RIDES: Exploring the back lanes
Lockdown: day 19387 or wherever it is...
After a stressful week of working from home and schooling the kids, Sunday couldn't come quick enough. It's not like i've been devoid of cycling - going on Zwift is starting to be a regular occurrence - but there's nothing like actually getting outside to ride a bike. Mentally, it's completely different to a computer simulation and a bit of time away from nearest and dearest can work wonders.
I'm a bit of a saddo when it comes to cycling; I probably spend more time pawing over maps (and Google Earth in particular) than is regarded as healthy, and I love to explore on the 3D and streetviews options to see what's out there, finding new hills or interesting stretches of road. However, with Saturday being such an awesome day weather-wise, I was banned by the missus from doing any kind of sit-at-home prep so come Sunday morning, it was a case of winging it and going without a pre-planned route.
I'm on a bit of a timer when it comes to Sunday rides so I always aim to get out early. Too many beers in the garden on a Saturday never helps with rising early though so after dragging myself out of bed and grabbing a quick bowl of cereal and a big mug of coffee, I was out the door by 7:30am with no specific plan.
Elsewhere on my blog I've covered the '100ft per mile' ride but truth be told, I wasn't really looking for that kind of big outing. Instead, I fancied working my way over to the most notable hills in the locality, Burton Dassett and Edge Hill. Both are favourites for cyclists in the Midlands, not only because they present decent height gain; Edge Hill is 370ft and a 1/10 in the 100 Climbs book, Burton Dassett is up to 255ft depending on the side from which you approach, but also because I've not done them for quite some time.
Anyway, the run out from where I live in Rugby works out about 22-24 miles but is mainly flat. In fact, just a quick look on the Strava route planner app and the most direct route is less than 1000ft of climbing. Go the longer route (27 miles) via Daventry and it's still less than 1400ft of climbing, so not exceptionally hard work. I knew I had a maximum of five hours before I had to be home so with a bit of quick maths - 15mph x 5hrs = 75 miles - I decided to just head out an follow my nose and see what happened. If I made it to the bigger hills then bonus, but I wouldn't kick myself if I didn't.
My village is on a bit of a hill with four routes out that all have varying degrees of lumpiness. The northbound route out to the Leicestershire/Northamptonshire border is my usual, but today I was going to head south and work my way to Daventry. Rolling is the best way to describe the terrain outside of Rugby, with odd little ramps on most roads but nothing testing. It just flows up and down. I decided to take the main road, the A361, a road that usually not usually a pleasant ride because of the traffic volume. No problems today with lockdown in effect though. I then headed out toward the villages of Welton and Norton where there are some really nice back lanes. For some reason I seem to gravitate towards these types of single-lane, rutted roads (usually with cattlegrids), maybe because it's the feeling of being properly out in the country and escaping life for a few hours?
Skirting Borough Hill, a big lump to the east of Daventry, you find yourself getting to the really lumpy stuff south of the town that I tend to think of as a precursor to the Cotswolds. I'm no geologist but the hills get significantly bigger there, the terrain gets more pronounced and in effect, this then carries on south as you go to Banbury and the proper north Cotswold hills. It's where I go if I want a hilly ride. I said earlier this was on-the-fly cycling but I do refer to my iPhone for map help now and then. It tells me nothing other than village names, it's more something to check periodically through a ride than to follow it like you would a sat nav. I'm not a big fan of following a map on a GPS device - my Garmin 510 has woeful mapping anyway - so this only helps to fuel my love for ad-hoc route planning.
As I got to the villages of Preston Capes, Woodford Halse and saw signs for Cropredy, I had to do a bit of calculation; it's 25 miles out, 25-30 miles back, add in some little loops that I'll inevitably do, that's going to be four hours for sure, probably more. Did I have time to do the proper big hills? No, was the short answer.
I find that breaking my rides down into chunks of mileage, even when I don't know a specific route, helps to ensure that I get home roughly the time I should be. I know I can do 15mph easily, so that's my go-to measurement. Better still, if I'm going faster than that then I know I have a bit more time to play with closer to home to piece together a bit of whatever takes me fancy. Better to do that when you're near home than waste times miles away when you're on a timer. Thankfully, Highways England helped me make the decision; my route to Burton Dassett and Edge Hill was closed due to road improvements - lots of those going on this lockdown period it seems - so it effectively gave me one direction to head back. This meant new roads, more quaint villages, a 'police aware' site of a double-off ... a proper mixed bag.
