Advertised as one of the harder rides in Wheelers' calendar (a bit longer than Brighton but not so many hills) this also turned out (unfortunately) to be the most male dominated ride in a long time – which just shows how used we have become to getting lots of women riding. Maybe it was the weather forecast which suggested light rain most of the day, although not too cold. But then again usually the women aren't put off by that.

We basically followed the same route that we used in February, starting off along main roads as far as High Beech where we stopped for tea. A lot pleasanter than the previous ride (not difficult as it was sleeting at this point in Feb!). From there we swung onto much quieter roads north of Epping, arriving at our lunch stop at Much Hadham. We had called the garden centre during the week to see if they could offer lunch and then called them en route to say how many we had in the group, so on arrival we found everything ready for us. There was a selection of pies (locally made and covering vegetarian and meat eating tastes) plus salad and bread, together with cold drinks and tea/coffee to serve yourself – with an “honesty” box for the money. Very nice, good value and comfy sofas to sit on. We will definitely go there again if we are in the area.

The scenery on this ride generally gets better as you go further north and the lanes get quieter. We reached the “summit” of the ride near Little Chishill just on the Essex/Cambridgeshire border. One more down and up to Great Chishill (not quite as high as Little) and then pretty much downhill all the way to Cambridge. After the striped cycle path between Great Shelford and Addenbrookes, we carried on into central Cambridge and relaxed on Parkers Piece with ice creams, tea or beer – so we finally made it to admire some of the architecture.