Prostate Pedallers Blog
You Can't Beat a Wednesday Wobble
Some of the regular PP Wednesday riders, Andy, Dave and Ivan were met by Prostate Pedallers Jim and Paul. These two had dragged themselves out of bed nice and early and arrived by bike before 9am, having 13 miles under their belt before we all took off from the Oval. Nice effort lads!
Andy led the way out of Harpenden towards Heartwood Forest and Sandridge as last week's route was the choice for this week. We have all opined at length on the current weather and rightly so. It just doesn't match up to expectations and it was chilly as we set off, too chilly for June. It was mentioned that India is struggling with 50 degrees and while we don't want that, maybe 20 degrees wouldn't be asking too much?!?
Once again we dodged Symondshyde Wood due to thick mud and this decision was proven to be correct as we cycled over big tree roots and thick mud on the path leading out of Sandridge. The combination of roots and mud gave Demo Dave an opportunity to impress us with his 'on the move' dismount skills as he left his bike behind and carried on running at speed without it. Top effort and, while we were maybe hoping for a face down in mud photo opportunity, to Dave's credit he stayed on his feet. A page out of our beloved friend Bob's book.
We also managed to navigate the various dogs on the paths today, no mean feat as some of them seemed determined to be run over. I remember the day when people used to walk one dog and now, with dog walking as a career, many people walk 7, 8 or even 9 canines. Always a challenge navigating that amount of dogs!
It was definitely drier this week and the single tracks were easier to cycle on, especially the ones leading out of Hammonds Farm down to Nomandsland. The 5 strong crew headed up the hill back to the golf course and wound their way back to the Nickey Line for coffee and cake. Very nice as always although Andy and Ivan commented on the pecan pastries appearing smaller than previous weeks. The café must realise that we are leading experts on all things cake and we won't tolerate smaller portions!
We sat outside and waxed lyrical about previous rides, our bikes, the laughs we have and have had and our upcoming trip to Cherbourg and the D-Day landing beaches. It's a great day to be a Pedaller!