A nice, dry day. Wanted to do Staffordshire and back, to tick another of the “neighbouring counties” boxes. The nice way to do this would have been to take the usual westward route over to Walton on Trent, but there’s a considerably closer entry point at Clifton Campville, some way to the south. I don’t go over that way much these days because of the awful road surfaces and the need to cross over the M42 using a busy, multi-lane roundabout but I wanted to get it done after work today, so that was the option I took.
I decided that the Tricross would be weapon of choice, to soak up the aggressive road buzz with its fatter tyres.
Arrived at the Staffordshire border on about 10.5 miles – definitely low hanging fruit. I’d already taken Warwickshire in for half a mile or so, but I’d already done that one on Monday. It has a nice, shiny new sign – here’s a pic I took in 2015:
Sort of prefer the old one, to be honest.
A few miles later I saw a sign to Lullington, which is on the more agreeable route out west – so I took that. I hadn’t done that road between Clifton and Lullington before but it was very quiet. Involved more climbing than I wanted though, really.
Back home the usual way from Lullington, through Measham. I suppose the best thing to have done, to avoid the poorly-maintained road surface and the roundabout, would have been to use the same route for the outbound part – I just hadn’t thought of turning off that route to go south to Clifton. I only remembered that it doesn’t hit Staffordshire for at least 20 miles if you keep going straight.
Very atmospheric out there after dark, again. Really enjoying these starlit evening rides at the moment. Bit cold though.
Anyway – 26.07; 136 this month, not bad for 5 days in. 492 miles done this year, 292 more than this time last year.
https://www.strava.com/activities/3074791322
That’s all the easy ones done. Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland still to do.