Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Rickshaw Phil]

With the heavy frost overnight I left the sun to do its work this morning, and headed out about 1:30 for a ride that turned out to be half good and half horrid!

It was my regular route out through the estate, pausing to post a letter and then to Uffington and Upton Magna, where I had a nice cheery hello from a local. It's the little things sometimes that make a ride.

I then took the Pelham Road to Rodington Heath and found my first ice of the ride. It was mostly frozen puddles on the edges but there is a section where it always floods and sure enough it had frozen over, which made it a tricky navigation around the bend. Managed to stay upright and then came across a cat and shortly afterwards a Fox in the road! First time I've seen a Fox when out on my bike.

Next destination was Roden and then down the lanes to Poynton, which were icy in places, mainly side of the road again and it's quiet enough down there to be able to ride down the middle of the road fairly safely.

It was getting a bit gloomy now and so I stopped to put my lights on at the Junction where I had a choice of extending the ride to Shawbury or turning left to Bings Heath. I was feeling good and so decided to head towards Shawbury, but had only ridden for about 30 seconds when the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down with rain

Quick stop to put waterproof jacket on, decision made to sod Shawbury and head to Bings Heath. It was horrid along that stretch, as the rain continued to poor down, the bitter icy wind started to gust, mostly into my face and I couldn't feel my nose by the time I turned back towards Upton Magna, via Ebury Hill.

My thighs got so cold from the wet trousers that they started to cramp up, on the hills and I was wishing I hadn't ventured out really.

Battled against the wind and rain all the way back home, and a much needed hot shower was had.

Roll on Spring and Summer!

20 miles at 11.2 mph avg. Had been 12 until the rain and wind hit.

Another like for the report rather than the circumstances. I had planned to head out this afternoon too but the rain started while cleaning the bike beforehand which put me off.

Going to be fun in the morning when it all freezes again.

 

[gavgav]

Another like for the report rather than the circumstances. I had planned to head out this afternoon too but the rain started while cleaning the bike beforehand which put me off.

Going to be fun in the morning when it all freezes again.

Depends how early the cloud clears. Not as cold as yesterday evening currently, so might not be as bad.

 

[gordyfinbar]

Well it had to happen some time. Had my first crash of the year near the end of this ride, exactly one week before my first audax of the year... exactly as I did last year, only one week short of a year ago and only half a mile away from the exact same spot where I had my last fall.

The Kingsway CC had its best ever turn-out of 26 riders today, despite the icy conditions, so we split into two groups. A "fast" group and a "try to stay on your bike group", which I naturallly gravitated towards. There had already been 4 falls just getting to the start, so it was always going to be interesting. We were all heading up Upton Hill again today, which made my efforts midweek pretty pointless - though at least I now knew I would make it up in one go. The "fast" group of 14 riders headed off first through the estate - at about 1mph on the ice. I led the other group out the long way onto the Bristol Road, determined to take the safest route possible, staying on main roads as much as we could.

Was pleased to get up Upton Hill in 8th place of the 12 in our group, and enjoyed a nice scenic, easy paced ride through Painswick and Stroud to the canalside cafe at Saul Marina where we stopped to thaw out and consume cake... lots of cake. Then came the winding country lanes through Elmore towards the Pilot Bridge at Hardwicke. Even though it was a few degrees above zero and the sun had been shining for hours, we managed to find all the dark spots where the ice had still not melted. First Lisa had a spill when her rear wheel just went from under her without warning. She was OK, and got straight back on. Then it was my turn. Just before we got back to the main roads near the Pilot Bridge at Hardwicke, I took my eye off the road for a second or two for the first time in over 30 miles, at the sight of an ambulance with blue flashing lights and an upside down car in the hedge..... and over I went on a patch of black ice with a crash and a nasty slide on my side. I brought down Des behind me too, and we were lucky to avoid a multi-bike pile-up.

Two things I learned from this .... (1) Never lose concentration even for a second in icy conditions like these. A second is all it takes. (2) Whilst I would defend the right of free speech of the anti-helmet brigade ("Je suis Charlie" etc), thank goodness I didn't let them pursuade me not to wear mine today. The side of my head hit the ground with a mighty crack when I went over, but I'm as right as rain.... a walking advert for cycle helmets. Nothing worse than a sore hip and a bruised ego.

