18 miles, Hickling and Hares

I’m ramping up the training this month. I’ve got three 18 mile loops that should cover all the wind directions (I’m trying to arrange all my rides so I return home with the wind at my back – I take a look at the turbine on the hill, which is the sort that rotates to face the wind – a great windsock proxy). Today the wind was blowing from the northeast, so I had to come back on the Willoughby road to make the most of it.

The way out was fairly hard, lots of long unsheltered roads with it right in my face, but the last five miles was heaven, once I’d topped the edge of the vale of Belvoir again.

The website I use to plan my rides – ridewithgps.com – found me a great track as well, going from Widmerpool to the A46 – and half way along it I saw what I thought was a pair of wild deer, but turned out to be two huge hares bounding across the field.  I failed to get any real footage of them because they were too far away by the time I thought to get my camera out, but they were awesome to see.

Here’s the route.

And here, the usual speedy footage: