Your ride today.... (part 1)

[gavgav]

Apologies for my melancholy mood....

The first post in this entire thread described my first ride following the death of my brother. Now, 5 years on, I rode in similar circumstances following the death of our dad.
Id been writing his eulogy today and unexpectedly used his nature to drive me on while riding up a local hill, against the heavy wind on the wrong gear. I was all set to dismount...but dad wasnt a quitter, and while my legs were aching...I decided I wasnt going to quit either, so on I struggled, finding the right tempo and just kept going.
Topped the hill (its not so big, just one of the biggest around here)..and rather than build speed quickly and swoop down the other side, I found myself freewheeling slowly, let the downhill come when it does, just enjoy the sight, the wind in my face, whistling through the gear cables...my senses seem heightened, just absorb every sight, every moment.

1 hour on a hybrid, pretty mundane, yet very meaningful in a strange way.

I lost my mum in June and cycling has kept me going through her illness and since she passed away. Thoughts are with you

 

[Stonechat]

There are only a few things that get my lazy @rse out of bed at 6am on a Sunday & booking myself on a sportive is one of them.

So fuelled with a large bowl of porridge, honey & some recently harvested blackberrys I set off at 7 for a 45 mile drive to Chichester & the start of the South Downs sportive, my 5th & maybe final (or maybe not!) sportive of the year.

The overnight rain had stopped, the wind wasn't too bad & the temperature was a balmy 58F as we set off out of Chichester, up past Goodwood racecourse & onto the beautiful country lanes of the South Downs national park & my decision not to wear a jacket had already paid off by the time we'd climbed the first 360ft incline at Goodwood as the first beads of sweat were running down my face & we were only 6 miles into the 73 mile route & with a further 7 climbs of 300ft+ to do I was thankful of the feed stations at 30 & 50 miles to top up the drinks bottles & try to eat my own body weight in bananas!

The roads themselves were saturated by the overnight rain with running water in many places & the wet leaves & squashed chestnuts made for some hazardous conditions of the downhills sections which was a shame consider the bloomin' effort I'd put in on the uphills.

Highlight of the day was was a "closed road" climb up Butser Hill, a 354ft climb over 0.8 of a mile with people ringing bells & even a chap dressed as Elvis cheering you on & giving encouragement & I'm chuffed to say I made it up, albeit at only 7.8mph.

http://www.strava.com/activities/209195552

View attachment 59501

The end of the "closed road" climb at Butser Hill.

View attachment 59502

& the view from the top.

View attachment 59503

A well deserved cup of tea & lump of coffee cake at the end.

View attachment 59504 View attachment 59505

Both me & the bike are due for a wash I think!

Well done

 

[gordyfinbar]

Up and out early with the Kingsway CC again today. Nice to see a good turnout of 9 this morning (8 lads and 1 lass). We did a big loop around South to Frocester via Frampton to accommodate those who wanted a flattish ride, before splitting into 2 groups at Frocester. The flat ride group made their way directly to Sainsbury's at Dudbridge (Stroud), while the rest of us went up over Frocester Hill. This is my favourite training hill, as you get glorious views over the Severn Valley from the sweeping S bends on your way up. It seems to be a fairly steady 7-10% gradient all the way up, which is just over a mile of climbing. As usual, I made my way up in pretty ugly fashion, grinding my way up in the granny gear with steam rising from my head. Got up in one again, despite a vicious headwind in places adding another dimension to the climb, then enjoyed the tailwind all the way along the escarpment and the 2 mile descent into Dudbridge.

Everone with a bike seemed to be out today, perhaps sensing that this is the end of the good weather for the year. At Dudbridge, 2 of the Frocester Hill climbers went back with the Cinderella group (who all had to be back home by 12:00), and I made the rather foolhardy decision to go along with @gordyfinbar, and 2 others and take on another couple of beastly climbs. First came Bear Hill, up from the main Bath Road to the "Bear at Rodborough" on Rodborough Common. For the second time today I was hanging on grimly at the back, desperately keeping control of my breathing and counting my way up the hill. Just after a big S bend in a grassy cutting, I caught sight of the pub up above me and it gave me the lift I needed to get to the top in 1 go. 2 down, 1 to go.

