Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Pat "5mph"]

Well I bagged my maiden non stop 200+ mile ride today.
217 miles to be precise. Doncaster to Home (Orpington, Kent) Near 15 hours in the saddle. With good cycling buddies @rb58 and not of this parish, Liz and Sandra (It was Liz' and Sandra's maiden 200 too).

We set off from Doncaster Station at the stroke of midnight. The weather Gods looking down on us with pleasure, blessing us with a warm night with none of the predicted rain storms, though we did get a little drizzle in Cambridge. But nothing to really moan about.

rb58 at Kings Cross waiting for the Doncaster Train
View attachment 56873

All for the princely sum of £18.50
View attachment 56874

Map route Part 1
View attachment 56875

Map route part 2
View attachment 56876

It was tough at times, sometime very tough, but the camaraderie and encouragement helped munch up the miles.
Crossing the Fens at the dead of night was an experience to behold. I don't think I have ever seen such a dark place so untouched by light pollution. It was just a great shame that it was cloudy so the stars were not visible. 2 punctures for the whole ride, one for me, one for Sandra. Not bad considering the accumulated mileage between the four of us.

Boy I am knackered.. but it was jolly good fun with some great cycling chums.
Century # 25 for the year. Century # 129 over all.

A simple "well done" is way too little here!
Any chance of an extended report once you have recovered?

 

[ColinJ]

I had a 100k route planned which was basically a route I've done a couple of times over the summer except in reverse just to see if the hill climb was any easier from the other side, (I know, its not that bigger hill but this is the south we're talking about!) It wasn't!

I was quite amazed how different some of the scenery was simply by doing it backwards & once I had left the New Forest & hit Wiltshire I had to double check a couple of times just to make sure I was going the right way as all looked very unfamiliar.

You are right about that.

I had a similar idea today. There is a loop that I nearly always do anti-clockwise from Hebden Bridge to the village of Trawden, and back via a scenic road past Widdop Reservoir. I decided to do part of that clockwise for a change, but extend my loop to do another few roads in the opposite direction to the way I normally ride them.

My pal Bill was joining me. He is fitter than me but was prepared to ride at my pace today on what is a 'lumpy' route. That is a Yorkshire/Lancashire word meaning 'stupidly hilly'. Take a look at the profile of today's ride and note how little of it was not either going uphill or downhill!

The route: Hebden Bridge, Heptonstall Rd, Lee Wood Rd, Slack, Widdop, Thursden, Clarion House, Trawden, Laneshaw Bridge, Black Lane Ends, Lothersdale, Lane Ends, Sutton Moor, Slippery Ford, Oakworth, Haworth, Oxenhope, Cock Hill, Hebden Bridge.

Total distance 62.5 km/39 miles. There must have been at least 1,500 metres/5,000 ft of climbing, a lot in a relatively short distance. Some of it was pretty steep too - several stretches of 20% and lots of 10+%.

The weather was a bit disappointing. I'd hoped for sunny intervals when I planned the ride a couple of days ago, but the sun did not make a single appearance. We encountered a few drizzly spells but were lucky to avoid heavy rain showers which must have just passed us by because the roads for the last 25 kms were covered in puddles.

Hawshaw Moor from the Sutton Moor climb

Bill climbing away from me up Sutton Moor climb

I'm pretty chuffed to be able to tackle difficult routes like this again after the trials and tribulations of the last 2 years! I'm still slow, but my stamina is improving all the time and I am finding hills a lot easier than when I was fat, pre-illness.

The main problem now is that I get backache after about 2 hours of this kind of cycling. I think I am going to have to tackle lack of flexibility and core strength away from the bike - past experience was that I have to do many thousands of miles of cycling before that sorted my back out. I think targeted core/back exercises would be a much quicker way of tackling the problem.

Bill had to get home so he left me in Haworth and I did that big final climb alone.

