Wednesday, 05 August 2015
Nigel writes: The weather this evening was not promising: cool and dull, with rain forecast for later. Despite that, six riders turned up for this evening's ride: Gareth, Alex, Paul, John F, Ian W and me.
I wasn't sure what route to take this evening, and asked the group whether they would prefer to go south-east to Six Mile Bottom or north-east towards Reach. No-one seemed to mind which way we went, so I suggested we set off along Hills Road to Addenbrooke's and over the Gogs to Fulbourn. We could then ride through Great Wilbraham to Little Wilbraham, where we could stop and decide where to go next.
By the time we reached Little Wilbraham the rain had arrived and was getting steadily heavier, so I decided against turning east to Six Mile Bottom in favour of continuing north to Bottisham. This would allow us to make a short loop into the Fens and along the Lodes Way whilst keeping the option of bailing out and heading directly to the pub in Quy.
At Bottisham, with the rain getting really quite heavy now, Paul decided to take a short-cut to the pub whilst the rest of us carried on towards Swaffham Bulbeck. Gareth sped ahead to have a longer ride, leaving John, Alex, Ian and me to continue through Swaffham Prior to Reach.
We reached the Lodes Way north of Reach just before 8pm, and paused briefly before turning west towards Quy. As we stood there I heard a loud hissing sound from Alex's direction: his tyre had decided to have a puncture.
Puncture north of Reach
To our relief the rain stopped almost immediately, allowing Alex to change the tube without difficulty, and after about fifteen minutes we were back on our way, following the Lodes Way across White Fen to Lode. With the rain now passed the final half-hour before sunset was now mild and pleasant. From Lode, a two-mile sprint along the B1102 brought us to Quy just after 8.30pm, in good time to order drinks and bowls of chips at The White Swan.
Paul had been there some time, and after about ten minutes we were joined by Gareth who, as expected, had enjoyed a longer loop via Wicken and Upware.
Fenland ponies at Little Fen, Wicken (Photo: Gareth Rees)
Afterwards we all returned home. I rode back to Cambridge via Fen Ditton and Ditton meadows, arriving back home just after 9.55pm. I had cycled
26 miles.
Download
GPS track (GPX).
1 comments from old website
Thursday 6th Aug 2015 at 9.36am
I had a puncture too, but luckily not until I was within a kilometre of home. 71 km (44 miles) for me!