A Long Ride and A New Phone

With the leave year coming to an end in March I usually need to get rid of some leave before I loose it.  The most effective way of doing this is to plan some Riding Mondays.  These free me from the office and give me a full day to go and play.

When I was thinking what to do this Riding Monday I had a scan around the local roads and decided to combine a long (for me) road ride with a trip to The Apple Store in Leicester to return a slightly dodgy iPhone cable to see if I could blag a new one.  This would also allow a lunch in Nandos and coffee and cake somewhere else.

I used Garmin connect to plan the route as it plans the route along roads and it could be downloaded into the Garmin Edge 200 for road testing.  59 miles round trip.  Big for me but should be fine with a lunch stop.

Bike sorted and Rocket Pocket filled, it was a cold start. Numb hands after 10 mins in -4. Loads of sunshine and quaint Thomas the Tank Engine villages. Cows, tractors and the roads to myself

The soundtrack was mostly Woman's Hour podcasts I had missed.

I sailed over congested dual carriageways. Gridlocked by black ice.

Leicester appeared after a couple of hours with knackered potholed roads and confusing one way systems. A shock to the system.

Bike locked and messages sent. To the Apple Store so the could check out the phone. New phone and cable in hand straight to Nandos for lunch. Excellent service all round!

Back home the long way past all the stilton making villages.

62 miles total on the Peugout (here+here). It is a nice comfy old bike.

Two weeks until Riding Monday comes around again. Where next?