SLOTHO Day 5a: cycling from Hartington to Boston

SLOTHO was a tour I planned from Swanage to Newcastle staying in YHA Youth Hostels. SLOTHO stands for SLeep Out To Help Out. I planned to help the YHA recover from the ravages of COVID by the enjoyable strategy of paying to stay in their hostels. My fees may not actually be enough to make a big difference, but if…

SLOTHO was meant to take 8 days, but the weather has not been cooperative! I stopped in the midst of day 4 at Nottingham. The day before this current ride I returned to Nottingham and completed the 4th stage by riding to Hartington and called that day 4b. Today’s ride to Boston (where I live) was not intended to be part of SLOTHO, but I later realized that by incorporating it as 5a, and in the next break between storms riding from Boston to York to complete stage 5, I could finish SLOTHO before the weather broke again. Boston to York will be 5b, in the next video, I hope!

I hope you will forgive my ombrophobia (Go on… Look it up! I did!), which may be mitigated by the realization that this added about 140 miles extra to the tour!

I loved this ride – I hope it shows in the video.

It was an epic ride for me because

1) It took me through all the varying (and decreasingly hilly) scenery from the “backbone of England” to (almost) the coast. It took in the Pennies, the Nottinghamshire coalfields, Sherwood Forest, the Trent Valley, and the very flat Lincolnshire Fens.

2) I tested a route I had noticed on the OS maps across the coalfields on old railway trails near Teversal; this avoided the traffic, big towns, and strength-sapping short steep hills I used to associate with this area in my youth. This worked well. I relied on Komoot for the detailed routing, which it does very well but not perfectly: there is a busy roundabout and a set of steps I would like to avoid next time. I hope there will be a next time for this route as (since the closure of smaller hostels) Hartington is now amongst the nearest YHA hostels to my home.

3) It was my first 100 this year. I knew it would be particularly challenging because of the hills and because my fitness has not recovered from winter illness, but I helped myself by picking a day with a tailwind (mostly – it turned against me after dark).

I made one big mistake: I should have stopped at Bardney chippy! A good dose of fat, carbs, salt and the magic ingredient in stewed tea would have made the last 20 miles less of a struggle – but I hurried on, keen to use the last of the twilight to navigate a rough and puddly off-road (optional) track to get back to the riverside sooner.

That track led to the first of the incidents that seem amusing afterwards: I had a mild “Vicar of Dibley moment” with one of the puddles. It looked like all the other puddles on the stoney track but as I crossed it my front wheel suddenly dropped and dropped. I braced expecting to be thrown over the handlebars but the front came up as the back went down and I made it through. There was liquid mud several inches up the spokes and the brakes were grinding for several miles.

The next incident was when I arrived at a road closure and was faced with an 8 mile diversion including an A road – one I try to avoid even in daylight. I didn’t think my legs had 8 miles-worth of energy left in them! Not incriminating myself: someone whom I might know may have got round the fences (after checking it could be done safely and harmlessly) and may possibly have set off a flashing light and siren in the night!

When I reached Boston I was absolutely on my last legs! I hadn’t the energy to stop and take photographs – the ones at the end of this video were snapped a couple of nights later – does that make this video a fraud?

Anyway, I enjoyed the ride; I hope you enjoyed the video – fraudulent or not!