A Night Time Adventure on a Thursday. And an A-road!

Mice on Ice Log Star Date 94. 13.6 miles, Ave speed 11.7mph, Max speed 27.6mph in 1hr 5 mins on a Dahon.

A friend of mine who is wholly responsible for introducing me to cycling suggested a pootle after supper. Why not, I thought.  About 20 minutes into the ride I realised the error of my ways. This was the friend who cycles on average 6,000 miles a year. He has completed London Edinburgh London on a recumbent in 106 hours non stop (apart from a kip for six hours) and wrote a book about it. Although I should add Barring Mechanicals by Andy Allsopp is a great read whether you ride a bike or not.

He is a great friend but he is definitely not a five mile cyclist. I tried to encourage him to imagine I was one of his children out for a pootle. A leisurely amble around a few streets and home. What's wrong with that? On the other hand who was I trying to kid? 

It was dark (9.30pm) it was hilly (Biggin Hilly), I was on a borrowed bike - a Dahon Cadenza Speed 8 and there was a yellow weather warning! It was cold - as in 0 degrees - with a 16mph wind reducing the temperature to -6! 

And there wasn't just one hill. There were several of them. At one point we were looking down on Canary Wharf!

The sky was crystal clear, the stars were out and the fields were covered in snow. It was rather surreal as it was bizarrely like cycling through a Christmas card. In April. As we hurled our way along the A21 I couldn't stop singing the tune in which it features ie Dads Army!

Did I say A road? Indeed I did! I don't do A-roads out of choice. They are normally occupied by motorists traveling at the maximum speed whilst texting and faffing about with Satnav, music, their passengers and all sorts of other stuff inside the vehicle.  They aren't sitting there Snoopy Like with their eyes on the road ahead. So, particularly at night, they are much too close to you when they finally notice your lights, high-viz and existence.   But the drop in temperature gave us not much choice as the smaller roads were ungritted  and therefore unsafe.

The Dahon is a great bike, the hub gears got me up the hills and its wider tyres kept me upright! It was a pootle superior - a bit too fast, definitely too hilly and absolutely too cold - my toes are under cushions trying to recover. But it was a great thing to do (and I can say that now my lungs have recovered!)  Needless to say Andy was freewheeling most of the way - uphill and downhill.  At least he had dressed for it as his wife confirmed that the cycling top he was wearing was for warmth so he had anticipated not doing nonsense LEL type cycling.  Besides - he was with the 5mile cyclist!

We were home just as the ice on the doorstep was spreading. Timing was perfect. A note for me: Pootling has a different meaning to some people...!!