Same destination, different route

[lnr]

There's some non-bike stuff at the bottom for those of you who are bored of the bike-blog :-)

In April I went out cycling for the day with Tom, we took a route out through Royston and then encountered some hills. The high point was roughly at Great Chishill, where we stopped for lunch at the Pheasant. From there we swept down to Audley End where I got the train home. Tom got a bit sunburned. It was about 28 miles.

On Saturday I went out cycling for the day with Mike, we took the NCN 11 south, intending to head west once we hit Shelford, but following it some more to see where it went. Then we struck off from Hinxton towards Duxford (taking the bridge at the official ford, but splashing though the big puddle the other side of the railway line), where we saw a grass snake crossing the road. Then we took Grange Road since it seemed to be going in vaguely the right direction, heading to Heydon and intending to lunch at the King William the IV. Sadly it stops serving food at 2 and we arrived at 2:15, so we headed on to the Pheasant at Great Chishill, roughly the high point of our journey, where in lieu of lunch we had pickled eggs and crisps and pork scratchings. From there we swept down to Audley End where we got the train home. We both got a bit sunburned. It was about 25.5 miles.

Having done two rides so similar in length and destination, with the last section in each case being identical, I was curious to compare the elevation profiles of the routes. The latter definitely felt a lot less hilly, despite having the same high point, and I think the graphs below confirm this. Though I now feel more justified for how hard work the ride up to Heydon was. Shame we didn't get our nice pub lunch!

Cambridge to Audley end via Great Chishill Route 1: via Chapel Hill and Royston

Cambridge to Audley end via Great Chishill Route 2: via Hinxton and Heydon

In other non-cycling news I took Thursday and Friday off as well as Monday, making this an extra long weekend. A couple of lazy days reading was definitely a nice plan. Sunday was also a very lazy day, with a walk down to riverside and Green Dragon bridge where we sat on the bank and watched the ducks for a bit. Monday in a nod to bank holidays we did some gardening, and our back lawn now has many holes where the used to be weeds, but hopefully it will grow back to fill them. It's been nice.

This week involves driving lessons (Weds/Fri), a visit to the dentist (Tue) and a visit from the washing machine repair person (Thu) as well as of course some work. I fear I am going to finish my re-read of books 1-6 of Harry Potter (in French) this week, about 2 months before the next one is due out. I obviously started them too soon. Will have to find some other way of distracting myself from reading Mike's English copy of book 7 til then.

Comments

[emperor]

What's that big climb at about 8 miles on route one, OOI?

[does somethign calculate the elevations for you?]

[lnr]

That's Chapel Hill between Haslingfield and Barrington. Quite distinctive, isn't it.

The route links are to the route maps on bikely.com, and that's what produces the elevation graphs. Although if you create the routes by importing GPX data it takes a while for it to get the elevation data. I usually do it that way having used toporoute.com to do the drawing, since it can follow the roads.

[emperor]

I bet "distinctive" wasn't what you were thinking at the time :-)

[lnr]

Nah, I was thinking "I am getting up this this time", and I did.

[arnhem.livejournal.com]

"this is a distinctly distinctive distinctiving hill" ?

[xanna.livejournal.com]

You learning to drive? Good luck with that. Any time you want to bitch about it to someone who doesn't make it look easy, I'm your girl.

[lnr]

Yeah, it's been a kind of on-again off-again thing since 2001 (mostly off-again). But I decided earlier this year I was going to pass before my theory ran out in December or not at all, so I've been taking lessons again all summer. 4 hours a week for the last 6 or 7 weeks. I've just got three 2 hour sessions left (Wed/Fri/Mon) and then I've got the test a week tomorrow, which hopefully I'll pass this time. Third time lucky maybe?

Mostly I'm enjoying it to be honest. Damned expensive though.

[xanna.livejournal.com]

Ooh, good luck. If it makes you feel any better I passed fifth time in the car (but to make myself feel better: first time on the bike).

Agree about the expense. I still owe j a heap of cash. :o(

[lnr]

Instructor thinks (barring things going wrong) that I ought to pass next week, so I won't be cancelling the test (this was last opportunity for him to go "argh, you're not ready!"). As far as things going wrong though it's certainly possible: two little incidents tonight, but not the end of the world.

Hope you're back on the bike soon!