Your ride today....

[13 rider]

Today’s ride I shall entitle “Belvoir Blast 100”......

So today was the day for the 2018 Belvoir Blast sportive, a ride I have been anxiously waiting to do for 5-6 months. I’ve been told by various sources that it was definitely one to do because the feed stops were amazing and boy, they weren’t wrong!!

There were six of us due to do it but for various reasons one by one they pulled out so I was a Billy-No-Mates! Setting off just after 8am it was through a few familiar lanes for a couple of miles that I had previously covered through another sportive and also on forum rides. Just 2 1/2 miles had lapsed before the first climb started out of the vale (I believe it to be called mill hill) which I would hazard a guess at its steepest was around 10%ish. As I was still warming up at this time there was minimal effort but it still pushed the HR up to max! A left turn at the top and a bit of flats followed and then it was down Stathern hill which I’d covered a month or so ago on a forum ride.

I weaved through a couple more lanes again familiar territory past Dove Cottage but turning right just before the cafe I had visited a few weeks ago with the chaps off the forum. It was a this stage I encountered a couple of chaps who were riding at a pace I liked and they kindly let me tag along with them. They were very friendly indeed and we all got on really well and stayed together for the remainder of the ride (well, 2 of us anyway but I’ll get onto that in a bit!)

I did splinter off for a short while through Barkestone and it was coming out of here I could see what was to be major climb no 2. Looking in the distance I could see the all too familiar silhouette of Belvoir Castle and what I thought was a long straight road.

Turns out it wasn’t that straight......

It kicked up very gently and I had an inkling there was a climb imminent and so I dropped off pace wise in anticipation of this. As I approached the wooded area it kicked up but being the naive soul I am I ground it out in big gears hoping it wasn’t all that.

Turns out it was “all that.” And then some! The bloody thing went round a bend and kicked up again! In fact it kicked up to 14% and I was spent as my legs were on fire and my HR had hit 192 which is 12bpm above my max!!

Dropping quickly to granny gears I just totally relaxed and in doing so got up it, even though I’d have been quicker getting off and walking! On reflection it turns out I’d just done one of the UK Top 100 climbs which @13 rider had kindly pointed out to me upon analysing my strava route so to do that was a hell of an accomplishment.

Passing through Belvoir village it was time for the first feed station at Woolsthorpe and time to test these cakes that people have raves about so much. Everything was homemade and there was no fancy gels/ bars in sight- just damn good cakes!

I regrouped with the other two fellas I’d met earlier (although one did saunter past me on the big climb only to stop at the top and wait for his mate) at the feed stop and had 10 mins or so in cake heaven with them!
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We set off for the next 30 mile stint and it was an immediate climb out of Woolsthorpe and it gently eased off once we crossed the A607 at Croxton Kerrial. This 30 mile section was quite easy by comparison- mainly flat- and the only real slog was around Rutland Water and to the feed stop at Wing. One of the chaps was really struggling and we took it in turns to tow him around. Turns out he’d been out the night before til 4am to celebrate his sons 16th, I was impressed he turned out at all!!

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^feed stop at Wing.

Setting off again we embarked upon the hardest section of the ride coming back out of Rutland back into Leicestershire. To say this section is lumpy is a gross understatement, add the fact we were heading west for a bit into the wind as well and it made for tough riding indeed. Climbing out of Braunstone we got spilt up a bit but regrouped and it was at this stage one of the chaps had enough and once we’d worked out his route back me and the other fella continued on our way. More ups and downs followed but before long we were at feed #3 having done 82 miles. As the other shorter routes merged by this stage the place was quite depleted of cakes but there was enough to satiate our appetites.

I pointed out to Ian that there was about 18 to go and it should be pretty steady now as we had to head back into the vale. And so it was- a nice drop into Long Clawson preceded a tough flat section into a cold wind but once we’d done that we changed direction back into Hose village where the end was so for the last 5 miles or so the wind was behind us.

We ran down a few riders who left the last feed a good 10 minutes before us and crossed the line in 6 hours 19 having done a total of 100.1 miles and both spent. The other fella Jonno was there waiting to see us cross the line and pick up our medals and goodie bags.

