Putting in the miles

The wind for Velo Club Baracchi’s Sunday rides was in the east, so the favourite “tailwind home” kind of route was impossible.

The faster group started early and went via Bungay, Halesworth to Framlingham, returning by way of Leiston and Southwold.

Photo credit: Can you guess who took it?

Liam Gentry, Nick Esser, Mark Richards, Lucas He, George Kerridge, James Moore, Mark Saunders and Matt Cole (new to VCB) made up the party.

Essser said, “It split up on the home run past Blythburgh with the mileage getting to some riders’ legs but it was still pleasurable nonetheless. The average speed of 19mph made the ride look quite slow, but it wasn’t!”

In reality, many people would not think 19mph for a ride of nearly 80 miles was slow at all.

The normal club ride from Cotmer roundabout at 8.30am comprised Keith Wink, Paul Hayward, Paul Reed and Alex He. they went out to Halesworth then to Framlingham where we had cafe break and then across to Saxmundham and up to Blythburgh, Henham, Uggeshall and home, which came to just over 60 miles.

Wink described it as a “hard ride with only four taking part – just under 17mph with an almost unavoidable and cold easterly.”

John Thompson rode the “The Stansted Express” 101-km audax on Saturday, organised by Audax Club Mid-Essex again using the Witham Wetherspoons for the headquarters.

He said, “Although I again had a ‘full English’ before starting it wasn’t the ‘cosy café-centric’ ride the previous one was.  The route included Great Leighs, Matching Green, Thremhall Park, Thaxted and back to Witham.

The café at Thremhall Park was next to Stansted runway, hence the ride’s name.  Thompson got round in more or less exactly 6 hours, which was a bit slower than he would ideally have liked but it was a hillier event than the last one, particularly around Thaxted.

He enjoyed his “nice meal and two pints of Ruddles in the Wetherspoons” and summarised it as “another nice day out in the Essex lanes, for the most part sunny.”

Thompson had a gentle ride of about 40 miles on Sunday, including a pleasant leafy lane to Kirksted and a visit to Rosie Lee’s tea room in Loddon.

Nick Esser attended the British Cycling date-fixing meeting on Saturday afternoon at Bury St. Edmunds to make sure of the club’s arrangements for next year’s road race on July 16.

This event will have timing and results recorded by the MyLaps tagging system and the support vehicles will include National Escort Group motorbikes for additional safety.