A dry day with a decently late sunset and a moderate wind from the east. I promised myself I’d do at least 80 miles, with the thought that I might do 100 if I got up early enough – and if it wasn’t too cold.
I got up at about 0700 and was away on a bike by 0756. I had a simple plan: to do the eastbound route for as long as I felt like it, then to come back roughly the same way.
Because I knew the temperature would improve later in the day and because I didn’t want to carry clothing around in my backpack for most of the ride, I wrapped up relatively light. Intermediate level; a few layers on top and a pair of tights over cycling shorts.
The temperature seemed bearable when I set off but five miles later, on lower ground, I was shivering. Very annoyingly I was uncomfortably cold for the first three hours of the ride. But the sun coming out later on made a big difference. So did the tailwind on the way back.
I took a minor diversion through Rutland and was in Lincolnshire fifteen minutes later, so that’s the last two neighbouring counties boxes ticked for 2023. I’d decided I was going to do at least 100 miles by this time. I turned back after a bit less than 50 miles, because I was going to take a slightly longer route home (through Cotes and Stanford).
I realised when I got to my 21-miles-to-go point that I was still going to be a bit short, so I tweaked the route home by diverting through Wymeswold and Hoton. Actually a lovely quiet bit of road that, well worth doing in any case.
Sunday’s not the best day for a long ride because the shops tend to be closed in the afternoon, but I stocked up at the village shop at Buckminster on the outbound leg. Very useful, well located (40 miles from home) and it has cyclist-friendly benches outside, but they tend to sell “lookalike” products – for example you can buy something that looks superficially like Lucozade Sport in a similar-styled bottle, but it’s really just rather indifferent fizzy orange.
Anyway – that was a lovely ride out. I was especially pleased to be reunited with my Cycling Happy Place east of Waltham and in the end it was worth shivering for a few hours early on to make it over there.
Listened to footy chat mostly, plus commentary on West Ham vs Southampton and some of the first half of Newcastle vs Man United. Both entertaining games. For the first half hour of the ride, I listened to the end of the Australian Grand Prix. Farcical.
I also listened to the fourth Rolling Stones album, Aftermath. What an extraordinary creative breakthrough after their first three albums of R&B covers. Their previous album, released less than a year earlier, had consisted entirely of other peoples’ tunes but everything on Aftermath is a Jagger / Richards original. Equally importantly it’s a much more eclectic and interesting record than the first three, with some really strong songs. Reminds me of The Kinks in places.
With beautiful timing, the AA batteries in my DAB died two minutes after I arrived back at the garage.
Back on 100.43 miles.