The Ladies Breeze network in Hertfordshire organised a Christmas ride on 5 Dec for all the different Herts groups to arrive in St Albans at the Inn on the park for coffee at 11am.
A Christmas ride, that has been billed as a Jingle Bell ride, marvellous. Neither me nor my bike are ever knowingly underdressed for a bike event!
As I approach the start point I do suffer a worrying couple of moments as I spy mainly fluorescent bike jackets at the start point. Have I got this completely wrong?!
Happily the Blues, Greens and Red groups of Harpenden are suitably festive!
I have decided to ride with the Blues and Greens groups on the outward ride, as I have not been out on my bike much lately.
Another fun group of ladies who are all great to chat with. I'd expect nothing less of a Breeze Group!
The riding is nice and and easy and the route is well thought out and mainly on country lanes and bike paths.
(thanks to Mike Fish and his drone for the overhead picture)
Only one busy road to cross and Helen our ride leader decides to stop all the traffic in both directions (lollipop lady stylie). I am most impressed. There are 20 of us that needed to cross, so this was a good call.
Stuart took some photos of the group at the start, and then heads to the Inn on the Park to take pictures at the end.
When he arrived at the cafe, he ordered himself a coffee and noticed how slow they were at serving. He asked if they were aware that 100 cyclists would be arriving shortly, they didn't seem too concerned. He then pointed out that you don't want to get between a tired lady cyclist and her coffee, at which point the owner looked slightly alarmed!
Happily, the groups arrived a few minutes apart, so there were no coffee rage incidents.
The Roaring Reds are one of the last groups to arrive, but they have ridden at least 10 miles more than the others. Good job I wasn't with them or they may not have arrived until afternoon tea!
We all squashed into a tiny room for some recognition of the ladies breeze champions who do such a fantastic job organising the rides. I know I thoroughly enjoyed my summer evening rides led by Tracey, and it's nice to see that all the hard work gets recognised and appreciated.
We then head outside for a group photo, credit for which should go to Misterphotocyclist. Great picture and lovely to see this appearing as so many FB cover photos.
On the return journey I rejoin the Roaring Reds and realise that once again I am struggling to hang on the back. The pace was considerably faster than the ride out,
I realise I have to clock a lot more Winter miles, to get my Summer smiles!
