Wednesday, 14 June 2017
Nigel writes: Tonight was another fine, warm, summer evening, though a persistent south-easterly breeze made us work for our supper before gently blowing us home. We assembled at Brookside for the 6.30pm start; my companions for this ride were Alex, Ray, Tom, Mark and Tim, with Chris as usual joining us as we headed out of Cambridge.
Barrow Road, Cambridge
Tonight we followed our classic south out of Cambridge to Great Shelford and then through Little Shelford, Whittlesford and Duxford to Ickleton. From here a short climb took us to the top of Coploe Hill, which we reached just before 7.30pm. We were making good progress despite the headwind so I discarded my original plan to return via Royston Lane in favour of a slightly longer loop via Catmere End, Littlebury Green and Chrishall.
Littlebury Green
The bottom of Littlebury Hill
From Chrishall a fast descent (with the wind mostly behind us now) took us down to Chrishall Grange and the final few kilometres through Fowlmere to Thriplow.
Descending from Chrishall to Chrishall Grange
We stopped at The Green Man for food and drink. This is a lovely pub, but is very popular with diners and I had been a little anxious that they might not have room for our group. However there was a large table free and when we eventually managed to order food it arrived fairly quickly. This confirmed my experience that although this is the busiest pub we visit on evening rides, we have never failed to get the food we want and have always had a very pleasant experience.
Afterwards we returned back to Cambridge, following the B1368 through Newton and Harston and then through Trumpington Meadows and the busway back into the City Centre. I arrived home at about 10.15pm, having cycled 56km (
34 miles).
Nigel Deakin
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GPS track (GPX).