Heading closer to Towcester I started picking up signs for villages I have a knowledge of, even if they're not familiar. I sometimes cycle the 42 miles to work in Milton Keynes and this area is part of my route so once I'd come to Maidford, I knew where I was and how to get home (in a rough sense anyway). There were still some fresh roads to try and all the while, I lost count of the number of other cyclists I saw; roadies, MTBers, families, people who'd obviously dug the bike out from the shed. This lockdown has been great for cycling. People riding bikes, even if they are in dire need of a service (the bikes, not the people), means that there's unawareness of what cycling can bring you when it feels safe and the weather is good. Less of the rat-race Sunday driving madness where everyone's motoring to the same beauty spot. Just hop on a bike and explore... maybe I should take my own advice and get out more with my kids?
Anyway, I was soon at Weedon Bec. There are a couple of really nice climbs as you approach the village from the south. The former military ordnance depot is an impressive sight as you approach Weedon, looming large over the residential dwellings. It was a huge storage facility for weaponry during the Napoleonic wars and throughout the 19th century, but has since been sold off to host a multitude of different tenants. Head through the winding streets and you're heading back up to the A45 (via the horrid Dodford Rise) and back to some really nice single track roads that I love; gravel in places, lots of undulations, the odd cattlegrid or a gate. I love gated roads in particular; they're usually properly off the beaten track and offer up interesting shortcuts that avoid busy roads. Knowing the upcoming one at Brockhall has gates either end, I was COVID-19-aware.... I found a handy stick in the verge so improvised and used that to lift up the retaining chains holding the gates in place. Who needs rubber gloves? Seriously though, most of my outdoor riding I'm not thinking about the pandemic but it's just little occasions when reality comes back and you have to take care.
Now I'm back on really familiar territory with 50 miles under my belt. I'm 3.5hrs in so going at my current pace of 16mph, I could get another 20-25 miles in depending on which route I took. The road around Allthorp and the Bringtons is flat but it's a lovely place to be when the sun is out, and I now it gets me to some lumpy stuff around Ravensthorpe reservoir. This is my normal area for 25-30 mile rides so it's nothing new aim to go the way that takes me via the Coton climb - basically, a couple of steep bits followed by a long drag up to Guilsborough - but not before I've done the (locally) infamous Hamburger Hill. Look, this isn't Hardknott Pass by any stretch, but with a maximum gradient of 18% and horrid false brow halfway up, it's one for testing the climbing legs, if only for a few minutes. The KOM on this is just under four minutes minutes, with the rider laying out an average of 305w, which works out at a rapid 17mph average speed. This one has stood since 2013 and doesn't look like it'll be usurped any time soon. My PR on it is 2 minutes slower, FYI.
The rest of the ride is pretty uneventful to be honest; I was quite happy just tootling along and admiring the scenery. I did attempt to stop to get something to eat and drink at a local shop but a queue of locals and other cyclists put me off - didn't fancy a dose of 'Rona just for a Mars bar - so I elected to carry on with what I had. By this point I was hungry and I was kicking myself for not bringing more with me; a brioche, a muesli bar and two bottles isn't enough. I need to stop eating bananas in the house and keep them for rides!
I did bump into a rider from my regular Sunday group. It was that weird 'do we stop and talk' moment when our paths crossed. We did stop, doing our social distancing thing, and had a quick natter about a few things cycling-elated, but I was super-mindful about how it looked to dog walkers and pedestrians (needlessly worried looking back on it) so we said our farewells and went our separate ways. From here it was 10 miles or so to home.
As you can see, I ended up just short of 6,000ft for the day, which given that I'd not really set out for that, was a nice tally. It also gets me super-close (22 metres in fact) to doing the double climbing challenge on Strava for the month; nearly 15,000 metres climbing in a month is likely a first for me, albeit there's plenty of that done on Zwift so to some people it may be a bit of a 'fake' total (but I'll leave that for another discussion).
With the weather set to turn, it was nice to not have to wear any winterised gear for once but I fear it's not yet time to full pack away the thicker laters just yet, provided we can keep on riding for the foreseeable future...
After a stressful week of working from home and schooling the kids, Sunday couldn't come quick enough. It's not like i've been devoid of cycling - going on Zwift is starting to be a regular occurrence - but there's nothing like actually getting outside to ride a bike. Mentally, it's completely different to a computer simulation and a bit of time away from nearest and dearest can work wonders.
