Your ride today.... (part 1)

[kipster]

Out for a ride yesterday with the unofficial evening club ride (the official ones have stopped as it's getting dark earlier). Only 10 or so riders turned up, mostly the advanced group, off we set for 27.5 miles averaged 20mph. Legs hurt now, but no ride on Saturday as eldest son has the last athletics meet of the year. If he drags himself out of bed early enough he'll do the local Park Run which we'll cycle to as it's only 5 miles away and it gets his legs warmed up.

 

[DiddlyDodds]

Went down to the New Forrest on the Garmin Ride out day, and look who I bumped into ....

And Jack Bauer

Was a fantastic day with the full teams riding the Tour of Britain for, Garmin Sharp, Madison Genesis & Raphe Condor

Plenty to see before the ride and then as the teams came into the tent it absolutely howelled it down, so the thought of 50miles in that rain did not fill everyone full of joy.
Luckily it stopped 10mins into the ride and turned into a great ride, the scenery is stunning.

With a stop at 25 miles it gave everyone a chance to talk with the teams and "what a friendly bunch they are"

Even the legend that is Roger Hammond was there

If you get the chance next year to go on the Garmin Ride out day I would highly recommend it, it truly was a ride to remember ..

 

[Rustybucket]

was going to go and do the surrey hills, however my garmin got confused & then crashed. It then wouldn't load up my course again - so and went round Richmond park instead. I think my route / planned course confused it as I had my paths crossing. will try a clearer route next time.!!!!

http://www.strava.com/activities/82289384
http://www.strava.com/activities/82289263

 

[Peteaud]

Ive been meaning to do this route for ages but never seemed to get round to it.

From Chard i headed north towards Taunton on the back roads

Before cutting across the main road and out towards the river.

This is a private bridge for access to a house

Then heading south again i went across the moor to North Curry and the great road that is

It ws a bit dull and grey but not cold and the 32 miles zoomed past

The new bikes going great and nowhere near as harsh a ride as i was told it was going to be.

All in all, i am a happy bunny

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Today’s ride was not about distance or speed, it was about winning a mental battle to get through some rubbish currently happening in the weird place that is the mind of BOAB. Sometimes fighting a wall of anxiety takes more energy than the 109 miles the other week.



I set off on the bike up towards Steyning, a local village I ride to most days as its on just about all of my loops. Normally I wouldn’t even consider it a waypoint…but just to get there today was tough and I am pleased I did it.



I decided that as this was a bit of a wimpy ride I would do something different and took a left turn up Somes lane and followed that climb up to the top at steyning bostal then down into the village, where I went into an estate agents to look at houses I cannot afford and booked a viewing for next week.

It was very windy, overcast and grey and colder than lately. Then I hit Lidl and got talking to a nice elderly lady who had the same swiss roll addicition I have, we are going to set up TSRASG the swiss roll addicts support group.

There were no vehicle incidents today, but yesterday on the seafront a Guy in a black car wound down his window and asked me if I wanted to be run off the road. I said not, and he proceeded to force me over into the oncoming lane all the time yelling and swearing at me. All I did was pass him on a roundabout.

But that aside the last few days have been incident free, although my mileage has dropped off significantly, due to my head state mostly.

 

[Peteaud]

I.

Cool pic

 

[Hill Wimp]

Got up feeling pretty low TBH, got stuff in my head to deal with…so..what to do…jump on the bike and head off into the wild blue yonder..well West Sussex anyway.



Forcast was for the rain to hold off until this afternoon so I thought I’d head out on a familier route as I didn’t fancy getting lost as the rain came in. In the event I rode up through pulborough and turned south to Duncton hill just before reaching petworth. The wind was from the NW and for the first time in weeks it had a cool chill in it, Autum is approaching fast.



I stopped for a drink at a tesco express where the guy on the till won my award of the year for the happiest soul behind a checkout till! Maybe he was a secret lottery winner just filling time before the chauffer picked him up in the limo or something!

The wind slowed my average speed down a fair bit, but I’m not out there for stats, I’m just enjoying the ride and leaving a few demons along the side of the roads.



Two close passes, both HGV’s, both rushing to get past over double white lines into oncoming traffic that had to slow down to a halt to let them cut me up..situation normal then.







I headed back through the villages of Slindon and Yapton. In Yapton I stopped and sat on the park bench just people watching, it’s amazing how many full grown men still ride those small bikes with saddles lower than the pedals with their jeans down around their backsides with baseball caps on backwards.



The bike rolled really well now I’ve figured out how to stop the rear wheel wobble of late.

I felt like riding another 50 miles, I easy have that in my legs, but the sky is getting darker and riding in the rain isn’t my fav thing…so I choose a sandwich and a cup of tea and classic rock radio!

I do like your photos, you do some great routes through Sussex.

 

[Hill Wimp]

Today’s ride was not about distance or speed, it was about winning a mental battle to get through some rubbish currently happening in the weird place that is the mind of BOAB. Sometimes fighting a wall of anxiety takes more energy than the 109 miles the other week.



I set off on the bike up towards Steyning, a local village I ride to most days as its on just about all of my loops. Normally I wouldn’t even consider it a waypoint…but just to get there today was tough and I am pleased I did it.



