After my ride along the Roman Road from Cambridge to Balsham was cut short by my lack of preparedness I had some unfinished business and went back to cycle the route again on Monday when the 4th was going to be with me. (It was May the 4th on Monday). Before I start I must just recommend a great music website Spotify. I like listening to music and have quite a large collection of CDs ranging from the Beatles to Bjork, from Ten Years After to the Ting Tings - eclectic - a posh way of saying all over the place. After my son got me Bjork's Greatest Hits - I have been listening to both old and new music on Spotify to checkout whether to buy an album or not. Whilst typing this I have been listening to Argent - the first live band I ever saw - at the Colston Hall, Bristol. Spotify is basically a huge jukebox with a fantastic range of music and the music quality is good. There is a free service with ads occasionally, there are also premium services. which are ad free. No I don't get anything from mentioning them!.
Back to the Roman Road - although I cycled from the start again here is my bike about halfway along. This time I have my cycle bag on the back with tools, pump, patches and spare inner tubes - just in case.
The path is very varied, the first two thirds tends to have hedgerow on each side. Hedgerow with hawthorn bushes, so this time I stopped occasionally to check that none were going into the tires. Once I was near Balsham it became less straight here although a by-way seemed more footpath like as it twisted through the trees. From the hoof prints on the track it was a favoured horse-riding route. Having fat tyres made it less stressful since I did not need to pick my way though, I could just "barge" through the middle - on the lookout for horses of course.
The next minute it opened right out and looked like a gravel road of a good quality.
Once out of the Flatlands the countryside becomes more undulating, with small rolling hills and more woodland dotted around. There are still yellow fields, although unusually these do not appear to be as far along as many I have passed. The red dot in the middle is actually a Propane cylinder, part of a Bird Scarer which uses the gas (and air) to emit bangs from time to time. When I was there I heard four bangs in quick succession. When I was a boy farmers used "Rook Scarers" - basically a string of Bangers on a slow-burning rope, we called them rookies, and used to pretend to be farmer's sons to buy them. They were much more powerful than "bangers", a firework than is no longer legal in the UK. We used them to blow Airfix models to bits. Although not from fireworks I do have scars from playing with fire - which I do remind my kids about - hypocrisy eh!
After coming close to what I thought was the end of the cycleable track I returned via the road to Balsham. Although the weather forecast was not good and the clouds looked ominous I only ever felt a few spots of rain. I did not cycle along this road in the picture though I just liked the way the road snaked between the fields.
At the same spot I took this one because the tree in the middle looked like an island surrounded by a yellow sea.
Once I got back to Balsham I headed back to the Roman Road. Strangely enough there seemed to be more downhill on the way back then uphill on the way out. This route was used by tractors, the ruts can be quite tricky, most of the time you can cycle in them but if they get too deep then the pedals ground, if you try to get out it is easy to fall off. It surprises me how a small kerb or ridge can cause me to fall off if I catch it at the wrong angle. The wrong angle being a small one, it is always better to cross them at 90degrees. What many motorists probably do not realise is that the edge of the road, where they seem to think cyclists should be is actually pretty dangerous for cyclists. Also many motorists seem to think that cyclists should always use cycle paths and leave the road to cars. However many paths have poor surfaces and can be more difficult and so dangerous for a cyclist than the road itself.
This is a picture taken from the same path but made up of 7 shots. The path is actually straight.
Back on the Roman Road again you can see that this bit is a working road, used by tractors, when wet they create deep ruts, which are very tricky for cyclists (well me). Here I cycled along the edge, but you have to watch out for brambles and routes. I did push my bike at one or two places on this bit of the track. My Doctor did warn me about breaking my collar bone again - it might not heal so easily next time.
Once closer to Cambridge the path became easier to cycle again, again it felt more downhill than I expected. I did meet some cyclists and walkers on the path but not many.
The ride was around 60Km/38miles in length and about half was on tracks/by-ways and much of the rest was on relatively traffic-free country lanes. The one thing I noticed was that my legs ached a bit from the ride - you (well I) spend more time standing up to allow the bike to flow along the paths and to provide a but of suspension effect. They say when cycling if you want to avoid a bump then look to the side as you cycle as you steer where you look. In this case I try to look down the track and allow the bike to flow along the path. The other rthing that I realised was that bicycle technology has improved a lot in some key areas since I got my MTB, its brakes were poor compared with my newer bikes. It took a lot of force to get any decent breaking effect.
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