Author: james

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.

https://www.strava.com/activities/12815290427

I got up yesterday with the firm intention of doing my 10th fondo of October. I had my cycling clothes ready to go; my cheese and onion rolls prepacked. But the weather was so cold and damp that I decided not to bother. Consequently, there will probably never be a decuple fondo month. Not in my spreadsheet anyway.

However – I did do one today. With a light wind coming from the south-west, I decided to do my Lower Westbound route. Hadn’t done it for a while.

I forgot to take the right turn for Measham after 10km. I went down Gallows Lane on autopilot, as if doing a Twycrosser. No matter, I took a right for Measham two km further down. Unfortunately because I’d approached Measham from an unusal direction, I took the wrong turn from the crossroads and ended up going west through No Man’s Heath and Clifton Campville. But that was fine. Hadn’t been that way for a while.

I stopped just short of Abbots Bromley after 52km, and turned back. I calculated that I’d have done 100km by the time I got back by the sensible route. But I realised by the time I got to Lullington that I wouldn’t, quite. So I took a detour up to Ashby after Measham.

That was an enjoyable run out, mild enough and a nice dry day albeit rather overcast. I listened to 5 Live and the Yes live album Yessongs, once a “triple album”.

Back on 101.81k. Thoroughly decent start to the November campaign.

At the moment I’m 319km ahead of 2023. That was my record year (10,321km) but I’ll be happy with 10,000 this year. Having said that – I did formulate an ambition earlier in the year to do a minimum of 400 miles in each month of this year, which would be a first – and if I do that over the last two months of 2024, I’ll end up on 10,152km. I’ll just aim for 650k for both November and December.

https://www.strava.com/activities/12798867194

Unusually, the wind came from the north-east today. While casually perusing maps over a slice of toast this morning, I had the idea of going up into Nottinghamshire, to visit some old haunts. So I went up through Coleorton to Castle Donington, but rather than hanging a left to Shardlow as I normally would, I kept on keepin’ on to Long Eaton, then to Beeston.

In the noughties, by an odd coincidence I had two consecutive jobs within a kilometre of each other there; the first at a web hosting firm, the second at Nottingham University. I went right through Beeston and into the Uni. Took a pic of the bike against the Psychology Building, where I worked as a technology staffer. Good times. Really hadn’t changed much, though it was odd to think that some of the bright young things I saw walking around the campus would only just have been born when I started work there. Meanwhile the kids who were there back then are in their mid or late thirties now. Odd thought. It doesn’t seem long ago.

Anyway I didn’t stay there long. Once or twice when I worked at the Uni I cycled all the way home to Derby, so I decided to repeat that experience. I only ever did this four or five times. Mainly I’d wrestle the bike onto a train at Beeston station, then get off again at Spondon station. I only ever rode a bike all the way home when there was some sort of problem with the trains.

It really seems bizarre to me now that I would endure the hassle of taking (and paying for) a train between Nottingham Uni and Derby, with a bike, to avoid a 21km ride home. Years later I would regularly do a 50 or 60km ride after work just for the fun of it. But 21km, or 13 miles as I knew it at the time, seemed like a lot back then.

I’m sorry to say that I couldn’t remember the way out of Beeston toward Long Eaton, and I did a lot of faffing around in heavy traffic trying to find my way. I was glad to go there again but it’s very urban, not a lot of fun.

Anyway with the help of Google Maps I did find my way back to Long Eaton and from there through Draycott, Borrowash and into Derby, just like old times. I went up through Spondon, up to Oakwood where I used to live, then back down Acorn Way to the main road and back to Borrowash. Thankfully the “ASDA roundabout” was quiet. From Borrowash, down to Swarkestone Bridge through Aston and Weston – I was thankful to be on nice quiet country roads again – and back home the usual way through Melbourne and Coleorton.

Listened to 5 Live mainly, and the Ned Doheny album Hard Candy – a bit of a blue-eyed soul classic from 1976.

As I sat on a bench near Draycott, an old bloke in pink trousers and a woolly hat, out for a walk with his other half, wanted to talk about my bike. “That’s a name I haven’t heard for a long time”, he said, pointing to the Boardman brand on the frame. So we had a brief chat about Chris Boardman. I’m not sure how much of it he took in, or whether he was particularly interested. Sweet old man.

Dark by the time I got back, on 105.38km, which makes October a nonuple (yes) fondo month. My previous record is 6, in September 2023. I’ve also done 1172km this month, which is the highest distance score in any month since 2016. But I was a manic cyclist back then. I actually did 37 rides in July that year, which seems excessive to me now. To be fair though they were typically much shorter than I’d bother with now.

Looking at the weather forecast I probably will ride a bike on Thursday, which will be the last day of the month. Maybe even a fondo! But maybe not.

https://www.strava.com/activities/12775321184

Today’s mission was to perform a fondo, by any means possible. Nice day – very sunny, though not very warm. A mild southerly breeze. I did the southbound route again. Given that the clocks went back an hour last night I hoped I’d have set off by 0930 but nope, 1024. That’s 1124, body clock time. Unaccountable really.

