Bike Diary

Sunny day, light wind from the north-west. A bit cool when I got up, though. On a different day I might have attempted another 100 miler, but I may do a long ride on Sunday instead – so I decided a fondo would do.

The wind direction seemed to dictate the Upper Westbound route. Not the most imaginative or adventurous option but I decided to make it more interesting – slightly – by diverting through Wilson on the way back. Not only because it would be a bit different, but because I’d avoid Rotter’s Rise after Melbourne.

Very nice out there and the roads were pleasantly quiet until the A515, going north toward Ashbourne. Bank holiday traffic, I assume. Eventually I got caught in a traffic jam going up a hill, possibly due to roadworks further ahead – but I’d done 30.8 miles by this time, so I turned back.

Stopped for some snacks at the petrol station near Scropton.

What will happen to all the petrol stations once there are no more diesel or petrol vehicles on the road? They’re much handier for cyclists than village shops, because they tend to be open all the time.

Anyway – I came back through Wilson as intended, and unlike last time I didn’t take two ridiculous left turns trying to find my way home. Back on 64.12 miles, and that’s 205 this month already. That was this year’s tenth fondo.

My personal DAB conked out after about 9 miles, just as I was coming into Melbourne. I was surprised, because I thought there was at least another five hours in the rechargeable AAs. So I put two new alkaline AAs in it (I always take spares). Those died after about 30 seconds. I did drop it in the garage but it only took a mild knock. Have I broken it? Will test it later.

I had a new phone with me, one I haven’t installed BBC Sounds or other radio apps on yet, so I put its MP3 player app to work. I listened to

Talc: Licenced Premises Lifestyle
Earth, Wind & Fire: The Best Of, Vol 1
Judas Priest: Stained Class
Style Council: Confessions Of A Pop Group
The Beatles: Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

I doubt I’ve ever listened to five whole albums in the same day before! The Beatles album especially gave me goosebumps. Every time I listen to it, I try to imagine its impact on popular culture on its release. Some of the music journalists of the time had started to suggest that the Fab Four had run out of ideas, that the creative well had run dry, in the months leading to its release. Yet they followed even the brilliant Revolver in the most devastating manner possible by crafting the first progressive music masterpiece. Every single progressive music record, by King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, whoever has Sgt Pepper DNA in it.

I stopped for a bit of a picnic at a lovely spot next to the quarry near Breedon. By this time I was too warm so I removed and backpacked my fleece and cycling tights, making this the first legs-out ride of the year – albeit only about 10% of it was done in that mode.

And I spotted the first discarded knickers of the year, about a mile from Melbourne. Lacy, very brief and a sort of mahogany brown colour. Unusual colour for ladies’ underwear, I thought.

Lovely run out. More on Sunday I hope.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8848732795

Another dry day. Sunnier than Sunday, a bit warmer and the wind was lighter as well, coming from the south. I got out of work indecently early with the intention of going down the southbound route for 20 miles or so, then back up.

When I got to Stoney Stanton after 18 miles I kept straight on over the roundabout – the usual route for down Fosse Way, although I wasn’t going to do more than another couple of miles. Just messing around. Then at Sapcote I turned right on a whim. Turned for home after 20 miles, though I came back into Stoney Stanton on a different road and ended up taking a fairly busy road back to Earl Shilton, where I rejoined the usual route.

I think I did much the same thing on a ride over the Christmas holiday. A but unfortunate to be doing that busy road during the rush hour, would have been fine on a Sunday, albeit still a bit urban.

Really lovely out there, sunny and spring-like.

Back on 40.69 miles.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8832280635

A dry day with a decently late sunset and a moderate wind from the east. I promised myself I’d do at least 80 miles, with the thought that I might do 100 if I got up early enough – and if it wasn’t too cold.

I got up at about 0700 and was away on a bike by 0756. I had a simple plan: to do the eastbound route for as long as I felt like it, then to come back roughly the same way.

Because I knew the temperature would improve later in the day and because I didn’t want to carry clothing around in my backpack for most of the ride, I wrapped up relatively light. Intermediate level; a few layers on top and a pair of tights over cycling shorts.

The temperature seemed bearable when I set off but five miles later, on lower ground, I was shivering. Very annoyingly I was uncomfortably cold for the first three hours of the ride. But the sun coming out later on made a big difference. So did the tailwind on the way back.

