Saturday, 19 November 2016
Nigel writes: With heavy rain forecast for Sunday, and both our rides cancelled that day, I decided to take advantage of bright sunny weather on Saturday morning to join our twice-monthly "Saturday social" ride. This is our "entry-level" ride, shorter and slower-paced than most of our other rides, and since it was first introduced a few years ago has turned out to be consistently popular.
At Brookside I was joined ten other riders: Angela, Alison, Rachel, Phil, Tom, Matt, Simon, Julia, Ian W and Florian (althugh young Florian was sitting in a child seat in front of Ian, he still definitely counts as a rider even though he wasn't pedalling).
Brookside
Ian was our leader today (Ian leads most of these rides), and took us south to Ickleton on a fairly direct route via Sawston, Whittlesford, Duxford and Hinxton. The ride down was delightful, with clear skies, bright sunshine and very little wind. As a result it felt warmer than the 6C shown on my Garmin, and I felt very slightly overdressed.
On the busway
On the DNA path we met John S coming the other way. He didn't recognise me and shot right past, but when he reached the others behind me he turned round and joined us.
On the DNA path
We arrived at the Riverside Cafe in Ickleton at about 11.15am. Already in the cafe were Adrian, Averil, Edward and Mick C, who had made their own way there, and would make their own way home afterwards.
Ready to depart after coffee in Ickleton
After coffee we turned back north to Cambridge. The sky had clouded over and it began to feel noticably colder: I switched to a thicker pair of gloves as a result. Fortunately it didn't take long to get warm again and we had a pleasant ride back, arriving in Cambridge at about 1.30pm; I had cycled 45km (
28 miles).
Nigel Deakin
Download
GPS track (GPX).