Cycling 2024

[Nickslikk2112]

Not as cold today and the sinuses don't appear to have as much left in them. Maybe I'm finally shaking off this cold. However Mrs S is now coming down with a new one, I blame her working at a school.

It obviously didn't rain today and I managed to chalk off 32 of my required miles, so that's just 10 left for 500 in November and at the moment it's forecasted to be dry tomorrow.

The roads were stupidly busy though, I guess it's Friday and people are "working" from home.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13008662148

[Slim]

A pleasingly mild day, with a moderate wind coming from the south, and - assuming the BBC weather forecast was to be believed - 0% chance of rain. I wanted to do about 65k, and I thought I'd try a new variation on the southbound route, in which I'd go down the "old" way through Desford, but cut across to the "new" route before Enderby, meeting it just west of Broughton Astley.

So I did that. It was OK. But not great. Too much traffic along Desford Road, and along Coventry Road, which is a main road leading in and out of Leicester. The stretch between Desford and Narborough was nice though. Hadn't been along there before. It goes through a village called Huncote, where I bought some crisps, a sandwich and a Mars Bar.

There was a news item this morning about a man who had bought a a smooth Mars Bar. He opened it to find that it didn't have the signature "ripple" pattern in the chocolate, and later received £2 in compensation. Just thinking about this provoked an urge to have a Mars Bar, and that's why I bought one. Of course I don't know how many others were similarly affected by this news item. Actually I'm not sure why it was considered for inclusion on a national news bulletin in the first place. But for £2, I suspect that Mars Wrigley UK got themselves a very cost-effective marketing campaign. Maybe other vendors will consider releasing mis-manufactured products from time to time. Perhaps someone will open a packet of Polos to find that none of them has a hole in the middle.



But I digress. From Broughton, or just west of Broughton, I came back the regular way except that I did a bit of meandering around Barlestone and Nailstone. The sun came out for a bit in the afternoon, and I started to wonder if I should do a longer ride. But an hour later conditions were a bit gloomy again, and although there'd been no rain or even drizzle, the roads seemed to be getting wetter. I suppose a fine, invisible mist must have descended and settled on the ground.

Listened mainly to footy chat on 5 Live, but I also listened to Fly By Night. I took the photo near Earl Shilton; the large tyre is known to me as the Belarus Bench, because it has MADE IN BELARUS embossed on it.

I trialled some new memory foam earpieces for the earbuds I use with my phone and my DAB. They work really well, extremely comfortable, stay in your ear nicely and they do cut out a lot of external noise (some will argue that that's not a good thing for cycling of course). The main problem with the old silicon ones was that they tended to pop off the earbuds, sometimes remaining stuck in an ear or sometimes falling to the ground, necessitating a search.

Back on 69.36. I did 972k this month.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13017159664

[Nickslikk2112]

And it was dry today and I did get to 500 miles for the month. In fact I got to 515. Only did 24.5 miles today, but I didn't get out until half two and sunset was not long after ten to four.

Halfway through November it looked as if I'd be getting 650 miles in, but a cold knocked me back and the weather got colder too. It wasn't cold today though, got a right sweat on even though a newly cleaned and lubed chain meant I didn't have to work as hard. Saved me about 7W in my estimation.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13016947777

[Slim]

A cold day, and I wouldn't normally have bothered with a 100km ride. But I was very keen to get the December fondo in, to complete my annual aspiration of completing one in each of the calendar months.

The other half and I visited a restaurant in Swithland at the weekend, about ten miles from here, to the east. As we drove there I was reminded how pleasant the countryside is in that part of Leicestershire, to the south of Loughborough. Except for a very few occasions, I've avoided it because it's too hilly. So when I go eastwards, I take a route that passes Loughborough to the north.

But I decided I'd have another go. I tried to plot a route that would keep the climbing to a minimum, and eventually track northward to join the usual route.

So I wrapped up warm, set off at about 1035, and I revisited the challenging terrain between Loughborough and Leicester. I don't regret it, but it certainly was a bit of a slog in parts, and I probably won't do it again for a long time. One nice thing though is that it took me through Thrussington, where there's a lovely, quaint village shop, tea shop and deli. I visited it en route to Rutland a couple of weeks ago (albeit I think I claimed it was in Seagrave). I went in and was surrounded by all kinds of enticing products and delicacies, completely alone for a couple of minutes until I went in search of someone at the back of the tea shop. Can't imagine that in South London or Nottingham. I bought a sausage roll and some sort of pastry confection called a "blondie". I sat outside and watched the world not pass by. Delightful.



I rejoined the usual route at Six Hills, continued eastward until a few miles short of Eastwell, then turned for home. Came back the usual way (or one of them). Pretty cold after the sun went down, but it had been a sunny afternoon mostly, and conditions were very tolerable. Back on 107.52k.

Listened mostly to 5 Live.

Happy to have completed the set of monthly fondos for 2024. But equally happy to have taken a decent bite out of the remaining distance requirement. 9943km done this year now. Another 378 and I'll have beaten my yearly distance record.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13039066031

[Thenop]

^^
Not a very friendly bunch over there though judging by the signs. You'd think they'd emptied a shop getting all of those.

[Slim]

^^
Not a very friendly bunch over there though judging by the signs. You'd think they'd emptied a shop getting all of those.

That's Cropston Reservoir, owned by a water company called Severn Trent. Opened in 1871 (I've just read).

