14 July 2019: St Albans to Towersey

The designated ride leader had had an acute attack of Wimbledonfinalitis on Sunday morning, where the only known cure is to lie prostate on a settee in a darkened room with a television showing tennis.  I discovered that I had been volunteered to lead the ride, so I quickly calculated some suitable routes between the stops, and as the tea stops are not cast in concrete, moved the last one to Great Missenden church. There were only 3 of us at the start; I suspected that other regulars were similarly afflicted or had been tempted by another event where men in colourful pyjamas throw a small ball around in an activity which is now a serious rival to the world paint-drying championships. I am more of a ladies’ beach-volleyball person myself, but each to their own. We set off a bit late, as one of the riders had to return home to retrieve his mobile phone from its resting place on the kitchen table, so I shortened the planned route to go along the Hemel Hempstead Road & down Bunkers Lane, as it is a 24-mile stretch to Wendover. Early on a Sunday morning there was only an insignificant amount of motorised traffic on these roads. We went through Bovingdon and headed towards Ashley Green becoming more aware of a number of cyclists  travelling the same way but with numbers on their backs. I queried one of them as to what event they were doing to learn that it was the Etape UK, which was in the Chilterns this year, having started in Amersham. With 3000 riders expected at over £50 a pop, it was a nice little earner for someone. We continued on through Cholesbury and after a wrong turn at Braziers End (it’s not everyone who has a place named after a piece of his anatomy) we descended the Hale to Wendover to see an almost continuous stream of Etapers coming down the main road from Tring. It was then exactly 11 o’clock, and after coffee at Crumbs Cafe, we headed due west, joining in with the Etapers for a few miles and eventually picked up the Phoenix Trail, NCN 57 which is dead flat but took us close to the 3 Horseshoes at Towersey. 

Old Phoenix trail photo!

I had planned a short route as I expected to be late leaving Wendover, so we arrived at 12:20 and were astonished to find the garden tables nearly all taken. However, we found a table & had a baguette each (one of us successfully palmed off a 1969 50-pence piece, when it was worth 10 shillings) and were ready to leave at 1:30. I had calculated that it would take us an hour to get to Great Missenden following a cycle route marked by green dots on the OS map which took us through Princes Risborough followed by a sharp left turn up the extremely steep Kop Hill. At that moment the sun came out so bucketfuls of sweat were left on the road as we struggled to the summit. 

This is why we struggled

We then joined some more Etapers as we followed the descent into Great Missenden, arriving at exactly 2:30, but being somewhat disconcerted by the sign in the village saying Church Teas 3 – 5pm. However, the church doors were already open and we put on the weary travellers needing sustenance act and successfully blagged  a piece of cake each. After that it was the usual route through Chesham, Chipperfield & Bedmond arriving back in St Albans at 5pm.

Map below 

Steve B