Eight Old Men Suffer with Wind

I had had an idea. I needed a very small hinge, and had been told that the place to go was Partridges in Hadleigh. Since space wouldn't be a problem (I needed the smallest hinge possible) we could combine my shopping with a tea taken at "The Orangery". Everything hinged on gaining the agreement of the majority of the ride. Ask any politician, and he'll tell you that the electorate often arrive at the wrong answer. L'Equipe de Mercredi are a sensible bunch, and we set off for Hadleigh. Those voting in favour: Pete Gay, Peter Heath, Justin, Ron, Tony, T-T, Barry & SJH.

After a brief briefing with T-T, I risked leading us in the direction that I thought we'd agreed - until I went wrong, and T-T took the wheel and steered us faultlessly for the rest of the way. The wind was ferocious. Because we were riding through Suffolk, on rolling Suffolk roads, we were bashed and buffeted from each side in turn, then head on, with occasional whooshes of tailwind. Always a worry, getting a tailwind when you think you're riding into the proverbial prevailing. We made one of our increasingly frequent visits to Offton, turned right down the dip and up, then a left fork for the truly brutally steep climb towards Flowton. My veins, eyes and muscles swelled and popped with effort as the air rang to the sound of desperate downward changes of variable accuracy (and we all thought that indexing would bring an end to all that clattering and expleting). Richard T-T had the good grace to avoid 'The Channel'.

Now here's a thing; searching Google, I just typed 'Flowton, The Channel, Suffolk' - and the second entry was for my Blog about 'going with the Flowton' and linked back to the WSW website. A measure of success? I like to think so.

Cut to the chase. We've just breasted the summit of the Cote de Flowton, all now gasping for breath (possible exception Ron Fisher, who is showing excellent form after five weeks in Oz with no cycling - what else did he get up to?) and are avoiding The Channel, and heading broadly Hadleigh-wards. We join a road signposted 'Hadleigh 4' , then almost immediately left it by means of a right turn that said 'Semer 2 1/2'. All was, of course, OK, it was a short cut and a traffic avoidance ploy. Even more ferocious winds just before descending to Hadleigh, mostly crosswinds of the de-stabilising variety which we managed to survive. The Orangery was excellent, and in new hands since we used to use them regularly (we gave up after finding them closed a couple of times). We were called "gentlemen" by an imposing lass in waitress black. "Your scones are home made, aren't they? I'll have a fruit scone with jam, and a pot of tea - and I'd like a jug of HOT water with that please" thus, Peter Heath, Terror of the Tea Room and East Anglia's premier Tannin and Caffeine Critic orders. I can't resist another go at the bacon sandwich (about 50p more than at Dance Eats), came with the ketchup in a miniature version of the Dance Eats china container. White bread, which is only proper for a bacon sandwich. Heaven.

Now Richard (T-T) had guided us to Hadleigh; he pointed out the whereabouts of Partridges - and then delivered the final touch as we sat in the café "and you need to go upstairs for what you want". I think that is the finest touch so far in one of T-T's guided tours. Not just the town, nor merely the building, but the floor. Shaw Fox will be pleased to know that I found what I needed, and would therefore not leave Hadleigh in an un-hinged state.

The return journey was, as we suspected from the outward, subject to the same mixture of wind direction with only a modicum of tailwind and loads of the other varieties. The hardest bit of headwind was quite a surprise; we turned left after Ringshall (having taken the cunning wiggle round Wattisham Airfield) and met the 25mph sou'westerly wind head-on. Unfortunately, there had been a fast descent where I touched 30.6mph (158rpm). This, unsurprisingly, took quite a bit of the zippppp out of my legs for the ensuing short sharp climb - so I was already off the back when we hit the wind. Out of the saddle on the flat, doing 10mph!. Once all together again, we reached Felsham, and I bade my chums farewell - taking the route via Gedding & Drinkstone to reach home by around 1.30 with a mere 50-something miles on the clock.

An email from Tiger gave me news of possibly the most thrilling part of the ride

"After you left us we had what would be a grand finale for your blog of today.

Approaching uphill just before Hessett and Peters favourite 30 mile sign, I was puffing (or panting!) at the rear and thinking 'after the momentous efforts of today's tortuous ride surely nobody would be foolish enough to 'go for it'.

Justin and Ron were in front, Peter behind on the inside and Richard on his right me hanging on at the rear.

