36 riders signed on for an 8AM start to our annual 100 mile challenge ride, in aid of Road Peace, a charity for victims of road accidents. For reasons I can’t recall (possibly weather related) we did not do a Club charity ride in 2013, but some of us did ride this route on 7th April last year, so it’s not totally new, but not an area of the countryside we usually get out to.
After an early coffee (or breakfast!) at the ‘Local Café, 4 groups departed at approx. 2 min. intervals – as seems usual these days the ‘A’ group (last out of the blocks on this occasion) was larger than ideal, but seemingly nobody wanted to join the preceding ‘B’ groups that were a far more manageable size. St. Ives members were joined by
riders from St. Neots CC, and I think groups managed to mingle fairly well.
I rode with the A group, at least as far as the RH turn onto the B1090 after the climb out of St. Ives. Andy Wylde pulled over to investigate a ‘clonking’ from his bike. After a few minutes of checking the bike over, he discovered the frame had snapped at the RH drop out for the rear wheel! Game over for Andy? Not a bit of it – he said he would ride back to his car in St. Ives, drive home, get another bike & meet us further on the route. I thought that would be the last we saw of him for the day – I was wrong!
The 4 of us who had stopped with Andy to ‘support’ him whilst the rest of the A group rode off into the distance then faced the daunting prospect of trying to get back up to the (still large) A group, into a brisk headwind. As we began to go ‘through & off’ to share the load, I recall thinking, “Jack, Phil, Chris & me – who’s the weak link here?
It’s ME!” With encouragement & some sheltering I managed to hang on, but 20 or so miles later never have I been so relieved to see a group of sweaty men in Lycra by the side of the road – the A group watching Andy unload his replacement bike from his support car – what superb service from Team Wylde!
Back in the safety of the reformed A group I was able to start enjoying the ride! Apart from a puncture, nothing further to report on the way out to the stop (I won’t mention the couple of very minor wrong turns!). Arriving at Marston Vale Millennium Park Café, we were able to get outside in the sunshine, tucked away in a corner out of the by now quite strong wind.
Hitting the road for the return leg, there is a rather short but nasty climb (just before the A6 I think) – the condition of the road surface is terrible which makes the climb difficult. But after that we were soon back onto familiar territory, and possibly because of this, after Old Warden our group split, some wanting to press on, others happy to keep a steady pace. The resulting groups being smaller made things much more manageable – communication being much easier for one thing.
Our small group arrived back in St. Ives C. 14:30, tired but very happy. Thanks to Mark Roberts for putting the route together – very interesting & good to visit parts we don’t often get out to.
For the record, we (you!) raised £210 for Road Peace – which is a fantastic effort and I’d like to say a big thank you for your support.
In particular I’d like to thank St. Neots CC members who joined us with a great turn out– it was really good to ride with you guys, a big THANK YOU for your support. I hope you enjoyed it & hopefully we will can make this a regular event in the calendar.
I hope you had a good ride if you managed to get out. As ever, I’d like to hear how it went for you.
Hope to see you on the road soon.
Best wishes.
Richard
