Girls on Cogs

This Tuesday there were four in the party, (1 a little bit drunk from afternoon wine drinking!) and we decided to keep it fairly local, aiming for the Cow and Plough at Stoughton. So off along Great Central Way, through Counteshorpe and in Kilby we spotted the Dog and Gun with a ‘2 meals for £10’. As we’d only done 9 miles at this point (but probably wouldn’t make the Cow and Plough in time for food), we decided to do a little loop round Wistow and Fleckney and back to the pub to make the miles before dinner a little more respectable. Stav took the right loop, time trial style, and was in the garden with beer when the rest of us arrived via the left route.

It was warm enough to sit outside and we were very good friends to Stav by pretending to be his interview panel in preparation for his interview on Thursday. I’m not sure he was taking it very seriously – he might need to work on some of his answers!

We headed back towards Great Glen and onto Stoughton where we managed to stop for a beer in the Cow and Plough before heading home….(2 pubs in one night – not managed that in a while!)nearly 30 miles in total after all.

We set out at the slightly later time of 6.30pm, so Mat and Anna could join us and consequently a faster pace. Mat and Anna are always a little faster and Stav seems to be cycling faster than any of us. Hels and I were both keen to keep up and realised tonight was not the night to catch up and gossip along the way…… well not until we could reach the pub anyway!

We headed out along the inner ring road, Hinckley Road and the A46 towards Desford and Market Bosworth. Potentially busy and fast roads in terms of traffic, but it wasn’t to bad and it was nice to stretch out and pick up the pace for a good few miles at a time and before we knew it we had arrived at our destination and were supping a few beers.

We actually headed home in the light which was nice for a change and arrived back in Leicester just before 10.30pm.

28 miles total. Happy with that:)

After missing a couple of Tuesday rides due to threatening weather, we decided we should definitely go for a ride, whatever the weather. As Stav said, we used to go walking in Wales in worse, so we should stop being girls and get on with it – Claire pointed out apart from him, the rest of us (Claire, Em and me), were actually all girls!

So we met up at 6ish, and made a loose plan to cycle out along route 63 east and see what happened. We headed up through Evington and joined route 63 past Stoughton, through Kings Norton and Ilston to Tur Langton, hoping to find a nice hostelry. Sadly, the pub was closed – and we’d only been there recently. So, we rode onwards to Kibworth, we lost Claire briefly (a combination of treacle legs and 2 places called Kibworth!) and found a nice little pub in the Coach and Horses to order food and beer. It was Stav’s turn to be a girl then, when I was ordering a second beer and he’d only managed half of his – honestly!

There was still some light when we left the pub, so we had a pleasant ride back through Wistow to Counteshorpe and picked up the Guthlaxton trail to the Great Central way (instead of our usual blast in the dark along more main roads). A total of nearly 35 miles accomplished and no rain, so all in all a good night out!

I arrived at The Curve Theatre and it was looking a little thin on the ground, but probably because of the risk of rain,  but people started to arrive. This months theme was ‘Space’, so a few bike rockets, space invaders and Princess Leia. at the little later time of 6.15 we headed off through the church grounds, onto Charles Street and towards London Road. A couple of policeman were wandering around to see what we were up to but appeared relaxed about our presence.

Bit of a drama in the first 5 minutes, as we were all trying to cycle together thought the traffic lights onto London Road and a Fire Engine arrived all guns blazing. Cars and cyclists were all trying to get out of the way and a couple of stray children were isolated in the middle of the road. All a bit scary!!

As we headed up London Road, quite a few drivers shouted out the window asking us what we were doing and generally seemed quite supportive and patient and happy to wait for us to pass by. As we headed into Clarendon Park, we we blocked by the Fire Engine, so took an alternative route and headed through Victoria Park, just as the rain started to come down.

We cycled back into town and to the clock tower for the usual cycle circuit around it and cheering and then everyone lifted up their bikes, which looked pretty cool. Apparently there were over 180 people there.