Club christmas dinner

Club Christmas dinner on sunday at the White Horse Hotel in Hertingfordbury. An excellent afternoon with 45 people attending for the dinner and annual club awards. Peter won most of the trophies for his performance in racing, time trials and audaxes. Tony, Michelle and Jason also got trophies as did I for the most distance cycled in non-competitive events (750 miles) and I was awarded 'ride of the year' for my london to paris ride because I had not really cycled before this year. So it was really an honour for the whole six months leading up to and including the ride to paris. I was very surprised and very pleased. It shows what a generous bunch of people the club members are.

Sunday fast ride

I went on the club fast ride on sunday. Four of us turned up: Brian, Graham, Paul and myself. We rode from Hertford out to Ashwell, and cut back down to the A505 at Litlington, past Royston Golf Club and up the hill to Therfield, before crossing to Reed, Barkway and back to Ware down the B1368. We were lucky as although it was cold, it hadn't been a hard frost overnight, and unlike the rest of the country there was no snow. Also this time the pace was about right for me (15 mph ave) unlike last time where it was too fast (17-18 mph ave) - fast Tony wasn't with us this week. So I was at the upper end of my limit pushing myself most of the way especially going up hill but not too slow that I was slowing the group down (although Brian and Graham can easily go faster without trying). The main thing was that we had a 5 min food stop just after Litlington and that was it. So we did 50 miles in 3 hours 20 mins and I was home just after 1pm. I really enjoyed the ride, even though I was struggling a bit on the old A10 back from High Cross to Ware and was dropped by the others. And that's it for the year as next week is the christmas lunch, then family take over for school holidays. All in all I have cycled over 2200 miles this year and feel loads better for it. My bike did need a new casette and chain as the old ones had worn out. So now roll on 2011...