Three rides yesterday.
Morning: For various reasons I haven't managed to get a proper ride in for a week so I made sure to get out and enjoy the sunshine. It was lovely and bright out but quite chilly with a frost on the grass and cars so layers were needed. I used the knockabout bike for convenience and chose my regular Longnor, Acton Burnell, Harnage, Condover route.
I was setting out as the rush hour was under way so I headed over Lyth Hill so as to be on the A49 for the shortest time possible. Although the road was busy I got a good gap in the traffic when it did come. Heading south through Ryton to Longnor I had a quiet road, only sharing it with a cyclist ahead who I never caught. At Longnor there was a flood even though it hasn't rained for ages. The presence of some chaps from Severn-Trent gave away the fact that it's a burst water pipe.
I couldn't seem to muster much speed on what is usually a reasonably fast section through Frodesley to Acton Burnell. Not sure if I had a headwind or I just didn't have the legs today. After Acton Burnell I could tell that there was a headwind on the way to Cound Moor but it seemed quite light. There were some works going on at Harnage and the only signs on both approaches ststated that traffic would be delayed for 15 minutes, which seemed oddly specific. Was I supposed to stop and wait 15 minutes before proceeding?
I didn't get a good look at the flag of the day at Cound. It was a Blue Ensign with a coat of arms on the fly but that's all I could tell this time. At Cound Stank I decided to vary the route and head towards Pitchford then Cantlop before another whim took me to Boreton then Condover.
I had a bit of a tailwind on the way back to the A49 and found that road much quieter than it had been earlier on.
25 miles at 12.7 mph average.
View to the Wrekin from near Harnage.
The solar farm at Boreton.
Blossom by the church in Condover.
Afternoon: Just a quick trip towards town to help in a garden. Todays task was to lift the remains of a lawn, which proved to be hard going as the dry clay soil is like concrete (it's got to be done manually as the access is too tight to get any machinery through. The owner even had to buy a special wheelbarrow as a normal sized one won't fit). About six miles for this one.
Evening: A ride over to
@gavgav to give his road bike its spring checkover. The Raleigh got an outing for this one and so did my new Carradice panniers. On the way there the traffic was unusually heavy and it turned out that there had been an accident on the A5 - both cars had caught fire resulting in the road being closed.
After working on the bike I decided to make a ride out of it and took a more scenic route home. Leaving town via Weeping Cross the traffic was still rather thromboid and although I couldn't see where the incident was I could smell the reek of burning rubber as I neared the A5. There was a police car on the slip road here with an officer having a serious discussion with the driver of a pickup pointed the wrong way.
A few people were rat running along the lanes to try and get round the closure but by some luck it wasn't too bad while I was riding towards Kingstreet, then streams of traffic went by while I was paused in a gateway for photos and it was fairly quiet again once I continued. It only got busy again for a short while after Condover on the much wider road.
The A49 was also closed (overnight roadworks) and when I reached it the traffic went quiet again so I had it practically to myself.
10.4 miles at 13.3 mph average. Nice to be out on a lovely clear evening.
A couple of shots from the gateway near the Kingstreet crossroads.
.
