Another dry day and with the wind coming from the east again, another chance to do my favourite fondo ride, the Eastbound Route.
My usual route outwards through Coalville was blocked by a ROAD CLOSED sign and some pretty serious-looking roadworks, so I took a detour along Whitwick Road. I last did that in early 2020. I know this because I recall listening to a piece on Adrian Chiles’ 5 Live show about a cruise ship that had been quarantined due to the outbreak of a virus among the passengers and crew. At that time there was no suggestion that we were at the outset of a global crisis.
Anyway – I pedalled eastward in the usual manner, through Stanford and Burton on the Wolds, where I stopped at the petrol station to buy some food. I stopped and turned back after 49km. I was going to come back a slightly longer way over the last few km.
However – on a whim I decided to take a different route home, via a (roughly) parallel route to the north. I haven’t been that way for years, just thought it would make a change. I took a wrong turn almost immediately, to a village called Hose where I checked Google Maps and backtracked.
Quite nice to do the alternative route again, though I was reminded why I don’t really do it now. A bit climby and the road surfaces aren’t great.
Came back down Top Brand a few km from home and I reckoned I’d be home on more than 102km if I came back the usual way from there, so just for a change I came through Swannington rather than Coleorton. Saves a km or so but involves a long uphill slog. I hadn’t done it for at least a year. It wasn’t as bad as I remembered (it never is).
Listened to more of Boris Johnson’s thoughtful, insightful and wonderfully engaging memoir, Unleashed. Also football coverage on 5 Live and the first 45 mins or so of Bob Harris’ first Sounds of the Seventies on R2.
Back on 101.35k, happy to have got November off to a good start. 203k, three days in.