Wednesday 10th January 2024

Shortest Ride to Gotham

Report by David

Hark! The hour of 10 is sounding; hearts with anxious fears are pounding…about the prospect of ice. So, we rode carefully for the first hour. David was joined by Keith, Rob Stephens and Laurence for the ride to Gotham and back, stopping at Gallery 119 in Sutton Bonington.

It was a cold start, with some white footpaths, although not slippery. The weather remained dry, and not as cold as the path surfaces would indicate.

Coming through Loughborough, there were lots of learner drivers, including a big lorry. We crossed on one of the usual routes to Meadow Lane. At the lowest point on the marshes for about 20 yards, there was still about 3 inches of water in the middle of the lane. There was no ice here, but a puddle frozen over at the side of the lane. Stanford on Soar had some hefty deposits of silt to negotiate on the road just after the first bend – so much for the recent tyre washing.

We negotiated Leake Lane with its ever-deepening potholes – edges of the road had been washed away.

Through East Leake and Gotham, the sun came out. Kegworth Road was quite a smooth ride. At Kingston on Soar, we took Station Road to Sutton Bonington.

Gallery 119 was quiet, until we arrived. They served large coffees, but were insistent that they are not a café when it looked like we were going to eat into their day’s supplies. Sat at table, we had some interesting discussions and could have stayed longer. There were some toy vehicles in the children’s play area, but no children.

We returned through Zouch and Hathern, conveniently for Rob who took the lead on this leg, and down the A6 where we went our separate ways.

The ride was 20.0 miles back to Holt Drive. Everyone is expected to have been home by 1pm. The average moving speed was 11.0 mph and elevation gain 728 feet.

Medium Ride Report

Report by Alan Dossett

Happy New Year to all our readers!

When the temperature dips below 2 degrees it is debatable whether one gets any enjoyment in donning the lycra. Imagine my mild surprise therefore, when turning the corner into Holt Drive, I saw at least 20 riders stamping their feet and blowing on cold hands in order to keep warm. The low thermometer readings even made the mighty Vic apprehensive, but throwing caution to the wind Brian, Rob, Mick and Jim joined me heading out to Ruddington.

Cycling against a stiff wind, we made our way to our destination, that is the cafe at the miniature railway inside the Rushcliffe Country Park. Meadow Lane just had a couple of inches of surface water after the latest floods and there was a bit of ice on the roads at Normanton on Soar and West Leake. By the time we reached the cafe at 11.30 it was probably around 4°C and destined to stay that way for the rest of the day. On arrival we were met by Terry who had wisely decided to get there by a nice warm car.

The cafe there is an acquired taste. If you are after cakes, sponges and delicacies then don’t bother. The owners were in the middle of cleaning various industrial items of cookware which immediately put me off ordering anything hot to eat. Rob, Brian and Jim obviously couldn’t see the baked on grease and grime from where they were queuing and proceeded to order egg and bacon baps. I stuck with a cup of tea for me and Mick and promptly asked them to replace the order this time with a couple of cups of tea that weren’t so tepid.

The dining room was filled with women of a certain age. This made me extremely apprehensive as I knew from past experience how giggly and soppy female OAPs are in the presence of the silver tongued Mick. They are usually putty in his hands.  Strangely, within a couple of minutes, every one of them had decided to leave. (Note to self .... buy some deodorant for Mick for his birthday).

Brian, Rob and Jim seemed to show no immediate effects of food poisoning, and having got Terry to do the honours photograph-wise, we set off for Loughborough. 

Brian, Alan, Mike, Rob and Jim at Ruddington.

Thankfully the ice had diminished. Cycling with a tail wind, we sped through Bradmore, Keyworth, the 3 W’s (Widmerpool, Wysall and Wymeswold), Hoton and Coates to arrive back at 2.30pm. Hopefully a warmer trip next time.

Shortish Ride to St Josephs

Report by John N

John, Eric, Ian, Nim and Stuart set off to Bawdon Lodge via the Garendon Trail.

All was fairly uneventful to start with, the Garendon trail itself had a few large puddles but we all managed to negotiate these without incident and make it through to Shepshed.

Then on to Tickow Lane round the edge of Shepshed and on to cross the A512 Ashby Road to Charley Road (past the Road Closed signs, which weren't there on Tuesday!). Fortunately, the actual closure was only just past the windmill a couple of hundred yards up the road, the electricity guys wouldn't let us pass, we think there was a cable down across the road, so a detour was in order. After a short discussion we went back to and along the busy A512 in the Ashby direction for a quarter of a mile then left up the long, straight, steep Swannymore Road and left at the top onto the Oaks Road where we decided to stop at St Josephs Tearoom.

Ian,  Eric,  Nim, Stuart and John at St. Josephs

A good call, all agreed the food and drink were excellent and as always the conversation engaging and wide ranging. As we were off route another route discussion was held and the decision was taken to stay high as opposed to going back down to Charlie Road. So, at the end of Oaks Road we turned right onto Meadow Lane then left on to Warren Hills Road and on to Copt Oak then left on to the B591.

At the Beacon Road turn Stuart carried on to go back to Loughborough and the rest of us went down Beacon Road and Beacon hill into Quorn where we split up to go our separate ways. So what should have been a 19.3 mile ride turned out to be 22.4, an extra 3 miles and quite a bit more ascent than originally planned.