Your ride today.... (part 1)

[i hate hills]

I got out again today, despite not originally intending to. Back on friday the forecast said rain for here today but yesterday that was changed so I thought I'd do the Ellesmere ride I originally planned to do back in November.

Although I've ridden round the Ellesmere area before, this is a first for me as I've always taken the bike in the car previously.

I started off by dropping into Shrewsbury and heading towards Montford Bridge (close pass here on a straight empty bit of road. I was not impressed!) then Little Ness and Ruyton XI Towns. From there I went down the lanes to Stanwardine-in-the-Fields and Bagley before riding along the Baggy Moor towards Hordley, Tetchhill and Ellesmere.

I had my lunch by The Mere then started back taking a slightly scenic route past Whitemere, Colemere, English Frankton, Cockshutt, Stanwardine-in-the-Wood and Baschurch.

On the approach to Baschurch I had someone come up behind me, wait patiently for a safe place to pass and do a really nice wide overtake. I was about to wave in thanks when I noticed he was surfing the net on his iphone.

When I passed Cockshutt I was starting to run out of energy a bit. (The 3 beers I had last night have nothing to do with this.) I was okay on the flat but was down to a crawl on the slightest of hills so I decided to take the most direct route home through Walford and down the main road to Shrewsbury.

Todays mileage was 47.5 miles at 11.85 mph average.

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At Montford Bridge - one of the octagonal toll houses designed by Thomas Telford.

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Ruyton XI Towns (this is a shortened version - the full name is Ruyton of the Eleven Towns)

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Looking down on the canal at Ellesmere, another of Thomas Telford's projects. When this canal got to the Mersey, the new port at the village of Netherpool was named Ellesmere Port.

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In the centre of Ellesmere.

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In Ellesmere. No, I don't know how it got the name.

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The Mere.

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I knew I shouldn't have turned down Scotland Street. (This was taken at Colemere).

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Yes, it is for real. Cockshutt's claim to fame is that the first project funded by the National Lottery was the Millennium Hall in the village.

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This is education country. I have today ridden past Adcote School, Ellesmere College and this, Walford Agricultural College.

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Back in Shrewsbury. The high water has left a souvenir. That'll be good for navigation on the river.

EDIT: I've uploaded more of the pictures from today HERE if you are interested.

Some great names there Phil. Keep on cranking Mike.

 

[i hate hills]

back from a very muddy but seriously enjoyable mtb ride around the Bakewell area. nothing major distance wise, 24km with 679m of climbing, but wow, what fun & good thing I like mud. there was plenty of it all round.
twas a touch cold to sta
rt off with -1.5C in freezing fog & spring cycling kit, but soon warmed up once the fog had burnt off and made it to a balmy 6C

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thank you Cubist. Great fun - though still working on getting my feet dry - that puddle was a touch deep

Oh and Strava gave me 7 cups for my efforts (being female really helps!)
http://app.strava.com/activities/41117963

Six c , thats almost tropical SatNav
Keep up the good work.All the best .Mike.

 

[vernon]

77.2 miles with 5,400 feet of climbing at an average 11mph on the Mini Northwest audax From Rochdale through Todmorden, Burnley, Nelson, Guisburn, Clitheroe, Waddington, Whalley, Wilpshire, Haslingdon and back to Rochdale. The weather was surprisingly nice considering what hit the Pennines during the week. There were still patches of snow in the fields at higher elevations. There were some long climbs - the one through Blacko and on to Guisburn seemed to last forever. I sampled pies in Burnley and Nelson and a great vanilla slice in the cyclists' cafe in Waddington. The ride was rounded off with a cheese and onion pie with beans in the Spring Inn in Rochdale which was used as the start/finish control. The final few miles took me past quite a few Indian restaurants whose aromas were markedly different to the ones from the restaurants in Leeds and Bradford - and as much as I hat to admit it, the Lancastrian curries smell more appetising. Shame their pork pies weren't as interesting. The cheese and onion pies was surprisingly nice and was included in the event fee.

 

[Hacienda71]

Having responsibilities today from 10:30 on for the rest of the daylight hours today, went out for a 26 mile tempo loop. No worrying about PB's on Strava just a head down brisk run in the sun. Here

Back by 10. Swmbo happy and kids still in their pyjamas.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Popped out with @mattobrien of this parish, and it turns out I'm not as unfit as I thought.

Apart from the toes and thumbs I didn't feel too cold, but thanks to the freezing fog I picked up a respectfully thick coating of ice. For a few miles sunglasses had to be abandoned, but once the sun came out and made the receding fog glow the Suffolk countryside looked glorious.

