08 Mar 2020: Hatfield to Old Stevenage (not Streatley)

At last there was a reasonable weather forecast for a Sunday ride - it was warmer than it had been recently and only light rain showers were predicted in the afternoon. Steve and I cycled over to the Hatfield start along the Alban Way. We picked up new rider Katie in Fleetville and guided her to the start location in the Asda car park. There was a person in the cycle shelter at the car park but I didn't think he would join us as he was flat out, sleeping on some trollies and didn't appear to have a bicycle.

Spot the rough sleeper!

Six of us set off on the planned route, while Jon and Judy took a more direct way to join us at the coffee stop in Hitchin. All went well until Katie had a puncture in Ayot Green which was quickly dealt with by Steve. After this we carried on through the country lanes via Kimpton Mill,

Ronny's photo near Kimpton Mill

until we came across a group of cyclists contemplating a significant flood in a lane in Shilley Green. It included a pair of Chiltern Society riders we know out doing a reconnoitre of a planned ride for April. All agreed the flood was too deep to risk going through, so we diverted to the main B656 Codicote-to-Hitchin road where we passed the CS riders and followed the fairly flat route to the café where we found Jon alongside Steve and Jackie who had ridden there directly. Judy subsequently joined us among the fairly crowded tables.

After good coffee and very reasonably priced food, and as we were running late, we abandoned the scheduled destination of Streatley and took a re-planned route to Old Stevenage via Baldock, Clothall and Weston. I got a puncture climbing up to Clothall,

Dressed for puncture repair

so while Steve again fixed it, we told the others to go on and we caught up with them at the Standing Order (formerly a bank) after passing the childhood home of the novelist E.M. Forster. It's called the Rook's Nest

and the house in the novel Howard's End is based on it. I found this link to the EM Forster country website which describes a campaign to prevent the land north of Stevenage being developed and gives history of his links to the area.

After lunch we waited for a heavy rain shower to almost finish before making bee-lines to our various homes. It was about a 53-mile round trip for the St Albans' riders on a largely quiet Spring day.

Carol