Wednesday 22nd July 2020
Post date: 21-Jul-2020 13:20:13
Once again the weather forecast turned out to be rather inaccurate. A fine morning with sunny intervals had been expected, instead riders found themselves looking out on light rain. However the weather did improve as the morning wore on.
Intermediate Ride: (Report by Alan.)
Seeing the hard-core cyclists were departing with Graham I decided to tell a small fib and declare my ride was “only about 26 miles” in order to recruit some from the B team. In fact it turned out to be more in the order of 34 miles. A further inducement was telling the riders that I had it on good authority that Alice’s tea shop in Keyworth was going to open exclusively just for us at 11.00am. Buoyed up by this news Brian, Pat, Margaret, Rob and Andrew departed bang on time with me (Alan) from Holt Drive at 9.30 am.
Again aping the tactics of Howard I decided to completely disorientate the riders by heading to the station by following every obscure road and alleyway I could find out of Loughborough and from there we headed to Cotes. We were aiming for Prestwold via Bandalls Lane and Walton Lane. At the latter junction with Nottingham Road, Brian and I had been engrossed in our usual camper van conversation to the extent that I forgot to indicate left. Brian assumed we were turning right and the result was a beautiful slow motion wobble and crash. It had to be in slow motion as Brian ended up neatly underneath his bike and therefore emerged without a scratch on the bike’s shiny black paintwork. I would have never forgiven myself. He loves that bike!
From Prestwold we headed into Wymeswold, resisted the urge to head into Pat’s for a cup of tea, and headed to Wysall via Thorpe in the Glebe. Alice’s tea room at Keyworth was reached via a loop which involved Widmerpool and Stanton-on-the Wolds at 10 seconds passed 11.00am. I therefore had to apologize for being late to a very young looking Alice who ushered us all in passed a table blocking the entrance for the great unwashed of Keyworth who could only order take-aways. Ignoring the occasional pathetic stranger’s face pressed against the window, we tucked into cakes, sponges, coffees and teas. It was just like the good old days. Andrew turned out to be yet another old boy of Loughborough Grammar School which sparked some misty eyed reminiscing and unaccountably lead to a in-depth discussion of the sexual orientation of various past members of the teaching staff. As usual I had to play a straight bat and deny everything. Before we knew it 50 minutes had elapsed and so a slightly faster pace was called for on the second half of the trip. Leaving the tea shop Pat reminded me that again I had forgotten to take a photograph. I’ll remember to do this one of these days.
The second half of the trip involved saying goodbye to Pat at Wysall and heading off to Bunny and on to East Leake then West Leake. The fibs just kept on coming, “only one more hill ... honest!”. We all arrived back in Loughborough via Normanton-on-Soar just after 1.00pm and split up just after the train station. 34 miles proved to be a good workout at a steady pace, no wind and ideal temperatures
Long Ride to Shackerstone, (Report by Graham)This was my first return to the LWC fold since lockdown, so I’d offered to lead a ride, as numbers seemed to be creeping back up and small group sizes required more leaders.
So I’d planned a route out to the Victorian Tea Rooms at Shackerstone; I hadn’t been there myself, although I’d cycled close by several times recently. Soon after I arrived at Holt Square, Field Marshall (literally!) John Catt had me mustering my pod in one corner of the square. I managed to deter one or two with the threat of some off-road sections, but soon we were five, then Howard tagged on the end, glad to be following rather than leading for a change, and we 6 left at 9:25 prompt, we being myself, Bryan, John N, Tricia, Mick and Howard.
We rode through the university and then out towards Shepshed along the main road, picking our way through the road works, then took the old railway track out of Shepshed, emerging onto Tickow Lane. From there it was up past Mt St Bernard before dropping into Whitwick and joining NCN 52, which wove us through Whitwick and Coalville then south through Heather towards Shackerstone. We followed the Battlefield line signs which took us back under the road we’d been on, to a pair of locked gates. Except the eagle-eyed wizard spotted the gates weren’t actually bolted so we sneaked through and rode along the horrible coarse gravel towards the station and tea rooms. We were literally within spitting distance when a local jobsworth turned us back, the way apparently being barred due to Covid restrictions. So back along the horrid gravel we rode, then along the road and another track to the tea rooms, where we noted to our annoyance that had the jobsworth let us continue, we had only 50 yards and a moveable barrier to negotiate. Hey ho.
Anyway, the tea rooms were open, with a basic but adequate (and inexpensive menu), so we replenished ourselves before remounting. Future visitors note, the tea rooms, which are on the Battlefield line station platform, are currently only open Wed, Sat Sun, and the toilets are closed, although some of us menfolk improvised…
Our return took us back a little way before joining NCN63 eastbound, through Odstone and then the last off-road section to Battram, then on to Stanton under Barden, for the long climb back up to Copt Oak. We lost Mick at some point, Tricia reported he’d had a mechanical but could fix it, and we were not to wait, so we 5 continued up to Copt Oak traffic lights, pausing for the wizard to fiddle with his gadgets before continuing. Howard went straight on towards Nanpantan while we remaining 4 peeled off towards Charley and then rapidly down Beacon Hill. I turned homewards at the Bull’s Head and had covered just over 40 miles, Loughborough folk perhaps a shade less, with quite a lot of climbing for all.
Short Ride (report by John C)
David had agreed to lead a short ride and John was in reserve in case two pods were needed. However it turned you that exactly 6 riders remained after the other two groups had left, so all joined David's ride. David, John, Wendy, Keith, Mick and Myles headed north following the Epinal Way and almost reaching Morrisons before exploring a network of paths to cross the A6 at Dishley and on to Hathern. The riders then headed east to Zouch before turning south through Normanton, Cotes and Barrow (where we came across Eric escorting a young lady north) before turning west for Quorn and Woodhouse. Left at the church to the group south west to Swithland, taking Leicester Lane to Cropston and a welcome refreshment stop at Ellis Tea Room at Rothley station. By now the sun was making its presence felt and some clothing was removed before riders returned to Loughborough around 12.30, having left Wendy in Quorn.
