Saturday, 05 March 2011
Julia writes: Today was our first Saturday morning introductory ride in 2011, and just like for our last Saturday ride in October 2010, there were 11 people at the start at Brookside. Five were actually the same as on the last ride, and we also welcomed a few new riders. Non-members duly signed the newly introduced guest entry forms.
The forecast had been cloudy for the morning, but we were lucky to enjoy some sunshine during the first half of our ride. We set off turning right onto Trumpington Street and then rode through the city centre past King's College and through Senate House Passage, now free from the scaffolding that had made access difficult over the past few months.
We continued on to the Coton footpath, through Coton village and up the hill along St Neots Road.
After one and a half miles we turned left and followed the undulating road into Comberton, where we crossed the B1046 and rode on to Harlton and Haslingfield.
From there it was less than three miles to our cake stop destination, Burwash Manor in Barton. We arrived around 11:45 am and were looking forward to warming up in the Barn Tea Rooms. However, it was so busy that we could not find a table for all of us, so we had to sit outside, and under a now cloudy sky it got a bit chilly after a while. So the hot tea, when it eventually arrived in pretty striped pots, was very welcome.
After we had finished our refreshments, we wandered around the shops for a time before returning directly back to Cambridge via the Barton Road cycle path. By the time we got back to Brookside, we had covered around 18 miles - just right for a gentle start into the cycling season. I hope that everyone enjoyed the ride and that we will see some of the newcomers again soon.
Julia