Sunday, 21 March 2010
Today was bright and dry, with intermittent sunshine, and feeling distinctly warm. Spring is here at last!
Six riders turned up at Brookside for today's ride to Fowlmere, with several of us wearing shorts and risking exposed knees for the first time this year. I was the ride leader today. I chose a route to get us out of Cambridge as quickly as possible: south along Trumpington Road to Trumpington and then along Shelford Road to the Shelfords, from where we took the road to Whittlesford.
After passing throigh Whittlesford we crossed over the A505 and continued to Duxford. We continued via Hinxton to Ickleton where we started the climb of Coploe Hill up to Catmere End. As we rode along we passed quite a few club cyclists going the other way, probably on the 100K and 200K Audax events taking place today.
At the cross-roads just beyond Catmere End we turned right towards Littlebury Green (and ROYSTOИ).
After passing through Littlebury Green we dropped down to the B1039 and turned west. This is surely the quietest B-road in the area, and it was a delight to ride along. When we reached the turn to Chrishall we turned off again and rode through Chrishall, which is a very nice village served by quiet, narrow lanes and which we don't visit very often. Beyond Chrishall the road descends, and with the help of a tailwind several of us put on a burst of speed as we dropped down to Chrishall Grange. From here a left turn took us up the the A505 and, just beyond, Fowlmere.
At The Queen's Head we found George, David S and Steve, and after a while Tom and Geoff arrived from the day ride, making a total of eleven for tea.
After tea we returned to Cambridge. Although the temperature was falling slightly it was still quite light and several of us took a route back via Thriplow, where it the Daffodil festival had been taking place all weekend. By now everybody had gone or was packing up; there were plenty of daffodils along the verges but very few were in flower; they are sure to look lovely in another couple of weeks.
After leaving Thriplow we returned via Newton, the Shelfords and the DNA path to Addenbrooke's, reaching central Cambridge by about 6pm, after having covered about
35 miles.
View this GPS track on a larger map
1 comments from old website
Sunday 21st Mar 2010 at 9.03pm
FYI, the route I have planned for the Afternoon of Sun 4th will take us through Thriplow in a loop to take in the Daffodils that will hopefully be in their full glory by then. I've booked some sun to go with those Easter Daffs, but this has yet to be confirmed :-)