Hildersham Anti-Clockwise Circuit

I've often done this circuit as it can be a favourite, last minute afternoon ride. Sometimes I vary it (with photos) to avoid the slightly unpleasant hill to the back of Wandlebury (due to speedy traffic, not the incline).

Only this time, the variation became doing it anti-clockwise rather than clockwise. This did show me places where there are hills I didn't know about!




A Relaxed Sunday Afternoon Ride (Go HD see * below)


00:12 Cutting through to the Guided Busway.
00:20 On the Guided Busway, a great smooth surface.
00:55 Heading over the bridge to Addenbrookes.
01:05 An irritating bit of road riding. Why!
01:18 Bumping into Jim Chisholm on the Genome path.
01:55 Into Shelford.
02:11 And onto Stapleford.
02:24 Using the shared-use path out of Stapleford, the road environment is a bit harsh.
02:45 A slightly odd crossing, not ideal for riders.
03:10 A fete going on in Sawston!
03:37 Onto the Babraham path, again smooth and quiet.
04:16 Turning through a farm in Babraham onto the path south-east
04:39 A very difficult bridge over the A14. I know of people complaining they can't use this route.
04:55 A slightly unpleasant road. Very low traffic but often well over the speed limit.
05:10 Past Granta Science Park and onto the quiet road to the back of Abington.
06:08 Crossing the A1307 carefully to get to Hildersham.
06:42 After a disk failure I've turned left onto the path from Hildersham.
06:58 Onto Worsted Street which takes me all the way home.
07:45 Back over the A14. And yet more beautiful views.
08:40 Dogs come to play! I stopped to pet.
09:05 At the back of Wandlebury.
09:55 Peaking out the climb and back onto roads down towards town.
10:15 Some good downhill speed.
10:38 Chose the path, incorrectly as lights turned immeidately!
10:55 Hills Road mid transformation. A good change but I didn't know where to go.
11:25 Finally back over Hills Road railway bridge.



* How to go HD.

Hildersham Circuit

A quiet 22 mile ride around the country to the south east Cambridge. A few villages along the way and very little Sunday traffic. This is an update with much better video from last year.

Here's the picture map (starting in the top left corner).


And here's the map in Google Maps.

View Hildersham Circuit in a larger map



A few photos along the way.
Click on any photo for a HD version.

01 Worsted Street near Copley Hill

and on Cyclestreets. Worsted Street near Copley Hill. Fantastic, all year riding route here.

02 Worsted Street




03 Worsted Street Beech Avenue

Glorious colours all autumn.


04 View Towards Hildersham from Worsted Street

and on Cyclestreets. View Towards Hildersham from Worsted Street. Fantastic, all year riding route here.


05 Cat Crosses the Road in Hildersham




06 Bike 'Infra'. Not so good for Cargo Bikes

and on Cyclestreets.


07 Centre Rut Surfaced for Bikes, Outer Ruts for Farm Traffic

and on Cyclestreets. Centre rut has been surfaced for bikes with a rough hardcore. Good enough for most tyres/wheels. Outer ruts remain for farm traffic in an interesting combination approach


08 Bike Infra Around Farm Centre

and on Cyclestreets. Clearly the farm here both wants cycling to happen and needs to keep some space for farm work.


09 Bike Infra Around Farm Centre Ending

and on Cyclestreets.


10 Bridge Over River Granta (Bourn Branch)

and on Cyclestreets. Bridge Over River Granta (Bourn Branch). A bit narrow for a shared-use path. But better than the roadspace next to it, and pleasantly green (which also means wet and slippery in winter!). This is over the Bourn Branch of the Granta river. Both are called the Granta.


11 End of Shared-use Path

and on Cyclestreets. End of Shared-use Path. Is it useful to end next to a bus-stop? Or would it be better to go to the road crossing further up? As a confident rider, I'm happy to use the bus-stop to pull into the main road and turn right to follow NCN11. However, I can see that being really awkward if you are not confident. Get off bike, walk to crossing, wait at crossing, cross, then walk to side road, cross that as well without any assistance and near the junction, finally set off from a position where you can't see well.


12 Stapleford Church




13 Temporary Path Around Railway Works

and on Cyclestreets. Temporary Path Around Railway Works. Path around temporary railway works. A short diversion, and not bad to use. How long will it be there?

Alternative Hildersham Route

I often go to Hildersham on a Sunday afternoon as there's a series of great off-road sections complemented by sections of mostly quite road. I usually go along and up Worsted Street, but the first bit past Addenbrookes and up the Magogs can be a bit offputting. The hill combined with faster road traffic is less pleasant. Sometimes, if I've planned it, this is extended to Saffron Walden.

So, I decided to use a slightly different route. I make use of more of the Cambridge cycleways and skirt round the main hill. Not that it's big, but this way does avoid a lot more traffic!


View Alternative Hildersham Route in a larger map



The video clip of it is here.



I do refer to a few incidents along the way. Fortunately, none really spoilt the afternoon, just the few minutes after each event until the (scientifically known and proven natural) drug of cycling kicked in to bring the inner smile back.

Here's that speeding MGIF from early on.And the two times (I suspect) that a car speed far too close between Abington and Babraham.

UPDATE 25/08/13: I did the route again, with less incident. The video clip of it is here.


The big thing about this time was I counted the number of motor-vehicles and people riding bikes on my route. There were 44 motors and 61 riding bikes! Yes, over 22.5 miles of country and town riding, there were more people riding bikes.

I've no doubt that the main reason for this is the number of separated (mostly just shared-use) routes that I can take ot the south of Cambridge. It just shows that this is the thing that gets people on bikes. Although I have shared a clip about the issues for some bike styles that cause considerable disruption for some local villages.

UPDATE 31/08/13: I did the route again, this time using a GoPro and taking 2 HIGH DEFINITION pictures a second to get a much clearer clip. It's all here.

Cambridge to Saffron Walden Circuit Updated

A nice long summer route

This is an update from a run done in 2010. This time I've cobbled together some video and altered the route slightly in Cambridge with the new cycle paths. It's worth looking at the original blog for photos and comments, but the video shows what it's like.

I've moved my route from my Bikely set as the site seems to be a bit under the weather. I've settled with Google as it's mapping seems to be the best and most functional you can get for free.


View Cambridge - Saffron Walden Circuit in a larger map

Pretty much all of the information from the other blog post is still accurate. The only difference is that re-entering Cambridge is now possible along the Guided Busway Cyclepath. This does make the route a bit longer, but quieter, more pleasant, and less cars!

Anyway, the important new item for this time is recorded footage of the whole ride! Speeded up 8 times with directions and comments this should make it easy to follow.



And here are the links mentioned in the clip.

Ashdon Road Bad Driver at 10:35
Saffron Walden Bad Driver at 11:35
Addenbrookes Genetic Cyclepath
Joined Up Thinking Failure at Francis Crick Avenue
Joined Up Thinking Failure at Francis Crick Avenue clip