A later evening ride, with
@Rickshaw Phil which meant the first dark riding since Spring.
We set off through the nearby estate and then onto the A458. A large articulated lorry waited patiently behind us, as we turned right onto the Betton road, then appeared to be waiting to follow us, so we were going to pull in to let them past, but they changed their mind and must have continued down the main road.
We then turned onto the lanes to Berrington, with a rather smelly tractor and trailer leaving an unpleasant trail in front of us. The A458 was very quiet at Cross Houses and we then descended to Atcham, where a few people were on the old bridge enjoying the mild evening dusk.
The old A5 was much easier to cross at that time of night, as we continued onto Berwick Wharf, one pillock along there, who decided to go onto main beam and dazzle us, on purpose I would suspect.
We joined lanes again, to Upton Magna and Uffington, before going off road onto the old canal path to Pimley. With it being a quiet time of night, I decided to continue along the gravel (or nowadays mostly compacted dry mud) section to the inner ring road, for the first time in a couple of years for me. We did meet a ninja cyclist, dressed all in black, with no lights, but thankfully a front reflector, which meant we could just about see them and another lad with much better lights, but it was better than mixing with the dog walkers that normally frequent it during the daytime and make it a struggle to make progress.
It was out onto cycle paths, to Reabrook and Meole Brace, where we parted ways and I arrived home with 15.41 miles at a leisurely 11.4mph avg speed. I’d slightly pulled a hip flexor muscle, playing cricket on Sunday, which has taken a few days to settle down and so I didn’t go at it too hard this evening.