I had the day off work to get various jobs done. All morning, it poured with rain. Around 1:30 p.m. it dried up…
Half an hour later, I’m putting a bit of extra air in the 700c tyre, checking my trip computer, adjusting my wristguards… and I’m off along the river bank!
The first part of the ride is along familiar paths, past the football ground, under Trent Bridge, and along the embankment. There’s a strong headwind, and riding is challenging. I pass a group of young males who appear to be physiologically optimised for answering no-brainers. Their witty comments range from, “What the f***?” to, “Yayaya yayaya yayaya! Whoooo!” I politely ignore them.
Up the steep ramp onto the suspension bridge. Here there’s a strong cross wind, but that’s no excuse for the soft UPD when I fail to make enough allowance for the unevenness of the slats making up the deck of the bridge. So I’m a couple of miles into the ride, and there go any ideas of 20 miles “at a sit”. (I’ve only achieved that once - and that was on the Coker.)
I follow cycle tracks alongside the road. Most of the people I meet are friendly. A few drivers toot their hooters; others hoot their tooters - a subtle distinction, but not wasted on a man of my sensibilities.
I decide to aim for the University Park, but the cycletracks draw me to the entrance to the main campus where I have to approach a security booth and a barrier. I try to look like any other road user. In the end, I’m forced to dismount. Then the guard raises the barrier. With an ironic smile, I prepare to remount and ride through - until a loud blast on a horn warns me that the barrier wasn’t raised for me, but for the bloomin’ great lorry approaching from behind me!
The university is on a hill - a surprisingly large one - and I slog my way up, wishing I’d not worn the extra top. The weather might be miserable, but it’s not cold. My route is fringed with students, and I prepare for witty comments. My riposte is ready: “I see you’re studying mediaeval humour.” No comments are made - I just get a few friendly grins.
Over the top of the hill and down to the exit, where I skirt past the barriers before following the pavement round to the park entrance. From there, I do a clockwise lap of the lake, exploring some narrow and quite steep paths. The walls are marked with notices: “Please do not climb on the wall.” Presumably, these hark back to an age when students were assumed to be reasonably literate and moderately obedient!
About now, it starts to rain, quite heavily, and I’m about 5 miles or so from the car. I decide to cut through a residential area, following a posted bicycle route. I’m riding on the roads some of the time. Most of the drivers are courteous, but one sees me signal to turn right, and accelerates to get past me before I make the turn. I give him the internationally recognised signal that he could have waited 2 seconds.
Eventually, I reach the canal. The tricky cobbled bridge awaits - and the cobbles are wet and slimy, and my tyre is rock hard. I’m pleased to make it over the bridge AND to make the tighter of the two turns available immediately after.
From here, it should be an easy sail along the canal towpath - the wind is behind me, but the towpath is a muddy mess of puddles. Oh for some mudguards! Then a mile or two later, the towpath is closed for maintenance, and I have to divert through more backstreets and along cycle paths before I return to the canalside.
So far, I’ve had one UPD on the suspension bridge (about 2 miles into the ride) and one UPD when I failed to idle at a junction. I have one more (totally expected) UPD on a steep slope up to a bridge, and one unexpected UPD as I drop down from Trent Bridge back onto the river bank. From there it’s an easy ride back to the car.
All this on a 700c (28) with 110mm cranks. Riding time 2:00.48 (elapsed time about 2:10).
Top speed 13 mph. (21 kmh)
Distance covered, 15.97 miles. (25.7 km)
Average speed approx 8 mph (12.8 kmh)
Question: would I get a better average speed on 125 mm cranks? I know that every time I approach an obstacle on the 110s, I have to slow down well in advance, and ride with extra care. Would the extra control on tricky sections buy back the time lost on the straight flat sections? I might try it.
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