A few rides to report on:
Tuesday: About five miles in the morning to do some fence painting. I had thought was going to be an all day session but it turned out that the friend I was working with had other things he needed to do, so after lunch I swapped the knockabout bike for the Raleigh and headed out into the warm weather to get some more miles in. The route was just the regular Condover, Longnor, Acton Burnell, Harnage, Cross Houses, Condover one.
There was hardly any wind at home but heading out of the village I was straight into a brisk headwind that slowed progress quite noticably. Struggling into it on the way to Condover I got overtaken by a tractor and trailer with a cyclist riding along in the slipstream and making it look easy.
I'd hoped that on reaching Longnor the wind would help for a bit but today it was definitely blowing from an againsterly direction. I did get
some speed up on the way to Frodesley and Acton Burnell but I can do better.
Through Cound Moor it was a pleasant ride with hardly any traffic. I paused for a photo at Harnage and rejoined the road just after a Freelander which proceeded to be driven very slowly on the wrong side of the road down into Cound.
The Yorkshire county flag was flying today.
I did get the wind behind me on the way up to the A458 and because of that decided to stay on the main road into Cross Houses this time as I was getting on well. The leg towards Condover wasn't too bad then I had a great tailwind to finish off with, where the cruising speed hardly dropped below 20 mph,
First ride of the season in shorts and t-shirt and there were about a couple of dozen other riders seen too which isn't bad going for a weekday.
24.2 miles at 14.7 average. My quickest ride of the year up to this point but I could possibly have just cracked 15 if not for the mile or so behind that Landrover.
A view from Harnage.
Still a splendid display of daffs at Cound.
Wednesday: With another nice day forecast I got out in the morning to make the most of it. I got the Galaxy out for its first trip of the year and decided to do something a bit longer this time. The route was: Condover, Upton Magna, Walcot, Eaton Constantine, Cressage, Acton Burnell, Longnor, Condover and home.
The wind was much lighter this time and the bike felt fabulous to ride so I made good progress to Condover (saw a white Ferrari here) then on towards Cross Houses and Atcham where it had warmed up enough to dispense with the fleece I'd started in. A JCB turned onto the Berwick Wharf road shortly before me and I decided to give chase and see if I could get close enough pick up the slipstream - I did manage to, but only moments before they slowed to turn off into Home Farm.
The good run continued to Upton Magna (overtaking a couple of other cyclists on the way) and Withington. At Walcot the bridge is closed which was unexpected, however there is still pedestrian access otherwise I'd have had a fairly long detour. The undulating middle section of the ride begins here. I'd put a bit of effort into the early part of the trip and the legs were already a bit tired from the previous day so I took it fairly easy on the climbs and enjoyed the descents. I wasn't overly impressed by the bus driver who started an overtake on a corner descending into Eaton Constantine then thought better of it as the road narrowed.
The climb out of Cressage didn't seem too bad this time and I was quicker on the way to Cound Moor than expected. There had only been a handful of cyclists about on the trip so far but I started seeing more after reaching Acton Burnell. From Longnor my enthusiasm earlier in the ride started catching up with me - I ran out of water and was wishing I'd brought a snack along - so it was a more moderate pace back to Condover and the dash up to the A49 seemed fairly sedate compared to Tuesday. I got a good overtake from a lorry on the main road followed by a surprise on seeing that the load on the back was a spitfire. Not an everyday ocurrence.
34.3 miles at 15.2 mph average. Pleased with that.
View of a hazy Wrekin from Berrington.
A pause on the old bridge at Atcham.
A sea of daffodils at the one end of the bridge.
The River Tern at Walcot.
Ah, so that's why the road is so quiet.
Thursday: April Fool's day and it seem like the weather is the one playing the joke. From t-shirt and shorts the last couple of days it was back to full winter layers, and I still felt cold while working in the morning.
Later in the day my brother and I met up with
@gavgav as he has already reported up thread. As well as being about 11 degrees colder, there was also a brisk north easterly wind which slowed progress to the meeting point. We had a meandering tour out to Sundorne on busier roads than expected then left town and made our way into the wind to Upton Magna where we picked up the tailwind and had a good run to Atcham and Cross Houses. As Gav has mentioned it was good to see a budding cyclist out practising with what I would guess was a new bike.
It had been pretty overcast from the start of the ride so the sun breaking through the mirk later on was nice to see. I missed getting what would probably have been a good photo of Doug and Gav riding into the sunset just after Weeping Cross.
Doug did pretty well this trip but needed to take a breather on the last climb of the day after parting from Gav.
20.1 miles by the time I got back at 11.2 mph average.
Just the one snapshot from this trip; by the shop/cafe at The Haughmond, Upton Magna.