So, although we never met up again with the fast group today, we still know of at least 7 crashes on the ice .... over a quarter of the field went down today! Now I just have the small matter of 2 x 100km audaxes in the next 2 weeks in these conditions to attempt to keep up with the Century a Month Challenge. Ah well, What could possibly go wrong? Another 35 miles done today.
Be safe, everyone. Cheers. Donger.

Sorry to hear about your fall donger . I hope the damage to your pride outweighs any physical damage . We decided to give Saul junction and Elmore a miss due to the weather conditions . Selsey hill was a beast as usual. Good luck with the audax next week . Gordon

 

[Dirk]

Swift 20 miles to Barnstaple, Bickington, Fremington and back
with a stop for coffee and carrot cake at the Watergate. Lovely sunny day, bit cool but at least that darned wind has dropped at last.
Snow visible in the distance up on Exmoor, thankfully none down here yet.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Weather not conducive to the tandem today so went for a very pleasant walk instead, lots of ice and a decent covering of snow on the lower slopes of the Pentlands to a very busy Hillend, then cut across through Mortonhall for lunch at the garden centre. Finished with a loop of Blackford Hill and the Hermitage to catch the bus home from Greenbank. About 1 degree but very pleasant in the sun.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

End of January is getting closer and I still hadn't done my imperial century, had to cancel yesterdays attempt due to family commitments, so last night got the ice bike ready and set the alarm for 5am.

Had an awful nights sleep so when the alarm went off I turned it off and went back to sleep. I woke up around 7 and decided to get up, had a cup of tea and some toast by which time the missus had come down. "Are you still going?" she asks. So I say yes but I am going on the ice bike so I reckon I will be riding for a good 8 hours. Check she is happy that I will be out all day, she is, so I set off at around 8:20.

Side roads are icy but main roads are clear, see absolutely loads of cyclists out, pretty much all of them on road bikes and slicks, so I am overtaken quite a lot! Weather is much better than was forecast, the ice is quickly disappearing and the sun is shining, with my three pair of socks and three pair of gloves I am lovely and toasty.

Everything is going fine, but I notice that every time I get out of the saddle there is a creaking noise, mmm could be the BB, but that's fairly new, oh well sod it I'll carry on. Hit just over 47 miles, get out of the saddle again, there is a big crunch and the chain is off. Never mind 'll slip it back on and carry on. Nope, the chain is completely off, snapped and is in the middle of the road. I retrieve the chain, sling it in a bin, pause the GPS and phone the support car. Missus turns up sling bike in the boot and go home. Tell her I'm going to jump on another bike and finish the ride off, she looks at me as if I'm bonkers.

Anyway jump on the commuter restart the GPS and away I go. GPS automatically adds 10 miles to my distance so I now need to do 111 miles to do the imperial (I always go 1 mile over just in case)

Next 50 odd miles there are no dramas, weather is lovely, still see loads of cyclists out, but this time they aren't all overtaking me, eventually get home at around the time I thought I would have if I had stayed on the ice bike

All in 102 miles done.

https://www.strava.com/activities/242809146

 

[Dark46]

Well I was not keen to go today as not sure what the weather had been doing overnight. Within the group everyone was sayin different things about the weather.

I left the house glad I had put my wet weather jacket on. I couldn't find by thermal base layer this morning.

Everything was fine until I came up to the roundabout when my front wheel went away from me and I was sprawled across the floor! I quickly got going and turned up at the meeting point to find a full car park. Never seen so many cyclists on a club ride. 26 in all!

We split into 2 groups as per @Donger post. Straight away there were patches of ice everywhere to start off with as the sun had not had much chance to sun what it does best. Well everything was going swimmingly even up Upton Hill. As before I picked my gear early and a pace and stuck to it.

A few peeps passed me at the bottom of Upton and there were a couple of people having a couple of problems and i went passed as the were being helped. I closed on @Donger on the second section but when it flattened out he was gone.

At the top is fond the rest of the group waiting and then we waited for the last 3 to turn up. From there it was all down hill in to Painswick, leaving Painswick we passed a runner with no shirt on! I wonder what he was trying to prove? So it was into Stroud and out the other side. From there it was nothing to report and easy going to Saul Junction for coffee.

You wouldn't believe how busy that little coffee shop is. Never seen so many people in there than today. Once we all refuelled itcwasca off to the Longley Loop.

