Over, Hartpury and Maisemore 17th January 2010

The early hours of this morning, UK time, saw the start of the Tour Down Under.  A 51Km criterium in Adelaide won by Greg Henderson of Team Sky in their first professional race in a time of 1h and 4 minutes.  Congratulations to Greg and Team Sky.  Early this afternoon saw Anthony and I, slightly less glamorously trudging round the lanes of Gloucestershire.  In a similar time, we covered 27Km.  But then, Greg didn't stop to take pictures.  I'm not bitter, I am a big fan of Team Sky, after all they are almost Team GB.  You can follow them here if you are interested.
Here, we have had snow on the ground for a couple of weeks and a number of other commitments along with a general malaise have kept me not riding since before Christmas.  Today came with the promise of sunny spells and temperatures reaching a blistering 10C.  I was starting to miss the bike so to scratch a metaphorical itch, Anthony and I headed out of Gloucester.  As you are aware if you have read any of my previous blogs, I have decided to gain photographic evidence of my rides.  First stop was the 19th Century Telford bridge over the Severn, superceded in 1975 by the new bridge although still open as a footbridge and maintained by English Heritage.

Heading on further out, we took the road towards Newent, turning off to Hartpury where, to my surprise, the fields were under water.  In this picture, you can see across the River Leadon at Wedderburn which is normally, quite frankly, little more than a trickle, across the fields to Hartpury church (more of this in the next paragraph) and the old water mill.  We then crossed the bridge and headed towards Hartpury proper.  Hartpury is, of course, famous for the college but more interesting (if you're me anyway) is the Church of St Mary the Virgin and the rather splendid 15th Century tithe barn, shown in the two pictures following.

This route encompasses some parts from routes I have been using for some time as an easy route because it is largely flat, or so I thought.  However it seems that since last summer someone has ripped out the stretch of road out of Hartpury and towards Maisemore with the climb to Mont Ventoux.  The road through Maisemore back into the city is still a lovely gentle dowhill.

Now, it may be that I am less fit than I was in the summer.  It may be that I should have invested a little time servicing the bikes before kick off, it may be that the last few weeks of idleness took their toll today.  But you know something is wrong when your stomach is permanently resting on the top of your thigh when you are riding on the hoods. Still, my little heart rate monitor suggested I used something like 800 calories, that means I can squeeze in that extra Mars Bar.

Total distance - 27Km

Average Speed - 24 KM/h

Weather - about 10C, Fine, sunnyish, Gentle SouthWesterly wind