Another great scenic descent from Rodborough Common back into Stroud followed, before we turned off the main road in Cainscross to head up the last beast of the day, Randwick Hil, which started at the 27.5 mile point of our ride. In places, this was the steepest of the 3 climbs, but fortunately it went up in manageable ramps, with just enough respite in between each climb to keep me from abandoning or putting a foot down. It felt like this climb went on for about 2 miles, but then the last climb of the day always seems the longest. All I know for sure is that, at one point about 3/4 of the way up it must have been over 20%, as my front wheel started to skip for a moment - always a tell-tale sign. The other 3 got a nice long rest at the top of Randwick Hill while I spluttered my way up in the far distance. Miracle of miracles! I actually made it, despite the wheels almost refusing to go round at the steepest part of the climb. I must have looked a bit of a state, but I'd made it up my third big climb of the day, and had beaten all of them. Not bad for a fat giant!

What is normally a lovely glide down Horsepools Hill from Edge to Brookthorpe was ruined a bit by a car hanging around right on my shoulder, and a horribly rough road surface in places, but anything that wasn't in the general direction of up was most welcome by this point. Big James hung back to see me home, and another epic ride came to an end at 37.3 miles. Glorious cycling country round here, and this was a nice way to finish the week.

Great ride today donger.

 

[coffeejo]

Apologies for my melancholy mood....

The first post in this entire thread described my first ride following the death of my brother. Now, 5 years on, I rode in similar circumstances following the death of our dad.
Id been writing his eulogy today and unexpectedly used his nature to drive me on while riding up a local hill, against the heavy wind on the wrong gear. I was all set to dismount...but dad wasnt a quitter, and while my legs were aching...I decided I wasnt going to quit either, so on I struggled, finding the right tempo and just kept going.
Topped the hill (its not so big, just one of the biggest around here)..and rather than build speed quickly and swoop down the other side, I found myself freewheeling slowly, let the downhill come when it does, just enjoy the sight, the wind in my face, whistling through the gear cables...my senses seem heightened, just absorb every sight, every moment.

1 hour on a hybrid, pretty mundane, yet very meaningful in a strange way.

That's not melancholy, that's nice. Good one!

What Dave said. *hugs*

 

[Hugh Manatee]

Even I can report a ride today! My summer riding ended way too early so today's bimble was the first in around 6 weeks! At first I thought I hadn't lost any fitness at all! Then I turned the corner so the strong south westerly wasn't at my back any more!
Brewood, Bishops Wood, Tong, Cosford and a few other villages all looked good in the October sun. I think this is the latest ride in shorts and ss top. I do think Simon' Cat won't be on view again until next summer though.

I managed to beat my Garmin man by a mile and a half although the last 5 miles were a real struggle in the wind.

 

[PaddyMcc]

I stopped to take a photo of this never used cycle parking facility in Catterick Garrison. It is 200m from some local shops, so not near enough to use when shopping and is not near anything else. I wonder who thought it was a good idea?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Chesnuts in drifts, roads covered in compacted leaves, greasy tarmac, massive speed wobbles at over 50mph (not going there again), cheese straws, filter coffee, mtb-ers going "oh my god, disc brakes on a touring/road bike", very few road bikes, very few cars lots of equestrians, sunshine reflecting off wet roads, and a nasty nasty nasty SW wind.

The Surrey Hills today...

 

[coffeejo]

Cycled to a friend's for Sunday lunch. Much was devoured.

The ride home was a lot slower...

 

[brand]

Saturday 20 miles. Sunday's ride to the pub hard work. Knee a little painful and legs feeling tired. 3 weeks of no exercise has led to a little muscle wasting. Although the wind was a factor, if you have to pedal to go down a steep hill then you know at least one half of the ride is going to be hard.
Flew home!

 

[BigonaBianchi]

51 flat but windy miles today out on the messaoria plain
http://cyprusonabianchi.blogspot.com/2014/10/i-had-no-clue-where-i-would-ride-today.html?spref=fb

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Off over to my parents home again... a few chores to get done. Luckily I decided not to play it light and believe the weather forecast, but to play it safe and take the pannier and a waterproof... 5 minutes down the road despite no rain being forecast, it started to rain... 15 minutes later saw me on the pavement under a larger tree taking the arms off my l/s jersey to make it a s/s jersey and my waterproof going on... 10 minutes further down the road and I was having villainous thoughts of abandoning my chores and going home - I didn't have my waterproof leggings with me and water was running down my legs and into that really big hole at the top of my waterproof boots... Now I don't mind getting wet on the way home, but I loath getting wet on the way out (don't ask, it is a long story)....

Sadly the rain lasted all of the way to my parents' home... a little bit of shopping needed to be done before lunch so the bike and I went into local (small) Sainsbury's where the staff were more than happy to have it at one of the check outs for me whilst I grabbed something for lunch, and then off to my parents' to get the chores done.

