As Spring is on its way, it's time for some long distance trips. As last year's Loughborough to London ride seemed a bit far for some, I've revamped it as the Leicester to London ride.
For any Latin scholars, I was hoping this would work as an LL ride (2 lots of 50, geddit), but in fact the route I've worked out shown
here is 108 miles. On the plus side, there's more downhill than uphill. There's one big slog near Market Harborough, but there's a glorious view from the top.
We'll aim to depart from Leicester train station just after 10 am, and stop for a lunch break at a cafe in Olney. There's plenty of other places to stop for food as well.
For getting to Leicester for anyone London based, East Midlands trains take just over an hour, and cost £14 when booked on their web site. Or you can pay £16 for a first class ticket and get a free tea or coffee.
There are 4 trains from St Pancras arriving at Leicester between 09.29 and 10.02. Most of their trains are Meridian ones which officially only take 2 bikes (and that's all you can book a space for), although you can fit more in, and most of the time, that's not an issue. One of the trains is an HST which still has a proper guards van. See page 61 of their timetable
here for all the train times.
Lots of lovely, rolling countryside and also never too far from a train station for bail out points.
