Saturday, 14 April 2018
Alex writes: Today was a trial of a new type of ride, the "Saturday café-retour". The idea is to have a ride with an early start and a single stop so everybody can be back home at lunchtime to enjoy a "free" afternoon.
On my way cycling to the start Nigel fell in beside me, and at Brookside we were joined by Geoff J and guest rider Sally having her first taste of CTC Cambridge. (I learned after the ride that Michael S intended to join, but was delayed getting to the start. He nevertheless rode the entire route solo!)
An 08:15 start meant the roads were nicely quiet as we worked our way out of Cambridge. We passed through the Shelfords and Duxford, then along Grange road before climbing up towards Chrishall.
The forecast had been for a grey day, but we had blue skies and the temperature rose to the point - that blessed point - where I judged it was time for the first bare arms of the year. Ahhhh. It's been a long winter.
From Chrishall we took quiet roads through a familiar succession of villages (Langley Upper Green, the Pelhams, Gravesend) before crossing the A120. Shortly thereafter we turned to the West onto Chapel Lane, a new road to me, that traced a very attractive "up and over" past Sun's Wood.
From there it was a short haul through Standon to Puckeridge and our coffee stop, the Something Lovely Tea Room. Part of the purpose of this ride was to perform a reconnaissance to see whether it would be a suitable club stop.
And it did indeed seem suitable, with a cyclist-friendly attitude and menu (sandwiches, breakfasts, jacket potatoes, cakes, etc.). Ray will be particularly pleased to learn they also have a good selection of loose-leaf teas.
After our savoury breakfasts we felt our reconnaissance duties bound us to test a cake too. Very good!
The return route to Cambridge was direct, on the B1368. I'm not sure if it was the cake, the sunshine, or what - but everybody seemed rather frisky and we make very good time indeed, arriving back in Trumpington after 75 minutes. I peeled off there to do some shopping in Waitrose.
When I got home I found I had cycled
94 km (58 miles) on what was the nicest day so far this year for riding.
Download
GPS track
(GPX).