I took a minor diversion through Rutland and was in Lincolnshire fifteen minutes later, so that’s the last two neighbouring counties boxes ticked for 2023. I’d decided I was going to do at least 100 miles by this time. I turned back after a bit less than 50 miles, because I was going to take a slightly longer route home (through Cotes and Stanford).

I realised when I got to my 21-miles-to-go point that I was still going to be a bit short, so I tweaked the route home by diverting through Wymeswold and Hoton. Actually a lovely quiet bit of road that, well worth doing in any case.

Sunday’s not the best day for a long ride because the shops tend to be closed in the afternoon, but I stocked up at the village shop at Buckminster on the outbound leg. Very useful, well located (40 miles from home) and it has cyclist-friendly benches outside, but they tend to sell “lookalike” products – for example you can buy something that looks superficially like Lucozade Sport in a similar-styled bottle, but it’s really just rather indifferent fizzy orange.

Anyway – that was a lovely ride out. I was especially pleased to be reunited with my Cycling Happy Place east of Waltham and in the end it was worth shivering for a few hours early on to make it over there.

Listened to footy chat mostly, plus commentary on West Ham vs Southampton and some of the first half of Newcastle vs Man United. Both entertaining games. For the first half hour of the ride, I listened to the end of the Australian Grand Prix. Farcical.

I also listened to the fourth Rolling Stones album, Aftermath. What an extraordinary creative breakthrough after their first three albums of R&B covers. Their previous album, released less than a year earlier, had consisted entirely of other peoples’ tunes but everything on Aftermath is a Jagger / Richards original. Equally importantly it’s a much more eclectic and interesting record than the first three, with some really strong songs. Reminds me of The Kinks in places.

With beautiful timing, the AA batteries in my DAB died two minutes after I arrived back at the garage.

Back on  100.43 miles.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8820654439

The weather forecasters threatened light showers for the afternoon but I was keen to do at least 39 miles, to get the March total up to 300. With the wind coming from the SW, I decided to do a longish version of the time-honoured Twycross Bypasser. So I did, going up to Packington at the top and down to Fenny Drayton at the bottom.

Apart from a couple of brief episodes of very light rain, the weather was lovely – spring-like and sunny. Very nice to go along Mythe Lane again, I haven’t been down that way for a while.

I stopped for a wee and a cheese pasty at a regular off-road farm gate along Fenn Lanes and to amuse myself, I took stock of the various objects littering the ground around me. I saw wood screws, plastic wall plugs, an empty blister pack that once contained Nurofen or similar, a discarded latex glove and six tins of paint with black & yellow tape wrapped round them bearing the words ENVIRO CRIME HAZARD – DO NOT CROSS.

I was going to take Boardman II but noticed that the rear tyre is completely flat. Something else to do at the weekend, then. I took the X.

That was actually a lovely ride out and I wouldn’t have done that route if I hadn’t particularly wanted to do 39 miles. Happy I did. Back on 41.34 which takes me to 303 this month. Given the awful weather and having been out of the country for a week, I’m not displeased with that even if it is below target. I’m ahead of the game in the bigger picture, anyway.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8804464800

A dry day was forecast for today, and we haven’t had many of those this month.

One of those rare days when the wind was so light that I wouldn’t get a substantial headwind whichever way I went. My first idea was to go down to Welford on the southbound route, but I checked the weather forecast and it was more likely to rain south of here. So I decided to head east. I left work indecently early to do a fondo to Eastwell and back.

I don’t normally like to take a bike that’s just had a new part fitted for more than a short run, but I was curious to see how the Roubaix rode with its new seat post. I took the appropriate Allen keys with me and crossed my fingers. It was fine. Actually I didn’t even need to adjust anything, I seem to have got the setup pretty much spot on. Definitely seems to have improved the ride, as well.

A little bit cooler than I’d have liked, otherwise it was lovely out there – sunny most of the way there and back. I took Narrow Lane to come back via Rempstone and Wymeswold on the way back.

Listened to LBC and 5 Live mostly, but I also listened to Out Of Our Heads – the third Rolling Stones album. Mostly R&B covers again. No original tunes. Certainly no recognisable Stones classics. They certainly took a while to find their voice (although to be fair I think they’d already recorded Satisfaction by this time, but that was released only as a single).

Back well before sunset, which this evening took place at a very agreeable 7:31pm, on 63.02 miles. That was the second fondo this month and I’ve done 261 miles now in March, so it hasn’t been a disaster. Just a disappointment.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8787575740

A very similar day to yesterday – mostly sunny, too windy, occasional fierce showers. But with the likelihood that the precipitation had dried up by mid-afternoon, I set off at 1500 on the Lower Westbound route. Since I did 30 miles yesterday I only wanted to do 30 or so today. I got as far as Croxall then turned back to come home the same way.

