Wednesday 8th April 2020

Phil's (Intermediate ride) Solo ride report.Time dilation, one of the central tenets of special as opposed to general relativity means that it seems less than a week since I wrote as a character in down with skule, back in the jug agane et al last week. Some time periods have however dragged....So this am it was off from home in glorious sunshine, first time this year in shorts and t shirt. Travelling down beacon road into town, traffic remains lighter though there are still some apparently on less than essential business or exercise. In the high street a number of empty buses sat idling. Why? Meadow lane was quiet but two pairs of birds circled preparing to attack. Luckily I was awake and warned them off with a burst of Flak. Keeping to low gear and on the inner ring predominately, Stanford on soar was approached and fox hill climbed. I was astonished to feel strong all the way up and continued without pause to Normanton. Here I encountered a member of lboro wed cyclists but passed so quickly, it may have been mark or Steve? Right and then left took me into Sutton Bonington and Marle Pit hill. This presented only a modest challenge and my heart rate was unusually low and I can only think my policy of low gearing is one to consider further. Astonishing to note that parking charges apply on the campus. In Sutton Bonington? Really? Then it was left down by the old station pub, now a private dwelling and along the road that used to have a footpath raised on stilts like the one into Barrow. In Kegworth it was left by the bowls club, right and then left and left again to join the southeast section of the bypass. Turning right, I encountered a recumbent being driven by arm power and arrived in Long Whatton. No sign that the shop was open for takeaway coffee as has been suggested on a forum in the recent past, but continued on to Hathern, where all at once.... I came across a host of golden daffodils. Steady climb up the col du 'Athern at the south end of the town and home then via the ring road. It's really not as much fun on ones own but I have to keep my fitness up.. if I show a hint of weakness, the pack will be on me when we get back to club riding!

from Rob Smith

Due to a failure of imagination, I decided to ride (an approximation) of a ride from a few weeks ago, which I thought would have the advantage of never being too far from Loughborough. Leaving Loughborough by Epinal Way I cycled to Quorn and turned right towards Woodhouse Eaves. The decision had to be made whether the ascent would be by Maplewell Road or direct to the Beacon, and by default I headed straight up to the Beacon. There was plenty of time to regret my choice of route as I stormed up at 5.2 mph. Crossing Benscliffe Road, I turned right onto Charley Road and continued on until I crossed the Ashby Road into the outskirts of Shepshed. I vaguely remembered that there were roadworks on the planned route, but pressed on in the vain hope that they had been completed. Unfortunately the road was still being worked on, so I managed an improvised diversion bypassing them, and turned left at the end to leave Shepshed.

I then turned left following the Garendon Trail towards Belton. From Belton I turned right and followed the road as far as Diseworth. For what it's worth, as I was cycling through Diseworth, about 20m behind another cyclist, we were overtaken by a police car which showed no interest in us at all.

Passing through Long Whatton, the village store was still open, but I decided to press on. I gave some thought to extending the ride to Zouch, Normanton and over Fox Hill but decided you could have too much of a good thing, so it was the usual return to Loughborough via Hathern.

As on previous rides these days, the traffic was mainly vans/lorries, and there were numerous cyclists in ones and twos.

About 25 miles in around 2 hours. https://strava.app.link/c6OjVJXew5