A very cold day today – 1C due to dip to 0 at about 3pm. I didn’t think I’d be able to tolerate more than 25 miles or so on a bike, so I decided to go for a ride during an extended, late lunch break.
I had no particular plan except to go north, since the wind was coming from that direction – which, along with a crystal clear sky was presumably why it was Baltic out there. I went up through Coleorton and up Top Brand, swung a left at Isley Walton and pedalled up over Swosser Bridge.
I was going to potter along the Beloved A Road for a bit but instead I thought I’d go over the A50 roundabout and flirt with Derby via Infinty Park Way. This took me, as usual, past a number of Rolls-Royce sites – most impressively the huge engine test site at Sinfin. I must admit I felt a pang of nostalgia at seeing RR personnel leaving the car parks, presumably on their way home. It’s (somehow) 28 years since I worked for that company myself, but it was a very memorable first graduate job.
I wonder what I’d be doing now if I’d stayed there? Running the place, probably.
Conditions were nowhere near as hostile as I’d expected – the bright sunshine was very pleasant, even if my toes were starting to feel like ice cubes. I pressed on into Derby for a little while. I joined the ring road, then took a left along Victory Road.
An important element of Derby culture and folklore, held dear by its people, is their belief that they were instrumental in winning the Second World War, because the famous Merlin piston engine, which powered the Hurricane, the Spitfire and later the P-51 Mustang, was made there – and this is of course where Victory Road derives its name.
Anyway I arrived back on Infinity Park Way eventually so I turned south for home and came back a quicker way, directly through Melbourne.
The temperature started to drop as the sun set, as I expected it would. Fortunately I was home 15 minutes later. Good timing.
35.13 miles and that’s 98 this month. Moderately pleased with that, 8 days into December.