The ride on Sunday 17th April was not for the feint-hearted. After a rapid start leaving me (Andy Parker trailing on the short climb up through Warton, the pace picked up to explosive! Thirteen people had met at Sainsbury’s at 9am, seemingly ready for action and the ride proved that everyone was ready.
Pace creates two groups
The route took us East through Thrapston, Hamerton and the Giddings. The pace was never slow but a couple of short climbs had one or two riders jumping ahead with Jake Bird covering every move. As we turned about five miles from the coffee stop heading towards Oundle, there was a lift in the speed. Acceleration out of a couple of corners, resulted in a solid group of eight racing ahead and a fragmented smattering of Sophie Griffin, Ian Bird, Roy Crombie and me gradually regathering and working together but making no dent in the gap.
The need to refuel
The front nine, Darren Gillings, Andrea Woollcott, Cyril Burgess, Steve Webster, Mike Castelete, Jake Bird, Will Lawton, Steve Wong and David Robinson pushed a really rapid pace and made the choice of the Greedy Piglet coffee house in Oundle for much needed sustenance.
Homeward
After Oundle, the group broke up with riders from Corby and Weldon heading directly home or on for more miles (Darren & Andrea completing 113 miles) and the rest heading back towards Kettering.
With an opportunity to clock up a few more miles in the sun, Ian, Jake and I decided to carry on and turned off to Woodford and completed a second loop around Kimbolton before the return to home clocking up a little more than 100 miles at an average speed of 18.8mph with around 1,150 metres of climbing. The group heading back to Kettering recorded around 19mph.