Thursday, 22 September 2011
Edward writes: Today we had good weather for cycling - no rain forecast, skies sometimes overcast and sometimes sunny. Inevitably there was the breeze which has been a feature of this summer's riding. Twelve riders met at Haslingfield Church and this included another three new riders to the Thursday group. Tony (yes, another Tony), Mike, who used to ride with the club about twenty years ago, and Lynne who has been out on the Sunday rides. We very much welcome them all and hope to see them again.
As this was a fairly large group we thought it prudent to organise ourselves into two groups so as to minimise our impact on traffic. We left Haslingfield and made our way to Harston and crossed the A10 (busy) and went over the hill to Newton and turned right to head for Thriplow. We took the back road through Thriplow and rejoined the main road leading to Fowlmere. After Fowlmere we took the long drag out to the A505 at Bridgefoot. Once over the A505 we were into the steady climb up to Barley (always better coming in the opposite direction!). We stopped briefly to regroup and then it was the undulating road to Barkway where we turned right to Reed. This road is always a pleasure as it offers such splendid views over the surrounding countryside and reminds us of the pleasures we have in not just cycling, but to enjoy the rural scenes about us. It's also interesting to observe the changing fields which only a few weeks ago were full of their crops, and now they are being prepared for next year's crops. At Reed we took our coffee break and were joined by Doug, Brian B and Adrian.
After coffee Lynne and Rupert left us and the remainder took the delightfully rural route via Therfield, Kelshall, Sandon and Wallington. This required another crossing of the A505 allowing us to make our way to Ashwell but not before we spotted two Buzzards circling over the fields. From Ashwell it was the relatively short ride to Hinxworth and Farrowby Farm which was our lunch stop where we were joined by Mike S.
After lunch we retraced our route back to Ashwell and then turning to Steeple Morden, Littlington and Bassingbourn. Progress was rapid as we now had the wind behind us and we had to stop once or twice to allow for re-grouping. After Bassingbourn we crossed the A1198 and made for Meldreth, Shepreth, Barrington and Foxton.
Once over the railway and the A10 it was up to Fowlmere again, Newton and Hauxton where the ride ended after covering
57 miles. Once again our thanks to Greta for another splendid day out.
Edward ElmerView this route on a larger map