Wednesday 10th April 2019

Long Ride Despite a dry bright morning with a bit of a chill in the breeze, the numbers of cyclists were few this Wednesday. The long ride sought to try the café at the Sunnyside Garden Centre at Ibstock. Howard promised us a ride with hills, and as he set off the rest of us looked like a line of soldiers asked to volunteer. Eventually, David and Marcus followed him down the road while he was still in view.

The first part of the ride was more-or-less level, and we could discuss the amenities proposed for the planned Garendon estate. After seeing another side of Osgathorpe, crossing the A512 near the George and Dragon and thence through Thringstone, we stopped for photos by a disused mine on Talbot Lane. The first proper hill was in Swannington, and after that we started to get headwinds.

The stop at Sunnyside came sooner than expected, and we had to look around for somewhere to put the bikes. There were two shed builders who advised us not to park the bikes near them. Nearer the café was an ancient bike for use as a planter. Sunnyside has a civilized café with no piped music and no need to move furniture, and we were in and out in 20 minutes. As we set off, a shed builder asked for a fee for “looking after” our bikes, and we were in a position to suggest he got on his own bike. Word of advice to future users - best avoid the shed builders.

At this stage we had done about 52% of the hill climbing up to that point, which we all know is most of it, right?

We reached our high point on Hill Lane, Markfield, and from there it was, on average, downhill via Priory Lane (which the Strava chart shows is shaped like a big dipper ride).

The main ride had taken us in a near circular route of about 32 miles, much of it on quiet roads, climbing 625 metres and finished, as predicted, at precisely 1pm.

(Report written by David.)

Short RideRob, Ken, Lyn, John and Rob who didn't fancy such a hilly ride decided to hear upwind to the Race Hub cafe at Six Hills via Barrow on Soar and the Saltway. The Cafe appeared to have already suffered a raid of their cakes but there were sufficient left to this small group and refreshments were taken inside out to the cold. wind. The riders then returned taking Narrow Lane to Wymeswold and then back via Hoton and Stanford Lane to come back into Loughborough along Meadow Lane.