Julia, Rita, Andrea and Tessa
Route: Melton C and H, Shottesham/Hollesey/ Butley/Tunstall/Campsea Ashe/Loudham/Ufford/ Melton
Distance 24.5 miles, 2 hr 10 cycling time.
With fantastic sunny and calm February weather, we set off from the pub, with one less than expected as she had gone to the wrong pub......that's 3 now!! Andrea was very impressive as she had cycled 8 miles to the pub start point - which is more than Julia managed.
We also gained a new member, Tessa 'Skinny Bum' who seemed very alarmed when she saw our 3 road bikes against her beautiful but hefty Dawes. She nearly went home but we assured her we only rode very sedately.
We headed off towards Shottesham up the mega hill by the golf club, which was quite hard work. Tessa breezed up it on her Dawes and it was clear she is VERY fit! Elfie was very impressive with her new reinforced tyres, spare inner tube (as BCB had instructed) and new sunnies, who also announced she had been on a bike ride AND played golf the previous day! I think she is getting very into this biking thing - next thing we know she will be entering 100 mile sportives (Senior elf section obviously).
Andrea as ever took on the role of 'Spot the Woodbridge Golf Club members house' and did not let us down as she pointed out one, and we rode past another. We have now ridden past at least 8 of the ladies section houses and we suggested Andrea could write a book on 'Suffolk bike rides via golfers houses' . We even came across one unsuspecting club member who overtook us, then stopped to say hello, probably mistaking us for the sky team I expect.
We stopped for a quick but essential Jelly Baby snack and chat with a fellow cyclist who stopped to say hello while her husband caught up........ well I say 'fellow cyclist' but you can't really compare her to us, as she was a super mega fit triathlete, off for a Sunday morning high speed whiz, probably prior to a 10k swim. She had just had an altercation with a grumpy driver, who was no doubt an overweight slob who
Tessa meanwhile continued to breeze along on her super heavy bike, despite not having ridden for ages. Must ensure that the bike shop never sells her a fast bike!!
This ride was really lovely, but strangely tiring, but we were extremely lucky with perfect weather - a real bonus in February.
Soon we will be increasing the ride length as we move towards the big Ride the Night event.