I left the house at about 4pm togged up in cycling gear, only to be confronted by gloomy skies and a light drizzle. I returned to my desk to scrutinise the rainfall radar. It looked like a clump of rain was coming over from the north-east, but if I pedalled myself a mile or two eastward, I’d escape it.
Unfortunately that’s not quite what happened. I was assaulted by cold rain, propelled into my face by a fairly strong wind until I got to Stanford on Soar, 13 miles after setting off. My gloves and feet were a bit damp by this time but from this point conditions were nice and dry, and I dried off eventually. I stopped at Prestwold Park after about 16 miles, then decided to head back to base.
However, instead of turning back along Barrow Road, I decided to take a turn I hadn’t tried before, north along Prestwold Lane to explore a bit. The first junction I came to offered a turn to Hoton. I’d been through there once or twice, so I took that. From there I followed a sign to Wymeswold – part of the old eastbound route. This turned out to be very fortuitous, because I found myself on the fabled Lost Road.
The what? Well – a year or two ago I took an unusual turn in the same area and found myself on a really pleasant, quiet secluded road, well-surfaced and lined by trees. I didn’t make a note of where I was and I’ve never been able to find it again. I mean – I’ve only looked a couple of times on a bike admittedly, but I even spent half an hour on Google Street View and didn’t find it. It is, I shall record here, Wymeswold Road between Hoton and Wymeswold.
Back the old-fashioned way through Rempstone, Zouch, Belton, Coleorton. I hoped that the rubbish weather would have passed by the time I was west of Stanford again, and it had. I could see that the weather was clear to the west from the high ground near the border with Nottinghamshire. The roads near home were nice and dry now with just a few puddles near the side of the road here and there.
Certainly that one felt like a bit of a mistake for the first dozen miles or so, but it turned out to be a very nice run out.
https://www.strava.com/activities/5507718954
37.43 miles, that’s 380 this month now which is well over the recalculated target for June.