Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Paul.G.]

78k, Reading to Windsor and back, first ride since my ''off'' last Sunday. Knee was a bit sore on way back and the cold temp today did not help, nice ride though.

 

[Stringy Bob]

51 miles of the Cheshire countryside, taking in some of the C Cat route including 2 climbs-not M Cop- but the most staggering thing happened 2/3 of a mile from home. Saw 200-250 geese flying towards me over some trees, nothing unusual about this, there are often large numbers of canadas and often some greylag on the fields around where I live. But as these flew overhead I heard the marvellous, unmistakeable "wink-wink" of pink footed geese. never, ever seen them where I live before. They do occur on the Dee estuary 20 odd miles away, and are sometimes seen inland in the county but this is a first for me. They flew over me and then turned to fly ahead of me to land in a field with about 500 canadas. It's like they were escorting me home. Terrrific!!

 

[thegravestoneman]

4 miles on the butchers (McDonalds breakfast run for my beloved who had to work today) 40 miles on the Sara. I had decided to bring the seat forward and raise it by 1/4 inch this turned out to be a mistake as 15 miles in I was overwhelmed with a severe ache exactly where I didn't want one. Whilst putting it back to its original position I noticed the front tub was beginning to disintegrate. 5 miles later it decided enough was enough and let it self down nice and slowly. I wish I had made the effort to stretch the new spare tub on an old rim, as cold hands and the perfectly timed snow flurries made changing it slow going. A cyclist stopped and offered assistance (thanks) but I didn't need it, I did feel a bit of a prune pumping it up with the pocket pump I now carry rather than the full length frame pumps I used to use . About 5 mile from home I was passed by another cyclist who said hello. So a day of firsts (this time round) on my bike, a puncture, a pass and a pain in the never regions and 40 miles in one go.

My mileages are going up and it may be getting near the time to join the local cycling club. Why did I stay off the things for 25 odd years?

 

[potsy]

No real plan today so just did a local loop, only 10.75 miles.
Is it me or are there roadworks everywhere at the minute?
The makers of temporary traffic lights and traffic cones must be doing well

 

[cyberknight]

only my 24 mile quick loop this morning, fecking cold.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

40 miles freezing cold...especially near the sea and on the north side of the downs...

saw guys out in shorts ...are you totally insane

 

[coffeejo]

Just a pootle into town and back, though that was enough to bring my total for the week to just over 150 miles.

Cycled past one of the parks in town and saw a dozen or so goldfinches - never seen that many together before. Beautiful.

 

[2bluegp]

25 mile loop this morning, very cold, I have turned into a big bag of snot who cannot climb.

 

[totallyfixed]

4 miles on the butchers (McDonalds breakfast run for my beloved who had to work today) 40 miles on the Sara. I had decided to bring the seat forward and raise it by 1/4 inch this turned out to be a mistake as 15 miles in I was overwhelmed with a severe ache exactly where I didn't want one. Whilst putting it back to its original position I noticed the front tub was beginning to disintegrate. 5 miles later it decided enough was enough and let it self down nice and slowly. I wish I had made the effort to stretch the new spare tub on an old rim, as cold hands and the perfectly timed snow flurries made changing it slow going. A cyclist stopped and offered assistance (thanks) but I didn't need it, I did feel a bit of a prune pumping it up with the pocket pump I now carry rather than the full length frame pumps I used to use . About 5 mile from home I was passed by another cyclist who said hello. So a day of firsts (this time round) on my bike, a puncture, a pass and a pain in the never regions and 40 miles in one go.

My mileages are going up and it may be getting near the time to join the local cycling club. Why did I stay off the things for 25 odd years?

You are riding tubs on winter rides? . What wheels are you on?

 

[vernon]

An eleven mile pootle into Leeds to purchase some Richard Thompson tickets an abortive attempt to come back via the canal tow path - it was closed. Instead I had to make do with marvelling at the redevelopment that has taken place in Wellington Street before heading home along Kirkstall Road and lots of advertised redevelopment opportunities. It's going to be an interesting area in the future.

 

[totallyfixed]

7am, warm and cosy and most definitely not wishing to get up but stagger over to the window and stick head out to see how cold it felt and if it was icy, I suppose that was the biggest mistake of the day but it woke me up. Next decision, do we ride the Melton Olympic's Reliability Ride or stay in bed, obviously we choose the sensible option and decide to ride, so after a rushed bowl of porridge and honey we head off on our fixed bikes the 11 miles over to Melton for the start. The thermometer is reading below zero and so we push it a bit to warm up and also because we are a bit late and it is a head wind all the way there.
Once we got moving it was quite enjoyable in spite of the snow flurries, we split into several small groups and got round the course at a good brisk pace

Not much of a picture but getting one at all into the wind whilst moving at a rate of knots wasn't that easy. 61 miles later and we enjoyed the now famous cake stop at the ride leaders house, then back on the bikes for the last 11 mile push home, 72 miles in all and the only riders to do it on fixed gear so all in all a good workout .

 

[Saluki]

Really short ride today. 3.94 miles around the block on my MTB with Hubby. It was bitterly cold, snowing and my hands started out cold and it went downhill from there really. Hubby enjoyed the ride and is looking forward to his next ride, so that's a good thing. My feet still feel like blocks of ice and I was out a whole 25 minutes in total, including locking the bike back into the stable.

 

[MisterStan]

Out for a ride with my CC today, hung back on a slower group but still did 45 miles including the Oakington to St. Ives stretch of the guided busway. Flooded past Swavesey for about 100 metres or so but other than that an enjoyable ride .


Tony.

Hi Tony, did you cycle through the flood? Was it deep? Was it just the one section of flooding?
Cheers
Stan

 

[HLaB]

Well what a difference a week makes, last week I was in short sleeves with arm warmers rolled down, contemplating taking the leg warmers off, and today I was in full winter gear. Apart from it being a tad chilly it wasn't a bad day, I was quite glad we just done 59miles though it meant I never aggravated the throat just snotted a lot

 

[jim55]

took a wee run out to decathlon this afternoon,bought a pair of their bibshorts(level 5 padding ) and a new helmet ,im impressed with the shorts ,and the helmet (btwin racing ),anyway ,iv always avoided a certain route on the bike as their is a fair hill ,its quite bshort but looking at it iv been of the mind that id need to get off and push (i tried it last yr on my mates mtb and i couldnt keep the bike moving fast enough for it to balance ,so i had a clipless moment without any clips!came to a dead halt and just fell over ,but tdy i tried it ,i made it up on 39*25 so progress has been made,iv been avoiding it for a while but now i know i can do it ,wae hae