Your ride today.... (part 1)

[thegravestoneman]

5th club ride today, sadly a poor turn out due to party season being in full swing for some and work for others. A trip into North Yorkshire today with dull but dry weather to accompany us. Good to see PD at the start but sadly not joining us (bust washing machine meaning other commitments) We set off through Aberford where a Redkite was out hunting, and on to Wetherby. The road through to Kirkby Overblow was a good steady climb and Wetherby Wheelers passed us in great numbers from the other direction where quick greetings were exchanged. The views of the distance towards the top of the hills were stunning, and a welcome cup of coffee was had at the little Shop behind the Shoulder of Mutton pub. A bit more 'steady' climbing before we turned towards Knaresborough where the gusts of wind proved to be a tad entertaining. The ride back was mainly in to our friend and constant companion the wind. I lost count today of the times GM was seemingly the target of various different vehicles but luckily he narrowly avoided them all (so much for bright lights, bike and clothing) A very blurry photo I am afraid due to the the dousing of WD40 my phone got after the dousing of water nearly did for it. Suppose I should get some photo's of the views next time.

 

[Linford]

I think I'd want a day off after doign that all day @ianrauk

 

[ianrauk]

I think I'd want a day off after doign that all day @ianrauk

Nope... back on the commute tomorrow.
It wasn't a tough ride to be honest. A pretty flat ride with a nice tailwind on the way out to make things easy.

 

[Maverick Goose]

Somehow managed to drag myself away from CC for a ride in some nice december sunshine this morning-it's a hard life sometimes. Quick sprint round some muddy west Dorset lanes and somehow managed to pass the Marquess of Lorne without going in for a pint [actually it's because I have no money till I get my JSA on Tuesday...].

 

[PeteXXX]

Out for a road ride today, but some of the lanes would have been better on an MTB. Farmers mud and leaves can be a dodgy combination!

I had one of those days when several drivers wanted to see me dead or injured.
First idiot saw me crossing the road via a bike path just before a roundabout. He stopped about 30 feet short of the give way line just as I was crossing. I had to avoid a car in the nearside lane that would have been a good distance away if Muppet One hadn't stopped right in my way.
Muppet Two was White Van Man with windows and mirrors so dirty that there was no chance he'd see me as he started to pull off the pavement he was parked on right into my path.
Muppet Three was in a quaint little village with lovely damp tarmac. He overtook me just before a parked car meant he had to slam on his brakes to stop to let an oncoming car through the gap. I would have fitted through safely on the bike but instead had to do a serious bit of avoidance that sent the back wheel sideways. As luck(?) would have it, I stayed on the bike, albeit at a 45 degree angle to the road. He MUST have seen the oncoming car as it's a straight bit of road.

I decided to stop for 5 minutes, working on the theory that if all these idiots left at the same time just to get me, I'd wait until the rest of the b*ggers had gone!

That plan seemed to work for most of the rest of the ride, luckily. Only one more person tried to get me.

This place is Weston Underwood. Very pretty.
I took a right turn that I'd not used before, and ended up in a dead end road, apart from a Bridleway that was way to mucky for my Road tyres!
Still, I found this place. Obviously part of the estate from the Big House in Weston.

And this is the view from it..

I ended up at Salcey but didn't fancy any cake for some strange reason so just had a black coffee to keep me going.

At this point, Strava decided to update itself so it stopped the ride I was tracking so I uploaded the first bit and restarted it for Part 2, which was over the lanes to Stoke Bruerne and Blisworth were the canals run through one of the longest tunnels on the network.

I've been through this on a mates barge and it's both impressive and spooky!

I ended up on about 40 miles by the time I got home. No great speed and only a few 'results' on Strava, but I enjoyed surviving the day!

Part 1 http://www.strava.com/activities/99201584
Part 2 http://www.strava.com/activities/99227362

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Another short ride today as I left it a bit late to get anything longer in while it was light. The reverse of yesterday's route but with only one climb over Lyth Hill this time.

After negotiating the mud on Station Road, Condover I headed for Ryton and directly into the sun so the tail lights were put on. They were academic as there was no traffic on this section today. The Clio pictured yesterday is still lying forlornly in its field.

Out to Longnor I was riding against the wind which was slow, but turning towards Acton Burnell I had a nice tailwind making for an easy cruise of up to 23mph in places.

The sun was setting at about this point and I was treated to a fabulous display which just seemed to get better as I went along. The best bit coincided with turning west back towards Condover so I was riding almost straight towards it.

18.3 miles today at 13 mph average.

A small thing that amused me was that after the ride I totted up the total for the year to date, which with today's ride is 2525.25 miles

Approaching Acton Burnell and the sun setting behind me is giving a glow to the east over The Wrekin.

Silhouettes at Pitchford

A fiery sky at Cantlop. My camera really doesn't do the vivid colours justice.

Fading to pink now at Condover and the moon is quite prominent.

 

[gavgav]

Another short ride today as I left it a bit late to get anything longer in while it was light. The reverse of yesterday's route but with only one climb over Lyth Hill this time.

After negotiating the mud on Station Road, Condover I headed for Ryton and directly into the sun so the tail lights were put on. They were academic as there was no traffic on this section today. The Clio pictured yesterday is still lying forlornly in its field.

Out to Longnor I was riding against the wind which was slow, but turning towards Acton Burnell I had a nice tailwind making for an easy cruise of up to 23mph in places.

The sun was setting at about this point and I was treated to a fabulous display which just seemed to get better as I went along. The best bit coincided with turning west back towards Condover so I was riding almost straight towards it.

18.3 miles today at 13 mph average.

A small thing that amused me was that after the ride I totted up the total for the year to date, which with today's ride is 2525.25 miles

View attachment 33904
Approaching Acton Burnell and the sun setting behind me is giving a glow to the east over The Wrekin.

