Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Martyn H]

Nothing like Rickshaw Phil's ride (looked fantastic by the way, and an area I would like to explore). As the weather was dry, mild (5deg C) and little wind, I ventured out after work into the darkness for an hour. Came back feeling very pleased with myself, and glad I had my Hope1 light as it was pitch black. It was one of my usual shorter loops, but very different in the dark - I even remembered where most of the potholes are.

 

[ColinJ]

I did a brisk 4 mile walk first thing this morning to have a blood test done. It was horribly grey and drizzly so I abandoned plans for a morning ride, came home and stuck the computer on. Hours passed slowly, as they do, but then I saw breaks in the clouds starting to form. The next thing, the sun was shining! I decided that I would do a ride after all.

I checked the time and I had less than 3 hours of daylight left so I decided to just do my Cragg Vale/lanes loop and test some different pressures in the new latex tubes on my Cannondale. Today, I have been mostly riding 100 psi rear, and 90 psi front. The tubes/tyres felt pretty good, but I will try 95 R/ 85 F next time to see how I get on.

Anyway, it was just a hilly little 19 mile ride and I did a couple of laps round the block to bring it up to a nice round 20 miles.

Rush hour traffic, West Yorkshire

Windy on tops ...

 

[Combi]

I had at least an hour to wait for stuff to run on my computer, so I made a quick trek to Yatton and back yesterday afternoon in the gorgeous sunshine. Mostly the roads were quiet except on the Kenmoor and Moor roads where there's also little protection from the wind. All the way I kept thinking of someone else here who wrote about riding into the wind both ways. I swear, that's what it was.

A bit more than an hour later I was back at my desk, showered, shiny and (mostly) alert.

 

[potsy]

Quick nip to the shop half a mile away, thought I'd cycle rather than walk.
Slung my cable lock over my shoulder and off I went, came out of the shop and the sun was out so did a slight detour home and ended up doing 9.5 miles, the last 2 of which has left me looking like a drowned rat

This was a decent rainbow but I only had my phone, by the time I was ready to snap it had almost disappeared

 

[G3CWI]

More Kona Dew testing. To Polocini and back along the Middlewood Way. 27 miles, cake and cappuccino.

What's not to like (apart from the mud of course)?

 

[Wayne Tully]

Had a decent 75KM Penzance Wheelers run today.

At one point got held up by a farmer herding cows, 6 Cat 4 hills put me in good order for Sunday's Kentis Killer.

 

[Saluki]

Tonight I rode the same route as Tuesday night. 8.33 miles from home to the N&N hospital. It took a touch longer, 37:45 but I had to dodge the 'road closed ahead' signs that were blocking a perfectly good cyclepath The road might have been closed ahead but the cyclepath was clear so I cycled along it.
Nice ride. I am off tomorrow afternoon and if my parcel comes at a sensible time and its not hacking it down, I might well have a little pootle around on my bike.

 

[Big Nick]

Bit windy today but had an 11 mile ride before work when the sun made a brief appearance

I did the ride 3 minutes less than when I did it last week which was encouraging even though I was slower in places, I then did another 3 miles on the commute later

I've noticed that my legs are definitely recovering quicker after the inclines and my gear changes are getting better executed and timed to maintain cadence

Really hoping for some good weather on my days off as I'm going to try a 32 mile route I've planned out, gawd knows how that will turnout!!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Just thought I would take advantage of a 'mild' morning with some sunshine. OK I don't care what the temperature guage stated, it was not that mild (think scraping ice off cars mild!) ... still today's ride was an unplanned wander with one target in mind... some hill training. I know, but most of my domestic commutes/ride to my parents' don't feature much in the way of climbing a few hundred metres spread over +40 miles but I have noticed recently that that final little killer of a climb just before I get home (not to mention the one out of the bottom of my lane) was getting easier and with my asthma settling a touch compared to the beginning of the week, I decided to exit my lane turning left instead. Now as warm ups go, this one is, err interesting... It's the road up and over from Cuddington to Frodsham for those who know the areas, so a nice easy start for a severe asthmatic... err not.

So the plan was at every junction to take the turning that looked to have the most climbing... and that's what I did wandering around some of the back lanes that I don't know... until I ran out of hill and had to descend towards Chester.

Came across some more daffodils in flower, so this time I stopped to photo them..

And then it got cold and chilly and wet, so I decided enough was enough (I had no dinner with me and no money either ) so headed home via what has now officially been called the muddiest lane in Cheshire. It was that bad that the wheels would not spin freely and I had to drop to a lower chainring! I would have stopped to photo it, but didn't want to get my boots that muddy.
Coming back through along the Delamere Forest road, I can see why the forest is closed due to storm damage. there are a lot of unsafe trees in there (and a lot more that are on the ground) and it will take a while to get it re-opened but that didn't seem to be stopping people/bikers/walkers/dog walkers from using the forest despite the signs up saying "Do not enter" etc. After that the road between Delamere Forest and Norley Rd is still closed, so I duely ignored the road closed signs and found the cause, a flood... but tbh one of my local lanes has much worse flooding in 2 separate places and it never gets closed, so I just got on with it....

