I thought a discreet attempt at the April Fondo was in order. Decent day – mostly sunny, not too cold, dry but with a moderate wind coming from the south.
Normally I’d probably opt for a trip out East in those conditions, but perhaps I’ve just done it a bit too often in recent weeks. I didn’t fancy it. I wanted something a bit less familiar. So I opted to head south and suck up the headwind for the first half of the ride. I thought I’d probably go as far down as Husbands Bosworth, or maybe a bit further, then come back the same way.
I took the Cannondale, not having had a run out on it for months. Unfortunately my set-off time was delayed by having to look for the correct Allen key to tighten the mirror. I’ll never learn to check these things properly well in advance. But I left the garage at about 09:45.
All went fine, a nice run out on quiet roads until I got down to Dunton Bassett, and failed to take the correct turn for Gilmorton. I found myself on the A426 heading down to Lutterworth. But no worries, I thought to myself – I’ll just keep exploring in this direction for a few more miles, until I’ve done 32. Then I’ll come back the same way.
But only a couple of miles later I found myself bearing down on Lutterworth town centre, which I didn’t really fancy. So I took a sharp left to head back north, once I saw a sign for Gilmorton, after about 28 miles. The road leading there from Lutterworth was really pleasant, and of course I’d lost the headwind from this point.
At Gilmorton I stopped for refreshments at a bench directly opposite the village store / caff where I normally stop for a breather. It was open, but I was on a strictly no-shop strategy today, and anyway they’d quite properly taken away the benches and tables outside. I would assess the probability that the painted surface of the bench was loaded with an infectious dose of the virus as being very slight, but nonetheless I was careful not to touch it once I’d removed my gloves.
Set off again on the usual route back, but somehow got confused at the crossroads at Stoney Stanton, where I turned for Sapcote instead of Potters Marston. From Sapcote I followed signs to Hinckley. I didn’t fancy going right into Hinckley; I assumed I’d probably find a signpost to Bosworth or Stoke Golding or somewhere similar. But in fact I did go right into Hinckley. Normally a busy town, but today it was like a Sunday afternoon in Hartlepool before the Sunday trading laws changed. A bit creepy. I shudder to think of the business damage the virus is causing.
I also crossed a bridge over the M69 on the way there and that was rather strange, as well. Six lanes and only about three vehicles in sight.
I knew my way home from Hinckley but was surprised to calculate that, despite having taken a wrong turn at Stoney and navigating without a map, I’d taken a sufficiently efficient route that I was still going to be a few miles short if I came home through Market Bosworth. So I took a detour to the west to go up the A444 then come home along Gibbet Lane, taking an additional detour along Barton Lane to Barton in the Beans.
Home on 62.66 miles.
Really quite a nice run out, and the challenge of navigating home along an unfamiliar route made it a bit of an adventure. Surprised I had to do that though, I thought I had that one down.
Quite a lot of cyclists about – disappointingly, riding in groups in one or two cases. Saw a couple of ambulances out and made a point of giving them a respectful nod and a wave, in appreciation of the splendid and difficult work that Matt Hancock’s men and women are doing at the moment. Lots of joggers, as well.
I powered my DAB with a pair of Duracell AAs that I’d taken out of my electronic safe, since they’d been in there for three years – and they lasted the whole six hours. I guess my safe doesn’t use a lot of juice. I don’t use it that much.