Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Nigel writes: Spring seems to have taken a break for a few days, and tonight's ride was one of the coldest in recent weeks, with a temperature (according to my Garmin) of 5C at the start and dropping to 2C as the sun went down. Perhaps because of the wintry weather I had only one taker for tonight's ride, Neil, who accompanied me on a gentle loop down to Ickleton, over Coploe Hill, along Royston Lane and back over the A505 to Thriplow.
As we made our way out of Cambridge we paused the inspect this Ofo rental bike, waiting for business in a rather lonely location on the cycle path leading from Long Road to the busway.
First sighting of an Ofo bike near Long Road
Coploe Hill
We reached the top of Coploe Hill at about 7.30pm. That would probably have allowed time for the "full loop" via Catmere End and Littlebury, but given how cold it was I decided we should take the slightly shorter Royston Lane route instead.
Royston Lane
We reached The Green Man in Thriplow at about 8.20pm. The pub was full of diners, and we only just managed to find a seat at the bar. However it soon emptied out and we were shown to a table to eat. This pub is verging on being too busy to be able to simply turn up and expect a free table and food, but it's a nice place to visit, with friendly and accommodating staff, and we have always been able to manage to fit in and get what we needed. We'll be back before long: hopefully it will be warm - and light - enough to be able to sit outside.
Afterwards we returned back to Cambridge via Newton and the Shelfords, and I arrived back home at about 9.45pm having cycled 50km (
31 miles).
Nigel Deakin
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GPS track (GPX).