As I arrive at the HQ, imagining that I am early (or at any rate not late) I am confronted by a large group of Wheelers, at the centre of which stood Julian Colman. Organising. "Everyone who wants to be on the B ride, go over there, those who want to join the A ride come down here!!" he was saying. As could have been predicted, at least three 'A' riders were hiding in amongst the 'B' group, only emerging after Julian had done a head count and worried that there might be too many 'A's. I had placed a few possible routes into my medium-term memory, in case no one else had a bright idea, but going to Wheldon's fruit farm at (variously) Newton Green or Great Cornard wasn't one of them. It is actually between the two places, and the only routes that I had experienced (courtesy of Peter Heath and TomTom respectively) were fiercely complex and involved 11% climbs. I was the only person in the 'B' ride who knew (who knew?) so I would need to improvise 'on the fly'. Up Mount Rd from HQ, and onto the cycle path we went - except for the trio who had attacked through the Moreton Hall estate and thus not noticed that they were on their own. They were milling around at the Rougham cross roads, so we were all together again. A few more attacks were ignored, and then the ride seemed to settle into a fairly ordered group of about fifteen.
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| We were soon joined by the A ride |
There was sunshine, wonderful light, and a fairly brisk headwind. I had settled on a yet-to-be-finalised-in-my-head route that would include a few loops around Milden, and Boxford. I miscalculated, and ended up going into Boxford from the route that I had intended to leave it by. This left the choice of crossing to Assington, and the fiercely complex route or turn right and follow the main road. Main road it was, then. But it was rather further than I had thought, however the traffic was light and not very threatening
(have you noticed, as I have, that traffic other than rush hours is getting lighter? Is the cost of fuel beginning to change peoples' driving habits?) We did, however, split quite badly before we joined the A134 - the breakaway group waited at Newton Green, and we re-grouped. At this point Sharon announced that there was a short cut via a bit of un-made road through a golf club, to the Tea Stop. Hardly anyone believed this, but I felt it seemed logical - and anyway, it wouldn't be my fault if it lead nowhere. Worked like a charm, through to a T junction, turn left and Wheldon's in 50yds. Since we were over fifteen, the service system was quite stretched. Ten minutes later the 'A' riders arrived having ridden about 44 miles to our 32. This was a severe test for the unfailingly pleasant staff, but I only noticed quite how much of a problem had been caused when my scones hadn't arrived - but chocolate cake was being rushed to the fast group. I was persuaded to go against my instinct, and tactfully enquire about my order. It was hidden under a pile of paper napkins, but there was nothing to suggest that this had been deliberate and a panic production of food and drink brought me in line with the rest of the ride.
We set off ahead of the A ride and predictably they caught us just as we turned out of Gt Waldingfield towards Acton. I think it must have been Shaun Sivertson who crossed the gap and joined the faster ride, but there was a certain amount of restlessness amongst others in our group until I took us off on a right turn, so that we didn't have the speeding bunch in the distance any more. We crossed the B1071 Lavenham road at Washmere Green and took the little cut-off lane to the B1115 to Monk's Eleigh where we went up past the church and thus to Preston, and home. The favourable wind sped us on our way to the conclusion of a great ride (if you ignore my choice of too large a chunk of 'A' roads just before the café)
SJH
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