the beginning of our ride.

A lovely ride out.  Neil 25/07/2015