Fens: Dykes End, Reach - Five Miles from Anywhere, Upware - Haymakers, Chesterton

The peloton rolled out of Cambridge in hot and muggy conditions, bound for the Fens

Stourbridge Common: I point at a horse

After Fen Ditton, Hamish and Sandeep were able to stretch their legs on High Ditch Road, before the pack reassembled near Stow for a tricky road-crossing procedure

Sandeep about to flirt with death

Through Bottisham, Lode, on to the Fens

One of these people knows the way

Pausing only to identify a perfectly mown field as a drug-running airstrip (later found to be a turf-selling business), we improvised a wrong turn to Swaffham Prior and pegged the last mile or so to Reach

Sandeep teaches his bike a lesson by turning it upside down

The serious business of refuelling

A Jon in the country. Rafe arrives

Unfortunately no documentary footage exists of the now infamous Upware incident, but contributing factors were:

· Dithering over whether to follow the road to the right or go straight on

· Slightly panicky calls of 'Car! Car!' (said vehicles were approaching slowly and with understandable wariness)

· Diana accelerating nimbly round the corner to the right

· Rafe failing to anticipate this maneuvre

Anyway the net result was Rafe's front wheel getting clipped which meant he had to bounce along on his shoulder for a bit. Bruised and grazed, he manfully absorbed the news that we had no medical back-up. Not even savlon.

Unbeknownst to us, though, there was a more serious casualty, and as we rolled to Five Miles from Anywhere, Diana's back tyre slowly but surely let out all of its air.

Hambo wrestles the vehicle we would come to know as 'that f***ing bike'

At this stage we still had hope. Those are 24 inch wheels,
in case you were wondering

Jim displays his offroad capability

More from the gurning portfolio

Something funny just happened

The back tyre of the Peugot had been awkward to re-fit, due to there being not much of it left. It wobbled and bulged in a way that sapped the confidence, and made a worrying 'swishing' noise as it revolved. A mile or so from Upware it was declared officially unrideable, and alternative travel strategies were devised.

Attack of the fenland pixie

Jim helps out with the bike-pushing

Riders of a different stamp, or possibly fewer lagers, might have been tempted to abandon the Peugot to an ignominous taxi pick-up. By this time, though, it had acquired a totemic aura, which seemed only to increase with the counter-urge to chuck the thing in a ditch. And after all, we learned something; bike-pushing is more efficient when sandwiched between two riders, though there is a corresponding reduction in control.
Come Lode, though, the valiant attempt faltered. Bike-pushing on a proper road at dusk seemed unwise, and the cycle path was too narrow.

Sandeep expresses his feelings on the controversial bike-carrying proposal

With a bittersweet mingling of regret and relief - but mostly relief - we tied the awful thing to a lamp-post. I had realised that a few gentle shandies were enitrely compatible with a ride-home-and-drive-back-for-the-bike plan, so with some pacing from Hamish, made off past Anglesey Abbey and onto Newmarket Road for a nice spot of Langstering.

Sunset on the fens

The amazing bike-carrying capacity of the Honda

After multiple fractures and regroupings of the Peleton, we reassembled for victory pizza at the Haymakers.

Town - Gt Shelford - Whittlesford - Duxford - Fowlmere - Thriplow - Newton - Granchester - Town

We set off nice and promply at 5pm and soon lost Jon, but we managed to regroup on the guided busway and had fun and frolics past Addenbrooks and down the DNA pathway. There was the opportunity for Hamish to express power early.

Hamble and Neil first sped past the helix

The gang at the helix, Gt Shelford

We headed down through Gt Shelford, Hamish and Neil taking the road and the rest of us on the cycle path. A slightly less beautiful cycle path to Sawston narrowly missing some speeding angry man soon found us crossing the main road and getting on a lovely cycle path towards Whittlesford. After passing the bare chested tatooed youth by the river we found ourselves in the Whittlesford church.

Ancient site where Magna Carta was probably drafted

The plan was to stop at the The Bees in the Wall in Whittlesford. I've tried to go here on many occasions, and I've heard it does good beer. However once again it was shut. We did see some bees in the wall though. We wiggled through Whittlesford on a winding route towards Duxford. Duxford has a choice of three pubs, and I chose the Plough as it has a nice garden. For kids.

bikes

Neil speaks knowledgably on lepidoptery

Sandeep finds a bouncy ball

He's off!

They don't have these in Spain

showing promise...

Ooops!

Refreshed, we left towards Fowlmere - but managed to split the group as some of us headed to have a look at the Norman church while others headed out directly; were we mislead my mischeivous locals?!
We gathered the peloton back together on the grange road bridge. A pleasant ride on this quiet farm road led us to Fowlmere, with just a few stops for crop inspection. Fowlmere is blessed with three pubs right next to each other, but we resisted, and pushed on to Thriplow, where there is a village owned pub opposite the green, The Green Man. This was another pub I've always wanted to try. And it was good, even if the beers were a bit stronger than I'd been hoping for.

Neil at Thriplow

Just a quick ride found us at the The Queen's Head in Newton. This has long been one of my favourite Cambridgeshire pubs, cycling here was my initial idea for the ride.

The Queens Head

We've ordered one to many beers

Sandeep narrowly missed by laser from Mars

The sun was getting lower now, and we decided to try the Canteloupe Road route from Haslingfield, which possibly meant being shot by the farmer. The racer riders took in the hill at Barrington just for kicks, and took the road route back to town. It turned out that we were fine and could legally use the bridle way, where we gots some nice sunset views.

selfie without self

selfie

joyously we headed home

Along the way, we also passed the Mullard Radio Telescopes, which are pretty cool

Radio telescope sunset

Crossing the motorway.

 We had to lift our bikes up the steps to get over the motorway. But the route was fine, maybe even for those racing boys.

We celebrate the succesful crossing to Granchester

A little ride to Granchester, where we crossed the meadows and cycled back beside the river.
 

The photo is not blurred. This is how I remember it.

We finished off the night with a curry at the Saffron Brasserie. Where I ate far too much, and should have drank some water instead beer. The food was very good.