Wednesday 14th July 2021
A beautiful sunny summer morning produced many riders, with three being new to the group..
Short Ride Report
by John
With two new riders, Pauline and Siva, unsure of their abilities (plus John, Rosalind and Lyn) and the wind in the north, it was decided to head for East Leake as there are a wide variety of routes of different lengths and hills available.
The group took the direct route to Meadow Lane through the Market Place and found that one of the longer rides was turning into Meadow Lane just ahead of them, having taken a more circuitous route. After a short delay due to a chain derailment, the riders processed through Stanford on Soar and chose the shorter route up East Leake Lane to the Normanton Hills. The riders then headed down towards East Leake and then turned up Rempstone Road before descending to Brickyard Lane.
The riders then turned down Pithouse Lane and on through West Leake to arrive at East Leake where refreshments were obtained.
After relaxing in the park for a while the riders returned direct to Loughborough, arriving just before noon.
Intermediate ride to Castle Donington – 14th July 2021
by David
The forecast was promising, and a good day to put on lots of sun cream. There were several intermediate rides on offer, and this is one that set off after a short delay while the leader’s Garmin demanded to do its own thing. David (leader), Philip, Mick, Margaret, Alan and Wendy headed towards the town centre along Beacon Road, then Woodgate, Leicester Road and Baxter Gate. Then we turned off on Sparrow Hill to Meadow Lane. One quirk of the journey was the phasing of traffic lights – some kept us waiting for minutes, while others had a phase length sufficient to let 3 of us through.
Once we were on the road out of Loughborough, and had passed through Stanford, we headed up Leake Lane with Phillip up front. We regrouped at the end of Leake Lane and waited for traffic (presumably the Leake Lane Rally Club) to disperse before resuming.
From here, we took the next few miles at a brisk speed, down Loughborough Road and Castle Hill into East Leake, then left and right along Gotham Road. We kept up the pace to Gotham and met a dustcart and cars waiting to get past the 7/8 car width gap between the dustcart and the hedge.
Once through that, we passed local people optimistically putting their bins out and continued up Nottingham Road, with fields either side. The turn into Barton Road meant that we could expect to be clear of traffic for a few miles, and we briefly stopped for a drink. At the end of Barton Lane, the track passes under the A453, then joins Green Street on the other side, running parallel to the A453 towards the M1. A photo shows some of us riding along Green Street, which is more or less level apart from one short uphill (12%) stint.
At the end of the Road, Margaret reminded us where to find the cycle track. The cycle track emerges parallel to the main road after a few turns. Near the Ratcliffe power station, there is a series of roundabouts. This provides cyclists with a few twists and turns until back to parallel with the A453 again.
After crossing a bridge over the River Soar, the track turns 90° right and is not much more than one cycle width, unless one is dressed for brambles and nettles. The track leads into Radcliffe Lane, a narrow track just wide enough for a large farm vehicle. As we arrived, the large farm vehicle was trying to negotiate a turn through a gate into a field while avoiding a parked car. At the end of Radcliffe Lane, we turned right on Warren Lane. This lane passes between lakes and a Marina, so is really bendy. Although this was the first time David had been along this road, this was a well-ridden track for Mick.
Shockingly, this lovely quiet road joins the B6540, which is probably used by motorists arriving late to an event at the Donington race track. Nervously, we scurried across that road to the relative shelter of the footpath the other side.
After the B6540 has passed under the M1, the path takes us away from the Sawley Junction roundabout, to a normally quiet minor road junction. However, the Leake Lane Rally Club turned up again, and we got involved in a discussion before we could turn right past a wayside Chinese. We took an immediate left along a path under the A50, where it re-joins the road with the late race-goers. Resorting once again to the footpath we descended to the edge of Castle Donington. Here Philip gave us directions to our café, was primed to secure seating for us all, and warned us of a very steep hill to get to it.
We arrived just before 11:30, as The Apiary was opening, and sat outside for refreshments. There was a large variety of cupcakes on offer and good coffee or tea in a dainty tea service.
The road out involved walking the bikes along a one-way street then riding downhill to join the High Street. After climbing the High Street, we were soon at East Midlands airport. We skirted the airport, our tyres turning red from the dye in the road markings.
