Wednesday, 01 November 2017
Tom N writes: The evening rides have now become night-time riding and despite clear skies and a near-full moon we were down to three riders at the 18:30 start: Gareth R(leading), Andrew S and me. Although a little lower on numbers than the summer evening rides, the smaller group enabled us to do more of our own thing.
So we set off at a good pace heading southbound down the DNA path to Great Shelford, then on to Whittlesford and Ickleton. From Ickleton we took a turn to the right, heading west up Quickset Road and we started the inevitable and steady climb to Elmdon.
This was the point at which the pace we had initially set started to differentiate us. Gareth climbed the hill as if nothing was really there, Andrew was somewhere in the middle, recovering from a cold and doing impressively well in the circumstances, and I dropped down a gear to make a slightly slower ascent (albeit faster than my normal uphill pace), us all regrouping at each suitable mini-summit before pushing on again.
We were making great time and were enjoying the opportunity to set a faster pace and and for each of us to push ourselves a little bit more than a typical CTC ride, particularly as the evening rides are relatively short.
A right turn at the end of Hertford Lane and we were downhill all the way though Chrishall Grange to Fowlmere which we cruised through at about 8pm and then pedalled the last few miles to Shepreth and beyond to our pub stop at the Royal Oak in Barrington, arriving at 8.15pm. Here we had a drink and some great pub food (I can recommend the fish and chips), which set us up well for the immediate climb over Chapel Hill and, once completed, the gentle ride home.
We arrived back in Cambridge with approximately 55 km (
34 miles) behind us, although Gareth's cycle computer was double-counting and indicated an impressive 110 km (68 miles) had been completed. We may have been slightly faster than normal but not that fast!