Sunday, 01 April 2018
Simon writes: The lead up to this Sunday left me unable to decide whether to go with the all day or the afternoon ride. Until only a few days ago neither ride had attracted a leader, and potentially both could get cancelled. I played it like a chess game and awaited developments. In the end Edmund was placed for the all day. So rather than see the afternoon ride cancelled, to the disappointment of those who would enjoy it, I volunteered.
Within less than an hour I had Phil N on the phone to ask which way out were we going and could he meet us? Yes, at the Whittlesford A505 crossing as is convenient for him.
Lalli too, who said Mark was still growing microbes in the lab and could they meet us on the railway bridge at Addenbrookes if they couldn't make it to Brookside in time. Yes we can do that too!
So, at Brookside we started with David S, Mike CC, and Ray M, all of whom expressed a drop in fitness compared with last year's fitness levels, since this long and freezing winter had interrupted our flow. But, to start a sentence with a conjunction, Mike had a secret weapon in the shape of a new front wheel fitted with a motor hub, accompanied by a battery that was conveniently disguised in the shape of a drinks bottle (oh alright Nigel, a bidon), cunningly charged not with rider hydration but a polarised accumulation of electrons, all wanting to use the motor as a route to get to the other pole of the battery.
After following the familiar commuter route south out of Cambridge, along the busway and DNA path to Great Shelford and then on through Little Shelford, Whittlesford and Duxford, we eventually reached Ickleton, where a ride can begin to develop its own individuality.
I like to use Quickset Hill to take us though Elmdon and Duddenhoe End and on to Upper Langley Green, Further Ford End, and Brent Pelham. This is where the narrow quiet country lanes are accompanied by roadside streams of babbling open gulley drains. Every time a rock makes a step or dam to the smooth bed of sandy sediment it causes the water to shallow and speed up, making its rippling flow visible to a glancing eye. Sometimes you will hear the deep throat of an underground road drain as this stream water finds its way in to one of them and echoes around its cavity. Often, with the volume of rain we've recently had, the water will overflow the stream or the drain and start an ant like procession along the road until it finds a preferable option to leave.
As Ray organises our afternoon ride tea stops he had given us an extra half hour to do the 26 miles to the Old Swan Tea Shop in Hare Street. This meant we were afforded a relaxed rate of 11mph and we sat down to tea just 3 nano-seconds after 4pm.
Apparently the building is about 500 years old and used to be a foundry. This one was toasty warm, unlike the foundry where I worked during the winter, which vents all the hot coke and sticky clinker gases up and out through the chimneys. This was then replaced by pulling freezing cold air in as drafts though old and badly fitted doors and missing window glass.
We were greeted by Adrian L and Simon D. Adrian left while Simon opted to tarry a while and ride home with us. Phil and David were lured with the notion of riding straight up the B1368 all the way home because the word that best describes it is "direct" and they liked that idea. It's not relaxed or conducive to riding side by side to chat, so I took the remainder of our group, plus Simon, back to Great Hormead, to pick up Anderson's Lane to Anstey and then on to Nuthampstead (past the Woodman Inn, a once popular CTC haunt I'm told from eons gone by) Shaftenhoe End, Great Chiswell, Heydon and down the Chrishall Grange hill back to the A505 crossing at Flint Cross.
When we arrived back in Cambridge we had accomplished a satisfying and fulfilling
50 miles and a total climb of 524 meters without feeling that it had been a slog, especially Mike and his electro-mechanical understudy.
Later last night I was telling Sara (of Wicken Methodist Chapel tea and cake fame) about Mike's motor. She said "how many CCs is it?". "Two", I replied after a split second of unrestrained creative thought, "the one in the hub and the one doing the pedalling!"
My thanks go to Lalli, who compensates for my shameful neglect to take photos.
Simon Gallaway
More photos below.
Download
this route (GPX).