Wednesday, 01 July 2015
Nigel writes: Today was the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures of over 30C in Cambridge during the afternoon, and when I ventured outside to cycle to the start of tonight's ride the temperature wasn't much lower. Despite the heat I was joined at Brookside by John E, Paul, Gareth and Graham, with Conrad arriving just as we were setting off.
We set off south along the busway to Addenbrooke's and the DNA path to Great Shelford. As usual Gareth was soon speeding off into the distance with the remainder of us keeping together. However when we reached Great Shelford we spotted that Paul was missing and stopped for several minutes to wait for him, eventually deciding to carry on regardless (we later discovered that he had sustained a puncture).
It was almost 7pm by the time we got moving again, but Conrad was clearly up for a fast ride despite the heat and set a brisk pace through Little Shelford, Whittlesford and Duxford to Ickleton, with Graham and me hanging on behind. We continued south over Coploe Hill to Catmere End before looping south through Littlebury Green to Elmdon.
On the road between Elmdon and Chrishall we were rejoined by Gareth, who had taken a much longer route via Clanver End and Arkesden and was now breathless from sprinting to catch us up. Moments later we caught up with Eva and Carol who had been on their own ride and were now riding to meet us at the pub.
Chrishall Grange
We sped down the hill from Chrishall to Chrishall Grange and crossed over the A505. As we approached Fowlmere we caught up with John E, and when we finally arrived at the Green Man in Thriplow we found Paul sitting outside with a beer. The rest of us ordered drinks and various snacks and sat outside in the still-hot evening air. This is a very pleasant pub in a great location, serving good beer and excellent chips, and is one of my favourite Wednesday evening stopping places.
Thriplow
Afterwards we all cycled back to Cambridge. We turned on our lights although it was still quite light and we didn't really need them, with the sun not actually setting until we reached Great Shelford. I arrived home in Cambridge fifteen minutes later at 9.45pm, having cycled
35 miles.
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GPS track (GPX).
1 comments from old website
Anonymous
Thursday 2nd Jul 2015 at 11.07am
Thanks for leading the ride Nigel, it was great fun. Thanks also to you and Conrad for the fast tow south, being out of practice I wouldn't have been able to maintain that pace alone... Graham