Wednesday 29 June 2005

Road loop, through Neasham, Girsby, Eryholme and Dalton

Went on a road ride tonight with Andrew U. We met in the town, then went on a road loop, through Neasham, Girsby, Eryholme and Dalton; about 25 miles in around 3 hours. We took it pretty easy, as Andrew's not ridden much recently and I've a chesty cough as a result of all the hayfever recently. I was probably having a bit of an asthma attack too, which slows me down somewhat...

The weather wasn't bad; pleasantly cool, with constant drizzle.

A map of the ride

The road from Neasham round to Girsby is gorgous, dead straight (it's a Roman road) and with trees planed along the edge, like a French boulevard. We were just saying what a fantastic place it must be to live, when a jet plane flew really low overhead, on its way to land at Durham Tees Valley Airport, which is just over the river. We could actually see the plane touch down and hear its engine pitch change.

The diversion we took off the A167 through Eryeholme was well worth it. A fantastic undulating road, with grass growing down the middle.

This could become a regular route; possibility of cutting short (via bridleway over Tees to Sockburn) or extending. Doable in two hours when not ill?


  • Distance: 30 miles (including home-start and end-home)

  • Surface: Road

  • Weather: Cool but damp

  • Time: Early evening, around 3 hours

  • Bike: Inbred, with 2.25" tyres

  • Comments: Felt good.




[Update] I've just used the cool gMaps Pedometer to map the route and calculate the distance. Seems like AndrewU needs to recalibrate his bike computer....

4 comments:

Andrew U said...

Yep, it was a really nice ride — wish I'd known about that route before. Looking forward to riding it again next time I'm in Darlington, although I might have a car by then so forays into the Pennines care of a bike rack might be on the cards too if you're interested — as if you're not! Later.

Andrew said...

If you are up for taking a fatty along and can provide ambulance back up I'd quite fancy a go round there sometime

mactually » Blog Archive » Road loop, through Neasham, Girsby, Eryholme and Dalton, revisited said...

[...] oad loop, through Neasham, Girsby, Eryholme and Dalton, revisited I just rerode the ride I did with Andrew U a while ago, but on my own, with thinner tyres and no asthma attack. I made it round i [...]

Mike said...

That threw me. I got really confused looking at recent comments in the admin view, then I realised it was because I'd trackbacked my own post. Odd.