Beautiful sunny day today, lovely weather except for low temperatures in the morning, and a moderate wind blowing from the east. Given the wind conditions I’d thought of going south, but instead I decided to head out east, and tick the final neighbouring county box for 2020. I felt that my mood was better suited to an easy, more familiar route.
I set off on the X at about 0925. The headwind on the way out east was annoying, but not a struggle. Got to Belvoir Castle and noticed a lot of cars in the car park there. Plenty of people sitting around having picnics on the benches, even though the cafe was closed, sometimes in groups of four or five. I wondered if they were from the same household.
Normally I’d stop at a pub, or a cafe or a shop but this time I’d brought enough stuff to keep myself fuelled for the whole trip, including a bottle of Mars Drink – which is just the job to keep you going on a long ride. It comes in a bottle with a bidon-style nozzle, unfortunately a bit slimmer than a bidon but I found that it stayed in the rear bottle cage. I do have an adjustable bottle cage actually, which would have been just the job. But I haven’t fitted it to a bike yet. It will go on the Cannondale, probably.
This was the first ride for months that I managed to avoid any running or standing water completely.
Got to the border with Lincolnshire at Woolsthorpe (above), went over it for a bit then came straight back. Stopped at the bench at Eastwell on the way back, six miles later. Conditions had warmed up a bit and I removed my helmet cover and outer layer, and stuffed them into my backpack. I adjusted my hijab to tubular neckscarf mode. Very enjoyable ride on the way back with no headwind. Bright sunshine the whole way. Lovely.
I thought that this was the Woolsthorpe where Sir Isaac Newton was born, and where he was inspired by a falling apple. But apparently that Woolsthorpe is about 8 miles to the south-east of this one.
Pretty quiet out there in the main, but there were quite a few other cyclists on the roads.
The two Energizer AAs I popped in the DAB just before setting off lasted 7hr 40 mins before I switched it off, and I’d guess they still have an hour or so left in them.
That was my 7th Fondo this year; 76.35 miles, 393 this month. 1105 done in 2020 which means that I’m 545 ahead of this time last year. But for how long?