The sun comes out, the cyclists come out, and so do the bugs.  Darn things have been hatching all over the place.  Every now and then a cloud of them sort of pebble dash you as you go through, hopefully with your mouth closed.  Extra protein not required thank you very much.

Mind you, as it wasn’t that warm, at least my tops were all zipped up, thus avoiding the usual bug relocation scheme that tends to operate otherwise.  You’d be amazed how many can hitch a ride inside a sports bra…  Anyway I digress…

It’s nigh on impossible to find daytime cycling company during the week these days, so I headed out on my own this morning, intending on doing a 50 miler.  I did have a route planned, which I stuck to as far as the other side of Winscombe Hill.  But then the right turn on Max Mill Lane looked attractive…and from thereon in I was pretty much winging it, or making it up on the fly at least.   (Note – another reference to insects…cor, ain’t it clever how it all ties together? 😉 ).

I headed across to nearly Banwell and along to Loxton from there, which is a nice up and downy kind of a road.  From Loxton I headed towards Mark, but decided that I’d take a detour on the way and go up and over Brent Knoll.  Well, if GB can do it, so can I.  OK, that doesn’t always hold true, but in this case… I hadn’t been that way for ages, and it wasn’t as bad as I remembered it either – result 🙂  I crossed over the A38 to head back past Mark, and then towards Burtle.  Again, I failed to stay en route as I then decided to take a wiggle to go along and up to Edington, and head to Shapwick from there.  Shapwick to Ashcott, and around the peat workings to Glastonbury, where the road is very wiggly, very newly smooth, and very nearly had me all over it when I misjudged a bend…*gulp*.  That’s one way to raise the heart rate…

I took  the main route option to get me from Glastonbury to Wells as the road surface on the back route always does my head in.  Once out the otherside I stopped off in Wookey where I prevailed upon hubby for a couple of mouthfuls of coffee before heading back via the hill out of Wookey Hole.  Again, and possibly aided by the caffeine, it wasn’t too bad.  OK, so I didn’t go up the hill proper past Ebbor Gorge, but hey, who needs that kind of pain?  And that was a rhetorical question, so no replies please! *grin*.

I rejoined the A371 at Easton for a bit and took the left just before Rodney Stoke to zip across the flats, and come back along the Wedmore straight.  I was then seized by an urge to see the reservoir, so MiG one bugged out and headed for home around it.

Cycling time: 3:16:52
Distance: 49.84 miles
Avs: 15.1 mph
ODO: 3940 miles

Darn close to 50 miles no?  I should have cycled around town for a couple of minutes – and probably would have done if I’d realised – very sad I know.  I’ve just plotted the route on bikely and it even looks relatively unflat.  Probably not a bad training ride then.  It was pretty windy – from the North West – so even with the sun, it wasn’t exactly toasty.  Put it this way – my arms stayed on, my zips stayed up, and I was always pleased to emerge from the shade.

The new tyres are still making it all feel that bit smoother, but the back wheel was feeling a tad odd coming back into town when hit by cross winds – skittish and a bit sideways as if it had locked up when it hadn’t, so I may have to have a look at that. I need to take a look at the tyre pressure too – they’re hard as rocks, which is a tad unforgiving when it comes to the current state of the roads!