Wednesday, 02 June 2010
After a cold start, today turned out sunny and warm, so when I arrived at Brookside this evening I wasn't surprised to find five other riders: Mike K, Ian D, Daniel, Gareth and Klaus. Mike and Gareth had already planned a route that made use of several off-road tracks, and so I was happy to follow them as we headed out of Cambridge along Hills Road towards Addenbrooke's.
Gareth and Mike were clearly feeling energetic and set a fast pace as we climbed Wort's Causeway towards Fulbourn. I stopped for a moment to take my jacket off and was soon left behind, only catching up with the group at Great Wilbraham. Ian was left behind further still, having stopped with a blowout half-way up the hill, and wasn't seen again until we reached the pub. We also lost Gareth off the front at Great Wilbraham. I thought it was a shame we had become separated: in retrospect we should have started off slower and kept closer together.
At Great Wilbraham we turned east towards the A11, following an unusual route which took us over the A11 and then along a bridleway to Wadlow Farm, where we joined the road up to West Wratting.
From West Wratting we took the road to Balsham before dropping down in the direction of Hildersham, and joining the Roman Road for a fast downhill ride towards Babraham.
After riding through Babraham we took the footpath to Stapleford.
By now it was just after 9pm, and we stopped for a drink at The Longbow, Stapleford. Here we found Ian, who proudly showed us the impressive remnants of his exploded inner tube.
The Longbow wasn't the most inviting of pubs but the beer from the Milton Brewery was very good and a member of staff was helpful and friendly, offering advice on both beer tasting and tube repair.
After a pint we returned back to Cambridge, arriving back at about 10.15pm. My mileage was about
29 Miles.View this GPS track on a larger map