Another Thursday, another rollout with the Forty Plus cycling group. I made my way over to the usual rendezvous meet up over in Witham.
BUT OF COURSE I was running late. I’m always running late. I know I need to leave the house at 7:30 am in order to meet up with the rest of the group.
One more cup of tea at 7:30 am and blimey, it’s 7:45 am. This ain’t gonna work out, is it?
Oh dear.
No worries, I pressed on, heading through Fingringhoe (stop sniggering), across Tiptree, and then around the outskirts of Witham. I knew I would have miss the rollout by five minutes or so.
So there I was, making plans for my own solo ride for the day, when VROOM VROOM, a couple of Forty Plus riders sped past in the opposite direction.
Hang on.
I did a 180° turn and managed to catch their back wheel. A few friendly words were exchanged.
It turns out there had been a slight change of plan. The usual 9:30 am Witham meet up has now been changed to 10 am at Tiptree to accommodate riders such as myself that come over from the other side of the half town, half city.
I had just cycled through Tiptree…
The Forty Plus group are a friendly lot. Destination Tiptree was reached once again. We picked up another half a dozen riders.
A fair pace was then set as we pressed on towards Tollesbury. The route included one particular lane that must have been a mile or so dead straight. A fellow friendly rider pointed out to me it was an old wartime landing strip.
We made a plenty of turns here and there. The route seemed to involve circumnavigating Tiptree at every available opportunity. I’ve nothing against Tiptree, but y’know.
Morning tea was then taken at Tollesbury. We met up with some other riders who had already found their way over to the cafe. The tandem count for the morning was doubled.
The various Forty Plus tribes then departed and went their separate ways. There was a ferocious headwind for me as I headed back inland.
My own route there very conveniently took me in the general direction of the gym. I took the opportunity to head straight to the spa and fall asleep for an hour.
92km for the day.
Chapeau!