Not terribly fast, not a great distance, but one of those rides that makes you feel glad you got up at 5am on a Sunday morning. Even if my crotch iced up.

http://app.strava.com/activities/41209533

 

[Andrew_Culture]

77.2 miles with 5,400 feet of climbing at an average 11mph on the Mini Northwest audax From Rochdale through Todmorden, Burnley, Nelson, Guisburn, Clitheroe, Waddington, Whalley, Wilpshire, Haslingdon and back to Rochdale. The weather was surprisingly nice considering what hit the Pennines during the week. There were still patches of snow in the fields at higher elevations. There were some long climbs - the one through Blacko and on to Guisburn seemed to last forever. I sampled pies in Burnley and Nelson and a great vanilla slice in the cyclists' cafe in Waddington. The ride was rounded off with a cheese and onion pie with beans in the Spring Inn in Rochdale which was used as the start/finish control. The final few miles took me past quite a few Indian restaurants whose aromas were markedly different to the ones from the restaurants in Leeds and Bradford - and as much as I hat to admit it, the Lancastrian curries smell more appetising. Shame their pork pies weren't as interesting. The cheese and onion pies was surprisingly nice and was included in the event fee.

I see you are a fan of the panorama feature on Android

 

[Kies]

Another 8am start and we covered 32 miles. That's a total of 62 for the weekend. Roll on spring

 

[Accy cyclist]

What an unusual and wonderful experience i had yesterday! An A road on one of my usual routes was closed down for over three miles because they were doing some repairs to a railway bridge. It's a bit of a climb but it was enjoyable because i was the the only vehicle on that road, allowing me to ride without having to hog the kerb or keep looking over my shoulder. Then when i reached another busy road i had the pleasure of six sets of traffic lights being on green!! Allowing me to speed downhill for another two miles. I will remember the experience fondly as i don't expect it to be repeated for a long time!

 

[HovR]

A great ride today, 41.5 hilly miles around Stroud/Painswick/Nailsworth area with the club.

The sun actually came out for a change and the wind was no where to be seen, so it made for great riding conditions. There was a little bit of chilly fog on top of one of the hills but it soon burnt off. Towards the end of the ride I was overheating in my winter gear!

Have to admit though I did hit a patch of ice at the bottom of one of the descents and went over! Thankfully I had all but stopped by the time I hit the ice so I went down softly! Only a small scratch to the brake lever so no real damage and it definitely didn't spoil the ride.

Here's a picture I took at the top of one of the climbs whilst we were waiting to re-group. Excuse the quality, it was taken through my phones waterproof case!

 

[coffeejo]

I did hit a patch of ice at the bottom of one of the descents and went over! Thankfully I had all but stopped by the time I hit the ice so I went down softly! Only a small scratch to the brake lever so no real damage and it definitely didn't spoil the ride.

Ouch, glad all was ok. I came off on ice at about this time last year - in fact on the way to the same cafe we went to yesterday!

 

[cyberknight]

Reliability ride today around a 30 mile loop, only got 10 miles in and had to limp home as all the tension had gone out of my rear mech so the shifting was not working right .

 

[HovR]

Ouch, glad all was ok.

Thanks, luckily got off quite lightly as I could have potentially hammered it around that corner at the bottom of the descent and the outcome would have been a lot worse! I was riding cautiously as there was quite a bit of fine gravel around, but I didn't expect any ice!

I'll check the derailleur and dropout are all in alignment when I clean the bike later today (as the derailleur has gained a nice big scratch since the fall), but I suspect it's fine as I continued to ride another 30+ miles on it without issues.

 

[Matthew_T]

I had a bit of a funny turn today. I decided to see how cold it actually was by just going out in my shorts and jersey.
TBH it wasnt actually that cold. I got warmed up and was cycling faster than ever. As a result of this new streamlined capability, I ended up with 3 top tens on strava!

 

[vernon]

What an unusual and wonderful experience i had yesterday! An A road on one of my usual routes was closed down for over three miles because they were doing some repairs to a railway bridge. It's a bit of a climb but it was enjoyable because i was the the only vehicle on that road, allowing me to ride without having to hog the kerb or keep looking over my shoulder. Then when i reached another busy road i had the pleasure of six sets of traffic lights being on green!! Allowing me to speed downhill for another two miles. I will remember the experience fondly as i don't expect it to be repeated for a long time!

Was it the A666 that was closed? I ended up on it yesterday and had to gounder a railway bridge with one half of the road blocked by scaffolding and a couple of bloke on a hydralic platform hitting the bridge underside with hydraulic tools. I took my chance and guessed that I'd be able to walk through. Four or five motorists also thought that they'd ignored the road closed sign and had to do an about turn.

 

[flatflr]

First p*ncture today 3 miles in to my ride, swapped out the inner tube ok, but didn't have a repair kit so stuck local and worked on some hills, still managed 18 miles