Home and the bike will be needing a wash yet again... It looks like this after every ride...

Not a bad average given the amount of climbing, double my usual amount in half the distance to my parents' home...
http://www.strava.com/activities/114893136 (436m in 37.1km - not bad for North Cheshire which is flat on the west side of the M6!)

 

[cosmicbike]

First time back out on the road bike for me today, fitted some more suitable winter tyres (Gatorskins) to cope with the terrible roads at the moment. The flooding has caused road surfaces to almost wash away, leaving a very rough, gravelly surface which is a little 'vibrant' on the backside!!
Couple of weeks back we headed out to a garden centre on the A30 near Bagshot, and I may have commented to SWMBO that it would make a nice ride, going through Chobham Common, Windlesham and so on. Well, I discovered today that it's more hilly on a bike than in a car (honest..), and that contrary to my belief, I can get lost within a few miles of my front door. I knew exactly where I was geographically, but wasn't sure which road led home. By this time I'd done my planned 20 miles, but the next road sign showed me still heading away...Little concerned since I'm still building up the distances after last Summer, so backed the pace off and bimbled most of the way home at a more sedate pace. No pics from me today, I was happy to get home without pain so a bit of an unintentional confidence boost.
30 miles, more than I've done since July 2013 in a single ride, and 942ft of climbing (most of which doesn't exist in the car.....)

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I had some business to conduct in town so rode down and then took the scenic route back via Uffington, Atcham and Condover. It was very nice and there was but it was quite windy so I was pretty slow between Uffington and Condover, which is a big section of the route.

Despite the wind I was really enjoying the ride up until I met Shropshire's most moronic driver - yes, undertake a cyclist while he's turning right onto a main road why don't you. What a clever idea.

18.4 miles and only 11.8 average.

The Old Market Hall in Shrewsbury.

Victoria Avenue - only a week ago the flood water would have been about waist deep just here.

Theatre Severn. The flood barriers have already been taken away.

Between Sundorne and Uffington there is a new arch across the path.

Atcham - again, most of the flood water has gone except in the oxbow lake.

The Mytton & Mermaid has a garden again.

Looking south to the Caer Caradoc and the Long Mynd

 

[Dangermouse]

Keep the photos coming chaps and chapesses, I am still ill but going to have a quick blast along Scunnys cycle tracks on sunday if the missus thinks I am fit enough

 

[martinireland]

I've made a big effort to get some kms this week. Have done two 42 km cycles and two 9km walks so happy with that so far. Planning a cycle Saturday too but unsure of distance

 

[gavgav]

I had some business to conduct in town so rode down and then took the scenic route back via Uffington, Atcham and Condover. It was very nice and there was but it was quite windy so I was pretty slow between Uffington and Condover, which is a big section of the route.

Despite the wind I was really enjoying the ride up until I met Shropshire's most moronic driver - yes, undertake a cyclist while he's turning right onto a main road why don't you. What a clever idea.

18.4 miles and only 11.8 average.

View attachment 38545
The Old Market Hall in Shrewsbury.

View attachment 38546 Victoria Avenue - only a week ago the flood water would have been about waist deep just here.

View attachment 38547
Theatre Severn. The flood barriers have already been taken away.

View attachment 38548 Between Sundorne and Uffington there is a new arch across the path.

View attachment 38549 Atcham - again, most of the flood water has gone except in the oxbow lake.

View attachment 38550
The Mytton & Mermaid has a garden again.

View attachment 38551 Looking south to the Caer Caradoc and the Long Mynd

A like for everything other than the prat in the car!! You found the archway along the canal path then !

 

[totallyfixed]

Actually yesterdays ride, but then I'm usually behind in most thing that I do. I had time to do a hilly loop and the sun was shining, obviously a cock up on someone's part. I usually scan the sky to see what clouds and birds are up there and just to make sure some plonker in a glider isn't going to deposit his machine on my head, but I didn't, at least not until a mile had gone by when I did a left turn and the sky had turned the colour of angry sludge. Being a genius I slowly quickly realised that as this was a head wind then the chances were not brilliant that I would stay dry.
We have all done it, trying to estimate if the bus shelter / shop doorway / big evergreen tree/ home is reachable before the wet stuff. I calculated [a very loose term] that if I kept going to Langham and kept left, on to the A road and back to Oakham I would have the wind side / tail and I would be ok. So far so good, spinning the fixed as fast as my little legs [another loose term] would go, no rain, entering Oakham thought I would go through town just to add a bit more on. Disaster, train barriers down, 2 mins later I felt the first drops, barriers still down, when they did go up I averaged around 25 mph for the last mile. 5 miles done
15 minutes later and the sun is back out and so am I, but the truth is I had to give myself a severe talking to in order to go back out again. Proper ride this time and took this picture on the way back in This is looking east,. Oakham church is visible to the left, looking out over the town to Rutland Water