On the loop we turned left towards Epney. Going into to Epney, Lisa loathe rear wheel and had a off. So that was the 1st one the ride. Then after saying goodbye to a couple of people we spotted blue lights from a ambulance up ahead. I noticed a car on it's side after passing the ambulance. At this point I noticed a commotion behind me and @Donger was on the floor with Design behind him! Black ice which I summized the car hit too.

At the Pilot everyone was waiting for the people that had offs. After the Pilot will all split to go our separate ways home.

I called into Gloucester Bikes for tea and carrot cake. Also to talk about bikes and the spares that I've ordered to pick up in the week.

In all just over 32miles today.

 

[dan_bo]

An hour of brown water at the end of season beacon CX. Brilliant fun, but the plaudits really go to shimano:

And that was the practice lap.

it really shouldn't work, but it did. Incredible.

 

[galaxy]

Just a little 6.8 miles on the mountain bike. Mixture of tracks n road. Stopped of at my favourite land mark. The Air house at Farnborough Airfield
Also a nice cafeteria. Albeit only open weekdays to cater for office staff.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

I retrieve the chain, sling it in a bin, pause the GPS and phone the suppot ar. Missus turns up sling bike in the boot and go home.

Full marks for the distance, and that's a very understanding wife you have there ! Better not tell her that a broken chain is usually a 3 min job to fix at the roadside with a chaintool and a spare link...

 

[Glow worm]

Am at my parents house in north west Norfolk and went for a quick 9 mile circuit this afternoon on my Brompton.

Hardly any wind at long last and sparking sun, it felt quite springlike. Leaving North Creake, you get a nice view of the village..

Further along my first view of the sea from the hill above Burnham Market..

At Burnham Thorpe I passed the birthplace of Norfolk's most famous son..

Thousands of geese about today. Seconds after they pass, you hear the splats of goose poo hitting the ground. Not a place to wear your best hat.

Then I got very lucky as I passed a barn just as the resident barn owl headed out to hunt. A little owl was perched on the roof too. We stared each other out until another cyclist passed by and the little owl took flight. Brilliant stuff!

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Full marks for the distance, and that's a very understanding wife you have there ! Better not tell her that a broken chain is usually a 3 min job to fix at the roadside with a chaintool and a spare link...

I thought that when I was picking the chain up of the road.

 

[CharlieB]

A mucky day out today with @ianrauk , @rb58 , and @Mista Preston on the 2012 Olympic road race route. It's a terrific route that takes in the best of SW London's suburbia, Richmond and Bushy Parks, some fine Surrey countryside, and over Box Hill.
Alas, I didn't make it that far. My fitness is way off what it was 6 months ago, and struggling to keep up just didn't seem fair on the others, so I bailed at Dorking, 46½ miles in.
Two flats, many thanks for the help in fixing those two! I will ensure in future I carry more than one spare tube - the road conditions today just weren't fair on tyres.
Nevertheless a great day out. Thank you all!

 

[ianrauk]

Cheers for making the effort to come along @CharlieB , Clive is @Mista Preston of this parish.
It was hard work today. With the continual threat of rain (apart from a couple of dribbles, it stayed away) and the wet and mucky roads causing punctures, it did make for hard going. But you're right. It's a great route. I am one of those that sometimes loves mixing it with fast traffic on A roads.... sometimes. (its LongMartin's infuence) Today was one of those days. Along with some great countryside and the fantastic descent into Gomshall they sure made up for the negatives. We did do 2 climbs of Box Hill and I felt a little guilty dragging Ross and Clive over the Hill again (yeah right lol)... But.. what is great about climbing Box Hill is that the ride back to South East London through the Chipstead Valley is an absolute joy. We really were making great pace.

I'm going to run this one again in the Spring/Summer as drier roads for this route make it a glorious ride.
So 101 miles for the day (not even half way of what Steve Abraham managed yesterday) and some nicely aching legs

 

[Osprey]

Frosty conditions this morning but sunny with low wind. Set off down the North Gower coast and decided to keep to the larger roads and test the conditions which revealed icy patches. A sharp left at Llanrhidian and followed the quiet hedged lined roads dipping into ilston valley and climbing out onto Cilibion commen. Sun in my face and views of the snow topped black mountains in the distance made up for the cold. Turning right and head over Fairwood common towards the South Gower coast before dropping through Bishopston Valley and down the lanes to Caswell Bay.

Climbing out of the bay through the lanes before dropping into the sweep of Swansea bay before the ride through Clyne valley home.