Six cyclists set off on August 17 for an intriguing 200kms Circumnavigation of Birmingham, organised by Alton Cycling Club (ACC) member Robert Jacob.
Departure was from his home town of Kenilworth and then it was a clockwise ride through bits of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire with a snippet of the West Midlands metropolitan county as well.
Along the way six riders – with two Altonians – were treated to some lovely countryside, manor houses and churches, with views down to the Malvern hills in Worcestershire. However, as a reminder that we were circling a major city, the route crossed every Midlands motorway, in order, M40, M5, M54, M6, M6 toll, M42, and finally M6 again.
At Meriden we paused at the First World War obelisk to the fallen from the cyclists’ battalions. Indeed, the first British casualty of that conflict was Private John Parr, a reconnaissance cyclist.
Nearby stands another vertical structure indicating that Meriden is – by what calculations is a bit unclear – the very centre of England.
Meriden like quite a number of the towns we passed through appear as though they could have been the setting for Middlemarch, each with their own industrial legacy. George Eliot probably based it on nearby Coventry, where she lived before moving to London.
Birmingham itself did not figure in the ride, but there were views down to its gleaming tower blocks from higher ground descending back into Kenilworth on the return.
Altonians with long memories would have been delighted to see Robert riding his dad Alan’s Principia aluminium frame road bike – they used to be a popular choice with the ACC before the arrival of carbon.
In honour of Alan, we took photos on the old A5, up which he rode to glory when he won the London to Holyhead ride in 1963.
We also rode the A5 on the outskirts of Tamworth, the only seriously urban and congested part of the route.
Also uncharming – sadly – was to see the gaping gash in the Warwickshire countryside being made by HS2 – at seemingly limitless expense with no end in sight.
Altogether it was a fascinating and taxing 200kms, with no dramas or mechanicals – except Robert’s Garmin mount fell to pieces near Tamworth but stayed attached swinging from his handlebars.
The ride was broken up by four cafe stops. The first in an industrial estate in Alcester offered a full-on English fry-up breakfast of bacon, sausage and egg, daintily enclosed in a tortilla wrap.
The accompanying builders’ tea was excellent, although ACC cafe connoisseurs may have been aghast at the powdered coffee offering. It certainly wasn’t the place for a lattecino with oat milk on the side, but if ACC members can cope with such deprivation a Birmingham Circumnavigation by bike has a lot to commend it.
(Thanks to Seb O’Kelly for writing this for us!)
