Wednesday, 05 September 2012
Nigel writes: A clear, sunny day, and the prospect of a clear, sunny evening brought eight members to Brookside for this evening's ride: Klaas, Steve, Ros, Rob, Neil, John, Peter and Tiia. After a brief route discussion we set off north to join the busway. On previous rides we had cycled up Histon Road to join the busway at Orchard Park, but this time we agreed to cycle up Huntingdon Road and join the busway just beyond Girton.
As usual, the ride along the busway cycleway to St Ives was easy, fast, and quite sociable. Somewhere along the way we were joined by Mike K, making nine in total.
We reached St Ives at about 7.30pm. With the sun now low in the sky we turned on our lights before riding through the town and joining the Thicket Path to Houghton. We wheeled our bikes through Houghton Mill before cycling across Eastside Common and crossing the Ouse to Hemingford Abbots. It was 8pm.
After a few more minutes we arrived was our planned pub stop, the Axe and Compasses. We'd visited this pub on Sunday afternoons but this was our first visit on an evening ride, and I think we agreed it was a good choice. A pleasant, friendly pub with a good menu which included both cheesy and non-cheesy chips. We ordered drinks and both kinds of chips and sat outside as darkness fell. We hoped to be joined by John (who we had dropped somewhere near Girton) but unfortunately he did not arrive whilst we were there.
Afterwards we returned back to Cambridge. Our route back took us through Hemingford Grey and over the old bridge into St Ives. There we rejoined the busway cycleway for a high-speed ride back to Cambridge. I was home by 9.50pm, having cycled an excellent
38 miles.
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