Club Run Report - Sunday 6th April
Our Sunday ride welcomed the return of not only the brisk south-westerly but the return of Geoff, who we’d not seen in the UK since the end of the summer last year. Possibly as a result of the deterioration in the weather the numbers starting from the square were down on recent weeks, but there were still eight of us forming Group 1 for the longer route.
The route took us to the edge of the Essex border and the highest point in Cambridgeshire, Gt Chishill (I suppose the clue's in the name), although we did miss out the Chapel Hill climb on the way to Barrington by carrying on to Duxford.
With the windier conditions it was decided to repeat the efforts of the previous week and keep to a minute on the front rather than elongated periods to conserve energy and this worked well. The main climb on the route that gained us the height was after we exited Littlebury and this split the group and saw one of our number bonk on the hill. After a few minutes hiatus we re-grouped and continued through territory familiar to me anyway, before the long and quick descent down to the A505. Unfortunately this was broken up by the only puncture of the day half way down the descent. There was a rumour of a bike being upside down on its saddle and bars for a moment, but this was quickly addressed before it was spotted by “you know who”.
We pushed on for home with the benefit of a tailwind for much of the way and received the additional benefit of a draft from a tractor up Wimpole Hill, which was actually holding us up but passing it proved difficult on the narrow road. The A1198 was done at speed with motivation on hand to those that might be wavering until we turned off at Longstowe and moved to through and off as we were now down to lower numbers.
The final sprint was contested by 3 with Joe taking the honours. Overall a good morning's work and a good route. To top it off Caffé Nero seemed unseasonably quiet.
