Very hot June 21st Ride

Brian (red shirt) greeted me at Finsbury Park station with "Are you leading...then we are going to get lost". Well, we started off well from Knebworth with 15 people most of whom had not been on the Little Green Ride before. As always, I was keen to get at least 30 miles in and as it was going to be a gorgeous day so I suggested going to Furneux Pelham. Brian thought we'd never make it before sunset but Richard, who volunteered to be backstop, was quietly confident. By LGR standards it is a fair old distance (17 miles?) but we got there at 12.45.

Then it all went wrong in the afternoon. Someone called me to say that she was on a motorway with 3 others and they were lost. I wasn't sure which motorway she meant but we tried to meet at the BP garage at the roundabout at the edge of Buntingford which we could both see. We could even see the poppy display under the Buntingford sign but we couldn't see each other. That's because all roads leading into Buntingford have BP garages, all have signs and all have poppy displays; they were at a different roundabout. Anyway, the group leading from the back of the ride was now drinking tea and eating cake at Westmill. The first shall be last and the last shall be first.

On the final leg, about 12 miles from Stevenage, we decided to break into two groups, fast and very fast. We looked at our maps. Then some sharp eyed person noticed that my recently purchased O.S. map, published in 1974, didn't actually show the Buntingford bypass on it. Oh well that solved the motorway mystery. But the village of Stevenage was clearly visible. The very fast group caught the 6pm train and the fast group got the 6.30 pm. The heat and sun made the ride harder than normal and we were exhausted but we were still smiling.