Was really looking forward to this trip, and wasn’t disappointed! The weather was great, a slight breeze on a warm but not overly sunny day. Seemed perfect weather for cycling. I met up with a work collegue at Paddock wood Station to cycle the 40 miles to Ashford via the Sustrans cycle route 18.
We set off at 10:45am through Paddock wood, taking the normal route to Horsemonden. Here we picked up route 18. I was really amazed at how well signposted it was. There was only one turn which we couldn’t find a sign on (though some were a bit hidden) and it was a wonderful country route. From Horsemonden we followed the route down past Goudhurst and through Bedgebury forest. Bedgebury forest contains a National “class” mountain bike route and a nice family route. I didn’t fancy trying off riding in my road bike though. We stuck to the central road through the forest (which is an offroad section of route 18.) made up of tarmac and gravel and full of potholes! there were several groups of people in the forest and I soon learnt that while everything else will run away from a bike, dogs will run straight at them! No accidents today though!
Leaving Bedgebury we continued east. I have a scare going down a hill, I think this was at Four Wents but not sure. I saw the route 18 sign pointing left but was heading fast down hill and didn’t slow enough. As I went to turn left my wheels touch gravel and slide out from under me. In one swift and paniced motion I pulled my foot out of the clips and managed to steady myself.
Carried on to St Micheals where we stopped for a light lunch from costcutter and headed off again, if you can see the squiggles on the map its because I started off in the wrong direction! Carried on through towards Ashford. Once we got into the centre of Ashford we followed cycle routes along the river and through parks. This was a great way to avoid all the traffic but went too far. It seems cycle route 18 goes right through Ashford and we didn’t realise till we were about a mile past the train station. I still don’t think we went the right way into the station! We followed a sign Ashford T and rail services which took us right onto the platform. It was then a mad dash to the other platform and a 25 min train journey back home. From there took the direct route back to Matfield.
All in all I thought this was a great cycle route, avoided all major roads and really light traffic. It was fairly hilly but then that can only be good for fitness!
Stats Cateye Mity 8
Distance 45.78 miles (including to and from Matfield)
Max Speed 39mph
Time 3 Hours 41 mins 45 secs
Average 12.3 mph
I haven’t mentioned my new Garmin Edge 205 yet!! It is excellent! I plotted my ride the previous day on www.mapmyride.com Found this site excellent, very intuitive to use and the key thing was you can tell it to “follow roads”. Other mapping software have used forces you to draw straight lines but MapMyRide allows you to click points and then will automatically draw a route following the course between them. This then downloads as a .crs file which Garmin reads as a course.
Out on the road it is really easy to use and follow, the garmin displays a line of the route and you can zoom to up to 800 feet. When you come to a junction you just look down and see which way the line goes. This never failed me, however when we stopped for lunch we were on a road parallel to where we had come from and I went the wrong way (can’t really blame the machine for that!) also I programmed in a route which was slightly different to the cycle route 18 but it just bleeps when you go off course and lets you continue, still tracking your route. On the other hand it was a life saver when I couldn’t see the road signs but the garmin line pointed down a turning.
However (and this is the first day I have used it) the PC software doesn’t seem so great. I have the Garmin Training Centre and also SportTracks which I have seen recommended on a lot of forums. I think once I use it more often it might be better to view progress over a time rather than one individual route.
Garmin Edge 205 Stats
Distance 42.47 miles (doesn’t include first trip down to Paddock Wood)
Total Time 3 Hours 29 Mins 46 Seconds 29 Milliseconds (I’m not really good enough to worry about Milliseconds….. or seconds for that matter)
Average Pace 4.56 minutes per Mile
Average Speed 12.1 mph
Max Speed 37.7 mph
Total Calories 3066
Total Ascent 4321ft
Total Descent 3696ft
Some SportTracks Stats
And to cap it off a Memory Map OS elevation map
I added this in as the Edge 205 does not have a barometric altimeter, it relies on its position between the satellite’s. Though comparing this one above to the edge’s below, It looks very accurate.
Sorry for the long post, it was a long ride too! Hope you have enjoyed reading this, let me know through the comments what you enjoy reading, and what you don’t, eg more or less stats ( know I have overdone it today) and the same goes for ride narrative. Sorry there were no pics this time.
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