The Roads We Ride.
With autumn departing and winter now at the gates it doesn’t mean the Collective will be packing the bikes in the shed, or restricting ourselves to turbo trainer efforts alone. As our most recent blog post points out, winter has so much to offer. And for any cyclist its a challenging and emotive time of year to ride.
The ColVelo Collective has been running for just over a month and in that time we’ve mapped and ridden 866km of routes. We’ve had still, crisp days, wet, wild and windy days and every shade of grey in between. Rarely cold. We are now waiting for the chill to arrive.
We wanted to share with you some of our favourite roads from recent rides in and around East Anglia. When you set about riding interesting and varied terrain week in week out, it’s inevitable that a previously undiscovered stretch of tarmac can stay with you in the hours and days after the ride has finished. When planning routes here at ColVelo, often a ride can be constructed entirely to take in a 5 to 10 kilometre leg from a previous ride, so strong is the desire to hit it again. And in doing so yet more roads are discovered, and the chain reaction continues.
Hopefully a regular feature in the coming months, today we’ve selected three legs from previous rides that we love, and want to share. We’ll undoubtedly revisit these on our club rides in weeks to come, but there is nothing stopping you from adding them into your own riding in the meantime. Some free inspiration from the ColVelo Collective!
No.1: Barton Bottom to Great Livermere
Start point – https://goo.gl/maps/vnwH5
Discovered following some unintentional, muddy cyclo-x action on a 100 mile ride, this stretch was at the northern most part of the route before turning for home. Exiting a busier main road, this had some fast descents, woodland, beautiful architecture and some great vistas over the suffolk farmlands. if you get up there, you will notice some arrow straight sections on some rougher surfaces surrounded by pan flat countryside. reminiscent of a certain race held in the month of April in Northern France….
No.2: B1115 via Stowmarket Road to Ringshall Stocks.
Start Point –https://goo.gl/maps/s90hr
A sweeping, fast stretch on some perfect surfaces. This section is always a joy, and I must admit to having added it to many rides this past summer. A real favourite that will be in some ColVelo rides very soon.
No.3: Cockfield to Lavenham via Buttons Green
Start point – https://goo.gl/maps/Xbu0M
There is something about an impending coffee stop that adds a couple of KM/H to the speed of the group. On rides where this short section is included, it is the point at which riders sense the fuel stop in the historic town of Lavenham. It just so happens that this is a very quiet road on a reasonable surface with a few junctions on which to regroup, it has a certain “everyman for himself” quality as we know the stop is approaching. And those riders who have marshalled the group and ridden to support others so far that day have a chance to let loose. Hearing the click of gears and seeing people get out of the saddle you know what is about to happen. A roller coaster of a road and one that is particularly fun in the wet!