Sunday, 12 October 2014
John writes: It was my turn to lead the day ride today visiting St Neots, Tilbrook and Waresley.
I left home in Swavesey at 8am in chilly, foggy conditions and headed out along the Guided Busway on my way down to Cambridge to pick up the group at Brookside. I was surprised along the Busway to see an orange clad cyclist approaching me out of the fog – it was of course Adrian who would later meet us at our coffee stop.
I picked up the group of six other riders at Brookside and we headed out of central Cambridge across The Backs, along Burrells Walk onto Adams Road then on the cycleway to Coton. The weather was still chilly but the sun was started to shine and pretty soon cold fingers had started to warm up. We then cycled through Hardwick, Bourn, Caxton, Gt Gransden, Waresley and on the quiet back road to Abbotsley before dropping into St Neots for our 11am coffee stop. Here we were joined by six other riders.
St Neots
After a welcome coffee and snack a number of riders left to make their various own ways home and a party of nine of us headed off for our lunch stop at The White Horse at Tillbrook. The route took us due west from St Neots through Bushmead before shifting to a more Northwesterly route through Keysoe Row, Riseley, Upper and Lower Dean before arriving at the pub at 1pm. Here several of our group had fortunately brought their own sandwiches – the pub was only serving full roast dinners. Some of us simply enjoyed the real ale and tucked into large packets of crisps.
Having enjoyed a seat outside in the sun six of us set off for afternoon teastop leaving Adrian and Doug to tuck into their full roasts!
Riding back through familiar territory through Perry, Buckden, Offords, Graveley and finally, for the remaining three cyclist, a well-deserved afternoon tea at Waresley Garden Centre. Here we were joined after a few minutes by the Sunday afternoon ride led by Tina.
I left to ride back to Swavesey, Mike CC rang his wife for a lift home and Conrad rode back to Cambridge with the afternoon group. My journey had been
89 miles and I imagine that Conrad having started and finished in Cambridge would have done around 75 miles.
John Ross
Download
GPS track (GPX).