Wednesday 16th October 2019
Post date: 15-Oct-2019 15:37:51
Despite the fact that it was still spitting the odd bit of rain when the riders gathered, there was quite a good turnout. As Howard had reported the previous day that Cossington Road was flooded and there had been more rain, it was decided to avoid the Soar Valley as far as possible.
Short Ride
John led Myles, Mick, Lyn, John and Dom south to Quorn where they headed West to Woodhouse Eaves and then up Maplewell Hill. The original goal was to reach the highest tea place in Leicestershire at Ulverscroft, but as some of the party were not finding ascension particularly easy, it was decided to turn left onto Benscliffe Road and head towards Old John. It was then a fast descent into Newton Linford and then north through Bradgate Park. It would seem that the rain had put off many visitors as the park was quiet with many deer being much closer to the track than normal. The riders then headed for Cossington and on east to Rothley Station for refreshments in the recently extended Ellis's Tea Rooms. The final leg home was along Swithland Lane, passing Mountsorrel Quarry and descending into Quorn where John left the group for home. The remaining riders arriving in Loughborough about 10 minutes after noon.
Long Ride, (Report by Eric).The weather was damp and getting damper as we met at Outwoods Drive. However Howard had consulted his crystal ball and assured us the rain will stop. It order to prove his mystical Wizard abilities he proceeded to strip off all outer garments while 8 others who had “volunteered” to follow him looked on with a mixture of admiration and bemusement. The admiration started to fade as the rain down came steadily and Howard continued to rearrange his wardrobe for some time and stowed all in various compartments of his bicycle, whilst the water ran down the necks or the 8 and teeth started to chatter.
Finally he was finished and dressed only in dry weather gear Howard road off into the rain in the direction of the A 6 and consulted the group’s resident “flood warden” Eric, where it was possible to cross the river. Barrow was the answer unless you have a Pedalo rather than a bike! You would not have been surprised if our very own Noah had not been followed by Shem, Ham and Japheth, but instead it was Keith, Rob, Trish,Pat, Terry, Jeff, Mick and Eric that completed the bedraggled crew. Off they went through Quorn and turning left up Farley Way and over the the dual carriageway and so onto the bottleneck that is Barrow,the sole crossing point of the Soar valley Between Loughborough and Leicester in these catastrophic times. The rain got harder as we rode through this grim place and we half expected Walder Frey to pop up at any moment and in payment for crossing demand Howard married one of his grizzly daughters! However Howard’s honour remained intact and we all thankfully escaped. Things certainly improved as we arrived in the Sunshine State of Sileby, the rain stopped the sun came out and in the gorgeous glow of the rainbow in the beautiful village we almost released a dove!
Instead we carried on to Cossington and turned left up Bennett’s lane and on to Humble lane. At the top we went right down the hill under the A46 an turned left at Ratcliffe and moved swiftly on to Thrussington. Here we did a left and right and soon Hoby hoved into view. After the 15 bends of Hoby we took the Ragdale turn to the left. A steady climb up followed by a sharp drop down into the village readied us for the steep ascent to Ragdale hall. After a brief rest we continued to the end of the road and turned right for the short ride to Six hills Golf club and The Race hub, which was to be our coffee stop.
We all piled in quickly in order to beat the spin class to the service. Plenty was ordered including a piece of carrot cake by Trish that was bigger than she was, whilst Rob convinced himself that the chocolate chip shortbread must be the diet option. We all settled down for our well earned rest whilst Howard contemplated why his dry weather gear was so damp! It may have been the smell of damp clothing that led Jeff to sit outside on his own, alternatively maybe it was something we said.
After a good rest we returned to the six hills crossing and whilst Eric departed down Paudy lane in order to travel back to The Sunshine State via Berrycote lane and Seagrave, the rest turned right down Narrow Lane to Wymeswold. Here they said goodbye to Pat and carried on to Hoton and back to Loughborough via the rather precarious crossing at Cotes Mill.
Addendum: Whilst most carried on down the A60 and through Cotes to Loughborough, Mick and I (Howard), took Stanford Lane to Meadow Lane, which as we expected was closed due to flooding. Extending our ride we went over Fox Hill instead and down into Normanton on Soar. Turning left onto the A6006 we took to sight seeing the extent of the floods round Zouch, returning to Loughborough via the A6.