12 May 2019: St Albans to Naphill

Today's ride was a special one as it had been advertised using the Let's Ride website as part of the Sustainable St Albans Festival. Six people joined us who had not ridden with our group before and there were six others at the start on a sunny spring day. We took a route to Amersham via the usual Bedmond  and Kings Langley lanes, passing by the Green Dragon at Flaunden (reputedly a drinking haunt of Joachim von Ribbentrop & Guy Burgess) before the downhill to Latimer. This was followed by the steep uphill to Little Chalfont before taking a back-road route to the ever reliable Masterchef café. Just before the café we heard Steve and Ian had stopped to fix Ian's puncture. It was good that everyone could cycle at a similar pace even though there were a few hill climbers who shot ahead sometimes.

Steve H dropped in at the café for a chat as he is currently afflicted with sciatica and cannot ride a bike at all. A little behind schedule, 10 people carried on to the lunch stop. We managed to find some small lanes along the way before being well looked after at the Wheel pub in Naphill which is probably closer to High Wycombe than the advertised Princes Risborough.

Outside The Wheel pub, Naphill

After leaving the pub we cycled past RAF strike Command at Walters Ash where we  stopped for a photo in front of a Spitfire and a Hurricane.

RAF Strike-command planes

To reach the afternoon break in Chesham meant climbing over three large hills before the final descent via Pednor. We paused while passing 'Pipers' in The Lee to admire the ship's figurehead of Admiral Lord Howe, taken from the Navy's last wooden warship, HMS Impregnable. The Lee has an interesting history, thanks largely to the influence of Arthur Liberty, who founded Liberty's store in Regent Street.

Admiral Howe

Just as we reached the top of the climb from Chesham I got a puncture so held the group up for a while as Steve fixed it for me. We then had a fairly straightforward route back to St Albans via the pretty Bovingdon Green before going down Ruckler's Lane and up Bunker's Lane. The weary group got back  to St Albans after 61 miles with 3300ft of climbing up and down! We'll done everyone and we hope to see you again.

It was a hilly route!

Route below

Carol 13/05/2019