08 Aug 2021: Wheathampstead to Lower Stondon

A poor weather forecast of rain put people off joining us at the Wheathampstead start. As we left our house in St Albans at about 9am the rain stopped and indeed we cycled the whole ride with only a few drops of rain throughout. 

The roads were quite wet as we headed north through Gustard Wood and the edge of Kimpton before passing through Breachwood Green and freewheeling down to Lilley Bottom. We whizzed along through Lilley and climbed easily to the top of Hexton Hill helped by a strong tailwind before going through the wonderfully named Higham Gobion to reach the Mount Pleasant Golf Club at just after 11am. Here we found Steve and Jackie sitting on the balcony. They had planned to ride down to the start but had decided to wait until the rain passed through so went straight to the coffee stop.

Steve smiling on the balcony

We admired Jackie's new electric gravel bike which allows her to overtake Steve on the hills now.

After toast and coffee we headed back into the wind via the edge of Hitchin and Charlton. Ronnie turned off near Whitwell and the others went back via the private road near Kimpton.

Steve not smiling

We got back to St Albans just after 2pm as we had spent quite a while chatting at the golf club. 

It was a shame some others were put off by the forecast which turned out to be wrong. 

Carol