Now and then

[lnr]

We did the CamCycle Reach Ride today, for the first time in 10 years!

2014

Up until Monday morning we were not sure if we were going to attempt the Reach Ride this year, but we woke and decided it seemed like a good idea, and set off with the bakfiets at around 9.30am. We thought we were not going to make it to the Guildhall by 10.00am so figured we would head into town along the Busway, then join the route on Riverside, and hopefully catch the other riders there. When we arrived there was no sign of any other bikes, and for a while we were not sure if we were too early or too late! We decided to just press on along the route though and see if/when they caught us up

The first few riders overtook us along the Old Newmarket Road, and when we stopped for a break at the little triangle green in Bottisham (where there was some confusion as to whether the route was following NCN11 or NCN51, but people were helpfully pointing out the correct way) this was where the bulk of the ride started to overtake us, and it was clear just how many people were taking part.

We pressed on and it was nice to find ourselves heading through Lode and onto tiny roads which we do not think we have ever used before – though encountering cars coming the other way was in places a little alarming. It was interesting to see a wide range of different speeds of riders, and that despite the bakfiets we were probably overtaking as many people as overtook us.

When we arrived at Reach we had time to sit and enjoy our picnic by the bikes in the sunshine and Mike snapped us feeding Matthew. We enjoyed the fair too, but did not stay too long. Rather than waiting for the official return ride we struck off on our own with a more direct route straight home to Shelford, and shaved over 4 miles off the journey, without encountering too much traffic. And Matthew napped most of the way home too 🙂

2024

We decided to join the CamCycle ride to Reach Fair, but to try and meet it just beyond the Newmarket Road P&R, where they were expecting to pass about 10:30. We were a bit late setting off, so took the shorter but hillier route over Hinton Way and Lime Kiln Hill, but then opted for the slightly longer way round to Airport Way, and reached Newmarket Road jist after 10:30. We were assured the main ride was not far behind us (as i stopped to take a Union related phonecall on the Quy Mill Hotel road). So we carried on expecting to be caught - and weren't :) we arrived about 20 minutes before the fair opened in the end, and had a burger, sone icecream and dome cake, and watched the opening ceremony, but we were very wary of the ominous black skies to the south!

Setting off early back from Reach we took a route through the Swaffhams back to Lode, passing throughthe other two arms of the crossroads there. The bike path from Lode to Quy remains a joy, and the road through Quy itself not too bad. Retracinv our route down to and along Airport Way we took the more direct route straight down Cherry Hinton High Street, and then used Queen Ediths/Nightingale Ave to avoid going back over Lime Kiln. Overall surprised to find it only 3km shorter- but a lot less hill :) a few drops of rain along the DNA path, but in the end it held off until after we got home (then rained steadily all afternoon!) Good timing! (And only a couple of "are we nearly there yet"s)