Let’s start by getting the embarrassing moment of the day out of the way – I missed the May Day 10k through not checking properly the details of the event. I had assumed that it would have been taking place on Bank Holiday Monday, and it didn’t even occur to me that it would actually be today, hence I didn’t check. Thankfully the embarrassment was slightly reduced by the fact that I’m not even sure I would have been able to run today due to the groin strain which prevented me from running parkrun yesterday. I almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to race, and therefore probably wouldn’t have had as much fun as I did on my alternative activity for the morning – a first ride on my new gravel bike.
This morning was a reminder of the fact that I have never not enjoyed cycling. I have however sometimes been frustrated by how fragile my road bike felt. It was also a bike which really demanded a particular set of conditions to make sense, that being a fast, smooth road, and in other situations alternative bikes make more sense. I therefore decided to buy a gravel bike, which offers the potential to be a pretty good performer in plenty of different situations. I’m primarily going to be using it for my commute once we move office, and whilst my quickest route is fully on road, a gravel bike offers the option for a detour via some of the nearby paths, woodlands and tracks, whilst also offering a bit more comfort where the road surface is poor. And then at weekends, should I wish to go for a ride virtually any route is possible.
I wanted a taste of that this morning, so planned out a route I knew fairly well from a few of my runs, albeit with a couple of extra road sections I would generally avoid on foot. It started by going up the Kenilworth Greenway, and once I reached the diversion section I hit gravel for the first time. Gravel is probably overselling the surface as it is essentially compacted dirt with an incredibly fine gravel across some of the surface that you could very much do on a road bike, but the wider tyres on the gravel bike were offering a nice amount of grip and where I could see far enough ahead to safely do so, I could build up to a pretty decent speed.
The next section was a road offering the combination of fast speed limits and awful road surface. It was easily the least fun part of the route, but thankfully was relatively quiet and allowed me to reach Honiley, where the roads were even quieter and the surface was perfectly smooth. Here I realised how a gravel bike seems to suit me as a cyclist quite nicely. I could go quickly if I wanted to, but didn’t feel compelled to, and generally stuck to a slightly more relaxed pace which allowed me to notice my surroundings, albeit the grey skies did prevent me from properly enjoying the views.
After I passed through Beausale, I reached the section where the bike would make the most sense, a gravel road followed shortly by a gravel path. The road gave me a bit of an understanding of the challenges of gravel riding – as much of my route was on the roads, I was running my tyres to a relatively high pressure, and on the rougher gravel I did get bumped around a little. Should I ride a route in the future where that is the main road surface I have to combat, I could reduce my tyre pressures quite a lot, but today I just had to focus on trying to pick the smoothest line, particularly on the short climb.
The gravel path which followed was a lot easier to ride, as again the gravel was much finer. The main obstacle was the regularity of the gates I had to pass through, though this again made me appreciate my choice of bike. I wasn’t worried about how fast I was going because sooner or later I would have to slow down for the next gate, so instead I could just enjoy being away from the roads and just settling into a natural rhythm.
Today’s route featured some of the less technical trail sections I’ve run locally, and overall what I enjoy about trail running is what I enjoyed about today’s ride. And whilst this bike offers me the chance to go almost anywhere, my thoughts have already turned to where else I can find these types of paths locally. I know a few, so it will just be a case of trying to join them together in the most fun way.
When will that be? Well, it could be tomorrow. I’m going to try to run, but if there’s still pain I might quickly abort and get on my bike instead.
Scorpo Stories 