Sunday 27th June 10 Middle Group

phil k

A brief pre ride discussion agreed that about 6 or 7 of us would take a route out to woburn and come back via sharpenhoe clappers – so off we pedalled only to realise going out of the village we had been ‘hijacked’ by the faster element of the club – which increased our number to about 13 or 14 - speed kept quite high through langford and clifton and out to haynes – regroup necessary on the edge of ampthill which kept us all together up to and through woburn where the ride split - the racing snakes (Alex, Jon S, Phil A, Tim H, Jeremy and a couple of others apologies for names!!) going off towards brickhill to find bigger and better hills. This left Me, Jim R, Jon Sunderland, Steve, Stef, Iain, Pete G, Mark C, Kevin and chap in white jersey (and again apologies if I have missed anyone or got names wrong!!) to come back via milton bryan, toddington, tingreth, harlington and the clappers – all just about kept together after the clappers, through streatley and down the fast descent into hexton – mark c was wanting a cream tea at the little tea rooms in hexton but we persuaded him to go for the water instead. The ride started to get a little split at this point (heat playing its part no doubt) and Steve and Stef (?) broke away just after Shillington (Jim R had turned for home by now) and Mark C did his best to pull us all back to them going through stondon (24-25 mph) but a combination of roundabout and red traffic lights in henlow camp meant the 2 man break stayed away. I manfully!! towed (ok, tow is a bit of an exaggeration – I was at the front) the remains of the group back through henlow village and into langford where I split off back to biggleswade and let the ever shrinking group make its way back to ashwell via the water tower. Not sure of the stats but I guess the route is about 58 miles – out of my 68 for the day.

Please feel free to edit, correct or update report for accuracy (with exception of the “me manfully towing the group back” bit of course)

Stef

was iain not me in the breakaway with steve. i was in the chasing group with mark and pete. we caught sight of the break on the road in from hinxworth but didnt catch them until the beer garden of the three tuns...
i made it 62 miles back to ashwell, 18.6 mph. great ride, lots of fun.

Jem Wallis

Nice to think I was out with the speedy guys but I can do speed or distance - can't do both. Wanting to do about two hours well, rather than three+ on my knees I turned back at the Ampthill Country Park junction and kept my speed up home via Old warden and Southill. I passed the guy on the black and yellow Scott as I came back through the centre of Ampthill - did anyone else see him later? Great route though! cheers all.