A sunny, mild day with a very light wind coming from the south, a moderate temperature and no chance of rain, according to the forecast. I was tired, from having to stay up until 0215 last night (and the night before) to perform scheduled work for a customer that took (literally) all of ten seconds each time. But I wanted to do a fondo nonetheless, especially since I hadn’t found the time to ride a bike for a few days. Perfect conditions for the southbound route.
I left work as soon as I could. I wanted to take the Cannondale as a test ride, since it has two new wheels. But as I examined it in the garage I noticed that the front tyre was completely flat. Now – it may well be that I let all the air out myself to fit the front wheel on through the brake pads, but I certainly wasn’t going to take the risk. So I took the X, also due a test ride since its recent service.
It’s not really a great idea to do a long ride on a newly-serviced bike, just in case one of the new cables haven’t been fitted properly, or the headset hasn’t been tightened properly, or a bolt hasn’t been torqued correctly. Or whatever. However I was keen to verify that all was well with it (and in particular that the freehub had been fixed; it had been sticking). So that was a risk I was prepared to take.
Really nice out there. I stopped at my favourite village shop at Gilmorton on the way down and treated myself to a bit of a feast there. Warm enough to sit at the table outside. And it was here that I realised that I hadn’t brought my LED torch, which I’d intended to use as a front light. I did have a head torch with me, and a flashy blinker – but I wasn’t sure that this particular head torch would be adequate to light the country lanes in front of me on the way back. I’d done 25 miles at this point. It would probably be wiser to turn for home, once I’d finished my coffee. But I decided to go for the fondo distance regardless and hope for the best.
I didn’t go all the way down to Welford and the Northamptonshire border, as I normally would. I turned back as soon as I’d done the requisite fondo mileage (factoring in that I would take a slightly longer route on the way back by going along Wood Road a few miles from home).
It all went well. No problems with the bike, it’s rolling very nicely, the freehub isn’t sticking any more and all the gear changes were fine. It would be an exaggeration to say that the head torch was adequate, but I got away with it. Very enjoyable run out except for the idiot in a beanie hat near Stoney, who, while overtaking another oncoming vehicle, decided to aim his car at me and swerve away at the last minute for a laugh.
Saw a bright yellow helicopter hovering maybe ten metres above a field about 200 metres away near Newbold Verdon. It was there for at least two minutes, can’t imagine what that was about. And I had a lovely view of a glider coming in to land at Husbands Bosworth airfield.
Back on 62.56 miles, that was the 24th fondo of the year and the third this month. It could well be a quadruple-fondo October!