The bright but still breezy conditions brought a fair number of us out for the traditional visit to Little Downham to coincide with the Ely Hardriders 25m TT. There was no C group this week, Moira & Sharron opting to do their own thing & head in the opposite direction towards Oundle. Approximately a dozen in the A’s, and maybe 10(?) in the B’s made both groups a good size. The West/South West wind meant we made good progress, particularly along the A1123 where the A group averaged around 25MPH with a good bit of “through & off”.
All good things come to an end though, and once we had made the turn towards Prickwillow the wind was head/across us and being very exposed out there quite strong. I felt the effects, got blown off the back (shorthand for could not keep up!) & was dropped by the group. Fortunately Simon was on hand and dragged me and Paul back into the relative shelter at the back of the group.
Arriving at the Church Hall (HQ for the TT), my first thought was it was shut – hardly anybody was around. However pushing the doors open & entering the hall (after removing shoes/covering cleats of course!) we were glad to find the normal refreshment operation was in progress, the usual supply of tea/coffee/homemade cakes at bargain prices! We had the hall virtually to ourselves – apparently there were only 25 entrants for the TT, none of whom were St. Ives members.
Given the strong showing of St. Ives Club Runners (maybe 25 in total?) it felt a little awkward chatting away whilst quaffing the cakes & gulping the coffee!
Shortly after heading off on the return, Paul & I decided that the pace being set into the steady headwind was not for us and we took a more steady ride home, picking up Tom & Daniel en-route. Nothing to report about the 20 or so miles of steady riding back, other than my thought as we were part way along the 4 miles of road between Sutton & Earith: “who needs a turbo when you can ride this road into a steady headwind”. I was glad there were 4 of us to share the load!
On a personal note, I’d like to thank the B group rider(s) who found some of my discarded property en-route! What happened was this…after the warm-up, I felt overdressed so took the opportunity to remove my buff when we briefly stopped at the traffic lights in Willingham. In my haste, as I pulled it over my head it removed my clip-on helmet visor as well– no problem I thought, as I quickly stuffed it in my back pocket (or so I thought). A little while later I realised it was not there, and was kicking myself for losing it. However the gods were smiling on me; as we were leaving the Church Hall after the stop, the B group were just arriving and incredibly one of their number had picked it up from the roadside! I have forgotten who it was, but a massive THANK YOU!! I know these might seem like minor items, but I can’t afford to leave kit scattered around the countryside, so I’m enormously grateful.
Good to see Mark Roberts out on a club run again. I hope you had a good ride if you made it out. As ever, I’m happy to hear your thoughts on the ride.
Richard Neil (SICC Club Run Captain)
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