I have recently learned that with the CTC rides you do not have to start at the stating point as long as you know where they are going you can meet them along the way. Also you can always cycle home by yourself any time you want to. You are not committing when starting the ride to finish at the same point as the CTC ride leader.
On Sunday, I planned to try to cycle 100 miles. However, my wife and I were at the evening reception of the wedding of a colleague of mine and staying at a hotel near Bedford. In morning, we had a full English breakfast and got back home after 10am. Still wanting to ride as much as possible that day looked at where the all day ride was going to (http://rides.ctc-cambridge.org.uk/search/label/201007). Where the coffee stop was in St. Neots, and lunch stop in Harrold, Bedford and thought I could catch them up. I emailed the CTC to discover what time the coffee stop and lunch stops were. I several replies from CTC ride leaders stating that generally they get to a coffee stop about 11am and stay for 30 minutes and they generally get to lunch stop about 1pm. I already knew that the tea stops where about 5pm where the all day riders and the afternoon riders join up and sometimes ride back together.
I got into my cycling gear, I then looked at the google maps as I could not find my OS map to prepare a route. I plotted my route and wrote down villages that I would pass in order to reach the Coffee stop. I then prepared my bike e.g filling my water bottles and waterproofs and tools and attaching them all to the bike. When I left it was 10:50 am. I knew that the CTC had two hours on me but I was prepared to try to catch them. I set off from Cottenham, through Oakington then across the A14 to Dry Drayton. I then headed west to Highfields. the reality that I would not catch them for Coffee was setting in when I reached Bourn at 11:20 am. Heard the sound of a low flying aeroplane and stopped to get a photograph. When I stopped I realised that it was a plane towing a glider. I took my pictures and then I pressed on. Longstowe then Little Gransden and Great Gransden before getting to Abbotsley. When I arrived at Abbotsley it reminded me of the Avengers. I travelled along the street and there where all sorts of Scarecrows dressed as different people for example there were some that looked like witches and others that looked like in suits. I asked a local what it was all about and they said that it was Abbotsleys annual Scarecrow festival and people make scarecrows to make money for the Community centre. Each year they have a theme, this year it is people from history, fact or fiction. This explained a lot. But they were still odd.
I spent a while looking at these and following scarecrow signs around the village that I gave up on catching up with the CTC until tea.
After eventually leaving Abbotsley, I cycled the short distance to St. Neots, stopped at a pub called “The New Inn” and had a very nice Hunter’s chicken meal and a glass of Orange and soda. Whilst in the pub, I decided to plan my route to the tea stop. I opened the browser on my Android phone and went to the ctc-cambridge web site and found out that the tea stop was the Axe and Compass pub in Hemingford Abbots. I opened up Google maps on myphone and decided to take the scenic route there via Grafham Water as it was not much of a detour.
I set off North West through Hail Weston and Perry, stopping for a few minutes at Grafham Water to watch the people in boats and wind surfers before continuing. I headed through the underpass under the A1 and on to Offord Cluny. I then headed north again to Godmanchester and then south east down the A1196 which was quite a busy road. I then travelled though Hilton and on to Hemingford Grey arriving at the Axe and compass in Hemingford Abbots at 4:30pm.
Knowing that the CTC will be there about 5pm I got another orange and soda and waited for them whilst I watched the golf on TV. When the others got there we had sandwiches and cakes in the back room with a cup of tea. After tea I travelled back with the CTC as far as Oakington and then left them and travelled on to Cottenham. I got home about 7pm, having done a total of 70 miles that day. It is not the hundred miles that I was after, but since I will be doing the London to Cambridge next weekend and I will have very little time for cycling between now and then, it is not bad.
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