Wheelers Rides

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Early Essex Ride
13 January 2007

What a day it was, early January and still unseasonably warm and only some very light rain. I reckon that this global warming thing is great!! - it is a joke so you environmentalists please do not inundate me with vitriolic mail.

Some background is required for the readers. Some time ago Colin Waters had contacted me and said that he needed to get out and do some riding so when he sent me a message a few days ago that had a free Saturday we swung into action and got a ride organised. An early start and a brisk but short ride was agreed and then we set about getting a few riders together.

Eventually seven people met at the usual spot on The Green Bridge and we set off to meet another person at Stratford. However, as we rode past Mile End station I noticed out of the corner of my eye a familiar figure and it turned out to be Kelvin Dane who had arranged to join us at Stratford so it was a good job that my peripheral vision was good. The seven others were; Leigh Andrews, Dave Halpin, Alan Macalpine, Carl Oakden, Dave Tuckwell, Colin Waters and myself. That meant there was an interesting mix of THW regulars and CTC people. I can even mention a few people who were not able to join us; Steve Collins was working and Alix Stredwick and Angela Dale; a close personal friend of mine, texted me with apologies as they had both slept late and missed the appointed start time.

Once on the road not a lot happened. Isn't that normal as we just rode very briskly to Stratford, Leytonstone, Wanstead and Woodford Bridge before we started the long drag to and through Chigwell Row. There were a few regrouping stops to keep the riders together as we climbed steadily and by the time we got to Stapleford Abbots there was a short roadside halt where I managed to sneak a quick snack to fortify me for the road ahead. There was plenty of testosterone displayed at times with the boys urging each other on by sprinting, usually, uphill to tease others. O.K. Carl, you definitely did get the better of me several times and I was even surprised once or twice by Colin racing past me as we got unduly competitive on the way to Epping.

By the time we got to Epping for an official halt we had completed nearly 40Km which was exactly what my route plan told me. The group split for tea/coffee and some went to Costa for coffee while the remaining four went into the tea rooms on the other side of the High Street. We took a break of about thirty minutes then restarted by which time there was a very light shower falling and for five or so minutes we did get wet. Soon after Epping Kelvin turned off to head back towards Romford as he was relatively close to home and had ridden in from Essex to meet us at the start of the ride. I hope that he enjoyed the ride and I had made a tentative arrangement for him to join me on a ride in a few weeks when I will be doing a recce of a CTC ride that I have to lead.

The return part of the journey was to prove tougher than the outward part as we had turned into the wind and there was the brief rain shower to cope with. On the plus side we were, mainly, riding downhill as we proceeded back to central London. The return leg was, as expected, much busier in traffic terms and all the way back we had fast moving vehicles for company or, once we got back to Woodford, plenty of slower moving urban traffic to deal with. I do recall an incident on Woodford New Road when Carl was upset by an inconsiderate driver and for a short while pedaled furiously after the offending vehicle. The other thing that I recall about the return leg of the journey was a breakout of extreme gentlemanliness when it seemed that we were all taking turns in trying to pace and shield Leigh from the stiff headwind.

As we neared Clapton the ride petered out as first Alan then Carl and Dave Halpin turned off to head for their respective homes and eventually Colin also broke off to return home leaving just Leigh, Dave Tuckwell and myself to head to the designated end point of the ride at a lovely Italian café in Islington. Soon after we got there Dave received a call from Steve Collins who had just finished work and was given directions to join us for lunch. Our lunch or midday snacks were excellent as they always are at Saponara and it was nice to be recognised even though I no longer take my morning coffee there. After a lengthy break we left to go our separate ways to end an excellent ride.

For those who are interested the details:
Distance 66.30Km
Max speed 54.7Kph
Deflates and mechanical problems Nil
Enjoyment Ask the participants!!

Ken Peters
January 13th 2007

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