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.
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.