Sunday, 10 March 2019
Tom writes: Blustery near Bottisham Last Sunday John S led me out into the Fens to meet storm Freya, where my legs seemed to turn to jelly against the relentless wind.
Today was another Sunday, another windy day. So I was impressed to find a fine group of riders ready to set out into the Fens with me with 40+ mph winds forecast for the whole afternoon - even after due warning had been given via email the day before.
We headed east out of Cambridge to Cherry Hinton and Fulbourn with the wind behind us. It seemed like all the club rides of the last year were paying off and everyone's fitness levels were definitely looking good. We glided past the Wilbrahams, Bottisham, the Swafhams and on to Reach, every now and again just getting a slight hint of what was to come as we turned a bend to face the wind sideways on. We made good progress and at Reach we stopped for a few minutes for a drink and to fully regroup before heading back.
As we turned back towards our tea stop some of our illusions of improved fitness were unfortunately about to be tested. The wind was now hitting us almost head on, with gusts occasionally coming in from the side to add intermittent wobbles to our stilted progress. I am not sure whether Chris E and Alan T were riding electric bikes (no prizes here for spotting excuses) but somehow the wind didn't seem to affect them too much and they ended up slightly (?) ahead of the rest of us. For some of us though, it was certainly time to drop a few gears, grit the teeth and dream of tea and cake at Lode (alternatively you were all being very kind to me and by keeping behind the 'leader'?).
Here are a few photos of some of us having just turned a corner out of the worst of the wind as the dream of tea and cake started to look like a real possibility. Who would have thought that just a mile or two of wind would make so much difference?
Thanks go to Rupert G for the route which, despite our blustery encounter, avoided the worst of the headwinds in the Fens, thereby saving us from too much 'slow-mo' action.
We arrived at almost spot on 3pm and stopped for tea at Anglesey Abbey. There we met Nigel who cycled out from Cambridge to meet us (having done an audax with several other members the previous day). We had clearly had it easy - Nigel reported that Alex had been blown off his bike onto the verge. I savoured my tea and cake as Nigel recounted the story.
From Lode, the ride back home was short and sweet. Despite the wind the weather was generally sunny and dry and with a good number of riders the ride a very sociable one too.
Tom
Download
GPS track (GPX).