Story for Post-fact cycling (they said Essex was flat, dull and windy)

Now Chris has moved to Mile End I thought we should have a look at the roads out that way, despite being repeatedly assured by 'trustworthy sources' that it was all flat, dull and windy.  

I used the Strava Clusterer (http://labs.strava.com/clusterer) to find a route - excellent app, not sure why it isn't more widely publicised. Nevertheless when I shared my hard found route (well I spent at least 3 minutes looking for it) it turned out that only Chris and I were up for Essex.

I left not particularly early, but the Embankment was pleasantly empty, although the head wind assured I wasn’t going to be getting PBs on the way out.  From the Tower I took CS2 to Mile End: hideous.  It was full of rubbish, people jumping out, chicanes and give-ways for every drive; all on greasy blue paint. I quickly decided that the road was far perferable, and follow this to safely find Chris outside the Coffee Room. 

The route took us on fairly standard London roads towards Epping Forest. This provided some great lanes, and a nice climb up Mott Street. We continued on rolling lanes and B-roads on a route which neatly avoided all major towns, provided views and passed the electric gates of not few mansions.

Just as the head wind was beginning to tell, particularly on cold feet, we turned back South West where we stumbled upon the excellent Norton Heath café (well spotted Chris).  Fortified with an excellent bacon sandwich we allowed the wind to push us on slightly flatter roads to the edge of London.

We tried a different route back into town, but it wasn’t an improvement. Next time I’d take the Mile End route we took outbound.
So was Essex Flat, Dull and Windy? Well one out of three is probably above average these days. 
 

Type: 
Ride
Workout_type: 
default
Date: 
2016-12-04T09:25:14Z
Avg Pace: 
2:19/km
Elevation: 
866
Distance: 
126663
Moving time: 
17663
Activity id: 
793454244
Strava title: 
Post-fact cycling (they said Essex was flat, dull and windy)
Total photo count: 
0
Title: 
Story for Post-fact cycling (they said Essex was flat, dull and windy)
Summary Polyline: 
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Average speed: 
7.171
Language: 
English
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