I had been looking forward to the 7.5 km descent to Hebden Bridge but I got caught behind a nervous cyclist and 3 nervous drivers behind him. I saw them about 500 metres ahead of me and managed to catch them, but then I was braking all the time. There were opportunities for the drivers to go, but they wouldn't overtake the rider. In the end I got a bit frustrated and sprinted past the cars and the cyclist and continued the descent until I caught another dithering driver. This one did not have anybody in front of him/her. I suspect that it was an elderly driver, but I didn't look to see because I had decided to overtake that car as well and wanted to do it before I got to the woods below Pecket Well, so I was scrutinising the road ahead. There is a tight LH bend to the woods and I did not want to be out in the road as I approached it. I shot past the car and put so much distance into it that I couldn't see it behind me any more when I looked back.

I got back buzzing with energy and saw my young neighbour hanging about smoking yet another one of his numerous daily cigarettes. I wanted to tell him to save himself a lot of future grief, dump the fags, and get himself a bike, but you can't do that kind of thing. Well, you could, but the response would probably be "Mind yer own effing business!" ... You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink!

I have ridden 2,720 miles so far in 2014, 75% of my target mileage for the year. I am actually about 90 miles up on target but once the autumn/winter set in getting those final few hundred miles in will not be quite so easy, so I am trying to bank as many as I can before November. If I hit my taget this year, I'll go for 11 miles a day in 2015 - 4,015 miles, or call it 4,000 and take a couple of extra days off in December!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

I don't post often in this thread, because my rides tend to be either too mundane, or so intricated to merit a travelogue
Today's ride was ... explosive!
I've not been very well (torn a muscle in my back) so did not think I was going to make it today. The physio said I would be fine if I did not go too fast asked about the distance, I told him 17 miles from the start, neglecting to mention the 5 miles to the start and the 22 miles back
So I duly did a morning ice pack, strapped my sore bits in a corset went to lead a Belles on Bikes ride to Castle Semple, on the shores of Lochwinnoch.
As I was leading the way in, all the pictures are actually from my ride back, after the group dispersed.
The day started out quite overcast, but warm, sun peaking out from behind the clouds. We meet along the river Clyde, following NCR7 to the shores of the Loch.
The squinty bridge:

The Hydro/SECC/Armadillo complex, my place of work
The crane is the foreground is a city landmark, remnant of the shipyards, used nowadays for charity stunts.

Beautiful autumn colours along the route:

As there was beginners in the group, we kept to a fast 10mph average ...
Picture of the Loch at Castle Semple:

Now for the explosive part!
Sitting down (with great difficulty ), having my coffee, suddenly there's a BigBang!

I had taken my Boris on the ride, because of his comfy tyres and upwards position - bending and potholes aggravate my back - had not ridden him for a few months, actually since last winter. Just pumped up and added a pannier.
The inner tube must have perished at the valve, but considerately choose to blow up at the coffee stop
46 flat, slow, very enjoyable miles on a mild autumn day.
20 happy Belles on Bikes!

 

[ColinJ]

I don't post often in this thread, because my rides tend to be either too mundane, or so intricated to merit a travelogue
Today's ride was ... explosive!
I've not been very well (torn a muscle in my back) so did not think I was going to make it today. The physio said I would be fine if I did not go too fast asked about the distance, I told him 17 miles from the start, neglecting to mention the 5 miles to the start and the 22 miles back
So I duly did a morning ice pack, strapped my sore bits in a corset went to lead a Belles on Bikes ride to Castle Semple, on the shores of Lochwinnoch.
As I was leading the way in, all the pictures are actually from my ride back, after the group dispersed.
The day started out quite overcast, but warm, sun peaking out from behind the clouds. We meet along the river Clyde, following NCR7 to the shores of the Loch.
The squinty bridge:
View attachment 56902 The Hydro/SECC/Armadillo complex, my place of work
The crane is the foreground is a city landmark, remnant of the shipyards, used nowadays for charity stunts.
View attachment 56904

Beautiful autumn colours along the route:
View attachment 56905 View attachment 56906
As there was beginners in the group, we kept to a fast 10mph average ...
Picture of the Loch at Castle Semple:
View attachment 56907
Now for the explosive part!
Sitting down (with great difficulty ), having my coffee, suddenly there's a BigBang!
View attachment 56908
I had taken my Boris on the ride, because of his comfy tyres and upwards position - bending and potholes aggravate my back - had not ridden him for a few months, actually since last winter. Just pumped up and added a pannier.
The inner tube must have perished at the valve, but considerately choose to blow up at the coffee stop
46 flat, slow, very enjoyable miles on a mild autumn day.
20 happy Belles on Bikes!
View attachment 56909

Well done for riding despite a bad back!

