Four Windmillers, Maurice, Andrew, Keith and Martin, gathered in the car park of The Tally Ho! in Barkway at the later time of 4.30pm for a ‘leisurely’ ride, as advertised by Andrew. And leisurely it was except for a short hairy stretch on the A505.
The plan was to take in the views on this glorious March evening, starting on the ridge heading towards Therfield and then descending to the A505 before climbing up to Sandon via Maurice’s ‘valley’ route. All went well until we experienced huge volumes of traffic whizzing along the A505. Was the A14 closed somewhere we wondered? It was only a few hundred yards from the Therfield junction to the Sandon junction but judging when to make a break for it exercised our minds for quite a while. Keith was the first to pluck up courage, followed by Andrew, Maurice and finally Martin with rear light flashing.
After we had duly recovered we could revert to taking in the vast views east and west as we climbed steadily towards Sandon.
The ‘valley’ became quite a steep climb as we approached Sandon, puffing and panting like a steam engine in the case of Martin. Another stop was called for to regain breath and also to take a pic of a magnificent magnolia tree in full bloom in a local’s garden:
Continuing on past Lyn and John B’s house, we were soon in Buntingford and heading back via the usual route through Wyddial, stopping once again to pay homage to Visions of Loveliness Lane.
Saying farewell to Keith who cycled back to Anstey, from whence he came, Maurice, Andrew and Martin headed back to a packed Tally Ho! to enjoy good chips and Trelawney bitter once again.
Here is the route taken:
Rod, if you’re reading this, we need to enlist your help in persuading Herts CC to construct cycle paths alongside the A505 between the Sandon and Ashwell Station junctions! And if everyone writes in support of such a scheme, you never know it might happen.
Thanks go to Maurice for planning the route, even if we did put our lives at risk! The views made it all worthwhile. And thanks to Andrew, as always, for his organisation.
Martin
The Windmill Cycle Club 