A beautiful sunny morning, so I thought I’d get a ride in before it got stiflingly hot. Was already pretty hot at 9am when I set out though. A much gentler breeze than recent days as well.
I followed the cycle paths up to Harlescott and of the way a couple of things were noticed, a huge electric message sign has been plonked in the middle of the shared path on Bage Way and a beautiful meadow of flowers has been left to grown on the verge, along Telford Way, with a beautiful set of vibrant colours.
I went through Sundorne and along the old canal path to Uffington, then along roads to Upton Magna, climbed up East Haughmond, before the nice descent and climb back up via Ebury Hill, then another descent to Bings Heath.
I saw more cyclists than cars, along the lanes to Poynton, Roden and Rodington Heath, which was nice, then went on to Rodington, where loon in a Morrison’s delivery van was encountered going ridiculously fast. The lane to Longden on Tern was quiet, for a change, apart from a couple walking a Rottweiler dog, that looked like it wanted to kill me as I passed it!
View to the Wrekin from a gateway
I had the breeze behind me from there, through Isombridge, then Withington and Upton Magna again, along Pelham Road and out onto the busy rat run to Atcham. I decided to cross the old bridge, but had to dismount and lift the bike onto the track, as 3 cars had rudely parked so close together that you couldn’t cycle up where the dropped kerb was. Fine for me carrying a light bike, but what is someone in a wheelchair supposed to do?
There were already a few enjoying a dip in the river and it would be likely to get very busy there later on.
The road to Cross Houses was fairly quiet and I then paused at the roundabout for a herd of approx 40 Harley Davidsons to come through and then pull up by the filling station, with that great cocophony of noise they make.
I was starting to melt in what was approaching the midday sun now and was covered in insects that had been attracted to my copious amount of suncream that had been smeared on for the ride, so the final lanes to Berrington, King St, Betton Abbots and home, was taken fairly gently.
33.28 miles at 12.9mph avg. Too hot to push any speed today, but still a few Strava segment PB’s and so not too bad.
I followed the cycle paths up to Harlescott and of the way a couple of things were noticed, a huge electric message sign has been plonked in the middle of the shared path on Bage Way and a beautiful meadow of flowers has been left to grown on the verge, along Telford Way, with a beautiful set of vibrant colours.
I went through Sundorne and along the old canal path to Uffington, then along roads to Upton Magna, climbed up East Haughmond, before the nice descent and climb back up via Ebury Hill, then another descent to Bings Heath.
I saw more cyclists than cars, along the lanes to Poynton, Roden and Rodington Heath, which was nice, then went on to Rodington, where loon in a Morrison’s delivery van was encountered going ridiculously fast. The lane to Longden on Tern was quiet, for a change, apart from a couple walking a Rottweiler dog, that looked like it wanted to kill me as I passed it!
View to the Wrekin from a gateway
I had the breeze behind me from there, through Isombridge, then Withington and Upton Magna again, along Pelham Road and out onto the busy rat run to Atcham. I decided to cross the old bridge, but had to dismount and lift the bike onto the track, as 3 cars had rudely parked so close together that you couldn’t cycle up where the dropped kerb was. Fine for me carrying a light bike, but what is someone in a wheelchair supposed to do?
There were already a few enjoying a dip in the river and it would be likely to get very busy there later on.The road to Cross Houses was fairly quiet and I then paused at the roundabout for a herd of approx 40 Harley Davidsons to come through and then pull up by the filling station, with that great cocophony of noise they make.
I was starting to melt in what was approaching the midday sun now and was covered in insects that had been attracted to my copious amount of suncream that had been smeared on for the ride, so the final lanes to Berrington, King St, Betton Abbots and home, was taken fairly gently.
33.28 miles at 12.9mph avg. Too hot to push any speed today, but still a few Strava segment PB’s and so not too bad.
so why not ride 100 miles ? .I had a route planned to grab some tricky Velo viewer tiles in the bottom right of my max square . Out the door at 5.45 couldn't go earlier as I would have made the cafe before it was open . Anstey ,Cossington ,Syston ,Stoughton as I circle round Leicester . Came across a closed road near Carton Curlieu which needed a bit of a reroute soon back on track out to the Welland valley crossing into Northamptonshire through Ashley and the first tricky tile was grabbed by riding 300 yds up a footpath . Onto Stoke Albany up the main road to another footpath to get the next tile which was a bit longer ride of 600 yds ,back to Stoke Albany then Desborough ,Kelmarsh and another ride up and back up the A508 to grab 2 tiles then on to Clipston for the trickiest tile I was hoping a farm driveway would be the solution but a locked gate before the tile put a stop to that ,so I cycled along the quiet road which is almost in the tile but not quite found a open gateway and I'm in ride 20yds into the field and job done 
. It's begining to warm up properly so let's get to the cafe . Through the village of Naseby which has very rolling roads ,Made the cafe Mini Meadows Farm in Welford which is a petting farm but has a cafe .Sausage sandwich ,coffee an a ice cold coke were consumed and thankfully water bottles fully topped up . Called in to see my mate Pat
