A bit grey, weather wise this morning. Maybe I left my bed a bit early, very keen to ride today. So me and Bob Jackson rode away.
Very little traffic about so I rode the shorter way to the Armouries at Crown Point, and then it’s the riverside path going downstream. In the cold, by ‘eck it were cold! And there were lots of folk about, jogging or pedalling, most of them, but a few just out for the freezing fun of it. I suppose. Leave the towpath at Woodlesford Lock, and after a left turn onto the A642 cross the canal and river on the way to Swillington.
Garforth is next, ride around the northern side, it is a more or less direct route to the gates of Lotherton Hall. And ride straight on at those gates, I am to the east of Leeds but will soon be taking me and my bike into North Yorkshire. Along this road there are three or four right turns that lead to Saxton, but I am riding to Towton this morning. Towton was the site of an under reported battle between the Houses of York and Lancaster, in 1461. The Yorkists won.
Continue north for a while, until the left turn to Stutton, a quiet little village. At one time it had a railway station, I wonder why. The road starts climbing a bit here, to cross above the A64 on the way to Toulston. A left turn is the road to Bramham, passing the Toulston Polo Club on the way. Found that on the map, I did. And once past Bramham, which route to take? Chose the easy one, straight to Thorner, out on Carr Lane, through Shadwell to Slaid Hill and the wander along Street Lane and on to Oakwood.
The usual descent to Leeds centre, cross my outward route shortly after crossing the river. And almost straight home. But almost at the end of the street I live on, 39.5 miles! So I rode around a biggish block, just once, to add 0.7 of a mile to the ride total, for the first forty mile ride this year, which included 1978 feet of uphill and a smile.
Doodles, maybe there is a better word,
. They took their revenge by catching me and sitting on my wheel . They eventually came through and another few miles chatting away as we took turns . They finally turned off so on to Gotham ,East Leake ,Wysall ,Willoughby where I stopped to remove my leg warmers and swap by gloves for mitts as it was warming up 
. Turned into Nice Pie cafe which was open for its first weekend and it was extremely busy so I decided to push on Down Saxelby hill and along the Wreake valley to Cossington . Slightly short of distance so an extended route home via Sileby ,Mountsorrel ,Rothley and Cropston. Just enough miles at 62.44 in 8 seconds over 4 hours just 2290ft of upness . It took me 52 miles to rack up the elevation of yesterday's metric half century . This is about as flat asI can make a ride round here . After a fortnight of the bike I thought my legs would be ok but God do they ache now
