What a delight. Now that most of the physical (and some of the mental) impairment has faded, I can look back on this year's ride and confirm what I had suspected at the time, namely that this is a mighty fine event and that this year's was, by a long chalk, the best of the three I've done.
Big thanks to Annie and Nutkin, whose presence on the beach when I arrived a bit earlier than I had expected was very reassuring and whose supplies of laughter, drinks and delicious food made the following six hours pass in a blissful (if slightly breezy) blur.
It was good to meet some familiar faces at London Fields, and this time I was bold enough to introduce myself to more yacfers. My friend Niall and I headed off at about 8.15 with a hybrid-riding friend who was not quite fully over his norovirus attack of four days earlier so hadn't quite had the training or feeding up he might have wanted before tackling a ride more than twice the length of his previous longest ride; however, he kept up a fair pace out of London before bailing out at Lavenham and pootling down to Ipswich for a train home.
In the meantime, I'd been through a grumpy let's-just-get-on-with-the-ride patch, heading off on my own towards the Rodings and wearing myself out in the process. Sorry to folk whom I ignored - I gather I was hailed from the roadside but had my head down and didn't hear. Niall caught me up (without noticing me, and I was physically incapable of speaking at the same time as clinging on to his wheel) and lost me as we left Great Dunmow. He paused just beyond Great Bardfield to phone me, and I caught up about 30 seconds later. Niall had been on the ride back in 2005 and had found it challenging (there were pauses to lie in the verge, and many jelly-beans); this year he was in full racing fettle and insisted in carrying me in his slipstream to Lavenham.
We hit the Lavenham Conference Centre/Sports Arena to find about ten riders there, and some very welcome soup and tea. We sat outside and greeted various folk as they rolled in, but headed off when we started to feel the cold.
I regained the use of my legs and we kept up a cracking pace, occasionally riding with small groups of other riders but, from about Cretingham onwards, just the two of us. Loads of bats, lots of rabbits of the live and the dead varieties, one owl heard and the first lark-song somewhere near Peasenhall. Loose chippings, eh? That was dreadful on the approach to Framlingham. But the lanes from Sibton onwards were mainly brilliant - and knowing that the end was nigh made it possible to go hell for leather for the finish, with the last assault on the coast taking the form of a mile or more of total eyeballs-out lunacy over the heath, a final hurtle past the friary and screeching to a halt on the beach at 4.10 to find that the café was open already and, although they'd not started cooking yet, they took our orders while we slurped milky coffee and munched on chocolate.
I left Niall to doze in the café and, having seen Annie walking across the beach, decided to go out and say hello to her and Nutkin, whom I'd met on a FNRttC (in fact I'm pretty sure that was the occasion on which my zip-ties had been deployed to re-attach a front mudguard in Hackbridge or thereabouts). Very much enjoyed the dazed and exhausted banter and A&N's splendid sea-front loungeteria/refugee centre.
I ran off at one point to greet a colleague who rolled in on an extraordinarily tall hybrid with ortliebs front and rear, and Niall also emerged from the café and was given a very warm welcome (and a couple of blankets) by Annie and the rest of the yacf crew - thank you all, on his behalf. He texted me to say he'd cycled down to Ipswich rather than trying the Darsham option, and to say he'd enjoyed meeting "your unusual friends" - what can he mean?
Family R rolled onto the beach at about 10 (I think one or two yacfers may have glimpsed offspring in tow) at which stage we repaired to the water's edge and played with jellyfish and pebbles and got a bit wet, and then headed off to Orford for ham, egg and chips with a pint of Adnams, followed by a visit to the rather gorgeous castle with its views over Orford Ness and its grim pagodas.
