28 March 2010. A lumpy ride to Semer.

Twelve of us gathered in the chill of an early start; certainly when I left Norton at what should have been 07:30, it felt extremely brisk. We were: Barry, Alan T, Pauls C & R, Jonathan Howe, Adi, Deane, Glynn, Simon Bourne, a welcome return of Hugh O'Neil and SJH - then Julian zoomed up, all energy and enthusiasm - and with a tale to tell.
Now I may not have got this quite right, but it would appear that a Godfather needed to take a flight to Argentina under cover of darkness and at short notice, and that it was an offer that he (Julian) couldn't refuse. So no sleep, and he'd watched the Australian Grand Prix. And not given anything away, like Jenson Button winning, for instance. Most commendable. But I'm still a bit concerned about his links to a Godfather.

Julian had so much energy to burn that he proclaimed "I feel like doing some hills today". My heart sank; I'm on my larger gear and I'm not going very well at the moment, anyway. But, there being no fool like an old fool, I thought that I could hack it OK.

Wrong.
As early as the climb up from Pinford End my legs were not delivering, but, Suffolk being the rolling county that it is, there were opportunities to get back on. Everyone else was having a great time (or so it appeared - possibly Hugh was feeling the lack of appropriate preparation). We did Stanstead and Glemsford, Foxearth and Acton, Lavenham then Monks Eleigh. As a change from all the climbing, there was a section after Foxearth where the front of the group was doing 27mph - giving me a leg speed of 126 rpm - and after a couple of miles of this I was slipping back into deep space. So Adi came alongside "get on my wheel! I'll get you back" and I thought to myself "If I can't stay on those ten wheels up the road, your single one isn't going to be much use" but I didn't say anything, not wishing to appear churlish. Barry got a puncture before Lavenham, and I made my excuses and rode on to the tea stop at my own (modest) pace. They all arrived alarmingly soon after I did, but I avoided the queue and had time to assume the Paul Callow role of tables and chairs monitor so that we could make a nice orderly group at the far end of an uncharacteristically quiet Corn Craft (one car, two customers when I arrived). In my photo, Julian looks as if he might be thinking about Godfather issues,
On the way back, just after the right turn at the wonderfully named Whelp Street and barely four miles into the journey, I decided to allow my chums to scamper off into the distance - maybe someone has the story? Tottered into empty house on my return, slumped into sofa to watch the Grand Prix, with its thrills and spills and the best result. Then bath and ZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.
SJH

17 Feb 2010. The Wheelers Seize an Opportunity for Exposure

We had only 48 hours notice that BBC Look East would want to film us as part of a story to announce a £470,000 Grant to Cycling in East Anglia. We were to assemble at the Youth Club at Moreton Hall Community Centre (standing in for our HQ?) at 10am on Wednesday 17th. Bearing in mind that around 16 of those 48 hours would be spent sleeping, the club's ability to rise to the challenge was impressive; turbos were being used inside the building, an entire Go Ride circuit of cones and limbo poles complete with youngsters weaving in and out and under - with some of us standing in as spectators (Sharon slipped effortlessly into her fitness instructor role "well done" "keep it up" "that's right, duck down") and last (but certainly not least) 13 members of Les Compagnons du Mercredi were on hand to provide the core of a pretend club run. To lend verisimilitude to proceedings, we even had a couple of tumbles - Robin Lines failed at the limbo after someone had lowered it without notice, and Jeff Agricole fell off while attached to a turbo that hadn't properly been attached to his bike. How we laughed. The BBC camera man was kind enough to miss it.

Shaun Peel turned up and interviewed the man from the sports body (who seemed very impressed with us) and then got us all to form a bunch behind Barry while he was asked obvious questions (with the odd googly thrown in. Hang on, if it was thrown it would be a no ball, surely). Then we pretended to set off for a ride; four times. With the cameraman ambushing us at various points. Finally Shaun showed good bike handling skills by holding a BBC-sized video camera in one hand, while riding a commandeered MTB in the middle of our pretend bunch. Just to make it more interesting, we went out to the traffic island on Orttewell Rd and circled it - eventually about three times - bringing the traffic to a momentary (and reluctant halt) each time.

Shaun was jokingly keen that BBC hierarchy didn't get to know about his dodgy health & safety practices with one of their video cameras. Check the still photo, then look for him in action in the early bit of the video
Thirteen of us then set off for a proper ride. Out to Nowton, and then the Suffolk Punch route but diverting to Bridge Street and up to Lavenham. At this point we separated into to two groups. Below, Peter has the story on those who went right. My group dwindled eventually to just Gareth and I - it all comes down to opinions on shortest routes, really. The choice is mine, or a longer one

You may have wondered how those 6 who opted for more miles at Lavenham actually fared.

Moi, Justin, Ron, Simon, Rich and Peter Stephenson-Wall took the undulating road through Little Waldingfield to Monks Eleigh where 4 of us opted for tea at Corncraft. Justin and Ron rode on, with the former keen to make up for lost miles this coming weekend, as he and Ann are off to Lincoln and planning to meet up with some old friends.

The tea room was heaving ( half term) and we just managed to snatch the last table for two and purloin, ( what a lovely sounding word that is) 2 extra chairs. Peter S-W was happy with his brand new Bianchi from Mick Madgetts and rode strongly, (young blood). Simon expressed delight at actually being able to get out on the road after a winter of turbo training in his shed. Yet, he too came to grief, on the road outside The Victoria pub, Thurston, recently and has several wounds to prove it.

The ride home was uneventful as the sun shone from a clear blue sky, probably the best afternoon of the year so far. The fine show of aconites and snowdrops reminded us that new life is beginning, birds are feeling frisky, (my mating doves and your peregrinating barn owl), so the promise of warmer rides may not be too far ahead now. I logged 51 miles for the morning.