A day without rain, for a change. Sunny, even. I assumed it would be rather cold for cycling but since, as of this morning, I’d only done 42 miles this month and hadn’t been out on a bike for six days, I wanted to do 40 or so. Decided to do a long version of the Twycrosser. Started by going up toward Ashby, rather than through Heather. Down through Twycross to Sheepy, then to Ratcliffe Culey, then down the A444 a bit to Fenn Lanes and past the exact centre of England (depending on how you define that, of course).
Took a snack and rest stop at Sutton Cheney, where I took this pic:
I had a miniature pork pie, and a Mr Kipling apple pie that had been transformed into a miniature apple crumble by being stuffed into my dummy bottle. But it was in a plastic bag and I managed to consume all of it. Really rather nice.
Somehow the lid of my dummy bottle shook itself off coming down Alton Hill, less than two miles into the ride. I heard it clatter on the road and backtracked a couple of times, but couldn’t find it. However the contents managed to stay put over the rest of the ride, despite the absence of the lid.
I think I have three of them, so it’s no great loss. To be honest I can’t imagine why I bought a second one, let alone a third.
From Cheney, rather than taking the road up to Bosworth and the usual way home, I decided to cross the A447 and make my way along Bosworth Road to Kirkby Mallory. I wasn’t nearly as cold as I’d expected, although I’d wrapped up with four layers on top. And I was rather enjoying myself, trundling along in the autumn sunshine. From there I did part of the Stoney Stanton route, but only as far as Earl Shilton. I was on call and getting a tad concerned about the prospect of receiving a call a couple of hours from home. So I turned tail with the intention of following the Stoney route home, a fairly direct route back to base – but I’d changed my mind by the time I got to Newbold Verdon, where I hung a left back to Bosworth. I’d decided by this time to see if I could get the November Fondo in.
I can never remember exactly how many miles 100km is. I was sure it was more than 61, but less than 63 (it’s actually about 62.14). But I reckoned that if I went back the way I’d come from Fenn Lanes, I’d probably just about cover it.
I didn’t come back exactly the way I’d come; I actually took a shorter route to Sheepy. And I reached home the usual way through Swepstone and Heather rather than up through Packington. But I ended up on 62.49 miles, just enough to achieve my goal.
There’s a road sign bearing the text “7.5T” (“no goods vehicles over 7.5 tonne” I believe) that’s very handily 7.5 miles from home along the usual Twycross route, so by the time I passed that, I knew that going home via Swepstone and Heather would do nicely.
I did feel a bit worn out over the last 6 or 7 miles. It’s that time of year when the whisky bargains kick in at Tesco, and I took advantage of that yesterday. Had three or four last night. But I’d been fine until then. My knees also started to suffer a bit over the last 7 miles or so, but oh well. It is what it is.
I’ve never seen more standing water on the roads around these parts but it didn’t prove too bothersome. Usually I managed to negotiate a channel between deep puddles stretching from the side of the road toward the centre. Once or twice I had to pedal through water maybe 2/3 of an inch deep, but I was on the Boardman anyway and not that bothered. It takes some of the mud off the tyres if nothing else. Near Ratcliffe the Sence had broken its banks and made a lake of the surrounding fields, but it didn’t encroach onto the road.
My main concern was that I’d be caught out next to a deep puddle at the same time a motor vehicle passed through it and get soaked, but I managed to avoid that – partly by luck, and partly by careful timing.
I was overflown – I was going to type “buzzed”, but that would be an exaggeration – by a magpie a couple of times along Kirkby Lane. I was slightly concerned by this as I wasn’t wearing a helmet, and was unsure whether my balaclava and woolly hat would offer sufficient protection in the event that I was assaulted by it. They do like to engage cyclists in physical combat sometimes, and you can find abundant proof of this on YouTube. However it didn’t attack. If I’d been wearing a helmet and it did want a fight I would have angled my mirror so I could see it coming up behind me, then an instant before the moment of impact, I’d have reverse-nutted it unconscious.
Interested to see swarms of midgies by the roadside here and there – bit late in the year for those, isn’t it?
I listened to my Beatles bio audiobook for the first hour or two, then footy on 5 Live.
Nice run out on the whole. Certainly I’d have preferred a run across to Rutland or Belvoir Castle rather than the meandering and haphazard route I did today, but that wasn’t an option. And anyway making it up as you go along can introduce a sense of adventure.
That takes me to 104 this month, which considering the weather (and that I’ve been on call this last week) is not so bad. Happy that I’m doing my monthly Fondos again.