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Didn’t plan to go out on a bike today since the weather was a bit damp in the morning, but the sun came out in the afternoon so, since the weather looks grotty for the next couple of days, I thought I’d do 30 or so. Might have done a few more, but I wasn’t able to leave work as early as I’d have liked.

Very mild out there, though a bit windy. I did a Twycrosser, with the detour to Orton.

Passed the little heliport (just a flat spot in the grass really) in the field along Gallows Lane just in time to see a helicopter take off from there. It took to the air in the rough direction of Birmingham.

Tried a different head torch, one that takes AAA batteries (and would therefore be useful potentially on a longer ride). I think I’ve tried it before. It was adequate, but only just.

Listened to the news on 5 Live, then Barcelona vs United.

Back on 31.68 miles, now over target this month at 327 miles. Looks like it’ll be a 400+ mile February which is not unprecedented, but not that common either.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8572826856

A persistent thin fog clung to NW Leicestershire until the early afternoon but by 15:25 when I was able to leave work, it had given way to bright sunshine. A moderate wind was coming from the south and I’d decided to do a Twycross Bypasser.

I wanted to do 40 miles, which would get the February mile count up to 300. But the temperature dipped a bit sharply after sunset and I came home a quicker way through Sibson, rather than right down to Fenn Lanes as I’d intended.

Despite the sunshine the landscape was shrouded in a filmy mist. Looked spectacular in the open. I listened to the Reacher novel the whole way round. Nearing the climax now.

I trialled a new torch that takes a single AA as my front light. Works well. Adequate. Very compact. Very handy.

Back on 34.53 miles. 295 done this month, maybe I can get that up to 400.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8561622400

A mild, dry day with a light wind from the south was promised for today; ideal conditions to ride down to Northamptonshire and tick another neighbouring country box, I thought. Well not quite ideal. A bit of sunshine would have been nice.

Just for a change I thought I’d go down the old route, through Enderby, Blaby, Foston and Husbands Bosworth. It involves more climbing and busier roads, especially where it passes through the outskirts of Leicester. But the worst thing about it today was that I had to pass a “road closed” sign by mounting the pavement on Welford Road, and the first mile of road after that was covered in bits of mud and grit. No harm done, though.

After I got to Welford and the Northamptonshire border I decided to keep going for a bit. But I turned round after a couple of miles. I came back via the usual (newer) route.

I didn’t get to the village shop at Gilmorton before it closed at 1pm, but there are plenty of shops and garages on this route, thankfully. I bought a bacon & stilton turnover and a Fry’s Chocolate Cream at the little supermarket at Husbands Bosworth.

I stopped at a farm gate 15 miles from home on the way back, and two horses came trotting over. Perhaps they’re used to being offered treats by passing strangers. I snapped off a chunk of oat bar and left it on top of the fence for the more persistent one, but he or she ignored it. So I threw it on the grass and it was hoovered up in about half a second.

I listened to another few hours of the Reacher novel. Possibly the best one so far.

Back on 70.64 miles, a very satisfying run out. Just Lincolnshire and Rutland remain of the seven neighboring counties and I can do those two in the same ride. Just needs a dry Saturday or Sunday with the wind coming from the east.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8550048534

Decent weather again – sunny and dry, though cold and a bit windy. The wind was coming from the west. I thought I’d go up to Isley Walton then over Swarkestone Bridge to do the Beloved A Road for a bit, but as I rolled up Top Brand, I had the idea to go up through Castle Donington and along to Shardlow. I decided to go all the way into Derby and round my old neighbourhood. Went up through Chaddesden, back down Acorn Way.

Just indulging my own sentimentality, really. Nice to be pedalling along Nottingham Road in the the rush hour. I miss Derby sometimes.

I was going to come back via Swosser Bridge and I took a turn to Aston with that in mind, but I changed my mind and looped back onto the main road to Shardlow. Back to Donington from there, and back home the usual way.

As I paused at the lights near the airport, I heard someone call “hey” to my left. A coach driver was trying to get my attention. “More lights!” he said, leaning out of his side window with a facial expression somewhere between concern and disapproval. I could see he was trying to be helpful so I gave him an appreciative thumbs up just before I pulled away at the green light, but I examined my rear light carefully and it was flashing away pretty flippin’ brightly. Odd one.

Noticed a DHL plane on the tarmac with doors open and wingtip lights on, presumably ready to take off. What a life that must be, climbing into an aircraft on a quiet, dark runway a few miles from Derby then away into the night sky, off to another country.

I charged up my old smartwatch for the first time in a couple of years. Apparently Strava doesn’t support versions of Wear OS older than 3.0, and this has 2.something. But I installed the ridewithgps app onto it so I could use it to track the ride. It did basically work but there’s precious little info on the watch face – just pause, stop and resume buttons. I used it in “phone” mode, assuming it would use the phone’s GPS but also assuming there’d be some sort of useful interface on the watch. I’ll try “watch” mode next time. But it’s not as useful for that as a Garmin anyway. Just playing really.

