Approximately 11 A group, 8 B group, & 3 C group members headed off to do battle with the strong & gusty westerly wind.
It was hard going which made staying in good formation tricky. Alec dropped off at Grafham (I think? I did not realise he was not there until later) & new guy Dan fell back after Kimbolton. He was given advice to wait up for the B’s and ride with them. It was good to see him at the stop.
On the way out we had a couple of indecisive moments at junctions, and very briefly took one wrong turn. There were not many Garmins on bikes to guide the way, and relying on memory can be a problem as routes cross over each other, and sometimes use the same section of road. These minor navigational errors caused some amusement amongst the peloton!
There was a brief split after the junction of the A6116 after Islip as some wanted a natural break, and others wanted to take advantage of the by now tail wind into Aldwinkle, where I hit almost 40 MPH & almost did not make the sharp LH bend! We regrouped at Aldwinkle & rode onto the new Cafe stop at Wadenhoe which I think was well received. It has a good selection of food & good service at reasonable prices, we shall be calling there again!
Having had it hard going on the way out into the wind, on the return the cross to tail blast seemed to push urge our group on, making for quite an exhilarating, if tiring run home. At least with a tailwind the pain is over that much quicker! We stayed in good, tight formation, a couple of the group dropping off the pace when they had had enough, but we weren’t far from home by then & everybody knew where they were going.
The only contested sprint was at the St. Ives town sign, Paolo showing his strength as usual to take the honours. We arrived back in St. Ives at c 12:50.
Overall it was a good ride, a little rain but never enough to get wet. It was blustery though! No punctures or other mechanicals to report from the A’s.
