Audax Club Mid-Essex had its inaugural ride yesterday at the Green and Yellow fields.
With various members having ridden the helpers' ride and a last minute turbo-induced injury for Jiber, it was a slightly smaller ACME peloton than usual which set off into the night from Manningtree. Incidentally, we have no further information at this time on the rumour that Jiber has approached the validation secretary about validating AUK's first indoor SR.
The usual ACME B squad stalwarts of the Hustler, Bobb, Huggy and me were joined by A squad hard man Tippers_Kiwi and his supply of Colombian energy bars - "first one is free". We started slightly late due to Huggy's organising responsibilities but with Tippers' iron discipline we were soon flying along in close formation. We even managed to overtake some people this time.
The ride over to Barton Mills usually benefits from a tailwind but even without that luxury we were there in good time. The new McDonald's really transforms the ride. By lurking in there for an hour and more we emerged into a night that was now cold enough to take your breath away (-5 on Huggy's Garmin) but with the first signs of dawn showing in the sky. Even the A1065 didn't seem so bad as the sun rose and the morning mist cleared off the fields. The ride after the turn off for Castle Acre down to Burnham Deepdale was stunning in bright sunshine. Tippers allowed us a leisurely breakfast at the Deepdale Cafe before heading off on the homeward leg. In my limited experience of this ride the Burnham to Wymondham leg is the hardest by far; your body realises you really aren't sleeping any time soon and it seems to be a never ending series of long false flat ramps into a headwind. With the heavy rain last year this was nearly the end of my first SR attempt at only the second hurdle. How thoughtful then of Tomsk to arrange for bright sunshine and a tailwind this year. At times it was almost fun
By the time we had left the continental style outdoor seating area in the Waitrose car park at Wymondam there we're dark clouds gathering and the temperature was starting to drop as the wind strengthened. No such worries for the ACME peloton though. Somehow we managed not only to stay dry but also to ride in sunshine the whole way home.
The leg to Needham Market probably ended up being the toughest. We had all been dragged along by huge turns at the front from Tippers and the in form Bobb and you have to pay the price at some point in the ride. I had just come up with the novel solution of riding at the front to slow the pace down a bit for a while when the Hustler popped up and apparently decided now was a good time to run his time trial training session. Never was an ice lolly more savoured than the one consumed while sprawled in the co-op car park in Needham Market. I did get my revenge though by diverting away from the Hustler's favourite section just after Stowmarket to take the crappy cycle path alongside the dual carriageway. When not sticking it to "the Man" the Hustler is normally a fairly calm character but I don't think I will be forgiven for this for a while. He was still droning on about it at Arrive.
So, a successful first official event for ACME and my bike didn't fall apart this time much to the evident disappointment of my fellow club members who had been running a sweepstake on how long my newly built up frame would last before something fell off.
