Thursday, 05 April 2018
Edward writes: Dare we say it, but did spring arrive today? What a surprise, blue skies, little wind and spring like temperatures, perfect for a day's cycling. In the city they had John E making his debut as leader and out at Haslingfield David W took the helm. At Haslingfield there were twelve riders and to quote the ever witty Greg a "Biker's Dozen".
Harston
The start at Haslingfield
This trip would take us out to Ashwell for coffee and on to Aspenden for lunch. Not surprisingly we started the ride over Chapel Hill into Barrington and thence to follow a familiar route out through Shepreth, Meldreth and Bassingbourn.
Barrington
Barrington
Despite all the sun the early part of the ride was a bit nippy as there had been low temperatures overnight, but as the temperature rose we all warmed up soon enough. From Bassingbourn David chose the more attractive route with the loop round Abington Pigotts which brought us to Litlington.
One or two climbs followed to Steeple Morden and then into Ashwell for the first break of the day where we found the city group nearly ready to leave. Seems like they gave it some hurry-up on their trip from Cambridge or was it the 9am start? Whatever, with the sun out it was very pleasant sitting under the tree or in the cottage garden.
Coffee at Ashwell
As always, after coffee, several went home including Peter W who had a very important engagement at the Emirates Stadium and that's dedication to sacrifice his ride to support the Gunners. Gooners do anything to support their team - most of the time!
John's group left and when we set off we started a little later with another climb out of Ashwell to head out to the A505. Of course, under the bright sunshine the countryside looked beautiful, in contrast to the rather bleak scenes we have cycled through in recent weeks. Many villages have followed the trend set by Thriplow with daffodils in their grass verges; this and the blossoms gave a really good feeling.
Leaving Ashwell
We crossed the A505 and headed south through Redhill, Rushden and on to Cromer and that windmill. At this point we turned south east and a very pleasant, if undulating, five miles ensued from Ardeley through Wood End and finishing at Great Munden. Now we turned north and there were only a few miles to lunch which took us through Nasty and then Westmill, where in the past the ever-knowledgeable Doug has informed us that John Profumo had a country retreat (Older members will remember that name).
Finally we arrived in Aspenden and The Fox, which Rupert discovered for us, although in the distant past it may well have been a regular stopping off point.
Lunch at Aspenden
John and his slickers were already there, which helped stagger the ordering process. With the sun out, many chose to sit in the garden and the staff brought all the meals out such that we were ready to leave by 1.45pm - which is early for us.
David had a plan in store for us by a small diversion in Buntingford which took us by the cottage where the owner has cleverly cut rabbits into his yew hedge. It's a long time since we came this way and it's nice to see that the topiarist is still plying his craft.
Topiary in Buntingford
From Buntingford we climbed gently up to Wyddial and then down to the B1368 which we crossed become continuing on to Anstey. There being no takers to see the stained glass window in the church we carried on to Nuthampstead, where it is hard to believe that this was a candidate for London's third airport.
Anstey
As we neared home we went through Shaftenhoe End, Great Chishill and Heydon before enjoying the descent to lower ground at Chrishall Grange.
We finished the ride at 3.45pm, and those going back to Haslingfield would have completed
55 miles. This was a splendid day out - helped, of course, by the weather and also by the efforts of our two leaders, John and David, who were particularly diligent in ensuring that nobody had been left behind and for cycling at a sensible pace throughout.
Edward Elmer
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GPS track (GPX).