Wednesday 11 Jan 2012. 17 Riders, 2 groups, 1 objective.

And the objective was to find an interestingly different, and differently interesting route to La Hogue.

But first, I had to get to Thurston for 09:00. Recently, I have been involved with a variety of "different" rides, thrown together in an ad hoc manner and with various starting points and times. Some of the times have been as late as 09:30. Now I occasionally have a problem when I wake on a cycling day; is it Sunday? Or Wednesday? or (very occasionally) Friday?. This particular morning I had no problem. It was a ride to celebrate Tom Tom's birthday and would start in Thurston at 09:30. To avoid domestic confusion, I told my wife the previous night that I would be around for longer than usual in the morning. I was about to sit down to my porridge when I glanced at the clock. 08:50. Then a penny finally dropped and landed on that part of my brain that sent an emergency alert to the rest of my system. ****It's Wednesday!! I'm late!!! Scramble!!! Leave the house NOW!!!****

So the porridge stayed on the side, and I whooshed out of the house, cramming items into my pockets while pulling on gloves and hat (not a simple task) and manage Thurston New Green Centre by a minute or so after nine. I was not the last. Not quite.

The Ride was splitting itself in two. This is better done at the start, though it has, historically, been a feature of most rides at some point on the way around East Anglia - generally quite a way from home and unscheduled. This division conformed to latest guidelines because we were seventeen souls, now considered too large a group for Suffolk's lanes and byeways. This is true. After the initial excitement of the growing size of clubruns which really began in late 2009 and peaked in 2010 with up to twenty four riders weaving their sometimes wobbly way through the countryside. On these occasions, the head of the ride had little clue what was happening to the tail which could often end up in a different County. These days we try to keep to no more than twelve and conssider eight or ten to be ideal

We had the choice of going with Justin at a 'brisk' pace, or with Peter (pace unspecified but expected to be 'sensible'). Glenn Grant (Eagle Road Club) was making one of his welcome visits, this time on his newly-acquired Dolan fixed, of 66" gearing like me so it seemed sensible that we should choose the same ride. Having ascertained that we were brisk enough, we joined Justin to make up 'The Adequate Seven'.

Justin's route was a gem of improvisation and we were blessed with extraordinarily beautiful weather. There was a brisk (that word again) head/cross wind from the West, but since I spent most of the outward journey hiding at the back this wasn't a problem. For me, anyway. As we curved round, finally towards the general direction of Newmarket (and I think we were as far away as Denston) we got a puncture. Now, at the time of writing I can't remember the victim's name - shame on me, since we were but seven souls - but he did have the good sense to pick up the truly enormous thorn (see pics above) at a beautiful spot (see many more pics). In the pic it looks like valve attached to a sliver of inner tube. There seemed no hurry, as we chatted in the sunshine.

Off to Whickambrook, thence Moulton, Kentford etc. At the end of Kennett we met the other half of the ride hammering homewards towards us. We were, admittedly, a bit late but it was still a surprise that they'd had their tea, and a natter and got so bored that they just had to leave before we arrived. We arrived at La Hogue with sharpened appetites and a readiness for teas and coffees. Cast your mind back to the beginning of this piece; remember the porridge I left on the side in our kitchen? Now was my chance to re-fuel. Glenneagle had been kind enough to share an energy bar while we waited for the puncture to be fixed, but now it was double-scones-and-jam time. I don't remember what time it was when we left, but in the end I didn't get home until after 2.15. We all agreed that it had been a gem of a ride (almost an anagram of germ of an idea) with the most perfect weather; how long can the weather stay like this? Will we get a Winter at all?

Find out, exclusively, in future blogs

SJH