Wherever the wind takes you

Wherever the wind takes you ARABELLA MAUDE Arabella is an Audax veteran with PBP and LEL, among others, under her belt. She’s also ridden the Mersey Roads 24 hours, stoking tandem trike under the Willesden CC flag. She has been riding “properly”

Ipswich-based rider Arabella Maude is a veteran of many Audax since 1989, before joining AUK in 2005 when she completed her events but she insists that if your favourite form of transport is a bike, first Audax ride. almost any journey, from visiting friends and family to work meetings, or just the wind being in the right direction, can offer a testing challenge.

In this report she describes some of her non-Audax rides…

ONE BUSY WEEKEND a few years ago I needed to complete a 400km ride, watch my son play tennis on Saturday morning, and go to a family retirement celebration on Sunday lunchtime – while fitting in a visit to my parents.

My solution was a 300km loop from my front door in Ipswich on Friday, ride through the night, return home in time to spruce myself up, watch the tennis (while stuffing my face) then ride the remaining 100km down to the Tilbury ferry, take a train the rest of the way to East Kent, spend the afternoon, evening and Sunday morning with my parents before going to the retirement do, returning home on Sunday evening. Easy…

I dusted off my "300 DIY from my front door” route which included the delights of Thetford and the A11, tweaked for suitability as an overnight ride because the Thetford "open 24 hours" McDonalds is only open 24 hours to motorists. Hungry cyclists must pedal a further nine miles down to Barton Mills. For the final 100km, I devised a route via Maldon and the wilds of Essex (Wickford and Basildon), avoiding the A13.

The centre of Maldon is on a proper hill – I live in the flatlands of Suffolk and love the fens and their wide skies. On this route there were occasional views. I had a final snack in a café on the way up through Maldon. The route from Gravesend to Ebbsfleet station is designed for high volumes of traffic, not for cyclists. It is an endless desert of carparks.

Finally arriving at my parent’s house, I didn’t tell them that I'd been out on my bike the entire previous night, as they worry about me. They weren't impressed by my lack of sparkling conversation and witty repartee. I did get an early night but overslept, just about making it to the retirement celebrations.

Take two: Another August, and I'd planned a visit to my parents for the weekend. I had a spare Friday. Where's that route down to Tilbury? This time I removed the Maldon hill and all those conurbations of Essex. I used to cycle to and from London

up the A2 until I saw sense and started going via Shooters Hill and Gravesend, where the Tilbury ferry lands.

So version two of my "bike ride to East Kent" was born – a nice round 195km, including stops at Bicknacre farm shop, a sandwich in the restaurant on the ferry (except there isn’t a restaurant on the ferry) and probably another stop at the top of Chatham Hill. The A2 was busier than it used to be back in the late 1980s, but unavoidable as it was the only option for crossing the Medway. Then through surreal expanses with horses on the way from Stanford-le-Hope to Tilbury. After Canterbury I cut across country, running on auto pilot. A problem with DIY-notAudaxing is that you forgot to think of food stops – it was a hungry route.

Another year, and another iteration: This time I swapped the A2 for the North Downs Way. For those of you who have never tried this route, it goes along the North Downs, which are mostly chalk. The road is unsealed, so you're riding on a slick, chalk track which isn’t designed for a road bike. The bumpy ride culminated in a major puddle across the entire path. It was here that my route sheet made a bid for freedom on the wind. I retraced a mile back but couldn’t find it, so I returned to the puddle. I wheeled the front of the bike in. There was a chain of bubbles, presumably from my dyno hub. Eventually I decided to remove my sandals, roll up my trousers and paddle.

I discovered a plum tree at the top of the rise to Horndon-on-the-Hill. Time didn’t stand still as I stuffed my face, so I missed the ferry. I'd also managed to hit the lunch slot where there aren't any ferries for an hour. I should have looked at the ferry timetable before I set off to avoid such calamities.

So now running very late, and because this wasn't an Audax, I was faced with either navigating from a map with no route sheet or catching a train. I chose the train. It was slipping out of the station as I arrived, but luckily there was another – in 65 minutes.

Version three goes along the north Kent coast. There are views across the mouth of the Medway. The route is a bit convoluted, and there's no easy way to avoid the A2 across the Medway. I could always chance the A2 if I wanted a more direct route. It still came out at a handy 195km with no sensible control options. Definitely not an Audax.

Some of my non-Audax routes have involved riding to work meetings. Ipswich to London, for instance, is no more than a leg-stretch. I can re-create the Dunwich Dynamo, or saunter up the A12, or the A118, and then deviate off to Noak Hill, and sneak around Chelmsford. You get a nice view back down to London.

I don’t need to cycle to work meetings, but I like the idea of getting mileage for doing something I enjoy – though someone has worked out that the per mile allowance wouldn’t cover the calories expended.

Then there were meetings in Birmingham. The first time, I was up for a 300, so the trip back was a ride through the middle of Leicester at midnight, and a dog leg across the Fens. Croyland was all asleep at 2am, but there was one cashpoint. Fakenham was waking up, so the newsagents helped. Finally, the Buttercross café in Bungay does proper food.

Another meeting in Birmingham was followed immediately by one in Oswestry. I took the train from Birmingham to Wellington – and no-one complained about the bike, despite the carriage being rammed full. Then I rode off to Oswestry, avoiding the A5 as far as possible. Anyone know why there's somewhere called Ruyton XI Towns in north-west Shropshire? (Editor’s note: Ruyton was an important manor in the Middle Ages, responsible for ten other settlements, most of which have since disappeared.)

I stopped at the A5 garage-with-Spar to buy some breakfast for the next day, then rolled up for some sleep. The security guards parked my bike in the mail room. They fed me cake and other comestibles, and allowed me to bed down in the first-aid room, complete with mattress, fluffy pillows, blankets and an ensuite. Best night on a bike ride ever.

Oswestry is nearer the Cotswolds than château Arabella, and the Cotswolds is also where my cousin lives, and where I’d been invited to stay – so I got up at 4am, ate my porridge, and headed off down the A5 to Shrewsbury before it got too busy. Then it was over Wenlock Edge and across to Bewdley where I had an interesting combination of toast, peanut butter, quinoa and honey (surprisingly good) before joining a sustrans route. It wasn’t suitable for road bikes – so I walked. My route followed the Severn along to Worcester, then across the Avon to Pershore, skirting Evesham, and down to Broadway and Snowshill. There were no views anywhere as it was a foggy day, but my cousin was expecting me.

This wasn’t my first trip to the Cotswolds. There were no meetings at all but an unusual easterly wind and a free Monday, starting in Peterborough. So I went back to my cousin from the opposite direction, assisted by the wind, and a pakora in Northampton.

On another spare Monday it was Peterborough to Norwich for lunch with my niece at the University of East Anglia. Meanwhile, my friend in the Lake District has asked why I’ve never cycled to her house. She’ll have to wait.