Early & Fast Essex-Hertfordshire Ride
13 August 2005
Only three today as due to an unforeseen clash with Buzz's "New Life Barbeque/Party" and Steve Collins having an appointment with the men at Condor for a bespoke bike fitting I was left to lead newcomers Darren Tierney and John Gelston on an early and fast ride into Essex and Hertfordshire. After an initial moment of panic when I was the only one on top of the Green Bridge I found Darren and John, sheltering under the bridge, and realised that I recognised at least one of them. It turned out that I had ridden with both of them on the Southwark Monster Afterworker in Bike Week. That was a very fast and hilly ride into the North Downs which I struggled with and my companions were ahead of me for the entire evening. It was going to be a hard day and both John and Darren had recently done a London - Paris charity ride so must be in good shape.
Once we were on the road everything went very smoothly through Stratford, Leyton, Leytonstone etc to the edge of suburban north-east London. Many of you will be familiar with the route over Grange Hill and through Stapleford Abbots until we had a welcome halt at the bikers/truckers/builders café at Norton Heath. The stop was memorable only for the playing of one of the cheesiest compilation tapes/CD which featured disco classics such as Kelly Marie. O.K. I am giving my age away here...
Soon after restarting I made the only obvious navigation error which meant retracing our steps at Willingale. From there we blasted through Moreton, Matching Green, and Hatfield Heath, up the hill into Sawbridgeworth. We had a short detour there to visit Beckingham Palace and quickly continued via Much Hadham, Standon, Puckeridge and, the now almost deserted A10, into Wadesmill where we stopped for lunch after 98K.
As I had promised that the ride would be over no later than 15.00 we finished a welcome and filling lunch quickly and sped down the road via Thundridge, Ware, Hoddesdon, Broxbourne and Waltham Cross back to the safety of suburban north London, inside the M25. Soon after we met a diversion for the Enfield Show parade but the escorting police officers let us go through so we were able to outrun the floats by using the wrong side of the road and dodging carnival floats where necessary to avoid the stationary traffic.
All to soon we were back into very familiar territory and I left Darren and John, to find a bar in Shoreditch in order to watch football, while I peeled off to the welcoming streets of Hoxton and my riverside pad.
A good day, or should that be half-day as I was home by 14.30, was had by all and thanks to Darren and John for accompanying me. Special thanks to John for displaying remarkable speed up hills and ensuring that we kept up a fast pace for the entire ride.
Scorecard
Distance 135.80 K
Average speed 23.2 Kph
Maximum speed 54.4 Kph
Deflates None
Mechanical problems None
Ken Peters
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