Following on from last weeks Test Valley Cool Tour, I decided to ride up to the Chutes and then back through Collingbourne wood.
I used pieces of the Test Valley Cool Tour and some of the routes I use, and was out for 3 hours and 5 minutes and covered 49.3km. The preceding few days had been a succession of heavy rain showers and it showed in Collingbourne Wood, no longer the dry trails we had enjoyed the week before - but mud mud mud, not that didn't stop me enjoying the ride out. The Nobby Nics tyre on the front really didn't cope with the level of mud and will have to be changed out for something which shred mud easier. We ended up walking a couple of the the worse sections, but the single track sections where still very ridable. The highlight of the ride was a Barn Owl quartering the fields near Nutbane Copse.
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The Annual Test Valley Cool Tour, the pair event to the summers hot tour. The Cold Tour starts and finishes at .The Pavilion, Charlton Sport and Leisure Centre. Which makes it easy for me as i can ride to the start from my abode. Registration as ever was easy and we awaited the off, i had the pleasure of being the first rider over the start line and the fun began. According to the event information there were two routes available - 30km and 45km. As the main attraction of the event is Collingbourne Wood, I took the shorter of the two routes. Being the first off, it was a little bit like being the hare chased by the hounds, I was caught on the bridleway above Penton Mewsey, once the route split i again didn't really see any one else apart from at the feeding station just before Collingbourne Wood. The Woodland trails proved to the rather dry, which makes a change apart from in the centre of the woods where there is a rather boggy bit which gets churned up by the passing forestry vehicles.
It had proved to be a rather chilly morning, but i soon divested myself of my softshell and rode in my merino baselayer for most of the route as the sun came out and it proved to a glorious morning. Now there seems to be a disparity between what the organisers stated as the distance and what Strava stated for the route. According to The Event organisers I completed the 30km route: 30km Number - 878 Start Time - 08:35:35 Finish Time - 11:27:26 Total Ride Time - 02:51:51 Strava had the route down to be about 37km, in total with the ride from the house it was a total distance of 47.6 km with a moving time of 3 hours and 12 minutes., not that is matter as always it provided to be a well organised and enjoyable event. |
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January 2023
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