I also didn’t set it up properly with Strava, so it didn’t upload the route there. This is what I got from the app:

I managed to export the track as a GPX from the ridewithgps site, so I uploaded it to Strava manually.

Another 46.1 miles done, that’s the main thing.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8534887155

A dry, sunny day with a light wind. I’d been looking forward to doing an eastbound fondo again for a while; I hadn’t done one this year. The wind was actually forecast to change direction later in the day so that I’d have a headwind both ways, annoyingly. But I hoped it would be sufficiently light to put up with.

I set off just after 10:00. Would have been a few minutes sooner except that, for some reason, the mirror on the X needed adjustment. I hadn’t been out on it since November; of course I could have checked it yesterday but I didn’t. So I spent five minutes looking for the correct Allen key.

The headwind wasn’t too irritating on the way out. I arrived at the bench at Eastwell at 13:00 exactly. I’m actually on call at the moment. Usually I wouldn’t risk a “proper” fondo in which, at the furthermost point I’m a 31 mile bike ride from home. But it’s been very quiet recently. I was so relaxed about the prospect of getting a call that rather than turning for home as soon as I reached Eastwell, I had lunch there. A cheese & onion pasty on the bench, anyway.

Sure enough about 25 minutes after I set off in a homeward direction, I was definitely riding into a headwind again. But it wasn’t too bad and it seemed to die down a bit an hour later.

With 17 miles to go, I refuelled at Prestwold Park with two Christmas Cake slices that I had left over from the festivities in December. It definitely makes a big difference to get a sugar dose on the way home. The uphill stretch of Ashby Road just west of Zouch can be a drag but today it was a breeze.

Lovely ride. Cold when I set off (about 1C) but comfortable later. Sunny the whole way round. Back on 63.45 miles.

I passed through Nottinghamshire, so that’s another neighbouring county box ticked for 2022.

Started a new Reacher novel, One Shot. The one the first film was based on. Good stuff so far. Then I listened to Forest vs Leeds. I’ve started to believe that Forest will stay up.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8510911591

Quite an eventful run out after work. I was going to do either a trip along the Lower Westbound Route and back or a Twycross Bypasser. I deferred the decision until I got to Gallows Lane, whereupon I decided on the Bypasser. Fifteen minutes later, I was nearly wiped out by a Roberts Travel coach.

On returning home I composed the following email to their contact address.

Dear Roberts Travel,

At 3:54pm today while cycling south along Measham Road, north of Snarestone, I was overtaken by one of your coaches, a silver grey model with your branding on the back. Your driver was going far too fast for me to make a mental note of the license plate unfortunately.

Visibility was good. This was a perfectly decent, wide road with plenty of space to overtake. The road was visible in front for at least 700 yards and there was no oncoming traffic.

Despite this, he or she decided to give me about a foot of clearance while passing at an unusually high speed.

In over 37,000 miles of road cycling this was the most aggressive and intimidating driving I’ve ever seen by a person in charge of a motor vehicle. It’s no exaggeration whatever to say that I was nearly killed.

My strong suspicion is that your driver thought it would be funny to frighten a cyclist out of their wits. There was absolutely no reason whatever to pass so closely. Your driver could have given me abundantly adequate space without even slowing down, at no risk whatever to anyone.

Either this or they simply weren’t paying attention to the presence of other road users.

In either case, we can surely agree that the person in charge of your coach this afternoon is clearly not fit to be driving a motor vehicle of any kind on public roads. I would encourage you to ask him or her kindly to return their driving licence to the DVLA, or to offer it to a shredder at an early opportunity.

In the meantime, I will do my best to raise awareness of this matter as publicly as possible – I do think that’s important when it concerns a company entrusted with the safety of its customers on the public roads, let alone innocent road users.

Regards
James

Then about an hour later just as I was approaching Ratcliffe Culey, both pedals jammed up very tightly as if they’d been spot-welded to the frame. WTF? I freewheeled to a convenient grassy spot and inspected the bike. There was plenty of daylight at this point (but by the way, this is why you should always take a head torch if you’re going to be cycling after dark – otherwise you might find yourself doing a narwhal impression with a torch sticking out of your mouth). A section of the chain had somehow got wrapped backward around one of the chainrings and jammed between it and the derailleur cage.

There was no play in the chain at all, no way to get it onto a smaller cog at the back to get a bit of slack to play with. I couldn’t budge it with a tyre lever. But I turned the bike upside down and by the judicious application of brute force, managed to free it by turning the pedals backward with my hands.

The bike seemed OK – it was certainly rideable and I didn’t have much trouble shifting gear at the front, but I did find I needed an extra nudge on the shifter to get it to change up once or twice. I think the cage might be slightly bent, or possibly the cable got stretched a tad. I’m sure it’ll be fine with a bit of fettling.

