Wednesday 8th March 2023

An overcast morning, with the odd spit of rain and flurry of snow plus a north-east wind producing a windchill to take the felt temperature below freezing, saw a surprisingly good turnout or well wrapped up cyclists.

Short Ride

Report by John

Once the more masochistic riders had left on the longer ride the hedonists made up of Myles, Andrew, John, Eric, Vic, Graham, Derek, Margaret, Rosalind and Philip opted for a much shorter ride, with the prospect of a warm cafe before their hands and feet could become ice blocks.

The group set out through Loughborough, departing via Meadow Lane before turning south in Stanford on Soar for Cotes and then on to Walton in the Wolds. After the climb up to the Salt Way ( Paudy Lane) the riders turned west wheeling quickly down hill and down wind to the warm delights of Millies Cafe.

Myles, Andrew, John, Eric, Vic, Graham, Derek, Margaret, Rosalind and Philip at Millies Cafe (Barrow).

After a long refreshment break to warm up, the riders ventured out again taking the most direct routes to home through the ever increasing snow flurries.

Long Ride

Report by Howard

The ride followed a well travelled route to Sawley, going via Stanford on Soar, Normanton on Soar, Sutton Bonington, and Kingston on Soar with a little jiggle at Ratcliffe on Soar to takes us on to Ratcliffe Lane and through to Sawley. We had 10 in the group. Me, Alan, Marcus, 2 Robs, Mick, Tricia a new chappie called James, Bryan and Lawrence. I think that was it, though I'm not sure.  

In Sawley we veered left down Wilne Lane to Draycott and our cafe stop at Pumkinz Coffee House. We managed to find seating inside scattered across 3 tables. 2 marked reserved but not being taken up for another 1/2 hour so we were ok for the time being.

Leaving the cafe stop we lost Bryan and I think Lawrence, Bryan wanting to go somewhere else other than our planned route back.

On the way back I realised we hadn't had a group photo. So I got everyone stood up against the wall and shot them :) Then I included myself.

Howard, Alan, Mike, Tricia, Rob, Rob, Marcus and James up against the wall.

The route back, took us up, over and under the A50 and M1 without interfering with any traffic. A route that takes a bit of remembering but by now is fairly ingrained. At Kegworth, even though it was snowing, being the masochists that we had been labelled with we decided to take the longer and hillier way through to Long Whatton. On the top the snow was becoming quite heavy, so maybe the label was justified. Descending down to Long Whatton the snow eased back and at Hathern we put in another little loop through the back, because we could. From here it was just a short hop into Loughborough and the group split up as we wound our way into  Loughborough via Black Brook cycle path. 

All in we had covered about 50Km and a fairly flat 250m of ascent. For those who prefer imperial that would be 30 odd miles and 800 feet.