Loughborough loop – fastest yet!

The wind was blowing from the northeast again today, so as I enjoyed going down Paudy Lane so much yesterday, I thought I’d try it again. Good move! It was like riding a rocket sled.
I saw a buzzard on Narrow Lane just coming out of Wymeswold – that always excites me, even though they’re pretty common now. I’ve previously seen an owl in the same place, so it must be a pretty good roost for hunting birds. Sadly it’s just a pixel on the video, so I didn’t bother highlighting it. Seeing things like that is a great extra bonus on a bike ride though – they don’t seem to react the same way to a cyclist as they do to a person on foot, you can often get closer. I saw / heard plenty of skylarks again too – one actually flew down to the ground near me on the long slow climb up to Hoton, so I got a good close look too. Dull things really, compared to their song. All their eggs in one basket, evolutionarily speaking, I guess.

I noticed to my great pleasure that I had done 14 miles in the first hour – see the pic I took as proof. This was just before the climb to Hoton and Wymeswold, so it was only 13.1mph average overall – but that beats the hell out of the 8 or 9 I was averaging when I started training.
The usual route:
And the high speed footage: