On Sunday 30 March Howard Ashmore, Alex Peeke and David Woodward celebrated getting one hour less sleep by getting up early for the Stevenage 210km start of summertime randonnee.  The weather was fine and although the roads started out a bit damp from the overnight rain the early spring sunshine soon made for ideal cycling conditions.

Alex and Howard soon lost Dave who had teamed up with some old friends and made very good time to Lavenham in Suffolk which was the halfway point covering the first 100km in under 4 hours.  On the way back it was soon apparent that they had not suddenly acquired an extra level of fitness as the headwind took its toll.  In the end it took six hours to get back to Stevenage with the biggest hinderance being the lure of tea and cake at the controls rather than hills and headwind.