L2P reunion

It's a bit late - but better late than never

Last weekend I met up with Margaret, Emma and Peter who were on the London to Paris ride. We agreed to meet in Oxford on the FRiday eve for a pub meal and then ride out on Saturday.

The pub was in the middle of Oxford but miles up a country lane! The Perch does French food by staff with convincing French accents - maybe they're French! It has the most min imal website I've seen yet with all the necessary information: http://www.the-perch.co.uk/

So I booked into a B&B - and 'interesting' B&B. http://www.allseasonsguesthouse.com/

The All Seasons does not deserve all the negative comment pasted about it on review sites - but a lot of it is fair. But it was relatively inexpensive and had off street parking which, for a Smart with a bike on the back, is important.

So, bolstered with French food form the evening before and 'full' English breakfast served 'oriental' style I met the others in Kidlington. Parking in Kidlington is signposted as free - which it is for 2 hours. For longer than that the carparks all charge £50 £70 for a day. They obviously don't want visitors to stay long in Kidlington. So we parked in a street outside some poor sod's bungalow, changed into cycling gear and set up our bikes on the pavement and off we went northwards

I wished I'd taken a bit more cycling gear to change into. It was definitely late October weather!

The villages around that part of Oxford as beautiful and probably expensive. Emma grew up around there and took us to some of her old haunts. Great Tew is a listed village that has a wonderful shop serving coffee and sticky buns. Hooky, Emma's old home, has a steam powered brewery where they deliver beer from a cart pulled by horses - advanced in that part of the worlds they are.

Margaret has a cousin in one village who cooked us pizza for lunch - so it was a great day out.

At the end we went slightly different routes back to the cars. Peter & I wanted to motor back the last few miles as time was pressing on. Emma & Margaret took a slightly longer quieter route. Peter & I did the last 8 miles in 20 mins. I know it looks like it was downhill, but it was definitely undulating down hill and we had a good strong headwind to push through.

Must have been hard work because I burned about 3,200 calories on the 53 mile ride.

Warwickshire undulations

The weather forecast for round here today was miserable, but brighter over in Warwickshire.
So I decided to put another loop on the map from Kenilworth, up towards Rugby, then down to Stratford upong Avon and then pick up part of a route I did back in June.

The free car park by St.Nicholas church in Kenilworth was well full up by 9.30am. I'd have got there sooner if I'd set off from home by going south on the M6 instead of West on the M5. That took a while to turn around and back track! Honestly, I'm rubbish at navigation.
Space in a car park is not often a real problem though when you drive a Smart. They'll fit in anywhere (almost)

No real hills as such today, just what were called 'undulations' by the team that lead the London to Paris ride.

Some of the villages on the route were really attractive places. I should have stopped and took photos - I just don't like stopping when I'm on a roll!
Stoneleigh, Long Itchington (really!) and Snitterfield are ones the I remember being particularly nice. I did get lost a bit in Long Itchington and so I saw a bit more of it than I intended. And that's with a sat nav don't forget!


Just before I crossed the M40 near a tiny hamlet of Chesterton Green I came across a bizarre windmill on a hill. Doesn't sound unusual but check out the photos. There must be a story to that one somewhere. I think I went a bit wrong there too. I ended up on a tiny track with cattle grids and the route on the map shows I went a couple of miles out of my way to do it! Doh.

Check out the blue skies on these photos. Why could we not have had them in August?????


Getting into Stratford was a real drag. Loads of queues and irritated drivers. It is Mop Fair weekend so the town centre is closed to traffic and stuffed with fairground rides, candy floss stalls, and people all over the places. Oddly, the Mop Fair does not warrant a mention on the official town website as run by the Council. It's as if they were embarrassed by it - maybe not cultural enough for the birthplace of Willum Shakespeare.

Round by the theatre there were loads of posh looking folk wandering round the middle of the road with glasses of bubbly in their hands. A sweaty man on a bike was a real inconvenience. They were probably going to one of the many more cultural events on the website's 'what's on' list.

Crawling up the A46 to Snitterfield was a long hot hard climb - sorry, 'undulation'.
There were roadworks too which meant that drivers felt the need to buzz me very closely at speed. I rode some of way inside the coned off area.

At the top just as I got into Snitterfield I got a real burning pain in my right knee. I've had this once before and I bought a patent strap thing which I carry with me. I put it on and it miraculously stopped the pain. I rode the last 15 miles without a twinge, but it is concerning me. I'm too young for painful wear and tear just yet.

See the photo for stats

I burned off 2,800 calories which I replaced with the reheated remnants of last nights Chinese meal. mmmm I know how to live the classy life!

cycling with the mac

Quick ride out with my mate Dave Mac. We set off from Tutbury to Ashbournes and back through Rocester.

Mostly with I rode with Dave. On the bigger hills I was on my own and Dave waited for me to join him at the top!