Since a defiantly dry day was promised, I took the Cannondale. Only its fourth run out this year. Didn’t get round to changing the chain and giving it the setup it needed until July.

Once again I went down via Odstone, Barton and Bosworth to avoid the roadworks near Bagworth. Went down as far as Station Road then turned back. I was going to come back the same way this time, but I decided to give myself an orienteering test, and I took a left towards Lutterworth rather than the right toward Broughton Astley. Found a sign to Ashby Parva, and from there I found my way back to Broughton via Frolesworth. My impromptu detour looked familiar, actually. I think I must have done that before.

After Kirkby Mallory I came home directly up the A477. Not really that pleasant, but I reasoned that the traffic would be lighter on a Sunday. By this time I was looking forward to a coffee and a warm bath. The temperature had dropped a little. And I’d added a few km on my detour.

Back about a minute after sunset, which today occurred at 1644.

I listened to Johnnie Walker’s last ever radio programme. I well remember listening to his chart show at school on my little blue transistor radio over 50 years ago. The new chart was announced on a Tuesday in those days. And I listened to football coverage on 5 Live, and another hour or two of Boris Johnson’s brilliant memoir, Unleashed.

Back on 105.39 km, and that’s my eighth fondo this month – a new personal record. Octuple Fondo October, if you will. It was also my 39th fondo this year which is also a personal best (I managed 38 last year).

https://www.strava.com/activities/12760936124

Today’s plan, again, was to do a fondo. I must have a think about whether I want to spend every available dry day cycling. But anyway today, that’s what I did.

The wind was coming from the south so I set off at about 1010 on a remix of the southbound route. Last time I went down that way, on Monday, I had to contend with extended roadworks and traffic lights near Bagworth. I don’t mind waiting at the lights so much, but the road was covered in dust and mud. So this time I went down through Heather and the various villages to Bosworth, before joining the usual route at Kirkby Mallory, via Cadeby.

I went down as far as the end of Station Road, a couple of km north of Welford and the Northamptonshire border. I decided to come back up via the old route through Husbands Bosworth and Shearsby, with the twist that I would cut across west to the new route from Foston – to avoid the nasty traffic at the bottom of Leicester. I’ve tried this once before and made a mess of it. This time I managed to take the route I intended and yep, it works pretty well. After rejoining the main route at Broughton, I mostly came back the same way.

Back on 110.45km and that was October’s 7th fondo, a new monthly record. It’s quite likely that I’ll get another one in before November, as well.

Pretty gloomy when I set off, and cold. But the sun emerged in the afternoon and in the end, it was a very nice day. I did get a couple of minutes of drizzle near Foston, though. Seemed very incongruous, so much so that I thought I was being sprayed by a badly aligned windscreen washer at first.

I listened to Bowie’s Hunky Dory and 5 Live (mostly politics coverage).

https://www.strava.com/activities/12727600045

I woke at about 0500 this morning. Certainly, I wasn’t intending to get up that early. I asked Alexa the outside temperate. 11 degrees. Doable, however on reflection I thought it was probably better to go back to sleep for a few hours. So I did. I ended getting up at about 0930, later than I intended, but I was pedalling away from the garage by about 1020.

I took the Tricross. Wanted to check that my tactic of spraying GT85, then dribbling chain lube down the steerer tube had freed up the steering, and happily, it has. Nice and slippery smooth now.

Decently mild and dry day. The wind was coming from the south. The intention was to do a southbound fondo.

After about 2km, I realised that I hadn’t brought my phone – which meant that I wouldn’t be able to refuel at a village shop or petrol station. But I took stock – I had a Peperami “pizza bun” (awful but convenient), a cheese & onion pasty and two flapjacks with me. Probably enough. So I pressed on.

I decided after Stoney Stanton to go down the Fosse Way route instead of down toward Northamptonshire. Got to Brinklow after about 47km. Then, because I only wanted to do another three klicks or so, I took a right toward Coventry rather than continuing down Fosse Way. Turned after 50.3km and came back much the same way (I took the detour along Wood Road on the way back to bypass Bagworth).

Listened to 5 Live, and the first 90 minutes or so of Boris Johnson’s superb Unleashed. Really a wonderful and engaging book, and he reads it beautifully.

Back on 102.28km, that’s 852 this month.

The only annoying thing really about switching to km rather than miles has been that I have some landmarks with distances to home recorded in my head. They can be handy, but I’ll just have to figure out and memorise some new ones.

https://www.strava.com/activities/12709866188

Older British readers might, like myself, remember the days when it was usual to receive pocket money in shillings. A shilling was a unit of currency equal to 12 pence, and there were 20 of them to the pound. Aren’t you glad we got rid of that nonsense?

And yet, more than half a century later, we persist with a system of measuring distances that’s similarly cumbersome. One of His Majesty’s miles is equal to 1760 yards, or 5280 feet. Where’s the sense in that? It is starkly obvious that the metric system, in which units are represented in multiples of ten, conforming to simple decimal arithmetic, is more intuitive and sensible. It’s very easy to work out at a glance for example that 0.77km is equal to 770 metres. It’s much easier to do distance arithmetic in your head.

