Stanborough Lakes: 7 eager riders met at the start in Fleetville, St Albans and with two returning riders and two new riders we had a nice little group. Today’s ride was a gentle meander down the leafier sections of the Alban Way. When we did this last year the sun was giving it all it had to give, this year is a different story though. The weather really cannot make up its mind on what to do and that makes clothing choices rather difficult.
The sky overhead was looking overcast as we set off and there were some spots of rain in the air. You can tell we’ve had a wet time of it lately as the greenery along the route looked lush and very healthy as opposed to the dryness the vegetation can take on at this time of year. The Alban Way is a lovely route that takes us right through to the other side of Hatfield.
At Mill Green there’s a great little dirt track that leads straight onto the lakes, as always the café by the lakes was doing a brisk trade, it’s nice here (you can almost close your eyes and image you’re elsewhere).
After a quick break we headed to WGC town centre to access Sherrardspark Woods, as we were preparing to navigate the large gyratory that dominates the road way, Matt (a new rider) very decently showed me a little cut through to the back of the campus car park. A handy little bit of knowledge. It will be lively here next weekend when WGC centre is closed for 8 hours of cycle racing. South Herts CTC will be in attendance.
By this time the sun was doing its stuff, all jackets had come off and we had a nice little bundle through the woods. It’s great in here, so woody and lovely and dry. We came out of the woods just down from the Ayots, which we made a beeline for, then it’s up onto the Ayot Greenway, quick stop for a group photo, then we were enjoying the delights of Dr Beeching’s legacy.
It’s rather odd to think that this gentleman’s cuts to our train lines 50 years ago has now givens us access to some really nice off road countryside routes, the Alban Way and the Ayot Greenway being just two.
We skirted around Wheathampstead and made our way through the lanes to Sandridge and then into Oaklands College; it was a small job of retracing some of our steps and we were back at the start after a great morning ride out.
Neil 09/07/2016
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