Fair play to the weather forecasters. They predicted a weekend of constant rain followed by a dry, warm, sunny Monday – and that’s exactly what happened. I withdrew the Boardman from the garage not long before 6pm last night.
I’d planned another hybrid route, stitching together the first 12 miles of the route down to Stoney Stanton to the first 20-odd of the Twycross route by means of a brief jaunt west along Bosworth Road, from Kirkby Mallory. The Twycross route part would be performed in reverse, therefore.
Perfect cycling weather, and although I’d wrapped up a bit too warm to guard against the temperature dropping later on, I wasn’t uncomfortable. The dismal urban stretch through Ellistown and Bagworth at the tail end of the rush hour was well invested for the opportunity to pedal along the quiet rural part down through Newbold Verdon to Kirkby Mallory. Hung a right from there to Sutton Cheney on my usual Twycross route, then backwards along Fenn Lanes.
Unfortunately, when I got to Witherley, I was confronted by this:
So I consulted Google Maps. A brief diversion along the A5 into Atherstone was necessary, but only for a few hundred yards. A couple of minutes out of Atherstone though, I arrived at another watery obstacle:
I tried carrying the bike round it, but it was too deep. I was genuinely about to remove my socks and cycling shoes, stuff them up my jersey and wade through it as I believed I was out of options at that point, but I checked Google Maps again anyway. To my relief, it turned out that I’d missed a turn and didn’t need to be crossing the River Anker at that point in the first place. So I backtracked 1/3 of a mile and took the correct turn along St George’s Rd.
Up from there through Sheepy, Twycross, Snarestone, Swepstone, Heather and home.
I was out later than I’d intended due to my enforced orienteering adventures and the daylight started to diminish quite quickly after Twycross. But I had a decent rear light and a head torch. Sadly the strap on my new head torch didn’t quite want to stretch round my helmet, but I cocked my helmet back a bit and it fitted quite snugly on my forehead. I was quite pleased with it; a nice bright light on the road ahead and enough scattered light to be able to read a watch or the dashboard instruments without pointing the beam. Rechargeable. The only annoying thing is that it lights up little flies and midgies right in front of your face, and at one point near Swepstone they were coming at me like stars on the viewscreen when the Enterprise goes to warp speed.
Anyway that turned out to be fun in the end although I wasn’t home until about 10pm. 39.71 miles and that’s 319 this month; 2180 this year.
Must remember to avoid the area around Mythe Lane when it’s been raining for a couple of days.