Yesterday was my second 6am alarm in consecutive days. I normally do a brutal cardio step class with Sally and our neighbours at 6.30am on Friday mornings now, it’s become a weekly ritual of ours, but given I had my ride the next day I skipped it but I still went in as the gym owner wanted me to look at a couple of broken spin bikes, so I did that while the others got beasted.
It’s quite dark now at 6am, a sure sign Autumn is here and not the best motivation to get up. I lay there silent for a moment questioning myself why and as I began to drift I snapped myself out of my stupor and just got up. I had a ride to do.
Dressed, I treated myself to some nice coffee (I’m a ponce as I have a coffee subscription! 250g of hand-picked grinds every 2 weeks). Had a bowl of cereal and some toast and I was ready. Just bottles to do but when I went to my bike I found the front rotor was catching so I spent 10 mins truing that before I got out the door just before 7am.
Boy it was cold and fresh. Woof! I was glad I’d worn my gloves, arm warmers and donned my lightweight gilet to take the edge off. I’d also lightly oiled my legs with a bit of tiger balm too. I find that always helps on cool mornings if I have my legs out. You know it’s cold and early when the early morning mist lingers. A nice sunrise too.
I got to the start about 7.15am. No one about except a couple in a van in the pub car park. It was eerily quiet. I wanted to hang about a bit and see if anyone else rocked up but riders start when they want so there was no guarantee so I started on my own ironically exactly the same way I came in.
The route had most of the climbing loaded in the first 20km so I decided to take it easy. Lickeys done, which had a great view across to the City, I had to tip toe around some cows on the Waseleys. Rare to see the cows in the field which meant the gates were shut too. More great views down to the Malvern’s though and the grass was soaking from the early morning dew.
The climb up Walton Hill at Clent was an eye-opener. I’d ridden down it numerous times but not climbed it that way for years. Long, hard and super-steep. I felt like I was burning matches one-by-one and wasn’t 20km in yet. I just kept telling myself to take it easy and just one more to go. Done, it was just a climb to Four Stones now before a nice descent off the hills and bit of respite across Hagley.
On the way down I met up with Dave C who had set off earlier. We rode together across the bridleways that get you around Stourbridge. They were much nicer to ride because the usually soft, sand dune like sand was damp and dense.
We both crossed the A449 and then we hit the canal towpath northwards. Initially it was nice and hardpacked but that gave way to some quite wet, gloopy sections where the bike squirmed. It took me back to my cyclocross racing and drew on those skills just letting the bike do what it wanted.
We passed a rider with his bike upside down, I checked if he was ok and he said yes so I pushed on. I looked behind at bit further on he was behind me so I assumed Dave was behind him but when he turned off I’d dropped Dave who admitted later was glad lol.
Off the canal, the route takes you down a transitional bit of trail along the Wom Brook path which connects you to the South Staffs Railway Walk but to get up to the old track bed and path you have to climb some steps. Definitely rideable I began my ascent thinking about how many others would be able to and as I got to the last but one step, feeling smug, my back wheel span out on a damp log across the edge and I fell off and stabbed my arse cheek with my saddle nose giving myself a dead arse. A quick look around to see if I could save my pride and I was good. I scuttled off cursing.
The South Staffs Railway walk is a path of two halves. The first half is very long, wide in places and straight but pretty muddy and cut up. This section, for me, was hard going. I don’t cope well with long straight roads or trails and seeing so far ahead. Throw in gloopy mud and having to concentrate hard to pick the best lines, switching from one edge to the other to avoid deep mud (and dogs), it just saps you. Eventually though, on the outskirts of Wolverhampton you do get a better surface that has been laid own. Your speed is visibly faster too.
Over the old railway bridge and you drop back down on to the canal towards Penkridge. The canal was reasonably quiet and for most of it the surface was tarmac and quite fast despite the ridiculous radar gates that no-one uses ever. You can’t even push a bike around them easily. Forget an ebike. Too heavy.
A few miles before Penkridge, just north of Coven Heath I’d taken the route off the canal this time to bypass some quite rough towpath that pummelled riders back in May. The tarmac was a nice rest from the miles of offroad but felt hard going on my 40mm tyres and I was starting to crave a bit of lunch too.
In one of the lanes I stumbled upon some of the worst fly-tipping I’ve ever seen. Just bricks and turf dumped across the road. I had just passed a dog walker and rounded the bend. As I stood and took a pic she walked up and said she’d just heard a big rumbling noise and wondered what it was, so if she was in earshot it had just happened. It was definitely fresh as the turf was dark brown and moist still. She was going to report it to the police. I picked my bike up and walked across it and went on my way. I wish there was something I could have done to help.
Just after this I’d routed us onto a cracking trail for a couple of km which was the perfect connection on a gravel ride. It was a great find.
As I crossed the M6, Cannock Chase loomed into view just to remind me I was hungry now and my stop was over there somewhere.
