9th July 2015, Steeple Bumpstead circuit via Castle Hedingham and Great Bardfield, 35 miles

Today’s ride took five of us around quiet Essex lanes on a glorious day, stopping for coffee and cakes at our favourite haunt in Castle Hedingham, where there were no volunteers to have their bike padlocked to Martin Woodhead’s bike in case he again forgot to bring a key, as happened last year. However, we were not incident free due to John T’s chain coming off at frequent intervals which even our back up mechanic by the name of Maurice was unable to fix. Despite this, we moved along at quite a pace and arrived back at the Fox and Hounds by 1.15pm, well in time for a really excellent lunch. Other than millions of little black bugs which seemed particularly attracted to Andrew’s yellow day-glo vest, or it could simply have been because they knew he was Scottish, it was a perfect day’s ride.

Thanks, Maurice, for planning it and not getting us lost.