Tell us about your weekend ride

This first section was tough, quite a long climb uphill that was mainly off road, with a surface of loose stones which didn't aid traction. I do wonder at times why councils feel the need to try and help foster cycle routes then lay down surfaces that are challenging for experienced riders, never mind those with less experience.

Presumably many of these inexperienced riders would be riding mountain bikes, not Pompinos. I've often found that with constructing off-road riding like this, people have no awareness that some people use skinnier tyres.

Nice report, Andy, it's great to explore old alignments along which people travelled. We have a couple of ancient routes still visible in Hackney, but like the Pilgrims' Way they are disrupted in places. When I'm in Germany, I often do rides around old Roman alignments (some of which are also followed by modern roads), or other historic roads that are no longer in much use. The area where my family live has quite a lot of such alignments. Some are agricultural service roads, others are scenic paths, but it's always interesting to follow them, or at least I think so.