Despite being on call I was determined to do at least 60 miles today, to give myself an outside chance of hitting my 458 mile target this month. Realistically that meant at least 62.14, as I also have an informal target to do 24 Fondos in 2020.
A moderate breeze from the west and cloudy, but not cold. I employed my time-honoured on call strategy of going north, then south so I was never more than 15 or so road miles from home (and mostly substantially fewer than that). I started by going north-east to Long Whatton, then turned west through Donington and Melbourne and north over Swarkestone Bridge. I was going to do the usual A5132 thing along the water south of Derby, but on a whim I decided to go exploring and took a left just before leaving the causeway.
This was a road running to a place called Ingleby and proved to be a poor choice. The road surface was awful. From Ingleby though I took a road signposted to Ticknall, and that one was fine. I hadn’t been along there before and I quite enjoyed it, but I’m not sure I can incorporate it into future routes. From Ingleby I can take a road going to Milton and if that’s as bad as road between Swarkestone Bridge and Ingleby, I won’t bother. Perhaps I’ll check it out on the Tricross some time.
Anyway – from Ticknall I came back down the usual way down through Smisby and Ashby. The big disadvantage of this route is the need to negotiate a steep climb known to me as Bastard Hill. Weirdly, I was so engrossed in my thoughts about how to transfer some of my on call responsibilities to other teams at work, that I didn’t even notice it. I started mentally gearing myself up to grit my teeth and suffer, and realised that it was already behind me. Sheer resentment about being on call one week in two since my team was decimated must have propelled me up the hill.
After Ashby, having done about 31 miles I turned right to Packington, to tack on a Twycrosser. Conditions grew somewhat crepuscular not long afterward on the way down to Twycross and I felt a couple of spots of rain, but no more. Through Sheepy and Ratcliffe as usual then I took the turn to Sibson, then down the A444 for a bit and along Fenn Lanes. I took the turn for Shenton and stopped at the bench with a plaque dedicated to Judith Birch.
I was annoyed to notice that my rear tyre has a shallow lateral cut, about 15mm long. It is a Mavic Yksion Pro with similar Mavic branding to the carbon rims, but fortunately they aren’t particularly expensive. Looking at reviews online it seems that they are particularly prone to picking up holes and cuts, and don’t last that long.
I took an unusual detour home, through Barlestone to add a bit of distance. Conditions warmed up nicely for the last couple of hours, but I got rained on coming through Ellistown a few miles from home. Fortunately it had stopped by the time I was rolling through Hugglescote and the warm breeze had nearly dried off the bike (and rider) by the time I reached the garage. But I gave it a good seeing-to with GT85 anyway since it was due a lube. I’ll do that tomorrow.