Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Sportive 1. (26 mile via The Cafe Brooke)

Sportive 1,

The Cafe,

Brooke,

Changed hands now Rural Kitchen

Yesterday saw the first Norfolk Cafe Cycle Blog Sportive. This is an organised ride to one of the current favourite cafes. The cafe is chosen based on how far we want to go and the wind direction. The Cafe at Brooke ticked all today's sportive cafe selection boxes, (cafe previously reviewed on post a Pleasant Surprise) so a 26 mile route stopping there had been arranged. A map of route is at the end of this post.

A large entry of 5 had signed up for today's ride but unfortunately due to injury there had been a late call off.

Mass start of Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Sportive 1 from Race HQ

Due to the large number of participants the organisers had to delay the start by 5 minutes while general faffing about occurred but the ride was soon under way. The start caused quite a stir as a blur of hi-viz yellow hurtled off through Cringleford. 

The ride then headed south through the village of Stoke-Holy Cross before tackling the major climb of the day which stretched on and up into the clouds for at least 200m. A small refreshment break was needed at the top before setting off to Hempnall. Unfortunately the wet and muddy lanes  took their toll and the peloton had to wait for a puncture to be repaired before continuing cross country to Brooke.

Once at Brooke we found our way to the Cafe where we ordered our drinks and cake. 

Carnage in the outside seating area at the  Cafe Brooke as the whole of the Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Sportive arrives only to find there is only one lock (Alarmio of course) between all the bikes

Despite such a large number of guests they all rated their guest drinks (Latte, Mocha, Flat coffees) 9 out of 10. The quality of the cakes has always been consistently high at each visit here and scored well again today with Blueberry scone and a coffee cake being the groups choices. I was particularly pleased to be asked if I wanted hot or cold Blueberry scone as I prefer fruit cold and cheese warm when it comes to optimum scone consumption temperature. I have regularly had a warm fruit scone foist on me in the past which is not only an unnecessary waste of energy but inevitably results in a low cake taste quality (CTQ) rating.

Cake Taste Quality (CTQ) rating in action in the indoor seating area at The Cafe.
This cafe has had a consistently high CTQ on each visit

Cafe rating rules (There Must be rules) base a cafe rating on the average of the ratings at the last 3 visits. This was the Cafe's 3rd visit and as a result of today's visit the Cafe improved its score slightly and moved further up the cafe league table.

The return ride back went through the outskirts of Poringland and with the wind behind the riders quickly got back to race HQ. Feedback was collected and processed with the first Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Sportive being declared a success (by me)..

The next Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Sportive is scheduled for March 1st with potential cafe stop being Tabnabs in Mattishall but could change depending on wind direction.

Based on it's 3 visits, ratings for the Cafe are

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.17	7.33	6.5	8.33	6.5	7.17

Map of route.

View 26 mile route via Box tree Cafe, Brooke in a larger map
Click to download 26 mile Norwich Brooke loop GPX file for you GPS