Sunday, 23 September 2012
Ian writes: Today's destination for tea was Julia's at Fen Ditton. Unfortunately the weather had decided to disrupt this treat with a forecast of heavy, persistent rain and driving winds.
For once, the weather forecast was spot on. Unperturbed, I headed off for a 2pm start, hoping the rain would ease off. It didn't. I was fairly surprised to see two other riders turn up, Tina and John E. I had designed the route to have a bailout junction that would take ten miles off the route if things continued to stay foul. The others agreed, so after a quick call to Julia, we set off into the wind and rain whistling tunes from Les Miserables.
We made our way over to Station Road then along the guided busway and through Addenbrookes. From here we turned onto the familiar left turn to take us over the Gogs to Fulbourn. The wind didn't seem too bad on the climb, but once over the top, the wind hit us head on, driving the rain into us. We continued through Fulbourn along the Wilbraham Road through Great Wilbraham to Little Wilbraham.
At Little Wilbraham, it was decision time: do we go right into the driving rain and wind to climb to Six Mile Bottom? or do we go left and bail out for a fast route to tea?
Cold and wet fingers made this an easy choice, so we turned left getting onto the cycle track on the side of the Newmarket Road and on to Fen Ditton.
At least with the wind on our backs we made some progress, arriving at Julia's at about 3.40pm. Ian opened the patio door for us which felt like a biblical ray of light shining out in our damp and windy world. The heating was on, the tea was waiting and the smell of home made quiche, sandwiches and cake made it all worth it.
Shortly after, John S and Daniel joined us from the all-day ride. We enjoyed a lovely cosy tea. Many thanks to our hosts.
After tea, we followed the river back to Cambridge via the most direct route. Only
28 miles on the clock, which felt like plenty.
Ian Driver