I had planned to follow a route down to The Dickin Arms at Loppington, last done with Alan and Steve Hu just over a year ago. At 47 miles it would extend me as I gradually recover some degree of cycling fitness after a long lay-off. Arriving at Maggies, the place was jam packed with CER members (Neil said he counted 21!), but as you will see from this and other reports, not all would be riding today.
Originally, my group was to be me, Alan, Steve Hu and Shane,
but Steve arrived on his motorbike as he’d arranged emergency dental work to
deal with a root canal problem. Shane was dog sitting and had to be back
sharpish, but as I wasn’t sure how soon we’d be back as I couldn’t guarantee
riding at a full ‘mod+’ rate, he chose to go with the mod+ group that Neil was
leading to Wrenbury.
So, Alan and I set off in bright sunshinethrough Farndon and
Tilston, where we caught sight of the briskers disappearing around a corner. We
were riding into quite a strong south westerly wind and, as Alan pointed out, steadily
uphill, which slowed our progress somewhat. Continuing through Threapwood and
Fenn’s Bank we climbed gradually past Whixhall, arriving in Loppington about
two hours after leaving Holt.
As usual the fare on offer was good with both of us choosing
the lamb tagine which was delicious, although a little expensive – something we’ve
noted in recent times. The food came quickly and we were ready for the return
journey with 45 minutes of our arrival. We paused to take a photo of the
wisteria which was in full bloom outside the pub before re-mounting our steeds.
The return route was via some lovely quiet lanes through English
Frankton, Lyneal and Welshampton. There was so little traffic that it came as
quite a surprise when two large 4x4s came around a corner. I think they were as
surprised as we were to come across other road users. As we arrived in Penley, my Wahoo computer
was showing the chequered flag, indicating that we’d reached the end of the
journey! It looks like the full route had not been downloaded, but fortunately Alan
had also downloaded the full route onto his computer, so we were able to use
that to continue.
We were soon through Worthenbury and Shocklach, arriving
back in Holt to find Dave H, Keith and Andy B in Maggies, where we joined them,
having covered 47 miles at an average speed of 13 mph – somewhat below a ‘mod+’
pace, but, for me, a step towards improved fitness. Thanks to Alan for his
company and patience with my slow pace.
ST
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