It’s Wednesday, so it must be OGIL. Except that in these strange times we have to go OGILing alone, which isn’t quite the same. Unlike some people, I am quite comfortable with my own company, but riding with others has a different quality to it than riding solo (and I don’t just mean the ability to draft!). Still, one must, so I set off on an undemanding trip up to Portreath.
Unable to shake the habit of a year, off I went to Union Corner, the other place, Halvasso and Penmarth, then up to Four Lanes, Pool and Tehidy. The wind had dropped since Sunday and was now just a slight inconvenience rather than an impediment. The swoop down into Portreath was as swoopy as ever, but the brakes worked OK at the bottom and I managed to negotiate the gap in the wall (Pedestrians Only it shouted) into the deserted car park.
A brief pause for some energy replenishment gave me the opportunity to survey the rather surreal scene – almost completely human free (a couple of dogs had brought their owners along for the walk). But the sun was shining, the sea was blue, and it was freezing (not literally – Garmin say 6C), so I didn’t hang around for too long. I was also being cautious as I had heard that the police were vigorously enforcing the social distancing rules:
So I started the homeward journey, noting that the row of lavs was locked up. Just as well I had neglected my hydration as cycling with one’s legs crossed is pretty hard to do. I was beginning to have second thoughts about my plan to ride out on the main road towards Redruth, thinking it might be a Bridge too far, but I did it anyway. At Bridge I turned right on the old Portreath Road to Denn’s Jiner, through Redruth and up the hill to the top of Lanner Hill, right onto Tram Cross Lane and thence to Penhalvean and Stithians.
As an experiment, and as there were no other OGILs that needed escorting to the Other Place or the Argal crossroads to be dropped off, I rode along Boswin and then down through Penryn. This turned out to be quite good fun – the main road through Penryn (West St/Broad St) is well surfaced, is one-way in the narrow bits and goes decidedly downhill. The experience was only marred slightly by being impeded by slow moving traffic. From there the slog into Falmouth was just the usual slog, but without the usual close passes (in fact, there were hardly any passes at all).
Excellent ride, as far as it went. A paltry 56km for me.