I'm a bit of a saddo when it comes to cycling; I probably spend more time pawing over maps (and Google Earth in particular) than is regarded as healthy, and I love to explore on the 3D and streetviews options to see what's out there, finding new hills or interesting stretches of road. However, with Saturday being such an awesome day weather-wise, I was banned by the missus from doing any kind of sit-at-home prep so come Sunday morning, it was a case of winging it and going without a pre-planned route.
I'm on a bit of a timer when it comes to Sunday rides so I always aim to get out early. Too many beers in the garden on a Saturday never helps with rising early though so after dragging myself out of bed and grabbing a quick bowl of cereal and a big mug of coffee, I was out the door by 7:30am with no specific plan.
 |
| Quiet single-track road and gated farm lanes await on another beautiful April Sunday... |
Elsewhere on my blog I've covered the '100ft per mile' ride but truth be told, I wasn't really looking for that kind of big outing. Instead, I fancied working my way over to the most notable hills in the locality, Burton Dassett and Edge Hill. Both are favourites for cyclists in the Midlands, not only because they present decent height gain; Edge Hill is 370ft and a 1/10 in the 100 Climbs book, Burton Dassett is up to 255ft depending on the side from which you approach, but also because I've not done them for quite some time.
Anyway, the run out from where I live in Rugby works out about 22-24 miles but is mainly flat. In fact, just a quick look on the Strava route planner app and the most direct route is less than 1000ft of climbing. Go the longer route (27 miles) via Daventry and it's still less than 1400ft of climbing, so not exceptionally hard work. I knew I had a maximum of five hours before I had to be home so with a bit of quick maths - 15mph x 5hrs = 75 miles - I decided to just head out an follow my nose and see what happened. If I made it to the bigger hills then bonus, but I wouldn't kick myself if I didn't.
 |
| Often seen on the OVO Women's Tour, Burton Dassett is a fun climb. |
My village is on a bit of a hill with four routes out that all have varying degrees of lumpiness. The northbound route out to the Leicestershire/Northamptonshire border is my usual, but today I was going to head south and work my way to Daventry. Rolling is the best way to describe the terrain outside of Rugby, with odd little ramps on most roads but nothing testing. It just flows up and down. I decided to take the main road, the A361, a road that usually not usually a pleasant ride because of the traffic volume. No problems today with lockdown in effect though. I then headed out toward the villages of Welton and Norton where there are some really nice back lanes. For some reason I seem to gravitate towards these types of single-lane, rutted roads (usually with cattlegrids), maybe because it's the feeling of being properly out in the country and escaping life for a few hours?
Skirting Borough Hill, a big lump to the east of Daventry, you find yourself getting to the really lumpy stuff south of the town that I tend to think of as a precursor to the Cotswolds. I'm no geologist but the hills get significantly bigger there, the terrain gets more pronounced and in effect, this then carries on south as you go to Banbury and the proper north Cotswold hills. It's where I go if I want a hilly ride. I said earlier this was on-the-fly cycling but I do refer to my iPhone for map help now and then. It tells me nothing other than village names, it's more something to check periodically through a ride than to follow it like you would a sat nav. I'm not a big fan of following a map on a GPS device - my Garmin 510 has woeful mapping anyway - so this only helps to fuel my love for ad-hoc route planning.
As I got to the villages of Preston Capes, Woodford Halse and saw signs for Cropredy, I had to do a bit of calculation; it's 25 miles out, 25-30 miles back, add in some little loops that I'll inevitably do, that's going to be four hours for sure, probably more. Did I have time to do the proper big hills? No, was the short answer.
 |
| Someone ran of out skill when approaching this corner! Victims of empty roads inviting extra speed perhaps? |
I find that breaking my rides down into chunks of mileage, even when I don't know a specific route, helps to ensure that I get home roughly the time I should be. I know I can do 15mph easily, so that's my go-to measurement. Better still, if I'm going faster than that then I know I have a bit more time to play with closer to home to piece together a bit of whatever takes me fancy. Better to do that when you're near home than waste times miles away when you're on a timer. Thankfully, Highways England helped me make the decision; my route to Burton Dassett and Edge Hill was closed due to road improvements - lots of those going on this lockdown period it seems - so it effectively gave me one direction to head back. This meant new roads, more quaint villages, a 'police aware' site of a double-off ... a proper mixed bag.
