It's April and it's challenge ride time again. This was not the ride I'd intended for April due to it being planned at fairly short notice when a suitable weather forecast presented itself. Dry, fairly warm, practically no wind.... I'll take that.
With the knockabout bike having had a bit of work I thought it best not to go too far afield in case of problems so planned a route down to Cardington, then up to Cressage, Upton Magna and Market Drayton, across to Prees and Ellesmere and finally (hoping that I'd judged the distance right, not having done this exact variation before) back home via Baschurch, Montford Bridge and Shrewsbury.
The knockabout bike was the correct choice for today as the roads were wet after a heavy dew early this morning. It was also quite cool early on so I started with a couple of fleeces. The roads were quiet as I headed for Condover, and stayed that way through Pitchford, Acton Burnell and over Folly Bank to Cardington. I paused for a drink at the top of Folly Bank and could see from the tyre tracks that a couple of other cyclists had been there very recently. From the banana skins draped on the fence I deduce that they are mucky pups.
My first 20 miles were quite slow today as the bike hadn't had a shakedown ride after the work I'd done and a number of minor adjustments were needed to get things just how I wanted. By my 2nd breakfast stop at Kenley (a deviation from my usual century routes) I was pretty happy with it and was able to press on a little more.
I passed a driver with an interesting driving position (both hands on the top of the steering wheel, elbows resting on the centre
) somewhere around Cound Moor, then just after Cressage there was a Golf using the hedge for support.
Wroxeter, Upton Magna and Withington passed without incident. Just after High Ercall I made someone jump by saying good morning. I passed a group of five tandems near Little Bolas then a short way up the road at Bolas House, caught the tail end of a vintage tractor run.
My right knee had twinged when pushing up one of the climbs round here and at my elevenses stop I found the reason why - the laces holding the sides of my Nidd saddle together had worn through again and the saddle had become all saggy. I had a spare lace but it was way too short for the job (could have sworn I'd checked it for length) so cable ties came to the rescue and I think are tensioning it a lot better.
With the light winds I was making decent progress (for a heavy bike). Stoke-on-Tern, Market Drayton, Longslow, Calverhall and Ightfield came and went (passed another tandem after Ightfield). I had my lunch stop near Prees Higher Heath then pressed on into Prees itself. Somewhere around here it occurred to me that there didn't seem to be a great deal of traffic on the roads and I wondered why.
After Prees I was into the flat lands on the way to Ellesmere. It made for decent progress. I risked the road from Welshampton to Coptiviney and Ellesmere which is often rim deep in mud but today had been cleaned and was dry. Brilliant!
At Ellesmere I dropped down to The Mere where a group of motorcyclists was gathering. One of them chatted with me and when I said where I'd been and what my distance would be he was completely unfazed by it unlike most people.
By this point I had done 79 miles and knew that it's 22 to home so there wouldn't need to be any additions to get the challenge distance. I headed through Lee, Lower Hordley (another quick food stop here) Bagley, Weston Lullingfields (caught and overtook a tractor here
), Baschurch, Little Ness, Montford Bridge, and Bicton. By the time I got to Shelton on the outskirts of Shrewsbury I was thinking about adding extra mileage anyway so I headed into town and took a trip through The Quarry (very busy) before heading for home via Belle Vue.
103.2 miles today at 13.1 mph average. Better than I expected after the slow start.
Lots of cyclists about.
Early on in the ride and looking across to the Wrekin which is swimming in cloud.
Second breakfast stop at Kenley.
Ooops, someone's evening didn't pan out the way they had planned.
Convoy of tractors at Bolas House.
Ollerton.
Activity on the canal at Hampton Bank.
A few people perambulating at The Mere.
Quite a grand church for a small community near Weston Lullingfields.
The Boathouse is doing a brisk trade today.
... 