A quick check on the rain radar (something I really should have done before leaving home but I foolishly listened to the weather forecast!) and it showed that the band of rain had departed our area and I should have a good run home.... good as in dry, but it was more of a blow dry cycle rather than a dry cycle... I had thought to add an extra 8km onto my ride today, but sadly the closer I got to home the worse the noise was from my bike - all that rain this morning had washed the dry lube off my chain and now it was complaining bitterly about life in general and tbh I was getting a touch embarrassed about the noise it was making...I could actually hear it over vehicles overtaking me despite listening to music in one ear!

Time to get home and give the bike some TLC ahead of a commute it is not going to like tomorrow!

A slow 76km http://www.strava.com/activities/209647726 and a bike needing some TLC

 

[i hate hills]

Havn't been out for well over a month. Dont know if it was the impending hurricane we are away to get hit with or not but after work i was going biking......Set out up through the town and out round the golf course and boy did i feel it . So out of shape. Had intended to do 10 on the mtb but left it at 7 miles as was beginning to feel it in places. Past little Brechin and back by way of Pittendriech , when i got home i felt i could have done more but with my long layoff theres always tomorrow after work as long as the hurricane doesn't get up too much. Before i forget i was being stalked a bit by a bird of prey.......unnerving .

 

[Donger]

.............i was being stalked a bit by a bird of prey.......unnerving........ .

Maybe so, but to my mind "unnerving" is when you have vultures circling overhead like I had on a mountain road in Provence last year.

There was no way I was going to have a lie down to recover when I got to the top. I had the distinct feeling they'd have had my eyeballs out as soon as I stopped moving!

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

The start of another week and I was expecting to either get wet or say blow-this-for-a game-of-soldiers and use the car instead. Fortunately 15 minutes before I was due to set off the actual weather was very different from the forecast weather so I chanced it and had a very pleasant dry ride in. The traffic behaved (mostly), the roads were dry (mostly) and the wind was helping me along (most of the way). About a mile from work there was a roaring hiss somewhere in the distance and I wondered what it could be. As I rode round the ege of the estate it turned out to be the safety valves of a boiler in a unit about 3 doors up from mine that were blowing off furiously and kept going for quite a while. It was nice when it stopped.

The expected rain actually came in about three hours later than forecast and the roads had dried out again by the time I came out of work. I rode out of the estate into a strong headwind and made my mind up to take the longer route home which would have less time going directly against it plus quite a bit of shelter along the way. This turned out to be a good move.

On the last stretch I was amused when the cyclist I had been catching and who had got off to walk the steep little climb into the village suddenly noticed me coming and felt the need to remount and sprint up the last bit of the climb.

21 miles round trip today and I managed 13.1 mph average despite the wind.

Pretty rural on some of my commute

Brand new sculpture at the entrance to my village.

 

[brand]

Friday rung an Agricultural Engineer as in need of a part for my wood burner, very busy said call round Monday. Went to Louth Saturday to take a bike in for repair bus back. Also had a list mushy peas, gallon of paraffin and haircut. Got the haircut but nothing else. On the way in was passing a garden centre (wyevale). Stopped and rung them to ask how much paraffin was "£8 a litre". Bloody hell May have made a mistake buying a flame gun for killing weeds. £40 to fill it. Thought they may be overcharging.
Monday cycle into Alford (6 miles) to see if he can make the part for my wood burner AND finish my list. Forgot petrol can so had to cycle a mile back. Down the road from me saw what at first I though looked like a scrap man but clearly he wasn't pick up scrap but bags of clothes. Young bloke lived there had a head on last week on his motorbike into a mini. Air ambulance came but he was dead. Women driver known for driving very fast and overtaking dangerously. She was between 2 lorries when she over took on a bend. Lorry behind her had a camera. Arrested at the seen. Stupid bitch.
Got to Alford told engineer needed wood burner as freezing cold in my house he replied " rubbish not time to light burner. I disagreed said my house was very very cold. Jokingly asked could I come back today and pick it up "yeah alright 2 o'clock?? Nice one! Got mushy peas called in at one of those shops that sell just about everything for diy/hardware etc. My Elderberry wine won't stop fermenting. Asked if they had any Camden tablets to kill the yeast..." yes of course we have"?? Really do sell everything!
Next to petrol station for paraffin..... £4.50 a gallon. Rung up the robbers at Wyevale thought I might have made a mistake.... "no the assistant was wrong it's £8.99 a litre" Robbing bastards.
Collected part from engineers "give us £10" would have probably waited 6weeks for part and paid 4 or 5 times more. Replacement part 3 times thicker. Good day. Got fire going soon as I got back....

The engineer might have been right as I am down to my underpants. Gets any hotter made need to open windows!