Sunday, 19 September 2021
Ray writes: This title is a bit misleading as we didn't actually make it to Reed in the end but cut the ride short to have coffee at El Cafecito in Fowlmere. The club calendar is short of rides at the moment (I'm wondering if all our ride leaders booked their holidays for the weeks immediately following the school holidays) but as I was planning to ride this morning with Mark and Lalli I thought I might as well offer it as a club ride. I didn't get around to announcing it until Friday, and I'm not sure if it was the short notice or the poor weather forecast but there was only one other taker, with John E joining us this morning.We ran into a road closure by the church in Shelford - there was a big hole in the middle of the road but were able to get through on bikes. We weren't so lucky when we got to Grange Road in Duxford, which was closed for an air show: they had security guards preventing access even to cyclists and pedestrians.
This wasn't a big problem as we just carried on to Ickleton and a different climb to Elmdon. Here we had a discussion about whether or not to cut the ride short: John was on a heavy mountain bike and slow on the climbs, and Lalli was suffering knee pain after a physio session. We were also very conscious that rain was forecast from midday, so we all agreed to cut the ride short and make for El Cafecitio in Fowlmere instead.
Rather than taking the direct route, we carried on through Heydon and Great Chishill to Shaftenhoe End, where we turned for Barley and the B-road to Fowlmere.
We had all ridden past El Cafecito before but had never stopped there. It turned out to be a lovely café with a good selection of sweet and savoury snacks and excellent coffee. They were doing a pretty good trade too; the queue kept moving but never got any shorter as new people joined. I'd estimate that more than half the customers were cyclists too.
From there we took the road past the RSPB reserve to Melbourn, then via Frog End to Shepreth. One final gratuitous loop took us to Barrington via Malton Lane and Orwell, then over Chapel Hill and home down Barton Road. I was home shortly before 2pm with still no sign of the threatened rain!