Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Nigel writes: Tonight was a perfect summer's evening for cycling. Sunny, cool, and virtually no wind. As usual, eight riders were at Brookside for the start of the ride: Jacob, Mike K, Tony, Kit, Conrad, Ian, John and me.
We set off south out of Cambridge to Trumpington and Great Shelford, where we turned right to Little Shelford and the road to Whittlesford. We crossed over the A505 and continued to Ickleton. Here I had planned to climb Coploe Hill, but Mike K had suggested we take a different route for a change and so we started the long climb to Elmdon.
About half a mile before we reached Elmdon, Jacob turned off left onto a byway to Catmere End, whilst the rest of us continued on-road through Elmdon and down to Wendon Lofts before climbing back up to Littlebury and Catmere End, where Jacob was waiting for us.
The two mile descent from Catmere End over Coploe Hill to Ickleton is one of my fabourite rides near Cambridge, and in the late summer sunshine even the Essex praries looked lovely.
When we reached the top of Coploe Hill we stopped for the traditional photostop before dropping down to Icketon.
From Icketon we were back on the flat again. We continued north to Whittlesford before turning left to Newton where we stopped for about half an hour at the Queen's Head. Here we met Nick J who had ridden there directly.
After a relaxing drink and a mug of brown soup we returned back to Cambridge. Jacob headed north to Harston and another off-route, leaving the rest of us to stick to the quiet road route via the Shelfords and the DNA path back to Cambridge.
I was home by 9.50pm, after having cycled
34 miles.
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