I surprised myself by fitting a new rear inner tube on the Tricross during my lunch break. And I was tempted to take it out after work but I didn’t now have a spare. Or I thought I didn’t – looking through my Amazon orders this afternoon it turned out I ordered three about a year ago, and I’ve now only used one. But anyway I didn’t have one to hand to take with me, so I took the Boardman.
A moderate wind was blowing from the south so I thought I’d go down to Desford or maybe Kirkby Mallory, and come back up. I did Desford and back. Something of a false start as I decided to head out through Donington le Heath before reminding myself that it tends to be a bit floody that way when it’s been raining (or snowing). So I backtracked after the first couple of miles and started again. Down through Ibstock this time.
Much milder weather despite a stronger wind. All the snow has gone. Unfortunately I dressed over-optimistically lightly and was colder than on Saturday.
Back on 25.99 miles. Not brilliantly enjoyable after sunset really when it was a little bit dank but it didn’t actually rain. The roads near Battram were quite wet though, looks like I may narrowly have avoided some precipitation. I’m just glad to have been able to go out for a ride again.
I have a really cool new head torch with a motion sensor – when it’s on standby you can just wave your hand in front of it to switch it off and on. This is really useful for a route like this with stretches of well illuminated road, when you can save power by just relying on a flashy blinker. But for some reason it doesn’t work with a gloved hand! I solved this by pulling my sleeve back a touch to expose a bit of wrist behind the glove on my right hand, and that worked fine.
I’ve just Googled this and apparently some automatic soap dispensers are considered racist, because they only work on white people’s hands. So perhaps white cycling gloves are the answer, or a bit of reflective strip. I’m not suggesting black people should have to do this to wash their hands, just to be clear.
Anyway – 25.99 miles, 114 this month.