Sunday, 13 November 2016
Nigel writes: I'm not sure how he manages it, but Alex has led some very enjoyable rides recently (including
this one in July,
this one in August and
this one in September). Today's ride followed the same impressive trend, with fine sunny weather, a couple of very nice food stops, and a nice quiet route which gave us some fine views of autumnal colour.
At Brookside at 9.30am I found Rupert, Shiela, Ray, Phil, Ian D, Joseph, John S and of course Alex. The first stage of today's route took us west to Gamlingay. As is his usual practice Alex had published a GPX route beforehand, which I loaded onto my Garmin. This gave me the confidence to sprint ahead of the group, pausing from time to time to take photos as the rest of the ride went past.
Phil between Bourn and Caxton
Ian D
Joseph
Our coffee stop was at Woodview Farm Cafe near Gamlingay, where we found several more members including Mike S and Edmund, who both joined us for the remainder of the day.
Breakfast at Woodview Farm Cafe
After coffee we turned south for a relatively short stage to Baldock.
Setting off from the Woodview Farm Cafe
Sutton
Between Eyeworth and Ashwell
The descent from Bygrave to Baldock
At Baldock we stopped for lunch at Tapps Garden Centre. Afterwards we set off eastwards along a route I had not cycled before, a bridleway which skirts the edge of Clothall Common before crossing over the A505 and connecting with a quiet lane that leads up to Wallington. This appears to follow the remains of a old road that was closed following construction of the Baldock by-pass and mostly has a hard asphalt surface except for a new section near the A505 overbridge which was rather rough gravel.
Crossing the A505
Bridleway from Clothall Common towards the Wallington road
The bridleway had a number of anti-motorcycle obstructions which caused some difficulty to Mike S on his wide-handlebar bike, but after a delay he was able to get through.
Wallington
From Wallington we continued eastwards through Sandon and Reed to Barkway, where we turned north and joined the B1368 for a fast run northwards back towards Cambridge. I arrived home at 4.10pm, just as the sun was setting, having cycled 100km (
62 miles).
Download
GPS track (GPX).