RIDES: The long wait is over....

This winter hasn't been the worst weather-wise, but it's certainly felt like one of the longest. Maybe it was the whole lockdown thing and the ever-present COVID-related restrictions, but it just seemed to go on forever. Having to navigate local roads for the umpteenth time made things seem like Groundhog Day and despite having some lovely terrain on my doorstep, the itch to just cycle somewhere else was unbearable...

Thankfully, mid-March saw a much-needed 'away day', albeit one we had to rely on our legs to power us to (and from). With roads still relatively quiet - one of the only good things about lockdown - my riding buddy, Danny, and I headed from Rugby to the Cotswolds to take on some nasty inclines from the 100 Climbs app. The route was one i'd been given by a Strava acquaintance Paulo C, named the Magnificent 7; you guessed it, based around seven major climbs and in true Cotswolds fashion, all seriously steep. I'd done most of the route last Summer on my own but with our Fred Whitton places confirmed for September 2021, we both needed to get some more 'substantial' cycling in so I adapted the route, taking the furthest climbs out (thankfully including Bushcombe Lane) to take the edge off things, what with the added mileage to get there and back. Overall, the route came to just over 100 miles, which in March, is a distance I don't think we've ever done before that early in the year.

We set off just after 6:30am, as the sun was rising and telling us we had a day of nice weather ahead of us. A stiff breeze was forecast for later in the day but for the 30-odd miles to Halford on the outskirts of the Cotswold we had near-perfect conditions for riding a bike. (BTW, for anyone thinking about parking at Halford as I did last year, the pub car park is now fenced off but there's on-street parking that's free).

Beautiful weather is always a good omen

Danny had never been this way on a bike - or at least he didn't think he had - so was loving the way our local lanes turned into new ones, which in turn led to a variety of hills; Larkstoke Hill was the first, just outside of Wilmington and once again it provided a short, sharp shock to the system... no Strava PRs set, just a steady upwards haul of body and mind with a great view to take in. 

With it still being 'winter' of sorts, we were on our gravel bikes; Danny on his mudguard-laden Mason Bokeh, me on my resprayed Datum that now sported one less chainring but no increase in tooth count at the rear! Running a 1x setup has been a brilliant decision; it's proven to me that most of my regular riding can be done on it and opting for a 40T front chainring I haven't regretted it. However, it's on hills like this where the bike's 'compromised' gearing (and my legs) are tested but with a 32T big cog not he back, I could get up fine. I'd played around with fitting an 11-40T and a Wolftooth Roadlink adaptor for the Ultegra rear mech, but the shifting just wasn't up to much so I went back to standard gearing, at least on the rear... as you can see from the ride title, I was maybe regretting not having a few more teeth to call upon!

Larkstoke Hill; average 7%, felt like 15%!

Sporting a 1x setup, the Datum never fails to impress with its abilities.

Anyway, one hill dealt with, plenty of photos of the beautiful views and we headed back down through leafy lanes, admiring what has to be one of the prettiest parts of England. Dover's Hill came next, and our 'take it easy, we have a long way to go' approach saw us do just that; however, ego got the better of me and a third into the climb I stupidly decided I needed to put in an effort for a new PR.., I failed, but only by 30 seconds, so despite coughing up a lung as I waited for Danny at the top, I took a bit of comfort that on a 1x gravel bike and on winter legs (and after a bought of COVID), I wasn't too far off last year's form. There's hope for this old dog yet....

On last year's solo ride i'd missed the turn off for Saintbury so this time I wanted to bag that climb and get another tick in the 100 Climbs app; down we went o find the climb, brakes firmly on, passing cyclists who were hauling themselves up what was a ridiculously steep slope. If this was the descent into the village I couldn't wait for the actual climb back up... but we ended up on a main road going away from the hill. Oops! I'd cocked up the route and we'd gone down the actual noted climb and my route was taking us up a side climb from the village of Willersley. Hey ho, that'll teach me.

Mind you, this 'wrong' climb was no pushover; nearly 550ft of climbing it wasn't far off the height gain and offered a steeper average. But it has a crossroads halfway (to join the main Saintbury climb up to the golf club) so technically, it's not a continuous ascent. Nevertheless, the legs were feeling the 20% gradients - food was required.

From the top of the hill is was a quick dash down to Broadway via the A44, or Fish Hill as its known. This serpentine descent is fast, fairly busy and huge fun. I made it down fine, giving a wave to the mobile speed camera parked at the bottom, not that I was in danger of setting it off. However, Danny had the displeasure of a driver pulling out of a side road without paying attention, so his decent was not only slowed but he came down with nerves a little worse for wear - coffee was definitely required!

Broadway was eerily quiet; there were people, plenty of cyclists too, but unlike last year when i visited as lockdown eased, most of the town was shut and only cafe's were doing takeaway business. Even the climb up to Snowshill, which on lactic-heavy legs is never pleasant (never mind with loads of traffic), well that was much less busy, which wasn't a bad thing. The top was our halfway point of sorts, as we knew were on the homebound leg, so we took in the sights and eased ourselves through the rolling landscape. One last climb before Ilmington and we were now distancing ourselves from the Cotswold and heading back to more familiar terrain.

Broadway; definitely missing its usual tourist bustle

On rides like this, photo stops are mandatory.... look at the view!!!

The stiff wind was kicking in now and despite it being relatively flat, it was energy-sapping. Through Wellesbourne (stopping for cans of energy-rich coke) we hit Leamington Spa, which was busy and crowded and just not much fun.... after months of not seeing people it always felt weird that so many people were out and about. Then it was the final 15 or so miles back home. My legs were shot; we'd managed to increase our average speed by a decent amount (15.2mph for the day) but I was running on fumes as we crawled up the final hill into our village, thoughts of a roast dinner and a bottle of wine heavy on my mind. 

Surprisingly, the following day I felt pretty fresh but as I write, that's the longest ride we've done this year and one of the toughest both mentally and in terms of climbing. To do a 100-miler that early in the year is unusual for us - I actually think it was our first - and before and since, we've been doing at least 60 miles every Sunday (plus weekday rides) so we're actually/probably in the best shape we've been. Another big plus of the lockdown, setting a Strava target of 7,000 miles for the year, equating to over 130 miles per week. If you'd have said this time 18 months ago that we'd be in a global pandemic and i'd be doing imperial century rides in March, I definitely wouldn't have believed you!

Spot the climbs!!