steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Three Lunacy rides done before the clocks change - that's not bad going! Rode south and west down to a small town in Oxfordshire called Benson, better known for the RAF base round the corner that shares its name and then back via a slightly more circuitous route
Had to replan a little on the fly when the road I was planning to take between Thame and the A40 turned out to be closed for 12 weeks. Looked it up on my phone's browser while standing by the diversion sign and found that the actual roadworks were towards the A40 end of the road, about 3 miles away. Had it been nearer the Thame end, I would have been tempted to ride down to it (road open for access, but would essentially be traffic free) and see if I could sneak my bike through, knowing that it wouldn't have been far to ride back if I couldn't - but adding on potentially six miles didn't sound such a good idea, especially as I worked out a diversion (not the one signposted) that would only add on four.
Took a lunch break at a McDonalds just outside Wallingford - basically stood in the car park, ordered on the app, looking through the window to see the screen for when my order was ready and then dashed in and out in less than 20 seconds to pick it up. Probably beat most of the car drivers who were still queuing round the block for the drive-in and I got to eat it in the fresh air rather than being cooped up in a metal box which would now probably smell of fast food for the next fortnight!
To make up for the additional miles earlier, I did eliminate an optional part of my planned route - it was just to cover a section of road I'd previously wanted to explore further and I'd have had to come back the same way afterwards, so it didn't make much difference to postpone it to another ride.
Way home was a lot easier as it was a cross/tail wind for most of it, compared to the cross/head I'd had on the first half. Picked up some good speed between Wheatley and Haddenham looking at Strava, though I did purposely choose to take a flatter longer route over the shorter hillier one, so maybe that shouldn't be too much of a surprise!
Had to replan a little on the fly when the road I was planning to take between Thame and the A40 turned out to be closed for 12 weeks. Looked it up on my phone's browser while standing by the diversion sign and found that the actual roadworks were towards the A40 end of the road, about 3 miles away. Had it been nearer the Thame end, I would have been tempted to ride down to it (road open for access, but would essentially be traffic free) and see if I could sneak my bike through, knowing that it wouldn't have been far to ride back if I couldn't - but adding on potentially six miles didn't sound such a good idea, especially as I worked out a diversion (not the one signposted) that would only add on four.
Took a lunch break at a McDonalds just outside Wallingford - basically stood in the car park, ordered on the app, looking through the window to see the screen for when my order was ready and then dashed in and out in less than 20 seconds to pick it up. Probably beat most of the car drivers who were still queuing round the block for the drive-in and I got to eat it in the fresh air rather than being cooped up in a metal box which would now probably smell of fast food for the next fortnight!
To make up for the additional miles earlier, I did eliminate an optional part of my planned route - it was just to cover a section of road I'd previously wanted to explore further and I'd have had to come back the same way afterwards, so it didn't make much difference to postpone it to another ride.
Way home was a lot easier as it was a cross/tail wind for most of it, compared to the cross/head I'd had on the first half. Picked up some good speed between Wheatley and Haddenham looking at Strava, though I did purposely choose to take a flatter longer route over the shorter hillier one, so maybe that shouldn't be too much of a surprise!
