Offroad 'club run' - March 5th - Der Ring des Nibelungen

Senecio [Daniel D]

I am planning an offroad ride on March 5th. The route will have a focus around Ashwell and Letchworth, so plenty of bail out options for those not wanting to do the full distance. Maybe 40 ish miles: I've not finalised the routes yet.

Suitable for cyclocross bikes and, of course, mountain bikes.

I will post more details when I have finalised the route.

Senecio [Daniel D]

I rode the route today and made some adjustments.

This ride is mostly off road, but there are some road sections. It thus only suits a cyclocross bike or a mountain bike.

This is in fact the second ride in a whole series being organised by friends of mine with North Hampshire RC, I am hoping some will join us on this occasion.

Basically there are two rings with an option of a third, so a kind of Wagnerian cycle if you like. The idea is you do as many rings as you wish. All rings finish where they start.

The first starts in Ashwell and passes through Letchworth, here you can either continue back to Ashwell or embark on a new quest, the second ring. This loops around Hitchin to rejoin the first ring at Letchworth. The third ring features Ashwell Street and the Royston Alps and starts and ends in Ashwell.

The following timings are based on the Ashwell - Letchworth - Letchworth- Ashwell scenario detailed above:
09:00 Ashwell (3 Tuns)
10:30 Letchworth (my house)
12:45 Letchworth
14:15 Ashwell

Certainly I will be hungry by the time I get back to Ashwell so I will book a table at the Bushel and Strike for lunch. Please let me know ASAP if you wish to join daniel(a)ccashwell.com as I need to book a table. The food there is excellent and they have a selection of meat, fish and vegetarian dishes.

I will post up the routes here when I have the data in the right format.

Who's up for this then?

dhadsley

I will try and make this at some point. A night out on the Saturday will decide where I can join you. Hopefully 10.30 at your house or somewhere on the loop around Hitchin.

Senecio [Daniel D]

Based on current timings we will be going up Chalk Hill about 11:10.

Nathaniel Rosa

Registering interest.... (Not commitment! )

I'll have to see if the old hack lives

And.. As a fair weather rider.. Entirely weather dependent

Senecio [Daniel D]

If anyone wants the routes I have these as gpx files. I can e-mail them to you on request, daniel(a)ccashwell.com

In summary:
Part 1 12km
Part 2 30km
Part 3 19km

Looking forward to it!

tduckett

Thanks for organising Daniel. Ill be at the Tuns for 9.00 and will lead the advance party to liase with The rest at Daniels house.
Looking at the forecast for the next few days it could be a tad muddy!

Stuart F

Have a good one everyone

tduckett

Eeek, the weather looks truly horrendous tomorrow. Is it really bad form to wear overshoes with cx shoes?

Stuart F

Yes

Senecio [Daniel D]

Light drizzle should not put you off.

Perfectly fine to wear heavy duty neoprene overshoes in such conditions on or off road!

tduckett

Well, 6 of us started from the Tuns and the first stretch into Letchworth was extremely grim. If youve seen the Revenant it was a bit like that on bikes! (not so many grizzlies though). By the time we reached Daniels house we had lost 4 and i was so cold i didnt think i would last too much longer, however a quick jacket change and having picked up 4 more we were off and the sun came out!
The rest of the ride was largely dry albeit very muddy and squirmy. Daniel navigated us through some great tracks on a big circuit around Hitchin. We lost Mark to a broken rear mech and Dave dropped off in Letchworth leaving 4 of us to head back to Ashwell. Daniel, Bob and Sarah went for a well earned lunch in the Bushel, hope it was good. I have no idea of any stats other than i was out for 6 hours.
Top fun in the end, but that first hour.....

dhadsley

Thanks for organising Daniel. I managed the second ring, The Valkyries, and was allowed to survive, just!

Some familiar tracks for me but a few new ones and I haven't really done them in such muddy conditions on a cross bike so pretty hairy at some points, including an off on a fast descent.

Hope you enjoyed your meal and didn't scare the locals too much, I'm still picking grit from my eyes now.

Senecio [Daniel D]

Thanks for your explanation Tim. Bob, Sarah and I joined the ride from Letchworth and I must say I was rather surprised to learn that 4 riders had already bailed out. This was because the sky was blue and the sun was beginning to break through. Tim and Mark had arrived at my house in a proper bad state and based on their condition, and uncontrolled shivering, I had assumed they had ridden through the pond in Willian.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, it was a great day. I am pleased others did and thank for your kind comments. Many thanks for the route go to Tim who had conceived the Ashwell ring; also Dave enhance the route. It is always interesting to experience places from a new perspective. For example, I didn’t know there was an Iron Age hillfort in the village (is is bad to think it would make a rather good grass track?)

Lunch was great at the Bushel and Strike. Some of the other customers were a little perplexed and perhaps amused by our arrival. I suspect this was in part as my face was covered in mud. At least I think it was mud; I have a worrying doubt it may have had a bovine origin.

The hard man award goes to Tim who not only did the whole ride but rode to Ashwell from Abington Piggots and back. Bob gets the prize for climbing the whole way up Newfield Hill. Sarah gets the prize for fastest descent (without ending up in a hedge).

No punctures and only one mechanical, which spoiled Mark’s day. Hope you got back okay.

Next Squirmer ride is April 2nd in Hampshire

Simon.R

thanks to Daniel (and everyone else) for organising, although if you could make a better job with the weather next time it would be much appreciated........I'm not sure which of my 'waterproof' gloves, shorts, jacket or boots gave up the ghost first, but I think I was drier in the bath once I'd got home

cheers

Simon

RichardL

Epic. Sounds like Tim has earned the right to wear whatever he wants over his shoes...

Simon.R

.....although I passed Steve Abraham on my way to the Tuns as part of a MK to Hull jaunt I think Tim might have to settle for second place in the lunatic rankings

https://www.strava.com/activities/889319993

Senecio [Daniel D]

We had coffee in Hull before pushing onto Ashwell for lunch. All off road. I'd left my Garmin at home, Tim did you have yours with you?