This is a short rolling ride to ease away some of the excesses of the past two weeks.

From Bishop’s Stortford the ride heads north and east and skirts the perimeter of Stanstead Airport. We go east through small Essex villages cross the River Chelmer at Duton Hill and then head south through Stebbing. South of Stebbing we pick up the disused railway path that runs between Braintree and Bishop’s Stortford, NCN16 and complete the loop back to Bishop’s Stortford.

Features of the ride are a noisy busy airport, quiet country lanes, abbey remains and 10-13 miles of traffic free cycling along NCN16.

Pub lunch.

I’ve not ridden this before but I’m informed NCN16 is suitable for all bikes. And of course daylight is in short supply at this time of the year so bring lights.

Report

I arrived at Liverpool Street early so I’d have the time to by a new Network Rail Card. The purchase of one of these requires filling in a form - so you take it away from the till, fill it in, then have to join the end of the queue again, the guy selling the tickets then has to fill in something and then you pay for it. This all takes about 5-10 minutes. The great thing about the Network Rail Card apart from the third off for you and three others is that the price has stayed at £20 for several years now. Shush – maybe it’s something they’ve forgotten.

No network card was needed as we were able to get the half price group save 4 for 2 deal which was £6.15 for the return to Bishop’s Stortford.

Katie, Natalie, Chris, Andy, William and Joe joined me at Liverpool Street and Anil and Bernard boarded somewhere on route.

We hung around at Bishop’s Stortford for a few minutes because there was a possibility of someone coming down from Cambridge to join us. I’d forgotten my phone so there was no way of checking if they’d come. There was no message on the phone when I got home though.

The weather doesn’t get much better in January. We had a barmy 10 degrees and a bright clear sky.  The first part of the ride took us around the northern perimeter of Stansted Airport, by Stansted Hall, through Burton End, Tye Green and Gaunt’s End before turning north at Molehill Green and away from the airport. While heading north we were still on the flight path for planes that were landing and the Ryan Air planes in the sky were a constant reminder that we weren’t far from the airport. As we continued on our way opposition to a second runway at Stansted was prominent in every village with posters on poles and in windows. I liked the phrase “Cheap flights cost the Earth”.

At Tilty we paused to look at the church speculating whether this was partly the remains of the Tilty Abbey or whether they’d run out of money half way though construction and had to settle for something less grand than they’d originally intended. A partial explanation can be found here.  I’m intending to do a longer version of this ride in the summer and we’ll take a closer look at this oddity then.

From Tilty we crossed the River Chelmer, a mere stream at this point, and climbed into Duton Hill. Between Broxted and Lindsell the roads were quiet, narrow and hedgeless, which afforded some relaxed riding with great views over the open rolling and green countryside. At Stebbing we paused and considered taking lunch, there were a couple of pubs here that looked very tempting, but it was still before noon so we decided to press on.  South of Stebbing we crossed the A120 and joined NCN 16 for some secluded traffic free cycling. As you approach Great Dunmow you need to cross the foot bridge over the Chelmer or ford the river. We all took the footbridge option.

Dinner was at The Saracen’s Head in Great Dunmow. There’s parking round the back, off the high street. My Chicken and Mushroom Pie was £8.95 with the pie very nice but the veg overcooked. Convivial conversation over dinner included a round up of the nice rides people have done and several of these were rides that had been led by Barry Mason (Southwark Cyclists Coordinator) who was described as a nice man with a funny shaped head. The speaker of this comment wishes to remain anonymous but stands by what they said.

After dinner it was back on the bikes and back on NCN 16 at Little Canfield for what seemed like a gradual down hill glide back to Bishop’s Stortford.

We had a 15 minute wait for the train back to London. The first train in was the Stansted Express and Anil and Bernard braved the wrath of the guard and got on (meant to be no bikes on this train). The rest of us waited for next (almost empty, 10 minutes slower train to London) 5 minutes later.

Thanks everyone who came on the ride and made it a very enjoyable day out.

The next Lewisham Cyclists ride is Paul’s Otford Loop on Saturday 12^th January.

Stats
34.2 miles
3.23 hours riding
5.50 hours total
22.2 mph max speed
10.1 mph moving average
7.7 mph overall average
361 feet max elevation
1218 feet climbed
35.5 feet of climbing per mile (a gently rolling ride)

Ian Pendleton
Lewisham Cyclists