Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Rob and Daniel joined me on this evening's ride. After last week's washout it was lovely to find that this evening was bright, still and very warm. I was keen to avoid riding too long in the dark so chose quite a short route, though we compensated for the reduced mileage by riding rather faster than we normally do. There was very little wind though a slight tailwind helped us keep up our speed on the way back.
We headed south-east out of Cambridge along Hills Road to Addenbrookes. We then joined the new cycle track along the A1307 which took us as far as Wandlebury.
When the cycle track ended we rejoined the road and continued for a further two miles as far as the turn to Babraham. This section of the A1307 is fast and busy though it was mostly downhill and we were only on it for about ten minutes. We rarely use this road on CTC rides but with the limited time available this allowed us to get out of Cambridge quickly.
We rode through Babraham and turned onto the off-road path that leads to the footbridge over the A11 and on to Abington. This peaceful path was lovely after the busy road before.
From Abington we climbed the hill to Balsham. Here, with the light rapidly declining, we reluctantly turned for home. The road to Fulbourn is slightly downhill and allowed us some exhilarating fast cycling.
When we reached Fulbourn we passed the White Hart pub, which looked inviting so we stopped here instead of the planned Baker's Arms nearby. Like last week, we ordered food as well as drinks and sat outside in the warm evening air.
After a short while we continued back to Cambridge via Fulbourn Old Drift and The Tins. We were back in central Cambridge by about 8.45pm, after cycling
22 miles with a moving average speed of 14.2 mph.
View this GPS track on a larger map