Saturday was a lovely warm day with a light wind here........ unfortunately I couldn't ride on Saturday so Sunday afternoon it was.

Nice and warm after overnight rain but the wind had got quite blustery from the east. The Raleigh came out and I decided to do a variation of one of my regular routes to Atcham, Walcot, Cressage and back via Acton Burnell, Longnor and Condover.
The strength of the wind made itself noticed right from the off and made the run to Condover quite an effort. Thankfully Lyons Lane was a bit more sheltered and I got along fairly well to Cross Houses where turning north I had a crosswind through Atcham to Upton Magna.
Bearing left after Upton Magna made a change and took me along a quite lane towards Rodington. At my next right I expected to be battling with the wind but it wasn't too bad to Walcot, although I was pretty slow on the climb up Bluebell Lane. When I reached the old A5 I thought that having a tailwind here was too good a chance to miss and enjoyed a dash along the main road followed by the lane from the Horseshoe pub (good to see it open again) to Wroxeter.
Having had that enjoyable bit of riding it was back to plodding into the wind on the undulating lane through Eyton-on-Severn then the main road to Cressage (saw a model T Ford on the way). Having a full on headwind down the hill showed that the wind had shifted to when I started but did bode well for later in the ride. It meant I had more of a crosswind up Shore Lane and on my way to Cound Moor.
From Acton Burnell it seemed I was still on course to pick up a helpful tailwind towards the end of the ride. I noticed it after the crossroads near Longnor then, even though it wasn't directly behind me had a swift run to Ryton. Pausing to finish off my water just after Ryton I noticed that the trees didn't seem to be thrashing round like they had earlier - I'd lost the strong winds of earlier in the ride but it was still brisk and was behind me so I was able to push along at some nice cruising speeds through Condover and up to the A49. Ironically the only car to overtake a little too close on the main road was one with a bike on the roof and the passenger giving me a thumbs up and a big smile.
37.3 miles this time at 14.7 mph average.
A couple of shots from the ancient Roman city of Viroconium (Wroxeter).
On my way to Eyton on Severn and looking towards the Stretton hills.
Another shot of the view to the hills.
Near Dryton. I really like this time of the year when the verges are blooming and it's almost like riding through a garden on most of the lanes.