Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Seamab]

I've had a few of my usual shortish rides over the last few days. Managed to get No 1 son out again but he's now complaining about a sore rear end...
I had to send my rear wheel off for repair so am making do with the old Mavic's that came with the bike. Everything feels slower and is actually slower - though i have been feeling a bit jaded this week. Bit better on todays ride but i had my first visit from the puncture fairy for some months. A pinch puncture 3 miles from home. Spent the evening sorting out old inner tubes. Conclusion - need to buy some new ones.

 

[BSRU]

An enjoyable 42km with 490m of climbing this morning to break in the new chain I put on last night, dark at 5:40am when I left .
A zigzag route at the start meant in the first 10km almost 250m of climbing, 25m per km which is about the highest I can find south of Swindon.
PB's or close to PB's on the climbs but most importantly they were easy, looks like the miles I have put in are paying off
Also good to know the last 10km I averaged over 31kph.

 

[Rustybucket]

http://www.strava.com/activities/75307926

Longest solo ride, also new first long ride with SPD - what a difference! Got lost abit and ended up off road, was praying please dont get a p*ncture! Love getting out of london. very flat ride today. Im off to collapse now! Happy cycling people. Also cant wait to get a road bike, and go hill hunting.

 

[kipster]

First time out with a club. They are a small club and I went with the medium group (15-16mph avg). Did 56 miles in 3.5 hours. I did ok but started to get dropped on the hills after 40 ish miles. Some guys dropped back and kept me going. 56 miles is my second longest ride and I feel a lot better than I did after the longest which was 63.

 

[Saluki]

I have had a rough week and have been battling the onset of depression, I am recognising the signs. I reckon if I cycle A LOT and keep on top of things that I can beat it off at least for a while. Today our 'boarder dog' went home. We have had a wee girlie, the dog of one of my client's staying for 9 days. Gorgeous wee thing but her housetraining needs some work & I cannot keep her crated 24/7. She is totally clean in the clients house apparently. Last night she peed all over my bed and I need a new mattress. We slept on the sofas last night and it was the final straw for me.
Anyway. After a bit of a day I had resigned myself to not getting a ride in and I felt myself getting more and more down in the dumps until I thought 'sod it'. Shoved some lights on the roadie, threw my Nightvision jacket on and my mtb shoes and got out on the road. Only 8.1 miles in the pouring rain and quite a stiff wind. I meant to do a little loop but found myself heading for Wreningham and thought 'I'll turn round there' but got to the main village junction and turned right and headed to Ashwellthorpe and, at the main (B road) road turned right again and headed home. Bottom half was soaked but that Nightvision kept the top half very dry.

36:09 mins, 8.1 miles and averaged 13.6. So that's 8mph into the wind and wheeeeee all the way back home I could have ridden for ages more with the wind to the back of me but I thought that I would only have to battle my way back home so headed in for a nice cup of tea.
Feeling way better now.

 

[PeteXXX]

Well... I got my lazy ass out of bed at 05:00 this morning to be at Billing Aquadrome for 06:00 to see the balloons take off (It's the Northampton Balloon Festival this weekend).

Guess what? They didn't fly/float/bimble, whatever balloons are supposed to do when they get airborne. Apparently the air currents were to strong a few hundred feet up.
Still, it was nice to stretch my legs as dawn rose over the River Nene....

 

[Snapper88]

Well... I got my lazy ass out of bed at 05:00 this morning to be at Billing Aquadrome for 06:00 to see the balloons take off (It's the Northampton Balloon Festival this weekend).

Guess what? They didn't fly/float/bimble, whatever balloons are supposed to do when they get airborne. Apparently the air currents were to strong a few hundred feet up.
Still, it was nice to stretch my legs as dawn rose over the River Nene....

