18 Jul 2015: Saturday Saunter to Shenley

Well this Saturday we had the delight of welcoming some more new riders, we had Nick and Lorreine (both new to group cycling) then we had Graham (we borrowed him from STACC), we had the return of Sally from last week and to bolster the numbers Sue (a regular Sunday rider).

Our group at Shenley

It was a lovely morning with the sun doing its stuff. We headed out via the Alban Way going towards the train station. Graham had expressed a concern that it needed to be a saunter and not a race but he needn’t have worried as the pace was nice and steady and there was a lot of happy chatting as we headed towards Chiswell Green. I entered Ragged Hall Lane and onto the lanes that skirt the National Rose Society Gardens then led up to the Butterfly Gardens over the North Orbital and onto Lye Lane. It was nice going through the leafy lane towards Bricket Wood and we emerged into the sunshine again to hop over the bridge and sample the delights of Drop Lane. This is a great lane that follows the river Ver and leads to Smug Oak Lane.

Now a feature of this ride is that I like to take a variety of differing roads that are meant to test abilities and give the riders a taste of different traffic conditions. So we took in a bit of the busy Watling Street and then Harper Lane and soon we were on the hill to get into Shenley.

Five Miles to Fabulous at Shenley

At the tearooms we met up with Rona and her ‘fabulous ladies’ out on their 5 miles to fabulous ride, but as we got there as they were about to leave. There were happy faces all around though and they had left us some cakes.

From the tearooms it was a quick jaunt back to Morrison’s via London Colney to end another successful ride.

Neil 18/07/2015

12 Jul 2015: Harlington to Harrold-Odell

It was one of Carol's picnic rides in deepest Bedfordshire, so naturally we had all crammed our waterproofs in alongside our picnic hampers.

Starting at Harlington Station allowed us to explore new territory to the north, but with the rail engineering works in place we had all arrived by car.

Carol took us past the Millbrook Proving Ground (no petrol-heads around at this time) and used the well-surfaced National Cycle Route 51 to cross the A421.  After a steep climb up to a windswept plateau we arrived at Cranfield ready for a break.

We found our way to the Cafe Pacific, overlooking the vast runway at Cranfield, but it had closed down in June and the bookshop/cafe in the village was also closed.  Carol enquired at the village shop and we were given directions back to the Cranfield Students' Union cafe & bar.  Just as well as it was hidden away amongst the myriad of developments on the Cranfield University site.

We received a warm welcome as we seemed to be the only customers - most students were either on vacation or still in bed at that time.

The CSU cafe was a great find and served up some excellent and good-value meals for us mature students.

Sure enough, the rain only really got going as we were enjoying our picnic at Harrold-Odell Country Park.  But it wasn't raining quite hard enough to wash the hundreds of little black flying beetles off our yellow rain jackets.  Oh - the joys of a typical British summer!

The rain just got heavier and heavier for most of the 15 miles after lunch and included a brief spell of hail.  We were thoroughly soaked but the sun finally re-emerged as we came into Marston Moretaine on another part of NCR 51.

Drying out at Marston Moretaine Country Park.

There are some good cycle routes around the country park.  We followed one of them to Stewartby Station, where we could see the few remaining chimneys of the London Brickworks in Marston Vale. Our route then took us through the historic town centre of Ampthill and back to Harlington for the drive back down a rather congested M1 after a memorable day out.

60 mile route.

Jon 12/07/2015

05 Jul 2015: Fete du Velo at Redbourn

Just four people turned up for the morning ride while other regulars were volunteering at the Redbourn cycling event.  Geoff, Judy and the Braziers whizzed around the flattish route and enjoyed a coffee stop at CuriosiTea cafe in Ivinghoe. 

Afterwards they headed back to the Fete du Velo on Redbourn common for a picnic lunch. 

Meanwhile Richard, Rona, Neil and Jon were gathering interest in rides, helping people with their enquiries and handing out lots of free maps, while gamely trying to stop everything blowing away in the breeze.

We'll have to restock before the next one.

Route via Ivinghoe:

Carol 05/07/2015