Your ride today.... (part 1)

[young Ed]

I reckon that's barley. We get a lot of it around here! I always remember it as 'bendy barley' (as the ears droop over on themselves, whereas wheat is much more rigid and pointy- to use the technical term)

might be, to be fair i am much more into livestock and almost 100% sheep my self so not great with the arable side of farming
Cheers Ed

 

[Stonechat]

Probably the hardest post I've had to make, but here goes......

My mum passed away on Saturday morning, after her brave battle with cancer. I decided to pull out of the BHF Worcester Ride, on Sunday, as it would have been dangerous for me to attempt it in the state I was in.

After a tough few days of sorting things out, I did a short but much needed ride today, for a bit of thinking time and to clear the head.

I headed out to Upton Magna, Withington, Rodington, Roden, Poynton, Bings Heath and back to Upton Magna, retracing my steps home.

It was lovely and warm, but quite breezy by the end of the ride.

23 miles at 12.5 mph avg

I plan to arrange a 50 mile route with @Rickshaw Phil as my own BHF ride, sometime over the coming few weeks, when things like funeral are out of the way. That way I will feel happy that I achieved something for all of the sponsorship that I have collected (£495)

I would like to thank people on here for their support and kind messages about mum over the past 6 months.

Cycling is going to be very high up on the list of things that will get me through this

My sympathies are with you
Dad died last December. Hi did have cancer, though died of an infection.
Cycling can be an excellent release from all that

 

[gavgav]

My sympathies are with you
Dad died last December. Hi did have cancer, though died of an infection.
Cycling can be an excellent release from all that

Thanks and sorry to hear about your dad as well.

 

[gavgav]

Will he do any training this time or just wing it again?

Hmmmm, we'll see, probably the latter!

 

[coffeejo]

Well done for getting out there again @gavgav

Keep turning those pedals.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

A bit of utility cycling around Shrewsbury today. It was a good day to be on a bike as Wyle Cop is closed for improvements which should make the town a bit more cycle and pedestrian friendly but means that it is not easy getting a car in at the moment.

It was pretty pleasant getting round to the places I needed to go but harder work getting back against a strengthening headwind.

While sat in traffic at one point I was alongside a lorry and noticed the driver spray an air freshener liberally round the cab, then down his shirt. Nice.

14.1 miles and no photos today I'm afraid.

 

[Archeress]

Firstly I returned to work today after a 3 month period of being signed off. It was only for a very short period for a meeting to agree my ours of work during my phased return. I didn't cycle to the office as I knew I was riding later on.

Then it was off out for the last session of my current LIFT course. The usual 17 miles to Yate and back, but today I didn't stop at Costa before coming home. I did get to the venue early and sat up against the building in the shade eating my packed lunch, a nice selfie:

Although there was quite a busy road in front of the building there were some pretty wildflowers and an interesting building to look at.

An uneventful ride, but it was the fastest of the three that I have done.

Hugs
Archeress x

 

[ThinAir]

Today's ride is much better than my last efforts.

A couple of days ago I was moaning after something like 4 miles.

Today, I'm pleased to announce that I have smashed in 15.7 miles and burned nigh on a thousand calories in the process and have climbed 812ft (I have no idea if that is good or not?).

I feel brilliant and I'm off to do this years first 20miler on my next ride!

6st to lose?! Pah... EASY!!!

 

[ThinAir]

Probably the hardest post I've had to make, but here goes......

My mum passed away on Saturday morning, after her brave battle with cancer. I decided to pull out of the BHF Worcester Ride, on Sunday, as it would have been dangerous for me to attempt it in the state I was in.

After a tough few days of sorting things out, I did a short but much needed ride today, for a bit of thinking time and to clear the head.

I headed out to Upton Magna, Withington, Rodington, Roden, Poynton, Bings Heath and back to Upton Magna, retracing my steps home.

It was lovely and warm, but quite breezy by the end of the ride.

23 miles at 12.5 mph avg

I plan to arrange a 50 mile route with @Rickshaw Phil as my own BHF ride, sometime over the coming few weeks, when things like funeral are out of the way. That way I will feel happy that I achieved something for all of the sponsorship that I have collected (£495)

I would like to thank people on here for their support and kind messages about mum over the past 6 months.

Cycling is going to be very high up on the list of things that will get me through this

My condolences, dude. I find cycling is a great way to clear the old swede as well.

Good luck with the ride

 

[Saluki]

I went off to visit a friend today and rode there as Hubster was at early dialysis today and had the car. I rode off to Wreningham, Hethel and then East Carleton and then headed down the hill to Eaton and turned into Bluebell Road but then quickly turned right and on to the Newmarket Road and utilised the cycle path and joint bus lane/cyclepath combo.

Nice wee ride, nothing even remotely exciting seen and I did feel a bit tired after a long day yesterday. 13.16 mile in 53 minutes and change so averaged 14.9 mph so I wasn't much off the pace even though I felt very tired. Today is supposed to be a fast day but I am struggling so I'll move it until tomorrow.

 

[cosmicbike]

Probably the hardest post I've had to make, but here goes......

My mum passed away on Saturday morning, after her brave battle with cancer. I decided to pull out of the BHF Worcester Ride, on Sunday, as it would have been dangerous for me to attempt it in the state I was in.

After a tough few days of sorting things out, I did a short but much needed ride today, for a bit of thinking time and to clear the head.

I headed out to Upton Magna, Withington, Rodington, Roden, Poynton, Bings Heath and back to Upton Magna, retracing my steps home.

It was lovely and warm, but quite breezy by the end of the ride.

