A beautiful morning at 08.30 found 9 Gregarios standing in a car park on the edge of Saffron Walden. The author hadn’t ridden in this part of the world before, but as soon as we rolled out of town on the way to what the captain had assured was a waiting breakfast, it became apparent we weren’t in Herts or Bucks any more – rolling hills, good roads and very little traffic.

A treat had been promised by Danny, but the lengths he had gone to were extraordinary – the first was a chance to mix it up (though in the opposite direction) with a large road race.  The breakfast “Barbara’s brilliant spread” was waiting for us in a garden at Steeple Bumpstead, and not only was it fantastic, easily exceeding 5 Gregario Café Award

stars for quality, quantity and value for money, but on top of that we had the honour of having as our host, Barbara Leverett, several time world senior triathlon and duathlon champion, who kindly let the club members have a viewing of her trophies and rather nice bikes including a state-of-the-art Cervelo TT bike. 

Carrying considerably more weight than we had started with, the group cycled steadily eastwards through fields of oilseed and wheat and beautiful villages with strange names.

It became apparent that this part of England was in Medieval times an incredibly wealthy place, as the we passed through Long Melford, and headed into the exquisite Lavenham,

a wool town, with a huge church and ancient main street, but only 1700 residents.  A welcome glass of local apple juice at the town’s 14th century guildhall, and then on to Semer for a spot of lunch, cycling past numerous vintage cars – another of Danny P’s in-ride entertainments?

As we turned for home, our mechanical luck ran out as a spoke shattered on Danny Ackerman’s rear wheel.  For at least the third time this year, a Gregario’s day was saved by Tony Taylor’s outstanding rebalancing act, and the group rode steadily westwards, through Sudbury, stopping somewhere near Borely, for Danny’s front tyre, the gremlins having obviously marked his card for the day. 

We upped the tempo a little for the ride into Clare, where the team had a splendid tea with Keith and Margaret Brown at their new home in Clare, and  joined by the fresh-from-race Andy Brown. A session of stiff through and off on perfect racing roads saw the Blue Train through the last 18 miles home urged on by Mr Brown, and with many participants glad to not get dropped.

At around 86 miles, this was a great day out completed by an apres ride bite at the local ASK. Join us for the next one!

Those present:

Danny Pollock, Tony Taylor, Tony Glazer, Jason St Hill,

Danny Ackerman, James McRae, Ben Cowland, Tim Mitchell, Peter Ward.

Words: James McRea, Pictures/video: James McRae