Lovely sunny, warm late afternoon, yesterday. I set off at about 4:45pm without a definite plan, but within a couple of minutes had decided to make my way up to Melbourne then across Swarkestone Bridge, to ride along the long, quiet A road that runs westward under Derby. I took the Cannondale, to give the new tyres a maiden voyage. They seem to roll along very pleasantly.
Within the first mile of setting off, as I was leaving the village, I saw a big, long brown rat scurrying across the road at top speed. A moment later a large bird of prey came swooping down behind it – a buzzard I think – but the rat was into the hedge on the right before it could pounce, and the buzzard had to pull up and over the hedge. Perhaps it had better luck in the field on the other side of the fence, or perhaps the rat had the sense to stay put in the hedge.
I was able to wear my skimpiest camo cycling jersey, but wasn’t too cool later on. Really glorious out there. I got as far as Willington where I decided to turn back, having done about 20 miles – but on a whim I thought I’d take a left turn under the bridge there, and explore for a bit. I didn’t explore far; I just went into a housing estate where I got lost briefly, but managed to find my way out a few minutes later and back onto the main road.
Annoying my Garmin Edge 25 bike computer started displaying 6 digit numbers, apparently randomly – but it turned out that it was attempting to pair with my phone, which I’d switched on a few minutes earlier in Willington to consult Google Maps. It’s never worked properly with Bluetooth, and I wasn’t particularly bothered because it’s easy enough to get tracks off it by hooking it up directly to a computer. But I’ve just put a new battery in the phone and that seems to have improved its Bluetooth performance no end.
I took a longer route back, through Weston, Aston, Shardlow (where I took the following pic) then Donington. Stopped at a bench at Weston for a cheese pasty, which had half-cooked itself in my back pocked. Back on 45.55 miles.
I scanned the roadside carefully for discarded underwear, so I could title this piece New Boots and Panties, but alas – I didn’t see any.
Although I claimed I wouldn’t worry about my knees again after the 200 mile ride, I must admit I was slightly troubled after the first couple of rides following that, because I seemed to have reverted my knees to the condition they were in about a year ago. However they do seem to be recovering properly now. Both my physios told me to keep pedalling through the pain and I’m convinced doing 40 or 50 milers helps more than shorter distances. Got to keep them busy. Worth buggering them a bit to do 200 miles anyway, but I’m glad I don’t seem to have done any lasting harm.
https://www.strava.com/activities/3661150392
459 this month, still want to do another 140.