Social Ride 12/04/26, Blog by Tim Helstrip
Today’s social ride was a short ride taking a loop to return to Peterborough Centre in order to join the fun at the Bike Meet at the volunteer Fire Brigade station on Bourges Boulevard.
The sun was shining, albeit on a cool and breezy day, when 12 PECAM members met at the usual meeting place at Peterborough Services at Haddon, off the A1 / A605 junction. Mostly, being prompt, after the usual briefing at 9:15am, we were able to get away around the BST start time of 9:30am. As the group was relatively small, and all participants were experienced advanced riders, the Intelligent Buddy System was used to manage the group’s navigation.
The Buddy System is where the rider in front moderates their speed so that the following rider is kept in their rear-view mirrors. Then the lead of the pair of buddies makes sure the rider behind has indicated any change of direction at junctions. The Intelligent Buddy System is essentially the same, except the rider in front does not have to see the following rider all of the time, but ONLY at junctions and unclear hazards. This way everyone can ride their own ride and not be tethered to someone else’s speed.
With David Williams donning the pink vest for TEC duties, we set off north and west to have fun in the sun on dry sweeping roads. Taking in Elton and Wansford, we headed towards Kings Cliffe before veering towards the A47 and Cottesmore and Ketton. Then on towards Normanton and the Southern edge of Rutland Water. Empingham was quickly dealt with and on towards Stamford, skirting north through Great Casterton and on towards Little Bytham. Here, we turned off before the small village to Greatford and on to Helpston, and Marholm. Here we turned left on the nice little link road to the A47, where we joined the dual carriageway system and on to the Fire Station.
There were a few horses encountered on the road and one road closure at Helpston which added a couple of miles to the 50 miles, 80 minutes route, but nothing else of note to impede our steady progress. A nice short ride to arrive in plenty of time to enjoy the hundreds of bikes that had turned up at the bike meet.
Thanks to the guys for their company this morning, and for riding as a cohesive group in the main.