Cycling at Donington Park Race Circuit

I found out about an opportunity to ride around Donington Park Race Circuit for the princely sum of £1 on the evening of 22 August 2013. Donington is about 1 hours drive away I took a 1/2 day off work and me, my son and my wife drove over to ride round (my wife decided not to ride in the end).

It was a great evening. The weather was almost ideal other than a headwind down the Craner Curves and back up. The whole circuit was available (including the Melbourne Loop/hairpin). Several hundred riders took part from families on all sorts of BSOs, a bloke on a modern penny farthing, several tandems and road bikes from £300 Careeras to multi thousand bling machines. Passing 4 year olds on a tiny BMX bike was a surreal experience. The family nature meant that line discipline was absent and this meant that the racing line was the same width as the track.

My son had a massive explosive puncture on the rear wheel after about 3 laps. I am sure he'd like to think that is was due to massive power but it looks like a manufacturing defect in the tyre. He rode my Scott for 4 laps while I had a break as we didn't bring a spare tyre.

Like all these things nowadays Strava has dozens of overlapping segments - here's the ride (note 46 achievements!):

Here's a few photos.

On the start finish/straight

Breaking the rules

Face of pain (or just ugly?)

Massive Speed!