Serious point alert.
Last night's trip to the Chapel was a bit of an eye opener in terms of venues for winter rides. Having a venue that is close to Witham means that it is not too far away for those of who live further away, or at least equally bad. It meant that Tomsk, Fandango and me all had a reasonable ride there and back and the same would have applied to a Chelmsford based rider.
I am all for a trip to Mersea and I am sure that Tomsk is all for a trip to Great Dunmow but whilst they are pushing it but bearable for the Witham peloton, they are verging on impossible for the rest of us in the winter - I exclude Tomsk here as he is an outlier when it comes to silly distances as well
I suppose exceptions could be made for venues in Chelmsford or Colchester that could lend themselves to a bit of train assistance for those in the opposite town but maybe there is something to be said for using the core venues - spiritual home, other spiritual home, Witham pubs, Maldon, Heybridge, Coggeshall/Kelvedon pubs etc more over the winter and then spreading our wings to Aythorpe Roding, Hatfield not Peverel, Mersea, Dunmow, Cold Norton, Rowhedge etc over the summer.
There could even be forward planning...
I can already hear the traditionalists grumbling about how hard they were when they rode 100 miles in the snow one Wednesday just to catch the last of the Badger's Scrotum at some obscure pub in Suffolk but maybe there is a balance between having good numbers out and travelling when the weather is against us.
Ok, tin hat on.
