Wednesday 26th February 2020
Post date: 20-Feb-2020 12:03:45
Another good turnout and another sunny but chilly Wednesday morning sandwiched in between bouts of bad weather.
Short Ride
As there were reputed to be continuing floods in the Soar valley and the wind was in the west John, Terry, Wendy, Patrick, Mick, Lynn, Anne and John headed out to Long Whatton via Shepshed and Belton, leaving a disappointed Rosalind to return home to nurse husband Phil who had lost a toe nail. The wind was chilly but the sun shone for most of the time as the group wended its way to Top Merrill, Gelscoe and Diseworth before arriving at the village shop in Long Whatton. As the seating area outside was protected from the wind and in the sun, refreshments were taken "al fresco" (supervised by the shop cat).The riders then returned via Hathern arriving back in Loughborough just before noon.
Medium ride
Despite having shed 9 of my party of 11 along the previous week’s ride, the powers that be had again bestowed upon me the dubious honour of leading the medium ride. So it was that I led 8 of us, myself (Graham), Eric, Marcus, Rob, Vic, Clyde, Bryan, and Patrick (the younger) north west out of Holt Drive, where we picked up the just arriving Pat, to make us 9 strong, destination Dovecote tea rooms, Barton-in-Fabis.
Young Patrick, having ridden in along Meadow Lane, assured us it was passable with care, so we wended our way through town past the Beehive. Sure enough, although a section of Meadow Lane was submerged, we managed to pedal gingerly along the central white line, our rims lapping in the water but nothing worse. Emerging into Stanford we took Normanton Lane and picked up Robert in Normanton, making us 10 strong. Onwards up Butt Lane, which was lovely and quiet, then over Rempstone Rd we passed, descending into East Leake and out the other side towards Gotham. As we left East Leake, we were treated to the sight of the most egregious builder’s bum I have ever seen. As Bryan riding alongside remarked, at least one of us could park our bike…
Through Gotham we followed Nottingham Road towards Clifton, before turning left Barton Lane, once a rat run but nowadays empty, leading to an underpass under the new road and from there into Barton. Eric put on a spurt to get to the front of the queue at Dovecote tea rooms, only to find them closed! Now, being an almost responsible leader, I had researched this and I’d found a FarceBook page that said they’d be open from 9am. Anyway, the gentleman in the farm shop told us they only open Friday to Sunday in the winter, so we hastily concocted a plan B, which meant continuing with the planned ride as far as West Leake, but then heading back to East Leake and Love and Piste, which was busy, but open, so we squeezed into all the available seats and tables, and filled ourselves with coffee and cakes. It wouldn’t be a Graham ride if I didn’t lose at least half the group along the way, and sure enough, after refreshments, 10 rapidly became 4 as Pat, Eric and Vic headed east to Wymeswold and beyond, whilst Robert, Patrick and Bryan headed westwards towards Sutton Bonington.
So Rob, Marcus, Clyde and myself rode south towards Loughborough with 4 becoming 3 after Stanford, as Rob opted to go back along the watery Meadow Lane, (where he got a soaking!) Meanwhile, we 3 survivors came back in through Cotes along the A6 before going our separate ways after the train station. In total we covered a distance of 28 miles.Thanks to Clyde for playing rear gunner for the 2nd week running, it makes the leader’s role so much easier to be able to look for the reassuring red jersey at the back of the party to know all are present and correct.
Postscript: I did contact Dovecote tea rooms to complain, it turned out I’d been looking at the wrong FarceBook page, social media are not my strong point…
Long rideHaving noted that the Soar and Trent had caused a large amount of flooding in recent days I had decided to head for the high ground about 32 miles and over 1600 feet of climbing. The chosen tea stop being Ulverscroft Grange the highest tearooms in Leicestershire, no chance of flooding here.
We, (Mick, Margaret, Alan and myself) set off through Quorn and onto Rothley on the old A6 before turning of right to head up towards Bradgate Park. Then through Bradgate Park which was very pleasant, apart from a light shower that we hardly took notice off. Once through the Park we turned right then left a bit further down and up Markfield lane. At the top we crossed the A50 via the light controlled pedestrian crossing, rather than taking the risk of taking the roundabout. It was then more up and along Leicester Road to Markfield. (thus avoiding Polly Botts and Priory Lane). We turned again here to recross the A50 by going over the bridge then down to our Cafe stop. At Ulverscroft Grange, once refreshed we had a quick look at the model railway, (which was open) before leaving for Whitwick, Swannymote Road (downhill), Belton, and Hathern. Shortly after leaving it began to rain, the clouds darkened and the rain became worse. Looking over to out left and our intended route the sky was black. By now the rain was heavy and what with the squally winds, we quickly decided to shorten the route and loose height to avoid being drenched. We were cycling through wet clouds down from Copt Oak and it was no time at all before we were passing the Priory pub. At this level we had come down through all the cloud and the rain had ceased.
We were wondering whether to now extend the ride but as we were now so close to home, we just continued back along Forest Road. So whilst we avoided the floods we still got wet, oh well; remember for next time.Instead of the 30miles intended we completed only 25, 3 miles less than the 'Intermediate ride', ho humm.