This article was published in 2005, in Newsletter 60.
This year is the tenth year of the National Cycle Network and should see the completion of the first ten thousand miles of this Network. To celebrate this event a festival will be held on Jesus Green in Cambridge on Sunday 11 September 2005.
Sustrans is organising long-distance rides from several points of the country to arrive in Cambridge on that day, and the Cambridge Cycling Campaign will be organising local rides to join these for the last stretch into Cambridge. It is expected that at least two of the four Sustrans rides will use the two new routes into Cambridge which should be completed by that date (see Your Streets This Month). Provisionally, the event will begin at 1-1.30pm and there will be various stalls and activities on offer on Jesus Green: a cycle tryout show, traders’ marquee, old fashioned bike display, children’s activities, BMX display, Dr. Bike, perhaps some cycle security coding, a stage and refreshments – and some kind of bike park. It is hoped that Victoria Avenue will be closed to motor traffic for at least part of the day.
Although Cambridge still holds its crown as Cycle City, it has been a little off the map of National Cycle Network routes. All this will change from September with the completion of two new sections and the signposting of routes from Ely and Saffron Walden into Cambridge.
Other events will be occurring at this time, and we should have much fuller details in our next Newsletter. It is in part because of this major national event in Cambridge that the Campaign will be offering a lower profile in June’s ‘Bike Week’ and reserving our strength for September.
Please keep this weekend free, both to help with events and join in the local rides. If you live in one of the villages around Cambridge and would like to organise a ride into Cambridge on that day, please let us know.
Jim Chisholm