Sunday, 08 April 2018
Nigel writes: Although spring definitely seems to have arrived, with less wind and much milder temperatures than even a week ago, today was a damp and dreary day, with almost continuous light drizzle interspersed with periods of light rain. Perhaps inevitably there was a smaller-than-usual turnout for today's ride, with six riders at Brookside (Mike P, Mike CC, Alex, Nick W and me) and one more (Rupert) joining us as we headed out of the city.
Brookside
Our leader today was Mike P, taking us around the three sides of an isosceles triangle, with the start point, coffee stop and lunch place forming the three vertices. The first side of this triangle took us north-east to Red Lodge.
Snailwell
Snailwell
Our coffee stop was the Red Lodge Cafe, a simple transport-style cafe which I had visited once before, but which we were visiting as a club for the first time today. We arrived there to find Adrian, Edmund and Keith already there. We were the only customers and were served quickly with our food arriving almost instantly. Whilst we were eating Chris arrived, riding his backup bike which boasts a large front basket.
Breakfast at Red Lodge Cafe
After coffee we set off along the second side of the triangle: south towards the outskirts of Haverhill.
Red Lodge
This was a very pleasant stage of the ride, through a series of villages that we have often passed through in the past but usually when heading east-west, unlike today when we were heading south.
Gazeley
We reached Sturmer Nurseries at about 1.15pm. The club has visited here several times but this was my first visit. It was quite small but very pleasant.
We left the cafe to discover that the drizzle had turned to steady rain, and for the first time today I put on my rain jacket. However the rain didn't last and before long I was taking it off again. Today was a two-stop ride, which can sometimes mean the return after lunch can be a long slog. However today the ride was more evenly-balanced than usual, and it didn't take long to get back to Cambridge. I arrived home at 4pm, having cycled 114km (
70 miles).
Nigel Deakin
Download
GPS track (GPX).