John Thompson’s recent exploits

A couple of weekends ago our audax organiser John Thompson dedicated himself to his very thorough preparation, which has not been without mishaps.

He wrote, “I registered my 2020 audaxes during last week and admit to letting out some expletives when I discovered I’ve inadvertently deleted the list of potential info questions for “The Silly Suffolk” 100.”

“The only answer was to ride the route and note them again.  Thus my ride today was Uggeshall Halesworth, Peasenhall Saxted Green, Stradbroke Wingfield (lunch at The Good, The Bad And The Hungry cafe), St Peter, Ringsfield – just short of 70 miles.”

Describing his ride, he said, “A couple of short heavy showers, but for most of the time it was sunny and bright.  To Saxted Green it was very easy, which caused me to be surprised how relatively strong the wind was.  That said it wasn’t particularly bad and it was a pretty easy ride.”

This last weekend John’s exploits were rather different.

He said, “I caught the train to and from Ipswich, from where I more or less repeated last year’s route, via Bentley and Capel St Mary to the Queens Head at Gt Wenham for CUK Suffolk’s Christmas lunch.”

“I did vary the ride a bit by going slightly longer along the A137 to turn along a ‘first time’ lane.  Also, as I was in good time I ‘played around’ in the lanes a bit.  It was also nicely a repeat of last year with the weather, being sunny and pleasant. All the better by the fact that, while it isn’t quite Constable country at that point, it is nevertheless nice countryside.”

“It was quite a strong headwind but it was a very short ride and mostly through sheltered lanes.  It also nicely blew me back to Ipswich, via Copdock, in the company of CUK Suffolk members.”

“Just as well it was tailwind back because I was somewhat overfull!  It made the few hills hard work.  Ironically the toughest are in Ipswich near the station as it involves the roads over the tunnel on the mainline. I might have done about 20 miles, but it’s something different on less frequently used roads.”