Ride 260 of the year and day 140 of the streak started four minutes before midnight. The sky was clear, it was about 10°C, the air was soaked at 92% humidity and there was only a faint breath of wind from the east-south-east. Damp, still, cold air like that only goes one way at night – down into the valleys as fog. The plan was an easy Zone 2 loop out on the Babylon Lane route.
It starts by dropping off the high ground, then turns east along the ridge past Linton for a long, steady drag up towards Ulcombe – enough to warm the legs without ever asking much of them. At the top comes the reward: the free run down Ulcombe Hill onto the flat Weald, where I barely turned the pedals.
Down on the low ground it was properly foggy. Out towards Headcorn and Smarden the headlight stopped being a beam and became a glowing white wall in front of the bars, lighting up the mist more than the road. You go by the verge and the white line and trust the lanes you know. They were empty, too: my radar counted three vehicles in fifty kilometres, which at midnight in the fog is exactly how I like it.
From Smarden it was back west through Headcorn and along Babylon Lane, the flattest and quietest part of the night, heart rate sitting in the 90s and the cadence ticking over.
Then the one real effort of the ride: Wierton Hill, number 27 on the 100 Climbs X-List. I gave it a proper go, 283 W for 5:22, with the heart rate climbing to 159, the top of the night – my second-best time up there. And the strangest thing: the bottom was cold and foggy, but as I climbed out of it the air turned warm and misty, the inversion turning the weather upside down halfway up the hill.
From the top it’s the easy run home, rolling back west along the ridge through Linton in the clearer air above the fog.
The numbers
- Ride: #1131 on Strava, ride 260 of 2026, day 140 of the streak
- Distance: 50.2 km
- Moving time: 2:19:18 (2:32:00 elapsed)
- Elevation: 308 m
- Average power: 103 W
- Heart rate: 100 bpm average, 159 max
- Cadence: 88 rpm average
- Calories: 1,054 kcal
- Highlight: Wierton Hill (100 Climbs X-List No27) – 1.43 km, 79 m, 5:22 at 283 W (2nd best)
- Conditions: dark, clear, foggy in the valleys, 10°C (feels like 8°C), 92% humidity, light ESE wind
- Year to date: Distance 21,223 km, Elevation Gain 216,605 m
The route
Download the GPX (start and finish trimmed for privacy)
Fog below, warmth above – a good way to see out a Thursday.