The morning rain had passed to reveal a fine and sunny afternoon, and eight riders turned out for this afternoon's ride. Our tea stop today was the cafe at Morrison's supermarket in Cambourne. Since this stopped serving at 3.30pm, our ride leader Gareth took us straight there, following the B1046 through Barton, Comberton and Toft. Although it was a bit breezy with a bit of a headwind, this was a very pleasant ride, with just a few puddles to remind us of the less pleasant weather earlier.
When we reached Bourn we rode north through the village and turned left onto the track that leads into Cambourne. We arrived at Morrison's at about 3.25pm, with the sun still shining and in good time for a cup of coffee and a slice of Christmas cake.
We had only ridden 14 miles to tea, so Gareth suggested we took a roundabout route back to Cambridge. We headed east along the old A428 to Hardwick and turned left to Dry Drayton, continuing over the A14 to Oakington. It was getting dark now, and the traffic was rather busier than it had been earlier, but a tailwind pushed us along.
From Oakington we continued towards Westwick. When we reached the junction with the guided busway, we turned right onto the cycle track that runs alongside it and followed it east towards Cambridge. The cycle track is not yet open and doesn't have a hard surface, but is clear and relatively easy to cycle along. The only problems were an area of flooding at Westwick station, and occasional patches of very loose gravel. I hadn't been along here before and even though it was now quite dark it was interesting to try it out at last. One day this will be a fine cycle route, though probably not a very scenic one. Apart from a couple of road crossings the route was entirely traffic-free until we reached Milton Road in Cambridge. Here our group split up; I headed towards the city centre, arriving home at 5.30pm after riding a modest 29 miles.
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