Hills, more hills, and then even more hills
This weeks Sunday Social ride had a large field of riders, meeting at the bus stop it was split into 3 groups, then with the joining in at Rushton by Sue, we split into 4. So my apologises in advance for this long read…
Ian Bird states: “This weeks club ride saw us head out over the Welland Valley to ‘attack’ some hills!
Before we could do that we started from the bus stop and set off in groups of 6, The first group setting off early at 8.50 leaving some of the others to follow on at intervals after to follow Covid guidelines.”
Early departure by Group 1
by Darren Gillings
We were the first group of six to arrive/leave, made up of Iain Callaghan, Mike Castelete, Hudson Henry, Stephen Webster, Andréa Woolcott, Darren Gillings.
This Sunday’s ride to Sweet Hedges was a chance to enjoy the last of the summer sunshine and meeting new faces, welcome Hudson Henry.
With the prospect of an afternoon watching the remaining procession of a certain bike race and eager to get onto the smaller roads Andréa and I headed the group out of Kettering.
The peleton of six
Leading us into Desborough, Hudson and Iain clearly still had the last throes of the Tour de France firmly on their minds. Setting a blistering pace and reducing the remains of the group to a collective commissaire, shouting reminders to them of the fast approaching left hand turn, before they were able to complete their imaginary sprint to a point just past the turn. Hudson continued the ride playing the part of Primož Roglič, climbing with tenacity, while we continued our role of the Jumbo-Visma team, launching him into the climbs. Iain playing the part of Tony Martin, was far too convincing with his suffer face, as I’m almost certain he wasn’t suffering in the slightest. Mike as always happy on the hills, looking every bit like a George Bennet, always on the verge of soloing to the cafe stop. In hindsight, him being in the one half of the group with any real cash to buy coffee/snacks, this now seems like a masterclass in tactics.
On slaught of miles to the cafe
In the absence of a women’s peloton Andréa settled into her strength role of Annamiek van Vleuten, a welcome addition to the Jumbo-Visma train for the day, persistently putting the legs of the men through their paces. Only relenting for the occasional ‘point of interest’ and Iain’s master stroke of convincing everyone that he had a puncture, when in fact he had not. No team car assistance unfortunately, but a very definite broad grin having managed to make the bunch come back to him, instead of the other way around.
Our stop at Sweet Hedges was seemingly short and sweet. Although in reality the wait for Hudson’s bacon roll was anything but short and the dominant smell from the drain was far from sweet.
Teamwork
Having left the cafe and apparently unaffected by this trauma(some mental scarring with mumbles of boiled cabbage), the ever improving Stephen was yet again, like Wout van Aert, showing why he is so difficult to categorise as a rider. With strong turns on the front, ascending hills for fun and a zest for sprinting, especially when contested against Iain.
So in summary….
Jumbo-Visma and summer sun,
Sweet Hedges was little under par,
Teamwork made for plenty of fun,
Until…..damn that Pogacar.
Video by Darren Gillings, thank you Darren, great video, more photos at the end.
Followed off by Group 2
The second group of six to arrive/leave, made up of
Andy King, David Robinson, Jon Thorne, Mike Wheeler, Andy Brown, Jamie Scott.
Setting off from Kettering ….
At Rushton, we had Sue Rust join in the route, and to maintain the Covid group restrictions we split into 2 smaller groups, 4 and 3. Where Jon, Mike and Sue, made up the Group 3.
Splitting into smaller groups, Group 3
by Sue Rust
In meeting the group at Rushton, I rode well behind the group, with the expectation of being swept up by the next group, but to my surprise and pleasure, Jon and Mike dropped back and split from group two, making our group a group of three.
Sue Rust, Jon Thorne, Mike Wheeler
I really enjoyed exploring some roads, I’ve not ridden before, or from the opposite direction, with Jon and especially Mike making the hills look flat, and I remember how steep they were in parts, feeling the burn in the legs as we got to the top.
It was great to chat along the way, with Jon setting the pace whilst Mike sprinted up the hills, and it was an advantage that Jon had been to the cafe before, as I think I’d of missed that farm entrance! Having encountered that they did not take card payments, i was caught out, as on previous rides the cafes preferred card payments, so note to self, take cash as well. Advantage, it was easier to get going again without cake loading down the legs, well that’s what I told myself!
On the return leg, we had Andy Brown join us and Ian Groves on his mountain bike left at the same time, and amazingly he kept up with the road bikes for a few miles, but as the pace settled we were a group of four.
Keen to get back for the tv coverage, the miles soon lapsed with Andy and Mike displaying their supreme incline attacks with an impressive sprint up School Lane as myself and Jon kept to the Rockingham Road, at it at this point by the time I’d got to the top, my legs were about gone at this point, it was a team effort to get to Rushton, where I left the group to make my way home.
“Thank you Jon, Andy and Mike for getting me back” Sue.
Remaining riders make up Group 4
by Ian Bird
We set off as the last group, welcome to William Lawton (first club ride), Gary Bridger (first club ride), joining our group of Steve Wong, Adam Churchill, Ian Bird and Andy Parker.
In the sunshine we made our way out of Kettering past the old football Ground and out through Glendon to embrace the incline up through Rushton. Continuing onwards through Desborough we battled the headwind knowing this would leave us being blown home later!
It didn’t quite help though as our legs warmed on the first of hills through Dingley and set the tone for a few other hills that ‘popped’ up on route.
This coupled with some more headwind left our little group looking forward to a cake stop perhaps slightly to early but still enough energy in the legs for the hill up to Alexton. Sure enough just around the corner we found our coffee stop for this morning at Sweet Hedges where we saw the other groups for a few minutes.
After having a lovely cuppa and a chat we then set off again up towards and around a scenic Eyebrook reservour with the sun shining down on it. A beautiful sight.
Anyway onwards we trundled through the ‘dip’ of Middleton and up the other side out towards Rushton and back to the Kettering area where we started to split off and say our goodbyes.
“Looking forward to next week, see you then” Ian Bird.
Bus stop photo above, thank you Steve Wong.
Here’s some photos of group 1 and at the cafe, thank you Darren Gillings.
