Q3 Cycling

The theme for the summer was to rediscover places, and discover new ones, without actually having to go too far; and it was surprising quite how many routes there were within just a few miles of home I'd never before travelled, and not just because they'd only just been built (like the new A14 crossings, or the cycle paths through the new developments on the southern fringes of Cambridge), even if there was a lot of just retracing convenient and familiar circuits involved as well.

Meridian stone

July opened with belated April showers; so rides tended to be short, if at all, until mid month, with the two long -- 30+ miles -- rides in the last third of the month. At the end of the month 17063.5 on the old bike, 3042.7 on the new and 29.67 for the folder, for a total of 359.9 miles (YTD 1301.1 -- just like that, ahead of last year). It also brought the re-opening of pubs, so a few rides out to browse and sluice at lunchtime, with suitably long winding outward journeys to work up the thirst.

For some variety, the rides included crossing to the north of the busway, into villages I'd not cycled before, and included trying the new cycle etc. bridge crossing the A14 between Boxworth and Swavesey.

St. Mary and All Saints, Willingham

St Mary's, Over

August riding was patchier, including riding home through pouring rain from having taken the car in for its MOT, with spells of good weather before temperatures collapsing at the start of the Bank Holiday, but with three long rides roughly equally spaced through the month, the numbers came out as 17119.1 on the old bike, 3277 on the new and 48.18 for the folder, for a total of 308.4 (YTD 1609.4). Noticably, cycling the same stretch of busway around Oakington on the Bank Holiday Monday there were only a few others, compared with the crowds three months earlier.

Exploration this month included heading from Gamlingay and through the Hatleys and a surprise long downhill towards Wendy; and heading through Stapleford towards Wandlebury, and thence onto the Roman Road.

St Margaret's, Abbotsley

Tadlow Granary

September brought an Indian Summer, and a run of riding every day that continued from the end of August into October, until brought to a halt by cool, windy and, most importantly, wet weather -- 17251.3 on the old bike, 3553.7 on the new and 48.18 for the folder, for a total of 408.9 miles -- the highest total since October 2015 -- (YTD 2018.4, comfortably hitting the goal for the year).

The rides included taking the new A14 crossings at Bar Hill and heading on all the way through the new build at Northstowe to Rampton, and going up through Conington to Fenstanton; but there are plenty more newly opened routes to explore, even just in that area, for stretching legs next summer.

Take this path

See this sign

And by the end of all this, the roads that had been so clear, were back to their normal levels of traffic during the evening rush hour(s).