Thursday, 15 March 2018
Edward writes: The weather forecast wasn't great, with rain predicted for most of the morning, and this must have deterred many of our regular riders. The city ride was cancelled, there being no leader, but out in the country Ian B, our leader, far from having no mates had a group of nine. The interesting thing about this is that there were only three men, but six women which might say something about the menfolk in the club, except Andy, of course, who was out in his shorts!
There was certainly light rain at the start and this persisted on and off for most of the morning. We set off through the Shelfords, up Hinton Way, to be nicely warmed up for the climb over the Gogs. En-route we had been joined by Phil and when we reached Fulbourn we were joined by Simon which nearly evened out the male-female ratio.
After Fulbourn we came to Great Wilbraham and followed this on the race track down to Six Mile Bottom. The wind, which was very slight, was in the south east, although slightly against us, was never a real issue.
After Six Mile Bottom we began the long and weary climb towards Brinkley but took the turning to Dullingham before we reached the top. From Dullingham we took the roads towards Stetchworth before eventually turning onto the long straight road into Newmarket, arriving shortly after 11am.
In Newmarket we were joined by Peter W and with only twelve riders the Tack Room, although busy, was able to deal easily enough with our requests.
For the onward leg to Fordham we became a group of seven, but just as we were leaving Lorraine discovered that her tyre had gone down. This became a lengthy job as the tyre proved particularly difficult to remove - it seemed as if it was welded on - where was Mike when he's needed! In the end it came off, the offending object was detected and, with the help of Sharon's tweezers, removed. The tyre was pumped up (eventually) and we were ready to go. This joint effort had taken almost half an hour, but Peter had already left and was out on the tourist route on his way to Moulton.
In view of the delay Ian decided on a shorter route via Snailwell to Chippenham which probably took eight or nine miles off the planned journey. From Chippenham to Fordham is only a short run and we arrived at Simpson's Nursery at 1.15pm to find Peter already there wondering around looking at the plants.
Lunch at Fordham
The cafe was busy but they were able to accommodate our little group easily enough and we were ready for the journey home by 2.10 pm.
Leaving Fordham
Burwell
We came home by way of Burwell, Reach, the Swaffhams, where Peter left us, and then onto the Lode to Quy cycleway. Along here someone had been very active decorating some the boundary posts with crocheting (see picture) in the form of Catherine wheels. Not only that - there were cycle helmets also with crocheting on them. Some people do such nice things to make life a little more pleasant for others.
On the Lode-Quy cycleway
Decorating the cycleway
After the quiet of the village roads we were hit by the usual wall of noise alongside the A1303 and down into Cherry Hinton. We completed the ride on the DNA path finishing at 4pm and
50 miles. After the damp start the afternoon was dry and we had had a very pleasant ride, so thanks to Ian for conducting us round.
Edward Elmer
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GPS track (GPX).