A glorious autumn day and a few hours to spare afforded me the opportunity for a good long bike ride yesterday. I’m really starting to get in to linear bike rides, which involves riding one way and catching the train the other. The only snag being with some operators bikes are carried on a first come first served basis, as I found out last year when I had to ride the thirty miles home from Lincoln; therefore wherever possible I try and catch the train first and ride back.
Yesterday, I rode the 7 miles to the Station in Newark, caught the Virgin Train to Peterborough and rode the 54 miles back home all for a total cost of £7.50 (£6.50 train fare and £1.00 for a cup of tea in Asda at Grantham). A total of 61 miles at an average speed of 12 mph. The route I took utilised Sustrans Route 63 from the centre of Peterborough out as far as Stamford where I followed quiet country lanes directly North until close to Corby Glen where I picked up a B road, which took me within a mile or so of Grantham where it joined the A52. I then travelled along familiar country lanes back to the village of Dry Doddington. The roads were for the most part good with little traffic and best described as undulating in parts with no real climbs to speak of.
Having not used Virgin trains for some time I’d forgotten how nice they were compared to the regional ones. Bikes go in with any freight in a special area behind the engine and the rider sits in the passenger carriages away from the bike. There’s a real sense of purpose about intercity trains, like they mean business. I was very impressed.
Along the way I stopped to have at look in several churches, half of which were open and the others firmly locked. I don’t have a religious bone in my body; however, for some bizarre reason I’m fascinated by these buildings and can’t resist looking around them. I also stopped off in the affluent town of Stamford and the down at heal town of Grantham. Stamford was very busy with a French street market in full flow. Grantham looked grubby and was pretty much deserted. In fact if it wasn’t for the homeless in the shop doorways the main street would have been pretty much deserted.