Went down to Fenny Drayton and came back along Fenn Lanes. Then back up through Bosworth and much the usual way from there. Back on 39.93 miles.

Nice out there – mild. The temperature didn’t seem to drop that much after dark. Windy, though.

I did enter Warwickshire briefly, not sure if I’ve done that already this year. Still haven’t ventured into Staffordshire in 2022.

Saw the helicopter in the field along Gallows Lane again. I must find out what that’s about some time.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8500098958

I wanted to do 25 or so, despite a fairly powerful wind blowing from the west. I was going to do a Twycrosser but shortly after setting off I got the urge to go up Top Brand. It’s lovely along there when the sun’s shining, as it was this afternoon.

Unfortunately that left me at a bit of a loss as to where to go after Top Brand. Usually from there I’d do Isley Walton, then Melbourne. But that would mean coming back up a steep hill, or a longer ride than I intended. So I turned left after Tonge, toward Breedon.

About three miles later I saw a sign for the Cloud Trail. This is a cycle and walking route based on an old railway line converted to a path. I’ve been meaning to try it for years, and I was on my gravel bike, so – I gave it a go.

Unfortunately even on the Tricross it was a bit too stony and rough, for me anyway. Not my sort of thing. So after a bit less than a mile, I turned back.

It does have a very nice view of a quarry, though. Would be a good walking route for sure.

Anyway from there I descended through Worthington and Newbold, much as I did a few weeks ago except that it was dark that time, then Coleorton and home the usual way. Back on 25.79 miles. 528 done this month. I’m sure Nick will have overtaken me by March.

Happy to have made a strong start to the year because I want to get my monthly targets down to the same as they were last year. They were based on a lower yearly target.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8483619568

Today’s mission was a simple one – to do a fondo, which would get the January distance tally up over 500 miles. Not bad weather for it – mild, mostly sunny and dry – apart from a stiff wind from the west. So I decided on the Upper Westbound Fondo route, an extension of my usual trip along the Beloved A Road that takes a turn northward after Sudbury, toward a village called Marston Montgomery.

I did that, turning back after I’d reached the requisite half-fondo distance, to come back the same way. Or so I thought. Once I reached my 20-miles-to-go landmark in Hilton I noticed that I’d done fewer miles than I should have, and was due to arrive home short of the requisite fondo distance. Couldn’t understand it, but on checking the track after I got home, it turned out that I’d turned back after 30.2 miles instead of 31.2. Must have been pure absent-mindedness.

Actually the road off the A515 that goes toward Marston Montgomery is a bit crappy, and worse still it involves a steep descent, which of course means a steep climb on the way back. It’s brutal, but short. But it’s very hard to get a viable fondo distance route over that way.

Anyway, I made up the distance by coming back detouring via Isley Walton after Melbourne.

Listened to 6 Music, Cerys played some good stuff. Then Peel Acres with the actress Tamsin Greig; an odd choice since she seems to know next to nothing about music. But it was entertaining enough. Then FA Cup footy.

Pleasant run out and very happy to have done 500 miles in a January (502 in fact) – that’s the first time I’ve done that.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8472797313

Someone invited me to a meeting at 3:30pm so I couldn’t get away as soon as I wanted to this afternoon, but I attended it in cycling clothes – not something I’d have done in the days when I worked in an actual office – and I was away and pedalling by about 4:05pm.

The wind was coming from the west as usual and I thought I’d do the time-honoured Upper Westbound Route, or about 20 miles of it – then come back. I always enjoy doing that one in the dark on the way back.

Just as well I took an abundance of spare front lights (I’m a bit paranoid about rechargeables) as I had two run out of juice along the Beloved A Road.

Not too cold out there. Very nice to get out, it’s been a few days.

Back on 45.05 miles, which takes me to 440 this month and the tantalising possibility that I might get it up to 500, which I think would be a first for a January.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8462291095

Another very cold, sunny, dry day. I mounted the Boardman and headed south again, into a light wind. I particularly wanted to do 36 miles, to get the January total up to 400.

But once I got to Earl Shilton I decided I didn’t want to push up the hill there again. I only did it on Saturday. And it was uncomfortably cold, so I turned left instead, and along Leicester Road. Then I took a left along Peckleton Lane and looped back into Desford. I believe I did exactly this over the Christmas hols, except that I came out of Desford in a more coherent fashion. This time I got lost a bit in the suburbs.

I came back a different way just for a change, through Barlestone and Nailstone.

Beautiful sliver of a crescent Moon on display, with the rest of the sphere just visible in the ghostly Earthshine. Looked like artwork from a 1950s sci-fi comic strip.

Ended up on 30.67 miles, not quite as many as I wanted.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8440188043