Had to work until 6pm, but it was a lovely evening – warm, sunny, not windy and no prospect of rain. I thought it might be rather nice to do about 17 miles of a Twycrosser, then come back the same way. I took the S-Works.
About 2.5 miles into the ride, coming through Heather, I somehow failed to re-insert my yellow bidon into the cage on the frame, and it fell to the road. I pulled up to pick it up but turned to see it rolling slowly into the path of a Vauxhall estate. The left front wheel rolled straight over it and a chunk of the cap blew out like an anti-personnel mine, propelled by the hydraulic pressure of ~500ml of lime-flavoured water. No more hydration for me on this ride.
Apart from that it was indeed a very pleasant, leisurely run out in the bright evening sunshine. My right knee started to feel strained again after 13 miles, though. It looks like I did overdo it at the weekend by doing that semi-contrived Fondo. I’m hoping though that it’s only a temporary setback because it took a long time to get back to doing 40+ milers and I’d started to enjoy my longer cycling adventures. I’d hate to have to start again from 15-20 mile distances. But I’ll see how I get on with 30-40 milers for a bit. I’ve sort of got the Fondo thing out of my system for a while, anyway.
Anyway I kept pushing on and into Fenn Lanes until I’d done a bit more than 17 miles, then I turned and came back the same way. No lights on the Spesh and I didn’t want to be out after sunset really. Very nice to do the stretch between Ratcliffe and Fenny Drayton at that time of day; so quiet along there.
Just before you cross the A444 into Fenn Lanes, in Atterton Lane, there’s a heavily wooded stretch. It was there that I noticed one of those big horrible brown flies crawling on my top tube. I left it, because I was interested to see how long it would stay on. It stayed there for 0.7 miles, even crawling forward on the frame slightly, against a gentle headwind. Are flies territorial? Do they have homes? Did the poor thing become confused by being migrated half a mile from its previous location without trying to?
Took this pic at 1445 Twycross, an unmanned off-road gas installation which is my most oft-used wee spot.
Anyway 34.73 miles, 68 this month.