I could see Peter 'twitching' probably wishing he was on the outside. I then saw Richard change down into top and looking ahead for the sign. We got to the top and I thought to myself "I don't feel too bad can I surprise them from the rear? So as the road straightened out my brain sent the message to my aching legs - GO. I slapped into my big ring and belted past them all on the outside accompanied by blasphemous curses and unrepeatables. I was away and going like a maniac but I had committed the sin of going just a bit too early and it was a long way to the sign. Sure enough I became the leadout man and both of them tore past in the final yards with Richard taking the honours.

Justin and Ron saw these three mad arses bobbing and weaving flat out to Hessett and remarked afterwards

"amazing - that sprint was between a combined age of 205"!!!!!

A hard ride today but well worth it."

Whew - pretty vivid, Tony.

As a postscript:- I was checking WIGGLE (make Wiggle purchases vis the our Website and the Club gets a rake-off) and saw a saddle I liked the look of, available from 'Charge', makers of the Charge 'Plug' fixie. It's called the 'Spoon'; fair enough. Another is called the ' Knife' which seems a touch unfortunate. And then there is the 'STOOL' . . . . presumably available in brown.

Not many photos - a bit breezy for riding along with a camera in one hand, and we didn't have any punctures! - But at least some of us were happy

SJH

THIRTY WHEELERS TAKE OVER HOLLOWTREES 23 AUGUST 2009

Another warm day in prospect and another good turnout on the Buttermarket. 18 riders were once again eager for a magical mystery tour. Albeit a little less of a mystery than the week before. And so it was decided that Hollow Trees should be the destination, via a circular route.

It was good to see some new faces along on the ride. Jonathan Howe - from the 'B' ride, Richard Muchmore - a well known local rider, and another Richard (Emmerson) - an erstwhile Wheeler and keen mountain biker. The rest of the crew were: Paul Rooke, Tricia Dennison, Julian Coleman, Adi Grimwood, Andrew Davison, John Dumont (any relation to Margaret?), Deane Hill, Ben Mickleburgh, Ron Fisher, Gareth Doman, Jeff Agricole, Paul Callow, Stephen Hill, Steve Newman and me.

Off we went on the circular route. Some rolling countryside to Glemsford, where Stephen and Steve turned back to Bury [ It possibly ought to be mentioned that Stephen (SJH) was on the front for the first 35 minutes or so] Stephen with a mission to catch up with Tony Panting who was riding his first 12 hour race at the age of 74 and 10 months - he's a late developer. On a day when the vast tracts of tarmac on the A11 and A505 must have heated up to give a nice reflective glow, Tony tapped out a very respectable 213 miles. His unorthodox final week of tapering off for the big day consisted of a 120 mile ride the previous Sunday and a hilly 73 mile Wednesday clubrun AFTER he had risen at dawn and ridden 40 miles. There's no doubt that they broke the mould before they made him!

And so us mere mortals, and Deane, carried on circularly to Foxearth, Long Melford and a strange little circle around Upsher Green (check-out Tricia's Gamin's stats for more details). Onwards and downwards to Monks Eleigh and up to Hollow Trees (cue Paul to do his Valentino Rossi impression up the hill and away to climb Semer Hill twice before tea). As we approached Hollow Trees we saw our 'B' run swing into the car park just ahead of us. By the time we had parked our bikes they had formed an orderly queue. Falling in behind them we must have sent a wave of panic out to the cafe staff. However, the girls coped manfully - no doubt due to the absence of the young man who on previous occasions had been a bit slow. Mike Bowen and Nigel Stemp had also stopped in. Quite a cyclists' convention.

Home via Bildeston, One House, Thurston and Woolpit. The tailwind made for a fast ride with the group lined out for most of the way. New boy Jonathan's cardinal sin was to tear of the front at high speed and make the rest of us look slow. Bearing in mind that he has cut his cycling teeth on spinning classes and a bit of mountain biking he must realise that he can't go so quickly without first suffering a like we all did. It's not fair otherwise.

And so ended another Sunday clubrun under blue skies and blazing sun - not bad for a 'poor summer'.

For mileages and speeds see Trisha's stats.

I may not be out next Sunday as there's an Audax at Mildenhall Rally on Saturday and I might ride the 100km route. I understand from Mike Bowen that there's a group of Wheelers leaving for Mildenhall at 7.15am from the Tollgate. The extra miles should add up to a decent morning's ride.

Justin