52K Off road audax Sunday 11th of October

An off road audax ran from the Brickendon village hall, organised by our good friend Dick Nuttall of the Islington CC, attracted a number of North Road riders to try their hand at the muddy stuff. Any thoughts of a steady ride round the countryside were swiflty dispelled by Nick Harris' full-on lead out.  With Adam Moriss out in club colours showing strongly with another rider, combined with an 'interesting' technical decent, splintered the starting group of riders. John McDowall and Nick held on to the coat tails of the leading pair for a little while longer, before a long and gruellling climb up a stoney dried out stream bed followed by a draggy energy saping rise across a field, finished off any hopes for them to stay with the hard charging leaders. 

 A regrouping by Nick and John with the rest of the North Road cohort (Tony Shoesmith, Ashley Glass, Tim Brown and Andrew Bywater) was followed by some aimless wandering as we lost track of the correct route.  A fellow rider from the Islington CC seemed to have a better idea of directions and we decided to stick with him for the rest of the ride, as we worked our way back onto the correct course. 

 Both Tony and Andrew turnded off towards their respective homes a little before the end leaving a slightly depleted group. Adam arrived back in good time for an impressive ride, with what remained of the main North Road bunch arriving back at HQ about half-an-hour after him, for a riding time of almost three and a half hours.    

Thanks goes to Dick Nuttall for organising the event, the God of puctures (we only had the one!), and the willing team of helpers for the much needed refreshments provided at half way.