23 miles at 12.5 mph avg

I plan to arrange a 50 mile route with @Rickshaw Phil as my own BHF ride, sometime over the coming few weeks, when things like funeral are out of the way. That way I will feel happy that I achieved something for all of the sponsorship that I have collected (£495)

I would like to thank people on here for their support and kind messages about mum over the past 6 months.

Cycling is going to be very high up on the list of things that will get me through this

Sorry to hear about your Mum. I went through the same 3 years ago, the support of those around you makes it somewhat easier to handle, and cycling is great thinking time, remember the happy times...

 

[john59]

Finished work yesterday afternoon but didn't have time to ride, so went for my usual Mickle Trafford circuit today. The morning started with light rain which later turned to heavier rain, but at least it was warm! I had one scary moment on a roundabout when my bike slid sideways slightly, so be careful out there.

http://www.strava.com/activities/161156529

John

 

[cosmicbike]

Intended to get up early and do a quick 20 miles today, but a somewhat delayed start left me taking a different option. Rather than aiming for distance, or time, I tried to ride at a steady pace which I felt I would be able to maintain over 50 miles. So I settled for between 13 - 14mph on the flat which felt about right, amazing how hard it is to maintain, kept finding myself at 18mph and reeling myself back in!
Being back on the road bike changes the routes a little, but the usual loop to Walton is road so OK, then off out through Ottershaw. Not a lot of traffic, but out towards Foxhills a couple of very nice McLarens zipped by. Their F1 & road car factory is just down the road so they are not an uncommon sight, they do look odd with all the protective plastic on though.
Out through Chobham and onto the A30, not a nice road but I'm not on it for long. I turned off for Sunningdale Village as I've never been there, nice place, but I wasn't sure of a route home so backtracked a mile. Once I got to WGP I had done 30 miles, and debated stopping for lunch, refilling the bottles and going for my first 50 miler. But, it was getting proper hot, so wimped out and aimed for home. Still, 35 miles for me today. The 50 will have to wait for cooler weather

 

[Alex H]

For once I had a specific destination in mind for my ride today. After spending the last 10 years or so ignoring the signs for the Memorial of the Resistance at Chasseneuil-sur-Bonniere (visit it later ) I have finally seen it. The usual beginnings take me through Saillat-sur-Vienne and Chassenon (Cassinomagus).

Here is the church of Saint Jean-Baptiste

From here it was on to Pressignac, which unfortunately involves a gentle descent into a river valley, then a steep climb out. So, I'm in the lowest gear on the middle ring dragging myself slowly forward and this bird starts chirping . This continues all the way up the hill, it seems to be following me. Then the lightbulb in my brain goes on - strange bird, it doesn't repeat it's song, it's not a bird is it? Change gear up one and the bird has gone .

Moving swiftly on, here is the church and war memorial at Pressignac.

From here, it's across the tops of the Lacs de La Haute Charente to Lésignac-Durand, Mouzon and Cherves-Châtelars. Then downhill and across the new N141 into Chasseneuil-sur-Bonnieure, where I stopped on a very shady bench and had lunch

The memorial itself is just outside the town and this is the view from the first set of steps.

The shape of each headstone denotes the religion of the deceased.

The monument itself is a combination of the Cross of Lorraine (symbol of the Resistance) and a 'V' for victory.

There are over 2000 graves on the site and I counted at least 400 Muslim (something I had no idea about)

As I was about finished looking round, a party of people who had been sitting in their white vans, came out with petrol hedge trimmers and proceeded to smarten up the hedges. Time to leave I think - 7 hedge trimmers is enough noise for anyone

I changed my route back to avoid Rochechouart, as it involves 2 steep 'ups', although the descents are good enough. So on to Vitrac-Saint-Vincent and Montembœuf. It's getting quite hot now - the forecast is 30°C, but not until this afternoon. After Montembœuf, it's onto the D13 (a proper road) and I stop at the lavoir in Massignac for a rest and a banana.

From here I went round the bottom of Lac du Mas Chaban and then between it and Lac de Lavaud, back to Pressignac and reversed the first part of the ride.

The beach on the Lac de Lavaud was empty - holidays don't start until Saturday

In all 104.99Km in 5hrs 15m an average of 19.94km/hr (which is nearly what I do on every ride)

Wildlife tally - Birds of prey 15+ (especially near that guy cutting his hay), rabbits - 1, snakes (recently dead in the road) - 1, mad dogs that chased after me, until I told it politely to go away - 1

I was going to do this yesterday, but the weatherman had forecast storms? so had to put up with the hot weather today

 

[welsh dragon]

Intended to get up early and do a quick 20 miles today, but a somewhat delayed start left me taking a different option. Rather than aiming for distance, or time, I tried to ride at a steady pace which I felt I would be able to maintain over 50 miles. So I settled for between 13 - 14mph on the flat which felt about right, amazing how hard it is to maintain, kept finding myself at 18mph and reeling myself back in!
Being back on the road bike changes the routes a little, but the usual loop to Walton is road so OK, then off out through Ottershaw. Not a lot of traffic, but out towards Foxhills a couple of very nice McLarens zipped by. Their F1 & road car factory is just down the road so they are not an uncommon sight, they do look odd with all the protective plastic on though.
Out through Chobham and onto the A30, not a nice road but I'm not on it for long. I turned off for Sunningdale Village as I've never been there, nice place, but I wasn't sure of a route home so backtracked a mile. Once I got to WGP I had done 30 miles, and debated stopping for lunch, refilling the bottles and going for my first 50 miler. But, it was getting proper hot, so wimped out and aimed for home. Still, 35 miles for me today. The 50 will have to wait for cooler weather

And did you shout woohoo? at any time?