Ah the disappointment of Northampton balloon festival. Year after year they make an excuse why they shouldn't fly. I shall be going out about 2pm for 26miles

 

[biggs682]

a quick 6.5 mile test run on the red Bianchi very smooth and nice to ride

 

[Hill Wimp]

Hill Wimp on a multi Hill Run didn't work out too well but could have been worse. It will be better next time.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

A 'quick' (for me) Sunday morning ride, though it didn't get off to the best of starts. My OH wanted a ride but prefers I don't 'fettle' his bike (apparently it does not work properly when clean ), but there was no way his bike was going anywhere (I have been making a point of not touching his bike to prove a point). The chain had rusted in place it is that long since he last used the bike and even longer since he did any maintenance and it was showing - point made. So the chain had to be removed using the chain splitter (it was that bad I could not locate the quick link to use that) and 3 new pairs added to the chain hanging up in the kitchen (off his tourer which I am doing the maintenance on because we are needing them next month). Luckily they have the same chains - litterally now! Once that was done and some air put into his tyres, we were ready to go.

At the back of my mind I had the 'standard sunday ride' route in mind, but before we had even warmed up we ran into road closed signs. We ignored them in true cyclist style and found ourselves needing to cycle against the flow of the Etape Mercia event that was happening all around our home, literally. So we had a quick change of plan, freelanced for a bit, got lost, found some new roads, confused the marshals when we ignored the directions cycling through the cones to get back to where we wanted, confused the spectators who wanted to clap us, we tried to stop them and the explanation resulted in even louder clapping and cheering (not sure they understood) and found our route again... one small loop later and we were back on track on nice quiet roads where the only traffic was coming towards us. After a heavy rain shower, we stopped on the motorway bridge of a break - not normally needed but I have had a busy week of cycling and driving and my legs are tired. From there it was a case of some freelancing, not wanting to head directly home (down the A49) but also not wanting to do our 'air field strip' route, so there was some '2 sides of a triangle' and one or two U turns needed, but we found a route home to a late lunch... http://www.strava.com/activities/75576646 47km (just under 30 miles) in 2 hrs 13 mins - not the fastest in the world, but I'm happy. I have covered almost 250km this week and it is the first week back seriously cycling since the beggining of May when I got really ill...

Sorry - no photos, unless you want a picture of the slug that was hanging off the end of my rear mudguard by its innards like a mud flap - no, didn't think so!

 

[PeteXXX]

Ah the disappointment of Northampton balloon festival. Year after year they make an excuse why they shouldn't fly. I shall be going out about 2pm for 26miles

Indeed! My Strava shows that I actually climbed more than they did!

I also went out again on my S Speed, but only 6 or 7 miles to pick summat up from Riverside.
Allegedly, they will fly/float/bimble upwards at 18:00. I hope to have had several beers by then & not wish to cock a leg over my bike

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Hanbury and the Jinney Ring Craft Centre the destination, 77 miles the journey, out at quarter past eight for the ride down, a bit cool at first with a stiff head wind making me work harder than I wanted to, the first half was on roads I know but once I was past Spurnal I was on roads I didn't know and the navigating got a bit more interesting, but with a little bit of help I found the Cafe OK, leaving the Cafe I found I'd taken a bit too much out the legs on the way down, made for a slowish hard ride home, but I was almost home before I ran out of legs, a hard but enjoyable morning out on the bike.

http://www.jinneyring.co.uk/index.html

 

[HLaB]

Guess what? They didn't fly/float/bimble, whatever balloons are supposed to do when they get airborne. Apparently the air currents were to strong a few hundred feet up.

It wasn't much stiller 100ft below

 

[Spartak]

Early ride this morning & joined up with a couple of clubmates who were riding the Sodbury Sportif.
A challenging start with the climbs of Hawkesbury, Alderley & Tresham in the first 10 miles.
A nice touch was a large info placard with climb details before each climb.
After the initial climbs the route flattened out taking in some quiet Cotswolds lanes.
I turned off from the ride at the feed station in Uley & made my way home via the A38.

 

[HLaB]

My ride today started in cafe on Cathedral Square, Peterborough and after a ride round Corby and going down the Rockingham Hill for a change we stopped again at Beans Cafe in Oundle . Bean's is very popular with cyclists and I probably pass it at least twice a week but this was the first time I'd been in
What was good to hear the arguably strongest rider in the club was dropping back to help one our younger members. He was also alert when I was slow off the mark after a natural break pulling me back into pack against a strong headwind