A dull and rather cool late August day found 8 riders assembled at the start in St Albans for a northerly jaunt to Hitchin and back. We went up the main road towards Harpenden before turning off to use the quiet road through Ayers End, then skirted the edge of Southdown and descended to the Lea valley using Leasey Bridge road. Just after Mackerye End we saw two separate groups of cyclists we know from the 40+ Tuesday rides. After a couple of navigation hiccups near Kimpton we were on the way to Breachwood Green when my front gear cable broke, closely followed by Philip nearly falling off as he couldn't get his right shoe out of his cleat. After dismounting and much pulling he managed to remove a stone from his shoe that had been causing the problem.
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| Philip and his shoe |
We went through Ley Green and the edge of Preston before dropping down to Charlton then went into Hitchin via Gosmore to reach the Hitchin Kitchen café at about 11.15
The café was very busy so the service was a bit slow but the coffee is well worth the wait for both the price and quality.
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| Al fresco coffee |
As we were late leaving the cafe we took a direct route back via Preston, Whitwell, Kimpton and Wheathampstead. We thought Steve was stopping to photo us near Coleman Green, but he was really taking a photo of a fly-tip to forward to Herts CC using the FIX MY STREET app. As the phone was out he took the photo below too. No David Bailey awards for this one I think.
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| nearly home |
We got back to St Albans at 2pm after a 40 mile round trip on a day that was great for cycling, but a bit disappointing for a Bank Holiday weekend. We welcomed new rider Simon and hope to see him again.
Carol
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