Thursday, 20 December 2018
Seb writes: A dozen riders met at Brookside for the City Start of Thursday's ride to Balsham and Saffron Walden, led by Alan. It was a light morning and the temperature was chilly 4 degrees Celsius. We set off across Parker's Piece, Midsummer Common, Riverside Road and Stourbridge Common to Fen Ditton. In Stow-cum-Quy we joined the cycle path passing Anglesey Abbey and continued on to Swaffham Bulbeck. We turned south-east for Dullingham and then south-west for Balsham, with a slight detour to Weston Colville, arriving at the The Old Butcher's Shop cafe a few minutes after 11am.
The village group was already there and someone said there had been 16 of them. Although the the cafe was full of cyclists and others, service was rapid and I had a delicious pain-au-chocolat with a large latte. We left about 11.30am, this time in a group of eight. Some returned to Cambridge. The village group had left shortly before us but we saw them ahead as we rode towards West Wickham. They must have taken a longer route to Saffron Walden, I guess via Horseheath, and were scheduled to have lunch at The Curious Goat.
We instead turned south for Bartlow. It's only about 10 miles from Balsham to Saffron Walden so at Ashdon, we turned left onto Radwinter Lane, and then joined the meandering New House Lane. Parts of it were muddy, and I was glad I'd chosen my 1991 Condor tourer with mudguards, but it was almost completely traffic-free and we rode in a bunch. We rejoined the Ashdon Road and arrived at Saffron Walden soon after 12.30. The Temeraire was busy and all the tables inside were full so we sat outside under the cover of a their large tile-covered timber-framed outbuilding. Luckily it had warmed up to 6 degrees Celsius by this time. Service was excellent and the food soon arrived. We were amazed how inexpensive a good lunch was with a pint seemingly included in the cost.
Lunch at The Temeraire
We were all aware how chilly it was, so we didn't linger after lunch but set off soon after 1.30pm. The return route took us past a busy Audley End which was holding a holiday event for children, onto the B1383 north to Littlebury. We turned west to Chrishall Grange, crossed the A505 relatively easily, then Fowlmere, Newton and Great Shelford. The group gradually dispersed and I came back along the DNA path. I arrived home at 3.20pm having ridden door-to-door 58 miles (94 km).
Seb Macmillan
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GPS track (GPX).