Crossing the A5 just down from Gailey Island was a bit dodgy with the traffic. It’s a busy road but I managed to skip across in a gap and immediately went off course with my Garmin complaining. I’d gone left around a bend when I should have gone straight on into a field on a bridleway. It was pretty rough to start with, reminiscent of the towpath I’d tried to avoid but I saw the field, to the left, had been cut and was pretty hard-packed so I flicked onto that and I was away. At the end I dived into some trees for the last bit with Grouse scattering everywhere. I should have brought a shotgun with me.
The last bit of my re-route before I got back onto the original was a long private drive which was a bridleway too. I’m always nervous on these as I know I have right of way but I also feel like I’m trespassing too. It was just a long road that went past a lovely little lake and opened up into what felt like a ranch with fields surrounding the farmhouse in the middle. The road turned into a small enclave of buildings and homes and my path was on the right through a gate and back onto to the rough gravel. It looked like, at some point, the track used to be a through lane and was closed.
A few yards along here and bang, my front wheel hit a rock and the front tyre deflated. I knew instantly I had a pinch puncture otherwise known as a snake bite. Sealant wasn’t going to save that. Luckily the sun was beaming down on me while I sorted it. It didn’t take long as I had a CO2 canister and no thorns to find in the tyre either. My only issue was because my tube had sealant in it I couldn’t get back inside my saddle bag so I decided to tie it to my bars until I could find a bin a dispose of it properly.
I knew it wasn’t far to my cafe stop now, just a short draggy climb into the Chase proper. The surface was quite rocky and I was a bit paranoid now of doing the same again as I’d used my only tube. I thought I had two in my bag grrrr so I was careful to pick my line carefully.
I was so glad of the cafe stop bang on half way. I was starving. While I waited for my food I debated whether to go off route to the bike shop at the trail centre and get some spare tubes. I decided I’d get around the chase section, worse case I could limp to the shop and when I pop out on the road at the top, decide there.
Into the Chase proper I followed the Blue route down to the far north end and then climbed back up the valley. It was sunny and quite warm on the heathland.
As I approached the road and decision time for spare tubes Dave from earlier rolled to the junction too. He said he may cut some of the Chase out and it was perfect timing to see him again. Well that made my decision easy. I just carry on with Dave and just try and get the Chase done without another puncture. We dropped through Tackeroo campsite and picked up Marquis Drive. After we crossed the Rugeley Road I left Dave on the climb (he was glad of that too lol) and was caught by Ben and Lawrence. We rode up the last long steep section of the chase before we dropped off through and popped out at Cannock Wood and then traversed Gentleshaw Common. We got separated for a bit but they eventually caught back up. They hadn’t stopped yet so I directed them to the cafe at Chasewater where I left them. The wind as I navigated around the shores of Chasewater was quite hard and I was beginning to blow. Lunch hadn’t kicked in yet.
Immediately after Chasewater it was straight onto the canal into the strong headwind that had manifested itself. I really enjoyed this section last time but pushing on I slowly blew and when I finally got off it and onto a bit of tarmac I was cooked with a long way to go. A tinge of cramp just before the end of the canal told me I needed some salts so I stopped at a garage and forced myself to eat a sandwich and a packet of crisps. My guts didn’t want to play and it was like force feeding yourself food when you are already stuffed to the brim. Not pleasant but necessary.
I throttled back on the roads to Sutton Park and I couldn’t ride too fast through the park anyway as a running race was on and I had to pick my way around it without inhibiting the runners. I was too knackered to even take a picture by now.
In my head I was just saying, get to the city centre, eat your last gel and you’ll get home. Through Needhall Valley and Pipe Hayes Park I could feel a bit of something coming back but the towpath to Spaghetti Junction undid me again because of the headwind. I just couldn’t get into a rhythm. I was just fighting the bike.
When the canal turned south towards the city centre I could see the BT Tower so I made that my next target. Just get there. The small climbs up the locks were just hurting and there were more as I climbed up to the Utilitia Arena past the tower but here was a bit of a turning point.
Canal side past Brindley Place was quite busy with drinkers, in fact it wasn’t ideal going through there at that time of day but it made me slow up and take a rest and as I rode out of Gas Street basin back towards Selly Oak all of a sudden I got my strenghth back. Probably a combination of my forced food stop and smelling the finish.
Along here my bell was a saviour as it was busy with University students walking a running. Everyone shared the path nicely too.
The climb off the canal as it enters Wast Hill tunnel was a test and the legs were ok still. My second wind was still there. Just a grassy section and a path between the houses to do before a bit of tarmac again then a drop back onto the towpath at Hopwood and the last bit.
The last section of towpath didn’t let me off. Still plenty of gloopy mud to test my tired body but as I went under Barnt Green bridge with it’s new bit of graffiti I knew I had it in the bag.
I had to stop for a couple on bikes to pass as I crossed the canal and as I rounded the bend , the pub came into a view and I was done. Absolutely battered but quite chuffed too.
I had a beer then pottered home nice and slowly. 176km/110 miles for the day in total.
Roll on the Forest of Dean next month
Well done, sounds like a big day 💪👏👏👏
Well done, sounds like a big day 💪👏👏👏