Some More Useful Miles

From now on I'll know exactly how far I've gone, even if I'm not always sure which way I'm going.

Not that I'm that bad a navigator, but the Suffolk lanes can be confusing when an eastward-bound route suddenly seems to snake westwards for a while as I found on Sunday.

Still, my newly fitted cycle computer did tell me how far I'd travelled and how fast I'd got to wherever I happened to be at any particular time.

The computer was a Christmas present but, for various reasons mainly associated with laziness, I only fitted it on the Saturday after Easter. Having fitted it I had to test it, of course, so on Saturday I headed southwards on a route I know (and have measured by car and brother-in-law John's computer).

As I was only planning to ride 'around the block' to test the computer I didn't actually go too far, but I was very pleased that the computer confirmed my impression that, once again, I was much faster riding home than I was on the outbound leg, despite a Northeast wind that should have slowed me coming back. My average speed for the measured 11.4 miles was exactly 15.0mph, which is not quite Tour of Britain pace but is not a bad average on a mountain bike after an idle winter.

So it was on Sunday that I decided, now I could measure distances on less familiar routes, to head eastwards, intentionally taking on a strong headwind component from the strenthening Northeasterly. I wanted to stay south of the A14, so took Rushbrooke Lane east-ish and meandered away from the afternoon sun (mostly) towards Rougham and Bradfield St George.

I was right about the wind: although there was some shelter between the hedges and woods for much of the time, there was always a strongish breeze and occasionally it made itself felt as a strong sidewind, too. At Rougham, after one gusty stretch, I passed a village cricket match that looked idyllic in the early May sunshine. Very soon after this I found myself heading west, so turned around and took a turning towards Bradfield that carried me eastwards again for a while. At around ten miles I decided to turn for home. Average speed to this point was 13.7mph - not bad with that headwind.

The ride back was equally gusty as the wind funnelled down avenues of trees and between hedgerows now in full leaf. When I reached the cricket match again I stopped for a snack and a drink and watched a few overs. There was some decent fast bowling and a good batsman taking advantage of the slower bowler's struggle to bowl line and length against the wind. That must have been a good bat too, as he stroked some very easy looking fours.

After the rest (and a quick check of my average speed - up to 14.7 now) I headed for home, and the wind now gave me the help I expected as I span along at 18-22mph for long stretches. There were still some slower hills, though and some rough and gravelly patches where flat out wouldn't have been a good idea. I was very pleased, then, to get home with an overall average for the 20.3 miles of 15.6 mph. Highest speed was attained a few miles from home at 27.6mph.

A ride the previous week was at an average nearer 14mph, and was a 20 mile there and back ride including 'my hill' at Hartest. Next time I do that route I'll be able to time it properly!

I'm pretty confident about doing the two fifty mile charity rides next month and tempted to go for the century around Bury. There's also another big ride of up to 200km around Suffolk in July for Alzheimers, called Miles for Memories. Now, 200km is about 124 miles, and that's one mile more than I've ever ridden in a single day. Although that was in the hillier West Country (Taunton to Torquay and back) it was also about 25 years ago!

As yet, we (the Paris to Venice group) don't have a tour of any kind planned for this year but we are hoping to at least do a coast to coast together at some point.

Meanwhile, these sunny days are making Suffolk irresistable!

Roy