Blog by Tim Helstrip.
At 11am last Sunday the 13 riders on the PECAM regular, twice-monthly, social ride stood, head bowed, for our 2 minutes silence. This had been preceded by a nice reading of the poem “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon
- “They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old: / Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.”
- “At the going down of the sun and in the morning / We will remember them.”
And as we were at the American Cemetery, this was followed by the playing of ‘Taps’ instead of the last post.
Even though this ride was well and truly in the ‘winter-timings’ we did gather early in order to make the journey on time for the brief and dignified ceremony. Therefore 14 of us gathered on the patio at the Extra Peterborough Services (A1/A605 junction) at 9:15am for the briefing. There were no Associates on this ride, and all experienced in the 2nd Man Drop Off method of marking the route, so the briefing was relatively – well – brief.
Following Bob ‘A’s’ briefing Bob ‘S’, our Chief Observer, and the Tail End (TEC) marker for this ride gave a few wise words for us to consider on the ride. The relatively new practice of have a qualified Observer as TEC, when available, is working very well. The TEC can then provide ‘gentle praise and corrections’ either for the group as a whole or for individuals if it is warranted. As advanced riders we should be ‘hard – wired’ to seek out feedback at every opportunity, and I think we had a good turnout over the last couple of rides because of this new approach. Bob S has stressed a number of times, this is not an exercise in granular dissection of riding, or being pernickety about speed creep and very minor transgressions. This is about being safe!
Following the briefing we quickly made our way south on the A1 to the first junction and then off onto the B1043 to Glatton and then the fabulous B660. Bob A then led us along some great local roads, all now nice and dry in the autumn sunshine, after the light mist had lifted, through Alconbury Weston (Note from Chief Observer – Stop sign means STOP! – the wheels must cease turning) onto the B1090 all the way to Huntingdon. After negotiating the A141 and the closed road at Godmanchester we had the first failure of the drop off system for many many rides, when a roundabout was not marked. This caused momentary confusion but was soon sorted ourselves out and off we went. We passed through, round, and over some of the extensive road works building the link from Cambridge to the Black Cat roundabout on the A1, and were soon at the Cemetery.
Following the service, we adjourned to the Amor Café in the neighbouring village of Hardwick for refreshments. This is a nice little café with excellent patio heaters, good food and nice coffee. The service was very friendly and quite efficient. On our arrival another motorcycle group were just departing, so it looks like it is a popular ‘bikers’ haunt on the weekends.
The journey back was a variation on the outbound and after turning off the A1198 Caxton to Papworth road the country road offered nice sweeping bends, good dry tarmac, and some excellent riding from the group. Unfortunately, we had the second failure of the drop-off system on the A1198 with come creative arm gestures that confused a couple of group members, who then made a slight detour or took an alternative route to the end point of the Bell Inn at Stilton. The Bell is part of the Coaching Inns partnership and so offers good quality coffee and free Maltesers.
An excellent remembrance-day ride, good pace, good riding, excellent mid ride refreshments and great company.