Sunday, 22 November 2009
Cambridge continues to have some of the best weather in Britain. Whilst the north-west continued to suffer from record rainfall and flooding, here in Cambridge we had a dry and bright but windy afternoon. Rather to my surprise, six riders turned up at Brookside for this afternoon's ride. Ian led us west out of Cambridge along the Barton Road cycleway to Barton. The sun came out and we were riding in golden sunshine.
At Barton we turned south to Haslingfield where we climbed Chapel Hill. The descent down the other side was directly into the wind, so we had to pedal downhill to keep our speed up.
At Barrington we turned left to Foxton where we crossed the railway and A10 and continued to Fowlmere and from there over the A505 to Chrishall Grange. This section was directly into the wind. The headwind itself wasn't too much of a problem; gusts of wind that tried to blow us off the road were more of a challenge. Fortunately at Chrishall Grange we were able to turn east towards Ickleton, and had the wind behind us at last. The sky had clouded over by now but it remained dry and mild, though the numerous large puddles told us that there had been heavy rain earlier.
From Ickleton we took the road to Hinxton and the cycleway along the A1303 to the outskirts of Sawston. From here we went through Pampisford before joining the A505 for half a mile, after which we turned off to Abington. On the outskirts of the village Simon had a puncture; Jacob stopped to keep him company whilst the rest of us continued the short distance to the Comfort Cafe.
The Comfort Cafe had freshly-made cake on sale and we sat down with coffee and cake to wait for Jacob and Simon, who arrived soon after.
After tea we returned back to Cambridge. It was now totally dark, so following the off-road track to Babraham was quite challenging. At Babraham we rejoined the road and rode through Sawston, Stapleford and Great Shelford before joining the DNA path to Addenbrooke's and finally Hills Road towards the City Centre. I was home by about 6.25pm after having ridden
34 miles. Not bad for the wettest week in modern English history!
View this GPS track on a larger map