I want to take another three or four days off before I leave my present employer and with a dry day forecast, I decided at the weekend to take one of them today. A moderate wind was coming from the north-west and I thought I’d do the Upper Westbound route, not having done it for a while. This goes up to Melbourne, over Swarkestone Bridge, west along the Beloved A Road, then, after Sudbury, north toward Ashbourne.
I woke up at about 0500 and briefly pondered getting up there and then to do Wales and back. But the conditions weren’t quite right for that today and anyway – quite honestly, I didn’t feel like it. I went back to sleep and got up at about 0900.
So – I went with Plan A and set off at about 1020. Conditions were cloudy and overcast, and a bit windy. But very comfortable. Not too warm, and on a longer ride bright sunshine can be fatiguing.
I intended a fondo but went a bit further than the half-fondo distance. I pressed on toward Ashbourne until I arrived at the top of a steep descent. I didn’t fancy coming back up it so I turned back and came home exactly the same way.
Stopped to refuel at the petrol station near Hatton. I was pleased to see that they’ve now filled in the pothole where the forecourt joins the pavement. Wish they’d done that before I came a cropper at the beginning of December, an event that cost me a rear mech and, for a week or so, the use of my left hand ring finger. The finger is still a little bit stiff and crooked but it doesn’t seem to have compromised my ability to play guitar. So I’m not overly bothered.
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Took the pic at the bridge over the A38, south-west of Derby. The crash barrier made a surprisingly comfortable bench. I stopped there to eat a packet of crisps and a sandwich. I saved a Fry’s Chocolate Cream for the outskirts of Melbourne, to give me a boost up Rotter’s Rise.
I had an annoyingly long wait for a gap in the river of traffic on Ashby Road before I was able to cross it to come back into the village, two miles from home. I was standing there for seven minutes.
This was my third or fourth run out on the Roubaix since I applied some grip paste to the seat post and I’m pleased to say it hasn’t slipped at all since then.
Listened to more of Pete Townshend’s autiobiography, LBC and 5 Live.
Back on 68.45.