Musings of a solitary cycle rider - Saturday, 11th April, 2020

I don’t mind leading the odd ride now and then! It normally comes with it’s own challenges, deciding on a starting point, choosing a coffee stop destination, a lunch stop destination, and sometimes deciding where to stop for afternoon tea! Then a route has to be planned, although I don’t do many recce’s these days. These decisions, of course, are influential in recruiting participants in each ride, the better choices resulting in a greater number of willing riders taking part. Planning nice weather is also important, but never guaranteed. Recently, these decisions have been unnecessary, and the expected result has been as anticipated, a small party of riders making the minimum number of riders needed to make a ride viable. The new starting point has become Hest Bank and the start time has become variable, although nobody has yet missed the start. Rides are now ‘one stop’ rides with just a coffee and cake stop. At this point, grateful thanks to my granddaughters, Layla and Willow for providing said cake. In the absence of these wonderful cakes, I have been on a scone baking course under strict instructions from the resident kitchen supervisor. Results have been ok, I have not produced an inedible scone yet, others may not agree! I have dug out the old coffee flask, formally used in my fellwalking days, and this accompanies the cake in my saddlebag. Destination choices are not vast, in fact, eight solo rides have been taken since we’ve been locked up and 6 have gone to Arnside. It’s the route which is variable and interesting. I do like to include the Knott on the ride, in the interest of achieving a reasonable amount of ascent on a short ride. So the Knott can be climbed on the way to Arnside or on the way back. The Kellet’s, Capernwray, Borwick, Burton,Holme, Heversham, and Sandside can all be included on the ride. An alternate destination to Arnside has been to Whittington, turning to Hutton Roof here avoids continuing on to Kirkby Lonsdale, which may be too busy to avoid Social Distancing. The next difference to a normal ride, of course, is who to talk to on the ride, or in some cases who to listen to! On these solo rides other choices come to mind, sing to yourself, talk to yourself, or ponder various imponderables! The latter, I suppose is the obvious choice for the moment, although if this situation continues, the other options may become possibilities! The current imponderable is ‘ if the combustion engine caught Covid 19, would the exhaust fumes spread the infection?’. That would make the arrival of electric cars a bit sooner. It’s interesting now to see how the road traffic has changed, a similar number of bikes, if not more, less vehicles, commercial or otherwise, and many more pedestrians. I’m still amused, when approaching pedestrians from behind in the quiet way we do, bell rung or otherwise, how many ‘jump’ when a greeting is made. I am surprised by how many said pedestrians now have dogs, perhaps there is a dog hire agency somewhere renting out further excuses for being outdoors. Now there’s an entrepreneurial opportunity! Arnside is a good destination, because the aforementioned kitchen supervisor can check that social distancing is being observed during the coffee stop via the Arnside pier webcam. Although when the last check was made the camera didn’t appear to be working! Coffee stops are always brief, given that surface touching may be risky, so standing to eat and drink doesn’t encourage a long break. Home for lunch is always achieved and mileages vary from 32 to 36 with up to 2500ft of ascent. 50 miles in 4 hours is not achievable with all the catering equipment on board. As cyclists living in a fabulous part of the country, we have all the equipment to make the most of the current situation, so we are luckier than most and should be thankful for it. Musings over for now, don’t forget keep safe, keep your distance and stay inside, unless you’re a cyclist.

Neil Westwell