But perhaps equally significantly – at the moment, here in the UK, we’re using two systems simultaneously; sometimes in the same breath. You could talk about driving ten miles to take part in a 5000 metre race for example. One building materials site sells 2″ x 2″ timber in metre lengths. The UK military already uses the metric system in some circumstances, I believe. Science and engineering certainly does, as an established international standard. So does athletics.

So where’s the sense in maintaining both; in teaching our children two separate systems when one would do nicely? And wouldn’t it be nice to drive through France or Holland or Spain and not to have to get used to a different set of measurements on the road signs?

I understand the counter-arguments. The cost of replacing or amending the road signs and speed limits. The difficulty of getting used to it.

Perhaps some might consider the old measurements to be part of our national identity. Well, so’s the blitz spirit. Doesn’t mean we have to sleep in bomb shelters in the present day.

In any case: the advantages considerably outweigh the disadvantages, in my view. Clearly, proper metrication in the UK is long overdue.

But governments of all complexions have just ignored the situation for decades.

So it’s time for ordinary people to take matters into their own hands. From this day forth, I will no longer use the old imperial measurements. I have already converted my GPS watches, bike computers and Strava account to measure distances in km. I’ll do the same for Google Maps. I may even convert the mile counter on my Volkswagen. I will refer only to metric distances. I implore my fellow Brits to do the same.

Fun facts
The metre isn’t as old as you might think; it was defined by the French Academy of Sciences in the 1790s, so that the distance from the North Pole to the equator would be equal to 10,000,000m. The actual distance represented by a metre has changed very slightly since then, but only by 0.1 nanometres since 1960.

The modern definition of a metre (since 1983) is the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. A mile on the other hand is defined as 1760 yards, the yard being defined as exactly 0.9144 metres. So the old imperial distance units are defined in terms of metric distances.

I wasn’t going to go out today because I’m trying to recover from a bad cold or a touch of flu, and I definitely gave myself a setback by doing a ride on Thursday. I felt knackered all day yesterday. But by 1500 today I’d decided that the afternoon sunshine was just too nice not to do 30 or so.

I set off to do a Twycrosser at about 1515. Down to Sheepy, through Ratcliffe Culey and Shenton and into Bosworth. I realised on the way up that I was likely to be home on about 32 miles which was more than I needed or wanted, so I attempted to cut across to the main road (the unlovely A447) as a short cut after Carlton. However, I took a wrong turn at Barton Lane and ended up looping back on the usual road going north through the villages. I’d actually performed a detour and extended my distance a bit. But I tried a similar manoeuvre at Odstone further up, successfully this time.

Back on 31.77 miles, 16 seconds before sunset, which occurred at 1800:47 here in NW Leics. 466 done this month now and if the weather forecast for the rest of the month is roughly correct, I could get that up to 620 without too much effort.

Listened to footy coverage on 5 Live. Nice to hear United coming back from a goal down to beat Brentford. Arsenal going down to 10 men made their game against Bournemouth more interesting as well.

https://www.strava.com/activities/12695153805

With dry, mild – almost warm – weather forecast for today, I really wanted to do another fondo. Unfortunately I’ve contracted a moderate case of man flu, and rather than pedalling away into the yonder on a bicycle this morning, I went back to bed.

But I did get up again at about midday, and following a modest lunch, I was off and away not long after 2pm. I hoped to do 40 miles or so.

For some reason I went right up through Ashby, and looped round there a couple of times. Just amusing myself really. Then I came down through Packington and did a fairly standard Twycrosser from there.

I went into the village shop at Packington – I’ve passed it dozens of times but never bothered to go in, mostly because it’s only a few miles from home. But this time I did, because the fridge was lamentably low on cycling snacks. Quite a useful little shop.

Listened to 5 Live. Back on 35.42 miles, fewer than I intended but oh well. I was back at 1745, only 20 minutes before sunset.

That was my 1500th ride since I started recording and spreadsheeting them in January 2015, 48,374 miles ago.

https://www.strava.com/activities/12679438734

Gloomy and a bit damp this morning and there was still a bit of drizzle in the air when I set off at about 1100. But the BBC promised it would clear up, so I did a fairly standard version of the eastbound fondo over to Eastwell and back. Out through Thringstone, Belton, Stanford and Burton on the Wolds, back through Rempstone, Wymeswold, Long Whatton, Coleorton.

I have a bit of a cold at the moment so I thought I might cut it short, but I was fine. The ride did take longer than I would normally expect, but I think that was mostly due to queuing in traffic at roadworks near Zouch. Nice run out. Nice to get out of the house anyway.

I listened to Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World album and 5 Live.

Back on 65.76 about 15 minutes before sunset.. it’s that time of year when you start thinking about taking lights even if you set off in the morning.

https://www.strava.com/activities/12663534603