Wednesday 11th March 2020
Post date: 10-Mar-2020 19:10:20
The weather continued to smile on us when riders gathered in Holt Drive.
Short Ride
This week, after the intermediate riders had left, saw just John, Rosalind, Patrick, Wendy and Myles setting out for the the Jade tea rooms in Newton Linford. After heading south through Quorn the riders climbed past Mountsorrel quarry and then took a right to Swithland, where the riders turned left for Bradgate Park. Here they negotiated their way round the pedestrians before enjoying the excellent refreshments at the Jade tearooms (the flapjack being highly recommended by Rosalind. The riders returned via Swithland and Woodhouse leaving Wendy in Quorn, arriving back in Loughborough just after noon.
Intermediate Ride
It was a fine sunny day with some cool wind at higher altitudes. Howard had an interesting ride in store, crossing bridges and causeways that had been under water 3 weeks ago. He was followed by Derek, Robert, John N (now with a beard), David and Clyde. We set off over Cross Hill Lane to Broadway, then took a path between Manor Drive and John Boden Way, which exits onto Allendale Road. This started as a relaxing ride, particularly as I took Robert’s advice to lubricate my chain. Derek had “The Beast”. It is an electric-powered bike with big tyres and equipped with folding pedals, storage for a man-size doggy bag, and woe betide any Brown Van Man who confronts Derek now! The width restrictions in Watermead Park and by Leicester North station were a challenge for those of us with wide handlebars, but soon surmounted.
John had an ingenious arrangement for keeping his toes warm. I did not study it closely, but similar devices have appeared in the patent literature e.g. French patent no. 2,204,173.
Continuing our ride along the old A6, we turned off at Mountsorrel for Sileby. Howard had of course done his homework and as we passed Slash Lane the road surface was dry. Having passed through the centre of Sileby, and thence Cossington, we turned down Platts Lane to Watermead Park. Whilst the first part was familiar, even past the Hope & Anchor, in later parts we could see swans flying overhead as we wound our way to parts of north Leicester that I normally see from the main roads around Red Hill Circle. We joined Thurcaston Road and crossed the footbridge up the hill to the Met Café.
Met Café near Leicester North GCR station. The ambience here is arguably one of the most laid-back in our portfolio of cafés. Soft, calming music accompanied the international décor, and artificial ivy climbed the windows timelessly. Milk was served from a small china calf in time-reversed manner i.e. issuing from its mouth. Cakes were generous and inexpensive and furniture was movable, if necessary. But we had places to go and had to extract ourselves.
As we emerged from Birstall, there was one notable hill on Greengate Lane which, although steep, prompted us to try to emulate those ace riders we had discussed over coffee, who climb such hills about as fast as we go down them. Mercifully, Howard allowed us a breather at the top.
We turned onto Ashton Green Road that passed fields and new houses and crossed the A46 to Thurcaston. There is large a dip in the road across which The Wheatsheaf Inn is afforded the most prominent position in the village. We turned just before the inn and headed for Rothley. Passing large houses on Swithland Road, we turned into The Ridings and crossed Swithland Reservoir, before our route took us through Swithland village. At the other side of the village, the road to Woodhouse was closed on the triangular junction, but we got through on the path. Having arrived at Woodhouse, the riders were offered the choice of a return route through Quorn or Mucklin Wood. The majority wisely chose Quorn. Howard, Derek and David chose the wood.
Long Ride
I’d volunteered to lead the long ride this week, having in my head a circular trip through Leicester to Buttercups café. We were the first group to leave Holt Drive, 9 strong, with Dave, Eric, Phil, Terry, Brian, Tricia, Alan and Mick following me as we headed south on route 6 through Quorn and Mountsorrel. Approaching Birstall we went left over the park’n’ride bridge then made our way to Watermead and onto the canal. Dodging the wildfowl we followed the canal all the way through the city before surfacing at Bede Park and onto DMU campus. From there we followed route 63, zig-zagging past LRI and the prison, through Vicky park and heading generally east until we broke free of the city at Evington. From there we had a nice tailwind as we headed along the quiet roads east through Stoughton, passing Leicester airport and pausing at King’s Norton, as Terry had a puncture. Terry insisted we carry on while he fixed the bike, so we continued to Billesdon, about a mile shy of our pit stop. Phil, who hates to queue, wanted to form an advance party, so he and Brian set off while the rest of us regrouped. Thus we were somewhat bemused, as we approached the café, to hear the anguished cries of Phil, behind us. Clearly, he and Brian had misinterpreted my vague instructions and taken a wrong turn, putting them at the back of the café queue. Now although Buttercups is a large, hangar like place, the service was very slow with just one lady serving, and it took an age to process us all. Luckily we were kept entertained by the sight of the steam coming out of Phil’s ears! It was so slow that we’d only just all got served when in rocked Terry, having fixed his mechanical and ridden on to find us. Anyway, fed, watered and soothed, we headed for home in a north westerly direction, down Sludge Hill through Cold Newton to Hungarton. Nice and quiet again, but exposed and very blustery, with the wind making it hard going. Somehow we resisted the temptation to stop at the Black Boy and continued on through Beeby and Barkby to Syston, from where we took the canal path north to Cossington.
Waving goodbye to Eric at Sileby we came back in via Mountsorrel lane, then back up to A6 the way we’d come, dropping of riders along the way. I peeled off at Aldi’s roundabout at 14:20, having ridden 72Km or 45miles, so quite a long ride in both time and distance.