That valve looks at a very extreme angle. If it started off like that, then that would explain why the tube suddenly popped! Of course it might have been ok to start with, but just got dragged round when the tyre deflated due to something else.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Well done for riding despite a bad back!

That valve looks at a very extreme angle. If it started off like that, then that would explain why the tube suddenly popped! Of course it might have been ok to start with, but just got dragged round when the tyre deflated due to something else.

Yeah, Colin, the valve was fine, got like that after it exploded, deflated, then I took the wheel of the bike. Had pumped it up this morning, the upstairs neighbourghs could have had a rude awakening

 

[vernon]

Yesterday's rides:

After a night of excessive beer swilling at the Ribblehead Inn and a morning under canvas, forty seven miles to Northallerton via Hawes, Leyburn and Bedale and four and a bit miles from Leeds station to home. Two stops on the ride: a bacon buttie and treacle tart stop in Hawes at the Penny Garth cafe and a pie stop in Leyburn where I discovered a bakery making a very good pork pie - well done Andy's Traditional Bakery. The ride to Hawes was a bit of grind and it was only after the pie (and cake and cherry coca cola) stop in Leyburn where I had enough calories to maintain a half decent pace.

The viaduct dwarfing the freight train on it.

Someone needs to tell Hawes that the Tour has been and gone.

Stocks on the village green at Bainbridge.

Bringing a new meaning to 'big cheese'

Classic AA box. One of nineteen survivors, eight of them are listed buildings.

 

[djb1971]

Just back from a lovely ride through to hanchurch woods. Had the trails all to myself, and saw a lovely sunrise. This was taken under the m6 between keele woods and hanchurch.

The only downside, the nettles were at full strength, my legs will be tingling for a few days!

 

[Gravity Aided]

Dockweed will help those stings, or, you could use adhesive tape to remove the stingers, and peroxide to clear. When I was a kid, we used river mud, let it dry, and then brushed nettles off with the dried, polluted, unsanitary river mud. Good times.

 

[djb1971]

Dockweed will help those stings, or, you could use adhesive tape to remove the stingers, and peroxide to clear. When I was a kid, we used river mud, let it dry, and then brushed nettles off with the dried, polluted, unsanitary river mud. Good times.

Nahhhhh........

I'd rather just sit moaning about how brave I am to my wife. I can tell she's impressed by the look on her face

 

[Old Plodder]

Well I bagged my maiden non stop 200+ mile ride today.

NICE ONE!
I did a ride from Hayes (Kent) to Shrewsbury in my better years - I know how you are feeling.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Kineton the destination, 67 miles the journey, a lovely bright sunny still Sunday morning, by the time I got to Pillerton Priors a strong stiff breeze was blowing and by the time I got to Long itchington it was quite strong. Scenic route out through Warwick to Wellesbourne and past Walton Hall and then crossed the fosse way and on to Pillerton priors where I crossed the A422 and picked up the lane that took me onto the road to Oxhill where I crossed A422 again then in to Kineton and the Sandwitch Deli. My route back took me through Lighthorne and Chesterton then the private farm road to Harbury and onto Long Itchington then over Huningham Hill to the A445 where I turned right crossed the A423 and A45 and into Woolston and then into Coventry past the Speedway, another excellent morning on the bike, great fun early on in still conditions getting the hammer down and winding the pace up where I could, hard work at the end crossing Coventry into a stiff breeze on fading legs.

