Girls on Cogs

Well its been a beautiful weekend and perfect for cycling…… so I spent the weekend at home and barely left the perimeter of the house!
Feeling a little jaded after my recent fleeting visit to Hong Kong for my step brothers wedding and returning straight back to work, I decided not to head off to The Lake District with the gang and stockpile sleep instead!
Although I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to look for and hopefully order my new bike….. apparently not! Trying to find a womens road/touring bike is proving difficult. All the info I did find for women was the abc of buying your first bike. When I finally decided to take the plunge and order one from Ribble Cycles the website proved impossible! I realise I am no computer wizard, but even I can order stuff on line….. apparently not!! Might have to call in some help from some computer wizards that I know!!

Job number 2 – Look at the route for ‘The Big Trip’. Helen has already started and made great strides in planning and is coming round tonight, so I better make some progess.
Tried to book several YHA’s on line but not available on line so need to phone YHA directly…….shut for bank holiday…. brilliant!
Oh well will cook Helen something nice and try and detract from my lack of progress…. brilliant!

Hours of sleep the night before: at least 9!
Units of alcohol: apparently there’s 2.6 units per bottle of Newcastle Brown, and recommended units per day for women are 2-3 so I definintely had more than double that – and binged!
Chain slippages: at least 7 for Em but all expertly recovered whilst still in motion.
Punctures: 0 (hurrah for re-inforced tyres!)
Navigational errors (just a little detour coming into Willington…)
Total Miles: 67

With the weeks ticking away before our big LEJOG (Land’s End to John O’Groats), Em and I decided we should cycle back from the Peaks, during the first may bank holiday. We spent the weekend climbing on Froggatt and walking in the Manifold Valley, and would then cycle back from Butterton to Leicester on the Monday. We awoke to rain on canvas on the Monday morning – fairly typical of a bank holiday Monday, so we didn’t rush to get up, optimistically hoping the rain would clear….

By midday it was cold but dry, so we quickly planned a route along minor roads, and leapt onto our bikes which had been standing locked to a telegraph pole in the campsite for the past couple of days, and were by this point a little wet. Our route took a steep downhill to start with, but conscious of the wet conditions, narrow road and sharp bends, we were a bit cautious. We then had a steep incline up into Alstonefield, and rolling roads through very pretty countryside to Ilam (not 11am! Or the village hit by the black death and origin of the well-known nursery rhyme ‘Ring a ring o’ Roses – that’ll be Eyam). I was being very observant this trip – having missed loads of good stuff previously and we surprised live hares, pheasants –even an owl flew across my path at one point. We made reasonable time over the undulating roads to Ashbourne, then through Osmaston, Alkmonton to Hatton and Hilton. Following the same road as taken during Bar-Yar, we somehow missed Willington and found ourselves heading towards Derby on the A516. Quickly correcting the error, we got back on track to Willington and called in to Pen’s in Repton for a very welcome hot drink and lunch break. Having warmed ourselves up, we were back on the road to Ticknall, Ashby, Packington, Heather (where we’d cycled previously to see the town’s scarecrow creations), then the homeward stretch through Desford and Kirby Muxloe to arrive home by 7.15. Not a bad effort considering the weather wasn’t’ making anyone envious of our plan earlier that morning….

Well the plan to start early and ride about 50/60 miles was thwarted by a rather large friday night out!!! I think I crawled into bed about 4am and Helen about 6am!! Downed rather a lot of cocktails. Went out straight from work having not eaten a lot, but luckily those creamy cocktails are a meal in themselves!!!
Woke up with a large headache and stayed in bed, choosing to ignore the phone with the knowledge it was Helen!! (sorry Hels). Eventually phoned her back. Would either of us buckle and call it off……
Eventually headed out on the B4114 which is a rather fast and busy road. Nice sunny day for cycling, but my head was still a little sore.
A very poor 10 miles later we arrived at Stoney Cove Dive Centre. The car park was full of scuba divers. Sat out on the deck of the pub and enjoyed Brie, Bacon and Cranberry Bagette with chips and glass of coke. Perfect hangover cure.
Headed back to Leicester via Narborough and the Narborough Hall gift shop. Lots of beautiful things. Helen and I then had a very serious conversation about what would happen if we wanted to buy any souvenirs or gifts on the ‘End to End’…… seriously like we are going to have time to shop!!! ….. anyway we could always get it posted!!
Another 10 miles and we were done!!

What we learnt: Perhaps we need to be a bit more sensible the night before a bike ride and shopping on the end-end is problably quite a low priority!