Sunday, 10 March 2013
Nigel writes: I had originally planned to go on the all-day ride today, but when I looked out of the window at 7am and saw falling snow I decided to stay indoors and wait for things to improve. By lunchtime the snow seemed to have passed and so I rode across to Brookside to join the afternoon ride. Only two other riders turned up: Daniel and Tom. There wasn't a pre-arranged leader so I suggested a route and off we went.
We headed west out of Cambridge along the Barton Road cycleway to Barton. There we turned off to Haslingfield and climbed Chapel Hill. There was a dusting of snow on the verges but nothing on the carriageway itself. It was quite cold so I rode quite quickly to get warm.
We dropped down to Barrington and continued to Shepreth. We crossed the A10 to Fowlmere and then crossed the A505. There has been quite a lot of sleet and snow overnight, so there were large puddles on the road to to Chrishall Grange.
At Chrishall Grange we discussed route options. I had originally contemplated a loop through Chrishall, Elmdon and Littlebury but that would have been a bit too far. So we turned left onto Royston Lane to Strethall and a short climb to the top of Coploe Hill. As we rode northbound along the ridge to Coploe Hill we found ourselves riding directly into a freezing cold headwind, but fortunately it subsided when we dropped down on the other ride to Ickleton.
At Ickleton Barns we ordered coffee and flapjacks and waited to see who else turned up. After a short time Gareth arrived with the all-day ride, which on this occasion consisted of Gareth, Conrad and Tom H.
The cafe at Ickleton Barns closes next week. I said how sorry we were that this was happening, and gave them our thanks.
Afterward we rode back to Cambridge. I arrived back home at 5pm, having cycled
32 miles.
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