England : Cambridgeshire Not a Christmas Friday Night ride - 11th December

[User10571]

Hah!

 

[robjh]

And did everyone see the deer around Stanstead?

Yes -five of them if I counted right. They started runing parallel to us, then luckily jumped over the fence into the trees rather than heading our way.
Did anyone see the fox standing about a foot from us in a park later on, just after we'd left the towpath?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Yes -five of them if I counted right. They started runing parallel to us, then luckily jumped over the fence into the trees rather than heading our way.
Did anyone see the fox standing about a foot from us in a park later on, just after we'd left the towpath?

I saw the deer, and I saw a good sized rat on the towpath.

 

[ianrauk]

I saw the deer, and I saw a good sized rat on the towpath.

and a huge dead summat.... badger or small deer. I was going too fast and it was too dark to see properly.

 

[frank9755]

I saw the deer, and I saw a good sized rat on the towpath.

I tend not to ride on the towpaths at night after a clubmate told me about doing it once and having a succession of rats jumping past his front wheel. I don't fancy the clean-up job if one went through my spokes!

 

[Gordon P]

it would work better in reverse, but simply following the Dun Run route out of London

I'm not sure about it being better in reverse: London is a fine destination; you'd need to think about an Arrivée along King's Parade or something rather than the station! North to south worked for me - quickly out into quiet roads, the sense of putting miles behind us quickly early on, then the pleasures of the Essex lanes & a few undulating challenges with a grand view of the lights of London from High Beach. Plus for many riders an easy homeward journey.

But I do agree that the Dun Run route would be a better escape. Your route from Mott Hill (the descent from the forest) & eventually along the river was fine for 14 of us but had too many twists & turns, not to mention the towpath & associated risks & puddles, for a larger group. It worked well too as we knew we were closing in on breakfast, and were quite early. At the start of a ride from London there is some urgency to get on with it: to escape the bright lights & emerge in the dark country with the big sky; not to fragment at lights & obstacles & junctions, particularly with a larger group which the ride deserves.

 

[redflightuk]

Thanks for organising this ride Adam and the weather. I rode up to Cambridge after finding a new route along some surprisingly quiet and wide lanes. I found the Station and grabbed some food just before the shop closed. Once everyone had arrived we set off for London. Once again Adam provided us with a great route, I kept as far as I could from the edge of the towpath as I didn't fancy a swim in the middle of December. It was great to catch up with peeps I haven't seen for ages and meet new friends along the way. I headed straight home from Liverpool Street to get as far as I could before the rain started, I made it to Brookmans Park so only 40 minutes of rain.
Towards the end of the ride I kept feeling a bit of a knock in the headset area, everything felt secure so I carried on home, this morning I've just taken it apart it all looks fine so put it back together and tightened it all up and no more knocking.

Thanks again everyone for a great night and I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and look forward to seeing you in the new year.

 

[Dogtrousers]

@ianrauk will be relieved to learn that I have just cleaned my bike.

 

[mmmmartin]

They are fantastic - website material, except that they are a bit white and male yet again, which can't be helped this time.

We have gone to a lot of effort on the website to ensure no one can be identified in the pics - not everyone likes having their pics on the internet. And in the two outdoors-in-the-country photos, apart from a couple of faces, everyone is unidentifiable as either white or male. They could all be lady eskimos. (We all know who they are from their stance and their bikes, but a random observer wouldn't.)

 

[rb58]

I tend not to ride on the towpaths at night after a clubmate told me about doing it once and having a succession of rats jumping past his front wheel. I don't fancy the clean-up job if one went through my spokes!

Reminds me of the first time we rode back from Doncaster. In the depth of the night, somewhere along a cycle path around Stixwold, there were hundreds of rabbits (literally) diving in all directions. It was like a scene from a movie and to this day I'm not sure how we made it through without a rabbit in the spokes. And yet, when we went the same way earlier this year, not a single one.

 

[ianrauk]

Reminds me of the first time we rode back from Doncaster. In the depth of the night, somewhere along a cycle path around Stixwold, there were hundreds of rabbits (literally) diving in all directions. It was like a scene from a movie and to this day I'm not sure how we made it through without a rabbit in the spokes. And yet, when we went the same way earlier this year, not a single one.

They remembered...

 

[mjr]

somewhere along a cycle path around Stixwold, there were hundreds of rabbits (literally) diving in all directions

I have the same situation on the cycle track between A10 and A149 at the Hardwick junction. A fringe benefit of my Axa HR bottle dynamo whining is that it gets the rabbits moving before I get close enough for them to be a problem

 

[robjh]

I'm not sure about it being better in reverse: London is a fine destination; you'd need to think about an Arrivée along King's Parade or something rather than the station! North to south worked for me - quickly out into quiet roads, the sense of putting miles behind us quickly early on, then the pleasures of the Essex lanes & a few undulating challenges with a grand view of the lights of London from High Beach. Plus for many riders an easy homeward journey.

But I do agree that the Dun Run route would be a better escape. Your route from Mott Hill (the descent from the forest) & eventually along the river was fine for 14 of us but had too many twists & turns, not to mention the towpath & associated risks & puddles, for a larger group. It worked well too as we knew we were closing in on breakfast, and were quite early. At the start of a ride from London there is some urgency to get on with it: to escape the bright lights & emerge in the dark country with the big sky; not to fragment at lights & obstacles & junctions, particularly with a larger group which the ride deserves.

Both directions have their attractions, but a full-size Fridays group would be getting into London an hour or more later than we did, when the traffic will not be quite so light.
Heading for Cambridge you could add a little extra distance by heading to the east or west of the Cam valley route (B1383) that we took, on quieter roads and without it becoming too hilly (at least nothing remotely approaching the South Downs!). I've linked to a couple of examples here, but you could work out many more variations on these.
via Thaxted - east of B1383 pretty villages but a couple of climbs around Thaxted
via Clavering - west of B1383 more even gradients then good descent towards the A505
IMO an arrival in Cambridge along Kings Parade would be a must. There's a café open in town from 7, and a Wetherspoons nearby from 8.

 

[Flying Dodo]

I had in fact also worked on a London to Cambridge route, basically using some of the DunRun roads, but then from Stansted simply reversing the way we went, back to Cambridge, so ending up with 66 miles from HPC to the station. A third less climbing though.

For any cafe, as well as being open early, they must be able to cater for large numbers and have sufficient lamp posts/cycle stands for bike locking. The stands just down from The Regal probably only has space for about 15 bikes, so are there any others which might be possible?

 

[mjr]

The stands just down from The Regal probably only has space for about 15 bikes, so are there any others which might be possible?

There's 24 on the corner outside John Lewis, some outside the college opposite (which may be full, depending on time of year - not sure if it's private, too), 32 on the corner of Parker's Piece behind Pizza Hut (plus a fence along that side), 230 in Rutland Cycling's place under Grand Arcade (but it doesn't open until 9am on Saturdays), then dotted in banks of up to 30 up St Andrews Street and Hobson Street. All the other really big cycle parks in that area seem to be private college ones.

Cycle parking in Cambridge city centre is a bit of a mess really. Other than Grand Arcade, the other big public cycle park is Park Street which I think is up for demolition. I'm not sure what the councils are playing at or why the police aren't screaming for more to stop people leaving bikes easily nickable and locked to nothing.