Here’s an odd thing. The last mile or so of the ride up to and including Croxall didn’t seem familiar at all .. I’d started to think I must have missed a turn. But I hadn’t, I was definitely on the same route I’ve done at least six or seven times.

Anyway .. back on 32.35 miles, and that’s 198 this month.

I listened to Scotland vs Cyprus, then Gilles Peterson on 6 Music, then Steely Dan’s Aja. Then, just because it was next in the alphabetic sequence, my music player app kicked off Chick Corea’s Akoustic Band album unprompted. I hadn’t heard it for years. My mum bought it for me as a Christmas present in 1993.

Really beautiful out there, perfect weather for that particular route with its lovely views. What had started as an initiative just to add a bit of distance to the monthly total turned out to be one of my favourite rides of the year so far.

Back ten minutes after sunset so I was cutting it fine; I didn’t have a front light of any description with me.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8776554909

Mostly a pleasant day today, but just as I was thinking of defying the weather forecast to ride a bicycle, a brutal shower passed over.

But it was back to business as usual ten minutes later. Half an hour later I decided to risk it. I assumed I probably would get rained on, but I hoped it would be short-lived.

Very mild, mostly sunny. But very windy. I did a Twycross Bypasser. The headwind proved a struggle over the first half of the ride, but I enjoyed the tailwind when I looped back north and east.

I didn’t get rained on.

Back on 30.10 miles, which brings the March total to a paltry 166 miles. The weather for the rest of the month looks poor but maybe I can get it up to 240 or so. Damage limitation really, but there’s plenty of time to make up the distance later in the year.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8770623422

Frequent showers were touted to be likely this afternoon, so I sneaked out for a couple of hours at lunchtime in the hope of avoiding them. The wind was coming from the south, and the rainfall radar suggested I was more likely to avoid getting rained on down that way, so down south I went. I did the southbound route as far as Kirkby Lane and came back.

I didn’t get rained on at all and actually it was really nice out there. Sunny and spring-like.  Back on 23.07 miles. That was only the third ride this month and they’ve all been short, but fingers crossed I’ll get a fondo in on Sunday. 70 miles done this month.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8729909077

Didn’t think I’d get an opportunity for a first ride back from my holiday today but the weather was relatively pleasant, so I took an extended lunch and did a Twycrosser. Didn’t want to do more than 20 miles really as it was highly likely to rain later in the afternoon. I was half expecting to get rained on while I was out.

A bit windy. I ended up doing 26.36 miles. I picked up a very slight hail shower, and a few spots of rain but mostly it was sunny. I did see rain in the distance a couple of times, as captured in this pic at the Gibbet Post. But I dodged it successfully myself.

That’s a mere 47 miles so far this month, and I think the March target (311) is a long shot given the weather outlook.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8713258111

A rain-free day was promised, not too cold and not overly windy. Clearly I had an opportunity to do the March fondo on my hands.

I’d intended to set off at about 1000 this morning but slept in until 0950. But I was off on the Roubaix by about 1040.

I did the Upper Westbound route, which has now been modified so that it doesn’t take a left turn to Marston Montgomery at the north-western end, because that turned out to be a bit rubbish last time – gravelly and twisty. So I pushed up Ashbourne Road and turned back after about 31.5 miles.

On the way back, after Melbourne, I decided on a whim to take a left turn to Wilson instead of coming back the usual way. Partly because I couldn’t be bothered with Rotter’s Rise, but partly because I thought it would squeeze a bit of adventure out of the ride. I don’t actually know the best way home from Wilson so I thought it would be fun to navigate my own way back. As it happens I took two really stupid turns that elongated my ride significantly, in both cases because I thought it would be the quickest way back.

I did come to regret my impromptu orienteering because I had to negotiate quite a lot of sharp climbs. Still – nice run out overall. Back on 66.06 miles.

Listened to the rest of the Reacher novel, The Hard Way. Very good. The story moves from downtown Manhattan to rural Norfolk, and I must say the voice actor who reads the audiobook doesn’t come anywhere near getting the Norfolk accent right for the locals who speak in the book. They sound something like a cross between a slow-witted Irishman and an Eastern European.

I enjoyed being out on the Roubaix again for the first time since August but I think the saddle is set a bit lower than my other bikes. But I may acquire a carbon seat post for it soon.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8743139081