Thanks to the weather and a few other things I haven't got a ride in since my century a week and a half ago, so I dragged myself out this afternoon when the chance came. Nothing fancy in terms of route, sticking to well worn local roads: Lyth Hill, Condover, Cantlop, Acton Burnell, Cound Moor, Cound, Cross Houses, Atcham, Upton Magna, Uffington, Castlefields and home via the inner ring road.
It wasn't too bad at the start; dry, cool and a little bit breezy rather than the howling gales of late. The roads were pretty wet so I wasn't too fussed that I hadn't got round to cleaning the bike after the last ride. I seemed to get on quite well to Acton Burnell (the wind must have been behind me) and it was on a whim that I headed for Cound Moor rather than the more direct route to Cound that I'd planned.
At Cound Moor there was water flowing across the road where the "Irish bridge" had become a ford - the first time I've seen it at this one. I could see that there was a strong flow across the road and a couple of cars going through it demonstrated that it was deeper than I'd thought so I took to the footbridge, having to lift the bike over the remains of a recently downed tree to get to it.
After the ford and the climb beyond it there was a fair bit of water flowing down the road into Cound as the fields are saturated again. That doesn't bode well if the coming weekend is as wet as it looks in the forecasts. I had a short stretch on the A458 which was a bit busy then turned towards Atcham knowing that I could safely ignore the road closed signs as the river level has dropped enough for the moment. The water was just lapping the edge of the tarmac at the lowest point and there was a lot of debris on the road.
I took the direct route to Upton Magna this time then turned towards Uffington with some great views of the sun trying to break through the clouds over the Stretton Hills. Shame there are a couple of lines of pylons in the way.
The old canal path was as wet as you might expect and at Sydney Avenue there were more closure signs. Again, it's clear to ride through at the moment but it won't take much to bring the water back over the road. The towpath at the weir
is underwater though and I decided not to do the tour round the town centre as I'd had in mind but to head over the Castle Walk footbridge and cut through Cherry Orchard onto the cycle path along the inner ring road........ where I got overtaken by a velociraptor.
No, really. It was a lifesize model (fibreglass presumably) in a support frame on the roofrack of a car.
I have to say that's a first for me - I wish I could have got a photo.
26.4 miles at 12.5 mph average with a 31.4 mph top speed.
The bridge becomes a ford at Cound Moor.
View to the Wrekin from the top of the next hill at Cound Moor. The wind got cold around here and I ended up needing an extra fleece on.
The flood plain at Atcham.
Sunbeams breaking through the cloud as viewed from Downton
Low sun at the weir in Shrewsbury
