Coast to Coast - Downs to the Severn Sea

This morning, I made an early start from Marlborough, beginning the next stage of my Coast to Coast adventure.  A good breakfast, then through the archway of the Castle and Ball car park, left along the High Street and left again at the old Town Hall, starting the climb that leads to Hackpen Hill.

The climb isn't very steep, but it is long, five miles odd to the top, which is unusual in England.  Geoffrey Shields and I rode it one spring day, and were entertained by the signs warning of ice.

The signs didn't mean much then, but they were of much greater moment early on a February morning, and I took things very carefully,  particularly on the descent.

Hackpen Hill is the highest point of the English part of my journey.  At 269m it's higher than Titsey Hill by 2m, not a lot, but things will be very different when I get in to Wales.  Anyway, it was very blowy on the top, the beginning of a strong head-wind that didn't change much for the rest of the ride.

There's a White Horse on the North side of the hill, not much of one, and quite hard to see.  It's a bit of a youngster, as these things go, apparently having been cut by a local publican to celebrate Queen Victoria's coronation.

Onwards across the plain to the West of Swindon, then following the ridge to Malmesbury.  The developing custom of this ride is to vary the route to take in Winged Wheels, and this was quite a good one - The Smoking Dog.

This may be the last of the trip, as there are very few Winged Wheels in Wales, and none reasonably near to my route.  There'll be other chances.

Steadily onward, crossing Fosse Way and heading in to the Cotswolds.  Some more climbing, still in to the wind, then, just by the Beaufort Tower, my first glimpse of Wales.  All downhill from here, then...

No, but not too difficult, either, and I rode up to the Severn Bridge Viewpoint at about half past twelve - very good going.

So there we are.  I rode back down to the waiting car, popped the bike in the back, and Maggie and I went to the White Lion in Thornbury for lunch.

Here's a cross-section of the ride across England.  250 miles, give or take, and just over half of the  journey is done.  The next stage will take me to Cardiff, where I will be properly in Wales.

A brief e-bike note on today's performance.  There was a strong head-wind, with quite a lot of steady climbing into the wind.  I was on the motor for a lot of the ride, which was fine, but it consumed a fair bit more power.  I had about 35% left after 56 miles, which is quite a contrast with the Lenham to Carshalton stage, roughly the same in terms of climbing and distance, where I had 55% left.

So, climbing fast into the wind takes a lot of power, eh?  Who knew!

Mark