Wanted to take advantage of a dry Sunday after all the rubbish weather, especially with the clocks going back next weekend and the daylight hours shrinking rapidly. I didn’t really have the motivation to plan something more interesting, so with the wind blowing in the same direction as Friday, I pretty much did the same route again. Once again the idea was to head out east in the direction of Belvoir Castle until I decided I’d done enough, then come back the same way. I hoped to do at least 50.
Set off at about 10:00, after wiping yesterday’s excess lube from the Boardman’s chain. I just squeeze a rag dampened with GT85 round it, and turn the pedals a few times. A bit cool and cloudy at first, but the sun came out later on. Really quite pleasant weather for cycling, mostly.
I went a bit further than on Friday, stopping after 28 miles. Quite a bit cooler and blowier from that point, and I briefly considered adjusting my tubular headscarf to hijab mode, but didn’t.
Listened to 6 Music initially to avoid the rugby on 5 Live which I find about as interesting as chewing cardboard, but Cerys Matthews was playing a right old load of tosh today so I tuned to LBC, where I found the Nigel Farage show. None of Nigel’s contributors, all of whom were staunch Brexiteers, seemed enamoured with Boris’ deal. Interestingly the most irate Brexiteer caller was a Scottish woman who was emphatic that Boris had sold out to the EU. Others took a more pragmatic view; that while it’s not perfect it’s a big improvement and probably a good idea not to let Brexit out of our grasp. I think I’m in that camp as well.
After Nigel’s programme concluded I switched to the Beatles biography audiobook, to learn of the Fab Four’s return to Liverpool from their second stint in Hamburg, and Paul taking over bass duties from Stu Sutcliffe.
I stopped at the Greyhound pub at Burton on the Wolds on the way back – I’ve lunched there a few times now on cycling expeditions – and had a ham & coleslaw ciabatta with perfectly golden brown chips, with a coffee. Perfect. I asked for ketchup and was provided with about 2/3 of a cupful in a bowl. Possibly enough for me to have smothered the whole meal until none of it was visible under a layer of tomato sauce. Naturally I used about 3% of it, if that. Bit of a waste.
I’d been feeling a little bit worn and low on energy at that point, despite glooping down a gel half an hour earlier. But the pub lunch perked me up no end and I felt like I could do another 50 after that. After the pub I decided to leave the Beatles bio for a bit, and tuned into the Ohana Rock Club’s stream on my Android Internet radio tuner. I’ll be DJ-ing there myself on Tuesday evening at 8pm, if you care to listen. Search for ‘Ohana Rock’ on TuneIn at https://tunein.com/
Ominously, I picked up a few spots of rain near Stanford, then a bit of drizzle ten minutes later. But that faded away. Always nice to see spots of moisture on the handlebars drying off, to reassure me that I won’t need to douse the bike’s bits in water repellent on my return.
After Zouch and back over the Leicestershire border, I decided on an impulse to take a right and come home through Diseworth, then down Top Brand. The long stretch of Ashby Road between Hathern and Griffydam can be a bit of a boring slog.
Home on 59.18 miles. I’d tweaked the bike computer just before setting off and it claimed 59.2 exactly, so I shall stop tweaking it now. Not going to get it much better than that and minor variations in front tyre pressure can introduce a bit of error anyway. As usual I removed the portion of the track representing my clogging round the pub garden and into the bar using a GPX editor before uploading to Strava.
And that’s 360 miles done this month, just short of my target of 362. That’s 12 in a row on the Boardman, 447 consecutive miles.
Saw a formidable-looking sparrowhawk on the way back, a few miles from home. Looked like it was standing over something. But it flew off when a car overtook me, and I didn’t see its victim, if there was one. I also saw a large brown rat near the edge of the road at Burton. Quite a fat little bugger, just sitting there minding its own business.
Encouraging to see quite a few other cyclists out there in October, including a couple of young ladies with pigtails. Quite a nice look in cycling gear, I think.
My knees were a bit uncomfortable for most of the ride; nothing new or troubling. But they seemed somehow to improve over the last 15 miles or so. Weird. Perhaps the rest stop at the pub helped. I’m starting to think I possibly could get away with 100 miles if I’m careful with the route, exercise thoroughly in the week or so beforehand, and take it easy. But I won’t be putting that theory to the test until the spring at the earliest.