As mentioned before, I've had to re-think my rationing of only doing 1 Southend a year due to boring roads, as it's not boring any more - even with the added fun of 3 lots of the Romford bypass.
I'm not sure how many set off from HPC in the end, but it certainly was an impressive sight, especially on any longer stretches such as the A11 . Once out in the countryside the temperature started to drop below freezing, so I'm not surprised at people dropping off the ride, to avoid bits of their anatomy dropping off due to frostbite.
Whilst bring up the rear up that big hill into Brentwood, we came across a group deep in discussion, as Jan had realised that he'd left his bag on the trolleys outside of Tesco's in Chadwell Heath. Being equipped with GPS, David Cameron's Dellzeqq's Big Society ideas swung into action, and I volunteered to guide him the 10 miles back to Tesco's. Quite amazingly the bag was still there, complete with contents, although it had been moved next to the front doors.
Returning at a slower pace, we cut across from Brentwood to Billlericay on the main road with the intention of trying to catch up with the peloton at Rettendon, although due to the hills south of the Hanningfield Reservoir, that wasn't to be. Although we could see the ice in puddles, the roads themselves were generally dry so we didn't have any issues. As the sun came up, there were some spectacular views across the fields. In South Hanningfield we came across a field which had loads of hay bales stacked up to form letters about 10 ft high. As a measure of how befuddled your brain is at that time of the day, we had to resort to spelling out the letters one by one and it was only by the 4th letter that we realised it spelt TURKEYS!
By the time we got to Rettendon, after checking, everyone else was past Battlesbridge, so we just plodded along and eventually caught up with the end markers in Southend. After devouring breakfast (and cake - what a winning combination), Pippa asked if I was going to cycle back, as I'd previously said I might do. As I knew a few others were going to be celebrating Claudine's birthday at Look Mum No Hands in London, I had an instant revelation and realised I could do both, so User10571, Pippa, Andrij, Brian and I set off on a slightly improvised route down through Rainham Marshes, along the Thames Path, onto the cyclepath next to the A13 and lots of other wiggly bits that I didn't really follow, as my GPS battery had died. After User10571 & Pippa headed off, Andrij very kindly offered to guide Brian and myself across to Stratford on the Greenway which was an excellent route. Then it was a question of just following the A11 back towards Whitechapel, where Brian headed off home, and I rolled up to LMNH in Old Street and a very nice round of applause from a nice bunch of drunks (including Claudine).
After a couple of pleasant hours having some light refreshment and some table moving* to stay in the sunshine, I decided to head off home, and got back just after 4.30 having done 133½ miles in total. So a good day (and night) out.
[sup]* I hope someone moved the table back![/sup]
(Some people eh?). Added to this was a gentle simmering sun and the world's first 'formation table parking team'. More about that later!