This is the last climb up to Blore crossroads A52/A53 (?)
Dave is already at the top waiting patiently for me to ge there. As my heart rate had just pounded over the 175 bpm mark. I had stopped to take a photo and have a rest. This is my technique to avoid being like my father - he died of a heart attack.

Horrible weather to start, rain and cold - but after a while the sun came out and it were grand. This is the summer we never had in summer time.





The long climb up to Blore (northefrom Asbourne) was a killer. Over 700 feet in a really short distance. But the reward was a few miles of fast freewheeling downhill where we pedalled so little my feet went numb with the wind chill.





This ride is yet another in my great plan to do circular rides that over lap with bits of previous rides as I work my way around this bit of the Midlands.

a tour of odd names in staffs

There's probably nothing particularly odd about Tutbury as a name - I guess you've got to bury a tut somewhere. Maybe it's under the wacking great hill I cycled up to see the ruins of the castle. Pretty impressive from the car park and I wasn't going to spend pennies to see more than that - anyway I had some strange names to visit.

Somersal Herbert must have reason for being called that. There's not a lot there, just some big houses - what do people do to be able to afford places like that?

Rocester is listed on the map as a Roman Fort and settlement. Actually it's a small village next to a massive digger factory. The JCB works is on the edge of the village and is probably larger than the rest of the settlement put together. Apparently it's pronounced Rowster - which is obvious from the spelling.

Down the road is Yewtoxeater spelt Uttoxeter. Confusingly they have made a pedestrian precint out of the main road through the town. My sat nav did not like that at all.

All in all a nice sunny ride out for just under 34 miles done in a very reasonable 2.25 hours

Stats: - see the photo and note that 1886 calories were expended creating space for a stuffed marrow and a bottle of plonk later on.

westside story

Today I rode a big loop around the west side of the West Midlands connurbation.

The route took me from home up to Cannock chase, down into Penridge, south past Brewood (pronounced Brude) to Codsall, through lots of soggy countryside to Kinver and then skirting the edges of Hagley and Bromsgrove up to Longbridge and a train back as close to home as I can get.

A total of 70 miles and I was really knackered by 50! Probably because I was at work until something past 11pm last night.

There was a lot of flooding still on the lanes. On a couple of occasions I stopped to check how deep it was and what the road surface was like underneath befroe cycling through.

In other places, where the water had gone, it had left behind a deep covering of sand, mud and gravel. I should have been on the moutain bike!

Riding through Codsall brought some memories back of when Anne used to work at the school.

I took a 'coffee' break at the Garden Village on the A454 west of Wolverhampton. I have to say that the closest to coffee that the drink came was that a button marked coffee was pushed by the waitress to obtain it! Really, that bad!

Calverley village is just so 'olde worlde' untouched since goodness knows when.

Much later, in Kinver, I stopped at a wonderful cafe on the main street. I'd love to tell you the name and recommend them... but I forgot to even look at what the palce was called. But the coffee and toastie were top class. I sat outside and basked in the sunshine - remember that stuff? We used to have it in summer time.

The end of the ride was up and over the Lickey Hills. That's three times I've done that now - and each time I slog away at the pedals asking myself WHY? They're steep and long and high! Even two shots of Science in Sport enegery gel and a red bull didn't make it seem much easier.

he train back across Birmingham brings me to within 3.5 miles of home. That's the hardest 3.5 to ride. Uphill with stiff legs.

Stats: 70 miles at just 12.7 mph average (told you I was tired)

max 37.5 down the hill to Longbridge

4430 calories - Anne's fishpie will put some of that back in later.

Celling the countryside

The idea is then, that each new circular ride will overlap with at least one previous ride.

The tracks on the map will then draw cells round the countryside

I'll see how far I get!



Started at Fradley Junction today - great place to park and ride and eat at the end.

Rode out to Donisthorpe to pick up a previous track there up to Repton.

Then I rode across to Tutbury, south down to Yoxall and picked up a previous track there back to the car.



46.4 miles at 15.5 mph
2,600+ calories, mostly replaced by a stilton and cheese baguette at the Fradely junction cafe!

Back in the saddle for a winter ride in August

Somebody please remind me it is August!!!!

I went for a ride in South Derbyshire today, around places I used to cycle through when I lived in that area - more than ten years ago now.


It was freezing, even before the heavens opened and I got soaked.


I picked a car park shown on the map at Donisthorpe. That was a clever cos it was easy to get to and a good place to start and end the ride. Except that the map did not show me the closed road and the 6 mile detour, or the fact that there's a 2m height bar on the car park entrance and the bike is well over 2m above the road when it's on the back of a Smart.







This was much hillier than most of the riding in France so I was well chuffed to complete:

26.5 miles at 15mph in windy cold conditions
burning 1500 calories in the process