Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Nigel writes: Our evening rides in winter are normally held on the Wednesday nearest to the full moon, which allows me to describe them as moonlit rides even if in practice the moon is often hidden behind thick cloud. I was therefore very pleased that our final evening ride of this particular winter was held on a clear, dry and moonlit evening, even if the clear skies meant that this evening's ride was held in very low temperatures which were close to freezing for the whole ride.
My companions this evening were Tom, Seb, Gareth and newcomer David F who had chosen this particular ride for his first outing with us. The route we took was the same as on many previous such rides: through the city centre and out along Huntingdon Road, joining the busway just beyond Girton.
It was bitterly cold right from the start, and by the time we reached the busway my fingers were frozen and no doubt everone else's were too. There was only one thing to do: to blast along the busway as quickly as possible in the hope that this would warm us up. Rather surprisingly it worked, and by the time we reached the bright lights of St Ives at about 7.30pm I was feeling much more comfortable. Along the way we picked up Mike CC, who was making his own way to join us and bringing our total number to six.
We continued along the Thicket Path to Houghton, crossed the meadows to Hemingford Abbots, and stopped for drinks and food at The Axe and Compass.
Afterwards we said goodbye to David, who lives locally, and set off back to Cambridge via Hemingford Grey, St Ives and the busway. Soon Gareth was disappearing off into the distance, and Mike CC told us not to wait, leaving Tom, Seb and me to ride back in the freezing cold but by the light of a beautiful moon. I arrived home at 10.05pm, having cycled
36 miles.
Download
GPS track (GPX).