28 Aug: Evening ride to Hemingford Abbots

Nigel writes: Sunset is advancing at the moment at a rate of about 15 minutes a week. A week ago Wednesday sunset was at 8.11pm, tonight it was at 7:56pm, and in a week's time the sun will have set by 7:40pm. The nights are definitely drawing in. Nevertheless it's still August, which means that despite the approaching darkness tonight was warm and dry, with hardly any wind. A lovely evening for a club run.

There were seven riders riders at Brookside for this evening's ride: Gareth, Klaas, Neil, John, newcomers Nils and Franz, and me. We were joined along the way by Paul at Oakington and and Jeremy at Hemingford Abbots, making a total of nine.

We set off from Brookside through the city centre, up Castle Hill and out of the city along Huntingdon Road. We turned right at Girton Corner and continued through Girton until we reached New Road, which we followed as far as its junction with the busway.

New Road between Girton and the busway

Once we were on the busway it was just a case of settling down to riding at your preferred pace until you reached St Ives. In the case of Gareth the pace was rapid and, as on other recent rides, he was soon disappearing into the distance. The rest of us followed at a slower, but still quite brisk, pace.

After a short while we reached St Ives. We rode through the town centre before joining the Thicket path to Houghton. We crossed the Ouse (wheeling our bikes underneath the mill) and cycled across the meadows to Hemingford Abbots. There we stopped for drinks at The Axe and Compasses. We were warned that there was a long wait for food so we purchased drinks and packets of crisps which we enjoyed sitting outside in the garden.

The Axe and Compasses, Hemingford Abbots. Exposure: 1s at f2.8 (thanks Nils for loan of tripod)

Afterwards we turned on our lights and rode back to Cambridge via Hemingford Grey, St Ives and the busway once more. I arrived home at 9.50pm, having cycled 36 miles.


View this GPS track on a larger map