Colchester Cycling UK

Castle Hedingham Ride Report

June 29, 2014

This was our third anniversary Colchester CTC group ride. Eleven riders met up at the Colchester Leisure World container for the run to elevenses at Assington Barn, two riders joined us on the way. At the barn we were met by John & Margaret with their trike. Although we arrived at the barn in good time we did not get away early as the service was a bit slow.

The next leg of the ride to Castle Hedingham would take us through Sudbury and along The Melford Walk, whhich uses the old railway trackbed to Rodbridge Corner. I did do a recce of this part of the ride to check it out — in three years this was the first time I’ve had to check out part of a route!

The lunch stop at The Bell Inn was excellent, although we did have to shelter from the rain under cover outside. Our reason for being outside was because of a live jazz band inside and also it was very busy. However the ordered food came very quickly. I did have a bit of a job rounding up the riders to return home! Anyway we put on our waterproofs and rode on.

The leg back to Colchester I had in mind was a more direct route or one with a loop. Because of the weather, I chose the more direct route but at the sign of a hill some riders came scrambling past the leader to see who could get to the top the fastest, riding straight past the right turn I would have made on the alternative route! By the time we were about halfway back the rain had stopped.

The ride in numbers:

  • Distance: 50.5 miles
  • Avg speed: 10.0 mph

By Alan Palmer