Came up to Hartlepool for a few days on Thursday evening and the weather forecast suggested that yesterday morning was my only opportunity to get out on Boardman II, now resident in my mum’s garage. Not exactly ideal conditions though with a strong wind blowing from the south due to intensify to 40mph+ by noon-ish. I set off at about 0900.
Fortunately my usual run out from chez mum takes me down along the coast, so I’d have a tailwind on the way back. I thought I’d do the Transporter Bridge and back, as usual.
Really cold, especially with a rather fresh wind in my face along Seaton Carew. On the way down I passed a road I’d never noticed before, signposted ‘Coast Path’. I took that for a mile or two. Nicely surfaced but the views were predominantly of rough ground and chemical works. After a mile or so that came to a dead end, effectively – it continued as an unsurfaced path down to the sea – so I turned back and rejoined the usual route. Not a very interesting diversion really but a welcome respite from the oncoming icy blast of the North Sea air.
Got within half a mile (at a guess, I haven’t checked) of the Transporter but the crumbly road surface was annoying me so I took another left, along the Seal Sands road. A bigger and busier road than the previous impromptu diversion but a similar story; mostly chemical works and ultimately a dead end. Turned back and went straight over the roundabout for a bit rather than turning right for home. But after a few hundred metres the road started to curve northward, meaning of course that I’d have a headwind again coming back and I’d had enough of that. Did a U turn back to the roundabout and turned for home with the powerful wind behind me. Joy. As an experiment I stopped pedalling for a couple of minutes and did about half a mile purely propelled by residual momentum and the wind, albeit not at any great speed. I sat upright to present the biggest possible profile behind me and actually picked up a bit of speed at one point.
A bit of faffing around once I got back into the town, mostly looking around old haunts, including my old walk home from school (or some of it).
The thought occurs to me that if I ever do that ride up here from Leics, a strong wind from the south or south-east will make life a lot easier.
Nice run out, anyway. 22.97 miles and that’s exactly 600.00 this year.