The Slow Domestique

The sun was bright when I woke up this morning so there was no stopping me from jumping on the bike and getting out.

A relaxing coffee first, then I packed the bike and headed out.

Ready to go, with an un-needed coat just in-case.

The main road kicks up as soon as it leaves the village giving me an early workout.

Stopping for a photo gives me a nice rest too.

The arm-warmers stayed on despite the sunshine as there was a chill wind blowing. Heading across the Grand Union Canal and over the M25 I got out into the countryside proper and onto roads I’d not yet ridden.

Passed through this great looking woods, could see some nice looking singletrack and funky bomb-holes which merit coming back to play in.

The back lanes were quiet even for a Sunday which made for pleasant riding. I’d found some narrow cross country lanes on the map which I wanted to check for ride-ability as some were very narrow.

This lane started out well surfaced but degenerated into pot-holed madness strewn with rubish from fly tippers.

After riding through woods and shaded lanes it was warming to come out into open farmland. The reality of the roads on the ground didn’t quit match what I’d looked at on Google Maps so a few map stops were required to get me going in the right direction. My looping route soon climbed round to the other side of the valley.

Looking across to were I'd come from and was headed again, down then up.

Down into the valley it was then, a nice respite for my legs as the whole area does tend to be very up or down with little flat in-between.

Thankfully did not meet any cars along this narrow road. The M25 is just out of sight on the left.

After crossing the canal again it was back up and over Harefield again following the same roads I came out on.  The last couple of miles heading home are all down hill letting the body slowly normalise.

The last hill dropping down to home, fast.

It was a pleasant 16 mile ride I was home in time for lunch (Chorizo and Tomato baguette) and I found some quiet routes for riding to work on next week.

bicycle, cycling

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 3:06 pm and is filed under Bicycles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.