Beautiful weather again and today’s plan was to ride out to Stafford Bingley Hall and back. It’s a sort of occasional pilgrimage I do, to honour memories of gigs I attended there as a teenager in the previous century.
I’d plotted a slightly different route this time, though. I was going to do my usual Lower Westbound route to Abbots Bromley, and find my way to Bingley Hall, on the outskirts of Stafford, from there. Usually I’d go through Rugeley, which bypasses Abbots Bromley by a long way to the south.
So: I did that. I set off pretty early, at 0815. Really enjoyed the outward leg, taking it easy in the sunshine, until I got to the new stretch of roads west of Abbo. Unfortunately they were mostly lumpy, crappy country lanes liberally furnished with potholes. Got to Bingley Hall nonetheless. Didn’t hang around long. Usually I gaze sentimentally through the gates for a minute, but today my view was blocked by marquees and stalls. Some sort of event going on.
I decided to come back the usual way through Rugeley, so I came down the A51. It was fairly quiet thankfully. But before I got to Rugeley, I saw a sign to Abbots Bromley, and had that “why not” thought. So I took that. Thankfully that turned out to be a really nice stretch of quiet, well-surfaced road that took me over a reservoir a few km further on. Lovely, but looking at the track on Strava now I see that it was a massive detour. So not really likely to be useful in future, although I quite enjoyed it today.
Conditions were cool-ish in the morning so I wore tights for the first 50km or so. Took them off when I stopped for an impromptu picnic somewhere west of Abbo to consume some food I’d bought at a shop there. Nice and warm in the afternoon.
I listened to footy chat on 5 Live. Quite annoyed by the coverage around the Liverpool / Spurs game as every pundit and presenter was treating the proposition that Liverpool would take the league title today as a done deal. But they weren’t wrong.
I did enjoy the United / Bournemouth game, with an equaliser in the sixth minute of added time. Took the pic at Lullington, about 14 klicks from home. That church will be a Tesco Metro one day.
Back on 133.80km.