Longest. Bike Ride. Ever.

So yesterday (for the first time this year) I dusted off my bike, pumped up the tires and went for a short ride towards town. Nothing too demanding, just a mile or two to the barbers for a haircut. I was a little tired by the time I got to the end of my road (it does involve a fairly long uphill moment) but I did eventually make it. Total distance: 3, maybe 4 miles. I can’t be exact because the battery in the bike computer ran out and I had to cycle back past Asdas to get a new one.

 

That was all a build up to today, where my housemates and I had planned to ride about 6 miles into Sonning, eat lunch and cycle back again. We set off and had a fairly gentle ride down to the Thames, with only minor debates about the route. All fairly easy going and, being a nice day, quite enjoyable so we found ourselves in Sonning in no time at all. It seemed far too early for lunch, so we carried on riding along the river, unwittingly following National Cycle Route 4, which stretches from Fishguard to London, without at any point going through our new intended destination, Henley. This became clear once we’d left the river, passed through Wargrave and gone up several hills, so we stopped and asked for a little help with directions. Continuing on, there were more hills, and another moment of clarity struck when we realised we hadn’t really listened to the directions very well. We ask for more directions from another random walker and we eventually (through sheer luck more than anything else) end up in a pub they’d recommended in Aston (the Flower Pot, if anyone’s interested). Not a great pub, but we still had lunch and drinks before moving onwards and this time downwards, back toward the Thames, arriving at Mill End.

 

Mill End turns out to be further down the river than Henley, which was a great "I told you so" moment for me. Not that it makes a large amount of difference, as we still have to carry on riding. As we get closer to Henley there are gradually more and more people and it turns out that we’re riding alongside the Oxford boat racing team as they thrash Cambridge. It’s an almighty coincidence that we’re cycling through Henley on a Race Day, but at least now I can say I’ve seen one. Didn’t make it any less annoying that we had to get off our bikes to walk through the people that were there.

 

From Henley, it’s simply a matter of following the river back to Reading. There are a few places with "No Cycling" signs, but we only really make a token effort to walk the bikes for a few minutes before starting to ride again. It’s not as if there were going to be "Cycling OK" signs coming up.

 

So, our original planned journey would have been about 12 miles. Our new, random route across Berkshire and Oxfordshire totalled 31.7 miles making it the longest bike ride I think I’ve ever done. Before now, the longest I remember was about 24 miles across Devon, and my longest ride in recent years has merely been to Pangbourne (with a train ride back to Reading and a cycle home from the station) which is about 14 miles. It’s safe to say I am now completely shattered, but at least my body and muscles only hurt when I’m awake.

 

Happy Mother’s Day!