Well, the day came, I’d like to say the sun shone and although it did for the final stage of the ride, it was, for want of a better word, pants to start the ride!!
12 brave souls who trained religiously throughout the winter, rain, sleet, ice nothing could put them off putting the miles in to complete the inaugural Tiptree Velo Nifty50!!
26 miles slogging against the wind, rain and the biggest and meanest hills Essex could throw at us just to get to the first Coffee and Cake stop at Writtle. With our thirst and hunger’s dealt with, I then had to convince everyone it was an easier route back, not before Mick declared a puncture whilst we had been eating! Great to see so many people interested in telling Mick how to replace his inner tube, so many Chiefs!!!
Puncture fixed, we left Writtle, everyone thinking about Papermill Lock flapjack, we rode on with a tailwind and arrived at our next destination in double quick time, I’m now getting to know how Les and Gill get on with all this refueling. Whilst at Papermill Lock, all sat outside, a break in the clouds, the sight of blue sky and that ball of yellow came out to play, The arrival of Mr Dadds on his Honda 50 and Mrs Abdu in her Morris Traveller to cheer us on helped and we stripped off our waterproofs and extra layers to ride the final 12 miles. At this point, Douglas , at 14 the youngest member of the crew succumbed to the offer of a lift back. I don’t think it was the mileage that was a problem, it was all the cake he had to consume to keep up with us stalwart cake eaters that caused it.
Again, with a hearty tailwind (one day people will believe me when I say I’ve booked the sun and tailwinds) the last 12 miles was gobbled up quickly even ending up with a 25mph burn up on Grange Road.
I hope everyone enjoyed the ride, I certainly did and it seemed that although there are some difficult sections, people get through them and encourage each other to push on.
We also raised a bit of cash for the Poppy Appeal, so thanks for the donations
Mark/Abdu/Kermit/Thingy*
*delete as required