AUDAX Discovering Shropshire

 As well as running events where everyone starts together, AUDAX UK also run permanent courses. These you can enter online and after paying the required fee just upload your GPX file afterwards to prove you did the course. Sounds easy?

That was the plan until Shropshire Highways and the weather decided to intervene. On my planned ride in April the road from Bridgnorth to Ludlow was closed and it snowed on the Clee Hill, a postponement was in order. The road works continued and after an exchange of emails the organiser let me know someone had made it through. So on Saturday i set off to ride the course. there were a number of road closures in place, but these appeared to be ignored by most locals and luckily the road block was in place on the B4364 at junction where I turned for the lanes to Cleobury Mortimer. A welcomed turn away from potential hot tarmac and days of scrubbing the bike!

The ride was hard. It has been some time since my last London 100 ride, but Shropshire always makes Surrey look flat. Box Hill is nothing compared to what the county of Housman can throw up infront of the unsuspecting cyclist. 1,810m of ascent was a serious, I was out for just short of 8 hours. Not a time I expected as I had previous cover the London 100 in 6H 16M 49S, this included stoppage for someone dying on route.

The Shropshire Hills east of Wenlock Edge always have the leg wrecking hills within hills. These are small stream and river valleys that appear as rippled lines on the elevation profile. On the road they are steep rises that appear like in front of you and although the overall profile only reads 3% or 4 % the actual gradient may be nearer 10%. Crossing the boundary The Edge forms always presents a welcome relief and real hills with a top and bottom.

The roads were another issue. I road my Specialised gravel bike and was glad of the fattish tyres and beefy frame. I am sure my carbon fibre road bike would have suffer damage on unrepaired roads that still contained the debris from winter storms and the passage of farm vehicles.

I was glad to reach the sanctuary of Church Stretton and the lanes around The lawley. Then came Wenlock and a sprint to Ironbridge via Benthall to be back inside the time limit. I made it by 10 minutes. This week will be back to commuting and the possibility of a long ride during half-term. 

66:16:496:16:49:16:49

Shropshire Lad

 I remember a teacher at school talking about A. E. Housman and A Shropshire Lad, how he was talking about, "the deep countryside of Shropshire." Where I rode on Sunday qualifies as this and would have been recognised by Houseman. Sandstone lanes, trees, the sharp Edges rising out of the flatlands and The Lawley. 

This wasn't the longest ride I've done in training, but the 807m of climbing was tough. The good news was my speed is increasing and the average speed is getting somewhere near what will be needed for being in with a chance on the big ride. Unfortunately even a tough ride doesn't appear to be hitting the glucose levels like it did when I first went back into training. Time to try something different.

This week it will be back into commuting, but the GCSE season and and after school meetings are eating into the time available. 

As I been a bit secretive about the summer ride, I haven't collected any donations for Shelter yet. If anyone would like to be the first please use the link

https://www.justgiving.com/andrew-rudge4

If you have aspirations to be a main or lead sponsor, please get in touch.

New ride!

Saturday's planned AUDAX permanent cancelled due to weather (bit cold to go up the Clee) and road closures out towards Ludlow. So, a new route around Cound Moor. See FATMAP.  Bit of a training ride for the summer event as it contains every sort of terrain that I'll encounter in miniature. Announcements next month on where I'll be riding.