Monday, 18 January 2010
Ian Driver writes: There were two other riders waiting at Brookside for the 1.45pm start of Sunday's afternoon ride to Waresley Garden Centre. These were Peter and Daniel.
Sunday was clear and bright with lots of blue sky and little wind, making it pretty much ideal cycling conditions. The snow and ice has completely melted on the roads now so the riders could relax and enjoy the milder conditions.
We decided to take a fairly direct route as the garden centre café is winding down by four o'clock, I didn't want to risk a tar and feathering by missing the cake stop while leading my first ride, so we headed out on the Barton road and along to Comberton and then Bourn.
At Bourn we headed up to Caxton where we were amused to see the small ford at Caxton End looking more like a river than a road with a good foot of water ploughing through. We decided to go around, no surprise.
From Caxton we headed down to Great Gransden. Were had 45 mins to spare here so we decided to take in a loop via Abbotsley.
At the garden centre café we met Jacob and Mike who had made their way to the afternoon tea independently, so we were now 5. The apple and blackberry pie seemed to be the order of the day. Not especially cheap but a good sized slice, so it was reasonable value.
After tea we headed off via Gamlingay and Longstowe rejoining our route out.
Due to the earlier start, were still in twilight up to Longstowe. When the sun did finally set, all wind disappeared and we were treated to a fantastic view of Orion low the clear winter night sky.
Peter had a bit of a mechanical at Bourn which took us a while to fix, so the group split. The bike was fixed and we returned to Cambridge in reasonable time.
By the time I got home I had
38.5 miles on the clock, so the cake had been well deserved.
Ian DriverView this GPS track (recorded by Daniel Glassey) on a larger map