29 Jul 2012: St Albans to Farnham Royal

Eight of us met at the war memorial in St Albans and the morning was bright and sunny but a little windy.  We had all heard the weather report and some of us felt a little over dressed.

Broken gear hanger on a new Raleigh

A wealth of expertise

Stranded cyclist

Bunting in Chalfont

We made a brisk start of things and headed off for Kings Langley.  The roads were peaceful and the sun was actually rather hot, but the breeze cooled us down.  First stop was Chalfont St Giles and on our way there we came across a hapless cyclist whose rear mech had sheared off.  Everyone stopped to help and Carol mentioned that there was a wealth of experience in the group.  Well we all looked at the problem and made the statutory muttering sounds, but came to the resounding conclusion that we could do nothing to help.  We bid the poor chap adieu and set off for tea.

Tea was a welcome break, and Chalfont was decked out in splendid bunting, the owner of the café wanted pic of us for their web site, so we obliged.

Soon we were making our way to Cookham; the weather couldn’t decide what it wanted to be so it settled on being all four in a twenty minute rotation.  Now the weather report had mentioned heavy showers; it hadn’t mentioned driving rain, thunder and lightning along with the hail stones.  This little treat had us all scurrying for cover.

Torrential rain

Not much shelter

But when the storm was over and as we set off, Bill heard the roar of engines and spied some classic cars in a field just over from us, so being a nosey bunch we decided to investigate.  The MG car club were holding a private meet.  These cars were lovely and very well looked after.  We spoke to the organiser and he let us have a wander around, which was really decent of him.

MG Car Club

MG racing car

MG sports car

What with the stops and the weather we decided that Cookham was a little too far.  Lunch was going to be closer - Farnham Royal to be exact.  Now I wish I could remember the name of the pub we visited because they were superb.  The rain lashed down and we were able to have our sandwiches inside.  They didn’t do food and really had no problem with us eating our own.  A rather nice place.

After watching the lashing rain and the F1 we made our way home, not the longest of rides but it was fun and held some great surprises.

22 Jul 2012: Wheathampstead to Marston Vale

A bright, sunny and warm day! Sun creams, and not waterproofs, were at the ready when we met up at Wheathampstead.  There was a good turn out of cyclists – too many to count easily.  Our first stop was to be Harlington - the other side of Luton. We could either circle round it - a long and hilly route; or boldly go straight through it.

14 gathering at Wheathampstead

Lee Valley cycle route

Following the Lee Valley cycle route we went directly towards Luton (diverting to the road to avoid that annoyingly muddy bit in the middle).  Soon we were startling the gathering winos and misfits in Luton town centre, who didn't know whether to run for it or say hello when they saw us cycling towards them.  Following the Bedford direction through the town we picked up the more pleasant green route along the upper course of the Lee, eventually emerging on the road to Sundon.  Then it was a smooth climb through the villages and over the edge of the escarpment - a fast descent - and through Harlington to the garden centre.  

From this coffee stop, some of us needed to return home, but the rest soon pressed on through the quiet woods surrounding Woburn and then past the Milbrook proving ground and on to our lunch stop at Marston Vale Country Park.  Here we were due to meet up with the Cambridge CTC group. They weren't there when we arrived and in fact didn't arrive until we had eaten and were itching to leave.  So socialising cut a bit short.  However, it was nice to see them for a brief chat.  

Marston Vale Country Park

Boys will be boys

Picnic by the lake

Cambridge CTC arrive

We left the park through the model village of Stewartby, built in the 1920s for the workers at the London Brick Co. Once the largest brick works in the world, whose legacy is the enormous clay pits (now recreational lakes) and four preserved chimneys.  The works were closed in 2008, because of the difficulty of removing sulphur emissions from the clay - it is full of ancient seaweed, which gives off fumes when burned. 

Note the sandals

Looking cool

Our course now lay east, cutting across several north/south roads, so a bit of a zigzag, passing through Haynes, Ireland and Southill. A nice trip, though, through rolling countryside. Eventually arriving at Langford, we took a welcome tea break - the unaccustomed heat was getting to us. From here most headed back to Wheathampstead where parked cars were waiting and a straightforward route took us through Hitchin and Codicote. 

Richard

21 Jul 2012: Saturday morning ride to Shenley

Well this was our first Saturday ride, and we couldn’t have picked a better day. Bright blue skies, a slight breeze and spank loads of sun.  10am Morrison’s was the time for the meet; Richard and John (a new rider) were there to meet me.  As the clouds bubbled away in the sky we made our escape from urban shopping frenzy and rode of in the direction of the St Albans Way.

John meets Richard outside Morrisons

We mainly followed route 61 and the first highlight of the ride was Saint Julian’s Wood, this offers a lovely view of St Albans and is a nice well-used track.  We kept to a leisurely pace of about 11mph and this suited everyone.  We were soon nipping through parts of Park Street on our way to Bricket Wood.  It was as we passed Smug Oak Green I made a change to the route.  The original went down School Lane then turned off onto a farm track (a lovely track but not good for beginners).  So I decided to make use of Drop Lane.  Highlight number 2: this wonderful little lane follows the river Ver and it’s very nice pootling along beside it.

Richard left us as we made our way up to Harper lane, then I introduced John to Black Lion Hill (he loved me for that).

After tea stop we made our way back via Rectory lane and a wonderful decent down Black Horse Lane.  We zipped through London Colney and made it back to Morrison’s.  The ride was just a little over 20 miles and took 2hrs 15 mins.

A great ride that showed John loads of roads he didn’t know before; he liked the fact that there was a good mix of roads.

This was a successful exercise - our next one is 18th of August.

Hope to see you there.

Neil