[Nickslikk2112]

Wondered how I'd be on a bike today. Spent a few hours wandering around London yesterday and picked up blistered heels and a big blister down the side of my left foot, don't normally get one there usually on the balls of my feet. New shoes which I thought were OK after walking round London with Mrs S don't seem to like my Warp Speed Walking.

Anyway, they were fine, I wore thick socks and of course clipless pedals meant there was no pressure on the side of my foot.

Just had a gentler than usual ride out through the metropolis that is Tibshelf. Nice enough apart form a renewed build up of snot/catarrh. Had fun trying to blow snot rockets, good job it wasn't windy.

A total of 35 miles will do me. Weather looking a bit iffy over the coming days though.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13044952664

[Nickslikk2112]

Woke up with a headache this morning and was hoping that it might rain to give me an excuse not to go out. But, it stayed dry and with the weekend's forecast looking a bit grim I thought I'd pop out for an hour.

Ended up being more than an hour, getting towards two hours. Went out rode a couple of silly circuits and then came back for 27 miles. Looking at December mileage to date if I scale it up I'll get to 500 miles in December. Just got to keep it up though.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13051819430

[Slim]

Rain was threatened for the late afternoon, with a storm coming later on. But I only wanted to do about 60km, enough to take me past 10,000km for 2024. The wind was coming from the south. I did a Twycross Bypasser.

I took a bit of a deviation down the Dad's Army route as far as Old Grendon. I wanted to go down to Witherley then along Atterton Lane, but the Anker had burst its banks and flooded the road. I haven't seen that for a couple of years. So I tracked back and came up via Sibson instead.

Passed the 10,000km mark just north of Odstone, 7km from home. I would have stopped to take a pic to mark the occasion, but I forgot to take a phone!

Mostly sunny. It was a nice, bright wintery day. Cold, about 3C. I listened to 5 Live. Back on 63.74.

So that's 10007km done in '24 now. My next target is to match my '23 total (10321).

https://www.strava.com/activities/13059140212

[Nickslikk2112]

With the weekend looking like it will be a wind out, I thought I'd better get out today. I intended to do 32 miles as that's a couple of hours out on the road, but once out there I went up to 38 to get to 100 miles for the week.

Just did a couple of laps round Holmewood and Heath and then back. On several occasions I thought I might not get back due to people reversing dirty great SUVs and Trucks into the road and people approaching side junctions who looked like they wouldn't be stopping. Unlike Remco Evenepoel I didn't get car doored by a Post Office van, I gave it a wide berth, just as wide Bertha opened the door.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13058745150

[Slim]

I had every intention of doing a fondo today. However I didn't get up until 0950, and when I glanced out of the window to assess the conditions, I decided that they weren't really conducive to doing more than 50 km or so. Looked a bit gloomy and damp out there, and I knew that there was an immoderate wind coming from the north-east. Additionally, it was cold.

I didn't have a definite route in mind. I headed up through Coleorton, up Top Brand, up to Isley Walton then hung a left toward Swarkestone Bridge. I didn't want to go west along the Beloved A Road though, so I came back down toward Ticknall. Tried to think where to go from there that would give me a reasonable distance without also giving me a prolonged headwind.

So from Ticknall I went down through Hartshorne, Woodville and Boundary, as I have quite a few times before, but at Boundary I took a right signposted to Blackfordby. Didn't really know what I was doing, just thought I'd explore and hopefully rack up a few additional kilometres. I would have sworn I'd never taken that turn before in my life, but Strava tells me that I now have a PR for a segment along there - which I believe means I'd done it at least once before.

I stopped at a convenience store at Blackfordby for a pasty and some Munchies. Didn't really want to leave my bike outside it, as Blackfordby - or at least its main drag - is one of those places characterised by vape shops, Turkish barbers and run-down terraced housing. But the bike was still there when I came back out.

Quite an interesting stretch of road though, it led me to Ashby Road where I took a right to Moira. Then I came upon a village called Shortheath, which, as you can see from the delapidated and DIY-looking sign in the photo, purports to be the centre of England. This surprised me, because received wisdom has it that Fenny Drayton, some 18km to the north is England's centre.



I've obscured the licence plate in the image. Is that proper etiquette?

Anyway I found my way to Measham, pootled up to Packington from there, flirted with Ashby and came home. Back about 10 mins after sunset so I didn't stop to put lights on.

Glad to have clocked up another 59.67km. 231 done this month, I want to do 645 if I can, so I'm a little bit ahead of the game - although of course commitments over Christmas might prove a bit compromising.

https://www.strava.com/activities/13086664673

[Nickslikk2112]

I quite often cycle through a village called Morton, which styles itself the centre of England!

Not far from Tibshelf, site of the first onshore Oilwell in Britain. Derbyshire, it's where it's at!

This week I've just been going out with the intention of doing 25 miles a day, if I can keep that up until Xmas Eve then that gets me December's 500 miles in.

So far I've managed four in a row, bit miserable with drizzle though today, so I took out the Gravel bike in full gravel mode. Knobbly tyres don't half slow you down, but maybe it was just the miserable weather.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I will say, a bike ride in cold weather does clear your sinuses nicely.

Not to mention male genitalia.

[Slim]

I will say, a bike ride in cold weather does clear your sinuses nicely.

Not to mention male genitalia.

I normally wait until I get home to clear those.

[The Picnic Wasp]

England appears to have more centres than a bag of Revels.