I decided that as this was a bit of a wimpy ride I would do something different and took a left turn up Somes lane and followed that climb up to the top at steyning bostal then down into the village, where I went into an estate agents to look at houses I cannot afford and booked a viewing for next week.

It was very windy, overcast and grey and colder than lately. Then I hit Lidl and got talking to a nice elderly lady who had the same swiss roll addicition I have, we are going to set up TSRASG the swiss roll addicts support group.

There were no vehicle incidents today, but yesterday on the seafront a Guy in a black car wound down his window and asked me if I wanted to be run off the road. I said not, and he proceeded to force me over into the oncoming lane all the time yelling and swearing at me. All I did was pass him on a roundabout.

But that aside the last few days have been incident free, although my mileage has dropped off significantly, due to my head state mostly.

Well done for getting out, hope it's made today a little easier and great photos once again.

 

[derrick]

22 mile solo ride, was nice not having to wait for any one, got a couple of PRs on strava, did a hill i have not done for a few months and it felt easy, does any one else enjoy hills.

 

[theloafer]

22 mile solo ride, was nice not having to wait for any one, got a couple of PRs on strava, did a hill i have not done for a few months and it felt easy, does any one else enjoy hills.

hills are flat roads ....but they go up....

 

[BigonaBianchi]

I do like your photos, you do some great routes through Sussex.

Thankyou
I'd like to go further afield but the older I get the more my rain and wind allergy gets in my way .

 

[the_mikey]

Rode a 100km Audax today, but including the ride from home and back again, cycled 123km today.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

With the forecast for Sunday looking I decided to make the most of today and headed out to Ellesmere and (another first for me) Oswestry.

To start I headed out against an annoying headwind on what is becoming a regular route - into Shrewsbury and out via Bicton to Montford Bridge. From there I headed towards Little Ness before turning to Baschurch and Ellesmere via Weston Lullingfields and Bagley.

Ellesmere festival is on this weekend (I hadn't realised) so I was treated to a display of Taiko Drumming by The Mere. I like this so would have liked to have stayed for the full performance, but thought I'd better keep moving. So headed onwards along NCN route 31 to Oswestry passing through Crickett, Old Marton, Hindford and Gobowen. Annoyingly the route 31 signs just vanish by Gobowen railway station, fortunately I wasn't intending to rely on them and had a map to refer to.

Heading into Oswestry I had a bit of a pause for drink and cake by the ancient hill fort (I couldn't get any decent pictures of it unfortunately) before heading into the town. I may have pushed on a bit too quick early in the ride as I felt like I had hardly any energy left in my legs after only 30 miles.

Fortunately the earlier headwind was now a strong tail wind and with the exception of climbing Woolston Bank I hardly dropped below 19mph until Knockin.

From Knockin I headed through Kinnerley towards Melverley where I paused at the church for a breather before heading over the bridge into Wales. The rest was my normal route back - Crew Green, Halfway House, Westbury, Nox, Lea Cross, Exfords Green and over Lyth Hill.

I'm pleased to report that I had no issues with traffic and apart from my legs being seriously worn out by the end of the trip, it was a really good ride.

62.33 miles (another metric century) at 13.8mph average in spite of the legs. This ride also took the Raleigh's total for the year over 1000 miles.

The canal at Ellesmere.

Bunting out for the Ellesmere Festival.

Taiko Drumming down by the Mere.

Down at Melverley now and an unusual accolade for the village.

The church.

Just a few miles from home now. Rounding the foot of Lyth Hill and looking towards the Wrekin.

 

[Saluki]

2 rides today.
The first one was at about 6pm and I went round, what we call, the Wattlefield Loop - which is home and then to a village called Wattlefield, turn off at Spooner Row and then head home past Wymondham Industrial Estate, up the hill, down the hill, up the next hill and home. Its nicer than it sounds. Honest. 8.21 miles in 33.23 so quite happy with that. I took my new Manic Street Preachers album with me on the iPod (one ear listening). Its very good but the title track is not helpful up hills. I had to bob the iPod on until I found Revol which is far more useful when foundering.

I had such a good time that I decided to meet the Hubster from Hospital so I left the house at 9pm ish ish and rode the 8.33 miles to the hospital. I rode on the cycle paths where I could as despite having 2 rear lights, a hi-viz night vision jacket and 2 front lights and a reflective band thing on my ankle, I don't trust the local maniacs drivers. I did get straight across the crossings at the A47 roundabout as there was not much traffic coming from the A11 to the A47 - I had taken the cyclepath that is parallel to the A11 - I'm not completely stupid. Once at Roundwell I rode round the edge of the estate on the bus route and got to to the last (hospital) roundabout quite quickly. 33:05 tonight so some 30 seconds away from my PB but it was dark and when the streetlights stopped it was pitchy pitchy out there. My lights are not bad but not as good as the headlamps on my car. If anything, the second ride was better than the first. I contemplated riding home again but I do have some chutney to pot up tonight and would like to do it this side of 1am.

 

[GmanUK65]

Rode 70 miles today. Wallsend to Cambo (Northumberland), had a coffee in Capheaton tea room then down past Ingoe, through Matfen, down Military Road, and back to Wallsend. I used a HRM for the first time with a road bike and I kept it mainly in zone 2 which I am pretty chuffed about.