Following
last Sunday's ride, a plan was hatched to do a long social ride out to Exeter and back, some 55 miles or so, on the following Saturday. Weather watching during the week made this plan seem even better, as it was being forecast to be the only day in the upcoming week with wall to wall sun.
Andy, Ed, Jon and I met up at the Seaton TIC and at 10:00 am, a little later than planned, we headed out towards Exeter. The plan was to take in the sights of Newton Pop, Lympstone and Topsham, a quick stop for lunch and then return to Seaton via Ottery for around 4:00 isn, before sunset.
We took the main road out through Sidford and after descending Four Elms Hill turned south before entering Netwon Poppleford, to follow the River Otter towards Otterton and our first coffee stop at the mill. The plan was then to make our way over to Exeter across the common, however, keeping things fluid we decided instead on the coastal cycle path, around the north of Budleigh, into Exmouth and along the estuary to Topsham. It is a really impressive length of traffic free paths which was very much welcomed after our initial and very busy main road section.
It seemed like a summers day by the sea as we rode through Exmouth. The Lifeboat was getting a clean and tourists were promenading under the clear blue sky. It was quite idilic but we were by now behind plan and getting hungry. We needed to press on to our planned next stop, Topsham.
On route to Topsham, we cycled through Lympstone, and who should we bump into but Alistair Cope, one of the founding members of the AVP. Alastair was wheeling a new Penny Farthing down the street which I gather he may ride in next Saturday's
Velo Vintage 4th Occasion and Ride which he was also out promoting.
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| Alistair Cope with his new Penny Farthing |
From Lympstone we followed
Exe Trail cycle path through Exton to Topsham via the longest continuous piece of decking I've ever seen! Once in Topsham, it was a tossup between eating inside at the cyclists favourite, Route 2 cafe, or outside at the Lighter Inn on the quay. With the sun shining and a real atmosphere of alfresco dining, despite to cost, the Lighter won the day.
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| Alfresco dining at the Lighter |
By the time the pints were downed and plates cleared it was gone 2:00 pm and we were going to have hit the pedals hard to be back in Seaton before the sun set and with Jon riding with no lights the pressure was on!
Our return journey took us north, to the M5 with some courageous and rapid cycling across roundabouts and through busy junctions. Clear of the major routes we headed west through Clyst Honiton, Aylesbere, West Hill and Ottery St Mary where we even had to navigate a path around a group of morris dancers, not sure what was going on there.
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| Ed over the M5 |
The circuit had so far had its fair share of hills but nothing like what was to follow our exit out of Ottery. Chineway Hill is something else; a 3 mile, 20% climb which at the summit left me reaching for the jelly babies and draining my water bottle before I felt ready to continue!
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| Chineway Hill climb |
We now had 10 miles remaining, the majority of which was down hill but the light was fading fast, as too was Ed's touring bike. Having suffered a catastrophic series of mechanical failures on Thursday night while riding his road bike, Ed had today switched to the tourer. His luck, however, was not with him this week, as he proceeded to lose a pedal as we crossed the common. Jon assisted in re-attaching it and luckily it remained in place long enough to see us all safely back to Seaton. The sun, however, was by then as good as set but we did, to Jon's frustration, stop to capture a picture of it before it totally slipped behind the horizon .. quite a stunning view.
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| Sun setting at the end of our ride |
In all we completed just short of 60 miles / 100 km .. a terrific workout and great fun, even if we did not quite make it to Exeter.