View attachment 33905
Silhouettes at Pitchford

View attachment 33906
A fiery sky at Cantlop. My camera really doesn't do the vivid colours justice.

View attachment 33907
Fading to pink now at Condover and the moon is quite prominent.

Some great pictures. The mileage made me chuckle!

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Some great pictures. The mileage made me chuckle!

Yeah, I doubt I could have hit it that exactly if I'd planned to.

 

[totallyfixed]

I make the porridge, my job before we head out. We never leave on time because after getting into the "gear" we go into the garage and tart up the bikes, air pressures adjusted for the conditions etc. Quite why we thought we should spend time cleaning the bikes, I have no sensible answer. Our 9am start is now 9.40 and the roads are dirty wet but the sun is shining and the wind is promising pain for the first mile long climb, which it duly delivers. I keep looking behind to see if a triathlete has sneaked up behind and somehow hooked their tri-bars on to my bike. Dr_pink wants to know if her brakes are jammed on, dear god, at this rate we may have to book Monday off. There is no escaping the fact that I have chosen a lumpy route, I have time to take this picture of an Ash tree sounding the death knell at the hands of the scourge of the countryside, Ivy.

I'm thinking now I have this the wrong way round, I take the pictures while dr_pink sails blithely on, I then push to catch up, there is something wrong with this.
This next picture depicts all that is tricky about riding fixed, steep downhill; wet greasy roads; twisty blind bends; a village; long, kept the speed down to 33 mph [very restrained I thought].

At the cafe we treat ourselves to a scone each as we have only done 37 miles, nothing if not big spenders.
5 miles after leaving the cafe I know we will have at least 20 miles home into a headwind, and looking up I am not disappointed, guess which way we have to turn at the t junction at the top of this climb?

Another view of Belvoir Castle, I must have done it from every angle now apart from above

This I took just because

The last 20 miles was "interesting", most of you will have had that feeling where you just have to get your head down and pedal, and the whole world reduces to the few meters of tarmac in front of your wheel.
Once home the bikes had to be washes down as there was the odd speck of dirt visible

62 and a bit miles at a very slow speed, too embarrassed to tell. A bit later the sky looked like this, so a good end to the day

 

[gavroche]

32 miles today, a lot of it against the wind! The prom in Pen was littered with stones, legacy of the storm, so had to turn back. Riding on the promenade in Colwyn Bay, there was a lot of damage on the cycle path and some of the sea barriers were torn down by the force of the waves. I now have only 70 miles to do to reach my target of 2000 miles this year. Hope to make it but all dependent on the weather.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I think I'd want a day off after doign that all day @ianrauk

Nope... back on the commute tomorrow.
It wasn't a tough ride to be honest. A pretty flat ride with a nice tailwind on the way out to make things easy.

I did 62 miles today and I'll be back on the commute tomorrow as well, I took my eldest home after his visit today and when I got back the car was parked round the back of the house where it will stay until I next plan to use it on Thursday.

 

[Rob3rt]

Not today... yesterday.

Manchester and District Time Trial Association Xmas 10TT. Set on a bit of a SPOCO/circuit kind of course, poor surface, few sharp corners etc like last year, it was a great oppurtunity to both have some fun on my TT bike which I haven't ridden for a few months now and to see the combined gains that I have reaped from equipment and training this year (having ridden the event last year as well, co-incidentally as my 1st open TT ever)

There were 2 events, fancy dress and straight faced, loads of my clubmates went in fancy dress (superhero theme) for the fancy dress event one of them winning a prize for her consume.

Myself and 2 other straight faced riders entered the "serious" event. I managed to finish 6th (out of 68 riders) with 23:25 (average speed of ~25.5 mph), I was in the lead for a very long time, but as the big hitters took to the road, I slowly dropped down into 6th, my clubmate took the win with 22:16 (this is a bloke who does very short 19 minute 10's on fast courses, as in ~19:10, to give an idea of the "slowness" of the course used).

Comparing to my ride last year, which was done on a road bike with mudguards and wearing normal winter cycling attire, which was a time of 27:50 (winning time was 23:01 again posted by my clubmate who won yesterday) and a position of 16th (out of 47 riders). So overall I went 4 mins 25 seconds faster this year than last, adjusting rather crudely for conditions by subtracting the difference between this year and last years winning times, I am estimating a gain of ~3 mins 40 seconds, through equipment and training! Not bad (especially considering I am operating at well below my seasons peak atm)!

I was quite pleased with my ride (especially having ridden on feel as my power meter failed, only due to loosing the magnet on the BB, nothing expensive, 3 miles in, rather than racing with power as I am used to), it was also massive fun riding a TT bike again, I just love going that fast, churning the biggest gear you dare, being in the aero position, it's awesome. There is nothing like it! I especially enjoyed taking over a chaingang like they were standing still Finished off with lunch in the pub over the road!

 

[coffeejo]

There were 2 events, fancy dress and straight faced, loads of my clubmates went in fancy dress (superhero theme) for the fancy dress event one of them winning a prize for her consume.

I like to think of myself as being in serious training for the amount I can consume

 

[Rob3rt]

I like to think of myself as being in serious training for the amount I can consume

Just ate 3 chocolate chip muffins, would eat the 4th if I was confident I could keep it down...

Just had the results through, combined times of my clubmate who won, my time (6th position) and a 3rd club riders time (12th position), we secured the team prize also so that was a clean sweep for the club, overall fastest, team and fancy dress wins!

 

[potsy]

Day off today so thought I'd nip out for a couple of hours around Mobberley, especially as the sun is shining once again around here

26 miles at a 'leisurely' pace.

Hello

Urban grit just for @ColinJ

Through the airport tunnels, welcome back to Manchester