The long and the short of it

Five Velo Club Baracchi riders set off early for a special longer distance run into Norfolk and five others set off later to ride to Halesworth and beyond.

Riders who came together and paused at Halesworth were John Swanbury, Paul Dennington, Mike Wood, John Cooper and Paul Clarke. Three rode on in the Dunwich direction, leaving the other two to circle back through Suffolk by different routes, one short and the other longer.

The Halesworth five

The five who headed to Norfolk were George Kerridge, Nicki Hawkes, Mike Bretton, Chris Womack and Mark Richards.

They headed up the coast road to Gorleston then onto Caister, Mautby, Stokesby and Acle. There they turned to South Walsham, Panxworth and Salhouse over Wroxham Bridge to Tunstead which is where they found their café stop, The Olive Branch.

Richards said, “We had some lovely cake and the coffee must have been good as we had two.” They left the café and headed to Potter Heigham. After a short spell on the A149 they left the main road to go back to Acle through Clippesby to catch the Reedham ferry on to the more familiar roads of Thurlton, Haddiscoe, Somerleyton and finally Oulton.

From Oulton the riders went their separate ways home after a very enjoyable ride off just shy of 80 miles with a good average of a shade under 18 mph.

John Thompson, in preparing the courses for his audax rides rode and took notes as necessary, setting off on Friday by train to Norwich, from where he rode to Aylsham, and then measured the distance through Cawston to Reepham before stopping for a bite to eat and a pot of tea in a nice little café, before riding back to Norwich.

On Saturday herode first to Thurlton, which is to be one of the “info controls” so he made notes for potential questions. He then went onto Loddon, to do a little distance checking and spent some time in the Rosie Lee tea room, riding home back through Thurlton and St. Olaves

On Sunday he drove to Trowse and rode through Norwich to Saxthorpe, where he switched the Garmin on and rode through Holt to Cley, which will be an info control.

He added, “As luck had it there is a nice tea room very close to my chosen info control point. I had a bite and a pot of tea before retracing to Holt and then to Briston, which will also be an info control. Then it was back to Saxthorpe and through Norwich to Trowse – around 62 miles.”

Some of the “Wrinklies rides” will be changed because of the festivities. A short ride on Thursday, Christmas Eve, will replace the Friday ride. It will be followed by a café stop and a visit to the pub.

The same will happen on New Year’s Eve, but on Tuesday December 22 and January 5 there will be the usual rides. All Wrinklies rides start at Carlton Colville Church at 9am. They are not club-based and are open to additional riders.

On a Wrinklies ride