 

[ColinJ]

What I would like is terrain like that for about 20 miles to the sea in one direction, with hills in the opposite direction. That would give me the option of a nice spin out to a cafe on the coast, my usual hillfest, or even a combination of the two by going out over the hills and coming back on the flat stuff.

 

[cosmicbike]

Not one to go out on Sunday mornings normally, but since my physio says today is a 'ride' day, I headed out at 9. For once I had a route planned, and headed out towards Chertsey. Must have been an organised ride on at Thorpe Park as I saw a few people with numbers on coming out of the car park.
Onwards to Walton Bridge, amazed at how many cyclists were out, some club runs, others just like me. New territory for me after crossing Walton Bridge as I headed through the town and on to Hampton Court. Nice and sunny by now, I contemplated a stop but had a nice rhythm going so figured I'd carry on. My only idiots on the ride this morning were experienced at Hampton Bridge, and they were both cyclists Red lights mean stop, and I'm sure they apply to bikes too. I managed it, so did the other's going to opposite direction, so I guess these guys must have been special.....
A brief pause at Hampton Water Works for a pic, love the old Water Board buildings, they have a real presence and look wonderful.

Nice run along the Thames through Lower Sunbury, mostly re-surfaced recently so smooth and fast before hitting the rough stuff again back through Shepperton. Minor retrace of my outgoing route before joining the Thames again at Chertsey Bridge. Bit of a headwind going along Laleham Road towards Staines, experienced my first wheel sucker but really not too bothered. Spotted a chap on a Hand Bike (if that's what they're called) as part of a trio headed the other way at a fair pace, way very low but a pair of pennant flags made him very visible.
From Staines to home.
26 miles, a very flat route with not even 200ft of climbing over the distance and a very pleasing 15 mph + average, so my fitness must be returning.
Looking forward to my next ride day, I think there may be a group ride planned

 

[Deleted member 1258]

What I would like is terrain like that for about 20 miles to the sea in one direction, with hills in the opposite direction. That would give me the option of a nice spin out to a cafe on the coast, my usual hillfest, or even a combination of the two by going out over the hills and coming back on the flat stuff.

Rolling countryside, rarely flat, lots of small climbs and descents though not the big hills your used to, this is Lighthorne which was on my way back, you drop down into the village then climb out. http://goo.gl/maps/wIDZJ

 

[nickyboy]

Wow, that was a hard ride.

I did a couple of hours Saturday afternoon and probably paid for it today. NE wind direction is a rarity and it meant that climbs that are usually easy were ball achingly hard and conversely some flat sloggy bits were fast and fun.
50 miles; Glossop-Holme Moss-Meltham-Slaithwaite-some very hilly area without a town -Delph-Uppermill-Glossop.

I reversed the direction that I originally planned because that would front-end-load the climbing. Problem was that this meant I was facing a headwind on the hard first 30 miles. So after 30 miles of incessant headwind I had done 4,000ft of climbing and my legs were gone. 20 rolling miles to go so I just spun along and tried no to listen to what my legs were telling me.

The Dark Peak Sportive was running today. I saw the first racing snake just as I was leaving Glossop. By the time I'd got to the top of Holme Moss there must have been a couple of hundred. I started off saying "hello" to everyone but after a hundred or so, I gave up and accepted I would just have to look like a miserable git. There were some walking on the lower slopes of Holme Moss. They looked like they had a long day ahead of them.

Stuff to remark upon: blowing up big time on a climb out of Slaithwaite that just kept going at 20% and I had gone off too fast. Not Scapegoat Hill, some other one I don't know the name of. Had to stop (the shame), recover a bit and set off again. Note to all; I DID NOT WALK up the hill
Saw a weasel......or was it a stoat. They're tiny, how the take on a full-size rabbit I can't imagine

EDIT: I had a look at some of the times up Snake Pass of the Dark Sportive riders and look who passed through Glossop on a monster long and fast ride today http://www.strava.com/activities/197541385#4653684331

EDIT EDIT: It was Ben Swift on a training ride for World Champs. 250km at an almost incomprehensible 37.9kh/hr. But he's deleted it off Strava overnight