From here, everyone knew the way home. Philip was home first (including a PR on Leake Lane) by 4 minutes. The rest of us rode into the airport complex then emerged via a track leading to Loughborough via a road through the centre of Diseworth. At the end of this road, we turned left and carried on via Long Whatton and Hathern. The ride was 31.2 miles, we climbed 1073 feet, some of it on 2 very steep hills, and were home by 1 o’clock.
Intermediate ride to the Mountain Restaurant, Cafe
by Terry
Terry arrived “early” at 9.15 am alongside John to find a number of eager riders already waiting. Once he announced Terry’s ride, and Terry added that today’s coffee shop had the largest scones in the East Midlands, Terry quickly had a full pod of keen riders who John speedily waved off on their trusty steeds.
Following Terry was Anne, Rob, Rob, Robert, and Lee and they headed off through Quorn, Mountsorrel, Sileby, Syston, Ratcliffe on the Wreake, and Hoby, with the occasional stop at tops of hills to top up fluids. The journey was uneventful with the last pre coffee stop at the bottom of Asfordby Hill where the bad news was then given to Lee for whom this was a new route – he had one more good hill to pedal up , but the good news being that the Mountain Restaurant, Garden Centre, Campsite and Cafe was at the top with tea and scones awaiting.
Terry’s promise of large scones did not disappoint– fruit scones the size of tea plates and cheese scones the size of a small house brick, and all still slightly warm from the oven and light and tasty.
Having refuelled well, they were about set off when Robert declared he had lost his gloves. They were soon spotted under his seat which made him happy - or did it? We were not sure if leaving his gloves was to have been a good excuse to return later for another scone, who knows?
Shortly after setting off from the café, they found themselves at the entrance to a business park but it was quickly realised that they had missed the right hand turn just before the park. The buried in the trees signpost had not helped, but all felt vindicated when a Sainsbury’s home delivery van passed them up going up the lane and then shortly passed them coming down the lane after having found a spot to do a three point turn . It must have been a black spot for SatNavs for both vehicles and cyclists alike!!
A fairly direct return route was taken via Ab Kettleby, Dalby Cross Roads, Six Hills, Paudy Lane and Barrow Upon soar. The slight wind returned whilst on Paudy Lane, a head wind of course, so the only freewheeling to be done was between Millies and the nursery roundabout.
The group dispersed at the Aldi roundabout after many congratulations were given to Lee as although tired, he had completed his furthest bike to date.
Intermediate ride to Pumpkinz
by Howard
The first part of the ride started with a few wriggles whilst traversing through town avoiding traffic as much as is possible, going from one side of Loughborough to the other. Once up Fox Hill it was the usual route through Normanton on Soar, Kingston on Soar and Ratcliffe on Soar. From here a few zig zags took us up to the A453 cycle path over the River Soar and then down onto the quiet Ratcliffe Lane and Warren Lane to Sawley and over the River Trent. At Sawley we took a left turn and went directly to Draycott. Second left and we were at the Mill complex wherein is housed Pumkinz Cafe.
I wanted to return a slightly different route from the usual via Church Wilne and Sawley, I said as much but without the detail. When I checked the weight of a couple of bikes the others in the group I think realised it was perhaps not going to be quite as straight forward as it might be. We returned along side the River Derwent, through Church Wilne. Great Wilne is the other side of the River Derwent, and to cross, there is a footpath that uses a pipe bridge. At the far end of the bridge however is an awkward stile that means having at least one person either side of the stile to facilitate passing bikes over easily. This worked very well and we were quickly over the third river of the day.
A short ride following the well worn path across the field took us to Great Wilne and from there to Shardlow. The return journey meant re-crossing the River Trent via Cavendish Bridge and the cycle path alongside the A50 which after a few twists and turns as it ducked and dived under and through roundabouts brought us out on the new cycleway into Kegworth. Having stayed in the flood plain of various rivers all morning, we needed a few hills so took to the back road through Kegworth, Broadhill Road followed Packington Hill Road, and then it was up Whatton Road followed by a short respite left and right across the new bypass next the roller coaster up and down that is Kegworth Lane to Long Whatton. At the end of Which Tricia and Vic left us to return via Belton and over the Forest, (Oaks in Charnwood), obviously they needed more hills than I thought. The rest of us returned using the more sedate route through Hathern before arriving back in Loughborough.
Comments
Post a Comment