15 Aug 2021: St Albans to Amersham

 On a rather dull but warm morning, six of us met amidst the debris of Saturday night’s revelries outside the Blacksmith’s Arms. 

Gossiping at the start

As St Peter’s Street appeared fully occupied with a junk (whoops! antiques) market I led them down Catherine Street, up Bluehouse Hill and along Bedmond Lane where at the tin church, Phil and Sue joined us in a pre-arranged rendez-vous for their first Sunday ride with us. We went hurtling down Harthall Lane then through the wood in King’s Langley and along Barnes Lane, which I was pleasantly surprised find to be devoid of the usual fly-tips, to join Rucklers Lane. We continued through Flaunden and its Green Dragon pub, which has just won CAMRA’s Refurbishment Award. After passing through Latimer we climbed Bell Lane and turned right along the shared-use pavement along the busy A404 turning off at the railway bridge to take a quiet route into Amersham and the Masterchef cafe. The outside tables looked tempting in the full sunshine, so we deposited ourselves there but had to order coffees and snacks inside.

Café culture in Amersham

Here we were surprised to encounter concrete evidence that the cashless society is not yet here: it was cash only, which sent two of the riders scurrying to nearby hole-in-the-wall machines. 

Ready for departure

Departing from here, I led them through the up-market Chesham Bois down the hill and to Latimer Bottom, After passing the sewage works we turned up the very narrow Blackwell Hall Lane. I had just explained to Phil that we were unlikely to encounter any motor traffic here when we dutifully pulled in to a passing place to let a car behind through. Then 3 more cars came towards us, one of them driven at excessive speed. After turning off right there was a shout from Sue who had a puncture in her rear tyre. We were by the entrance to a large house which was a convenient place to deal with this. Sue had fortunately thought about this before coming out and had brought here husband along for this very purpose. 

Sue's first puncture

While Phil almost instantly found the cause, a large flint, and impressively quickly replaced the inner tube and inflated it, Philip took the opportunity to prostrate himself in the front garden for a quick nap, which turned out to be shorter than he had hoped. 

Philip napping and trespassing!

I then led them back to Flaunden Bottom and after climbing the hill and passing the Green Dragon again( which now had many customers), I then went straight on the the cross-roads to get to Belsize and then Chipperfield. Leaving this village I was behind Sue who slowly came to a stop complaining that her rear tyre was spongy. I confirmed that it was indeed, but Phil had also stopped only a few yards ahead so we managed to join him on the verge where I delivered the news that his marital duties were again required. The others were no longer in sight, so I leapt at Phil’s suggestion that I carry on as they were only 4 miles from home, recalling the club motto (every man for himself) and caught up with 4 of the others at the top of the hill in King’s Langley; the other two had gone on to St Albans. We then climbed up Tom’s Lane to Bedmond and took Sergehill Lane to Chiswell Green and then back to St Albans. I subsequently found out that Sue's 2nd puncture was another large flint.

A round trip of about 36 miles using the route below

Steve

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

25 July 2021: St Albans to Chalfont St Peter

The two Saints ride!

The BBC weather forecast predicted heavy rain & thunderstorms all day, so at 9:30 I approached the War Memorial with trepidation, expecting no-one to be at the start. To my surprise there were four riders already there. However Gary had only turned up to say hello and that he was going on another ride  but would be out with us the following Sunday, So off the rest of us went, via Bedmond, Hunters Bridge & Chandlers Cross. A notable event occurred an the hill up to to Chorleywood, where I noticed that Philip’s back tyre was rubbing against the chain-stay and convinced him, after some effort, to stop and fix it. His Sun bike, which looked as though it had been extracted from a skip, had been given to him when a schoolboy as a reward for passing an exam. It was 50’s or 60’s vintage as it was second-hand even then. So it had what you might expect: screw-on block, auxiliary brake levers, down-tube shifters, horizontal drop-outs and all the rest of it, and, of course, a solid rear axle. Fortunately, he had remembered to pack a spanner for turning the rear-axle nuts, so with a bit of groaning and grunting he managed the loosen the bolts , re-centre the wheel and remount. After completing the climb, some drizzle appeared (the only rain of the day) and we all  put on waterproofs, but shortly afterwards took them off again. 

Philip's on his way to play golf?

Arriving at the Madeira cafe, we found only one table for four unoccupied, and quickly ordered coffee & snacks. These took some time to arrive so it was nearly one o’clock by the time we left after a convivial chat. Our eyes lit up after Philip suggested he would get us each a Portuguese tart, so there was some initial disappointment when he returned with a plate of delicious made-on-the-premises  Pastella de Nata, the best in the world after Lisbon's.

Delicious!

 So out of consideration for Philip, whose largest sprocket had only 24 teeth, I took the flattest and most direct route back, via Latimer, Flaunden, Rucklers Lane & Bunkers Lane.

Steve B