Heading closer to Towcester I started picking up signs for villages I have a knowledge of, even if they're not familiar. I sometimes cycle the 42 miles to work in Milton Keynes and this area is part of my route so once I'd come to Maidford, I knew where I was and how to get home (in a rough sense anyway). There were still some fresh roads to try and all the while, I lost count of the number of other cyclists I saw; roadies, MTBers, families, people who'd obviously dug the bike out from the shed. This lockdown has been great for cycling. People riding bikes, even if they are in dire need of a service (the bikes, not the people), means that there's unawareness of what cycling can bring you when it feels safe and the weather is good. Less of the rat-race Sunday driving madness where everyone's motoring to the same beauty spot. Just hop on a bike and explore... maybe I should take my own advice and get out more with my kids?
 |
| The former-ordnance depot at weldon stands out a mile when approaching from the southern ridgeline. |
Anyway, I was soon at Weedon Bec. There are a couple of really nice climbs as you approach the village from the south. The former military ordnance depot is an impressive sight as you approach Weedon, looming large over the residential dwellings. It was a huge storage facility for weaponry during the Napoleonic wars and throughout the 19th century, but has since been sold off to host a multitude of different tenants. Head through the winding streets and you're heading back up to the A45 (via the horrid Dodford Rise) and back to some really nice single track roads that I love; gravel in places, lots of undulations, the odd cattlegrid or a gate. I love gated roads in particular; they're usually properly off the beaten track and offer up interesting shortcuts that avoid busy roads. Knowing the upcoming one at Brockhall has gates either end, I was COVID-19-aware.... I found a handy stick in the verge so improvised and used that to lift up the retaining chains holding the gates in place. Who needs rubber gloves? Seriously though, most of my outdoor riding I'm not thinking about the pandemic but it's just little occasions when reality comes back and you have to take care.
 |
| Patent filed for 'COVID19 avoidance utensil' - improvisation was needed on a gated road. |
Now I'm back on really familiar territory with 50 miles under my belt. I'm 3.5hrs in so going at my current pace of 16mph, I could get another 20-25 miles in depending on which route I took. The road around Allthorp and the Bringtons is flat but it's a lovely place to be when the sun is out, and I now it gets me to some lumpy stuff around Ravensthorpe reservoir. This is my normal area for 25-30 mile rides so it's nothing new aim to go the way that takes me via the Coton climb - basically, a couple of steep bits followed by a long drag up to Guilsborough - but not before I've done the (locally) infamous Hamburger Hill. Look, this isn't Hardknott Pass by any stretch, but with a maximum gradient of 18% and horrid false brow halfway up, it's one for testing the climbing legs, if only for a few minutes. The KOM on this is just under four minutes minutes, with the rider laying out an average of 305w, which works out at a rapid 17mph average speed. This one has stood since 2013 and doesn't look like it'll be usurped any time soon. My PR on it is 2 minutes slower, FYI.
The rest of the ride is pretty uneventful to be honest; I was quite happy just tootling along and admiring the scenery. I did attempt to stop to get something to eat and drink at a local shop but a queue of locals and other cyclists put me off - didn't fancy a dose of 'Rona just for a Mars bar - so I elected to carry on with what I had. By this point I was hungry and I was kicking myself for not bringing more with me; a brioche, a muesli bar and two bottles isn't enough. I need to stop eating bananas in the house and keep them for rides!
I did bump into a rider from my regular Sunday group. It was that weird 'do we stop and talk' moment when our paths crossed. We did stop, doing our social distancing thing, and had a quick natter about a few things cycling-elated, but I was super-mindful about how it looked to dog walkers and pedestrians (needlessly worried looking back on it) so we said our farewells and went our separate ways. From here it was 10 miles or so to home.
As you can see, I ended up just short of 6,000ft for the day, which given that I'd not really set out for that, was a nice tally. It also gets me super-close (22 metres in fact) to doing the double climbing challenge on Strava for the month; nearly 15,000 metres climbing in a month is likely a first for me, albeit there's plenty of that done on Zwift so to some people it may be a bit of a 'fake' total (but I'll leave that for another discussion).
With the weather set to turn, it was nice to not have to wear any winterised gear for once but I fear it's not yet time to full pack away the thicker laters just yet, provided we can keep on riding for the foreseeable future...
 |
| Not a classic but a nice ride nonetheless. |
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