This was everything I’d hoped it would be and more and I will definitely do this one again, hopefully with better weather!

Anyway, that’s enough s**te from me.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1875733634
https://www.relive.cc/view/1875733634
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Well done Chris . Good speed considering all the upness . Terrace hill is a brute I did warn you . Very similar route to the Rutland cicle sportive I did just starting from Rutland water not Hose . Glad you enjoyed it

 

[hondated]

Yeah, that's one of the things I truly love about this thread - looking at the photos of the amazing scenery.

+1

 

[Noodle Legs]

Well done Chris . Good speed considering all the upness . Terrace hill is a brute I did warn you . Very similar route to the Rutland cicle sportive I did just starting from Rutland water not Hose . Glad you enjoyed it

Cheers @13 rider, you did indeed warm me! I don’t think the elevation was quite what my wahoo said but it was at least 5,000 ft I’d say. I know you’ve ridden those lanes loads of times but we should all have a go at it next year!

 

[iancity]

Awful awful ride. Have not been out for a week due to the wind, don't really enjoy it when it gets up to 16+, which it was today, but itching to get out, so braved it...wish I hadn't really. No energy, too hard riding into it, no enjoyment.
8 paltry miles at under 10 mph...as the ride is entitled, the wind better do one soon

 

[welsh dragon]

Awful awful ride. Have not been out for a week due to the wind, don't really enjoy it when it gets up to 16+, which it was today, but itching to get out, so braved it...wish I hadn't really. No energy, too hard riding into it, no enjoyment.
8 paltry miles at under 10 mph...as the ride is entitled, the wind better do one soon
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Well done for getting out there.

 

[hondated]

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MTB ride with an old friend who really hasn’t ridden a bike for 20 years! Out on the trails near where I live, just over 8 miles, great catch up and a lovely ride.
Old school 26ers still rock!

Phew glad to see that as I thought I was the only one still riding a 26"er and also a Specialised in red & white. Mines a Hard Rock. Took mine out last week having literally not used it for years and I just loved the freedom of being away from traffic. Mind you I pushed it up hills rather than rode as it felt too hard.
Would you believe at 67 I have only just learnt you can get "sticky " shoes to ride a MBK. Very tempted now to flog my motorbike to buy an Embk as I should imagine they would be fun.

 

[Mike_P]

For a brief while yesterday the hybrid make a odd noise but which then stopped. Today however the rear wheel was plainly was not happy so just 10 miles and then found out the problem – a broken spoke, just too late to visit LBS today. Was distinctly colder than yesterday and the 10 miles included a brief out and back ride as I discovered the long sleeve jersey alone was not enough

Discovered windfarms are now wind parks, or at least in the case of the one at Knabs Ridge

Further to the west on Penny Pot Lane the view westwards

 

[Stonechat]

Club ride today with Hounslow and District Wheelers

We were due originally to go to California Country Park, near Finchampstead, instead we went to Billingbear Gold Course

We avoided our normal going through Windsor Great Park due to the Windsor half marathon.
However we soon got snagged in traffic etc at Windsor.
Not far through When I had a puncture,
We headed on a fairly circuiitous route through Touchen End and Twyford, Return was throughDrft road and Widsor, different to outward mostly.

We were not going hard as one of our number was still recovering from an op .
Average was about 15 mph

Ride is on the garmin as 45.2 miles, but I cannot upload it it seems to be corrupt

I might be able to get in cleared

Pre ride dog walk convinced me to add layers
Quite warm by the end

 

[Jenkins]

Sunday's ride was almost twice as long as it needed to be thanks to a bit of forgetfulness. A bottlebank & shopping run, but having emptied the bottles from my backpack I realised that I'd left my lock at home. Seemed a shame to waste a reasonable day so I returned home the long way, picked up the lock and went out again on another extended loop.

30 miles with plenty of this...

 

[cyberknight]

Hope by now Mrs CK is feeling better.

A lot better thanks, she is managing stairs now ok on her and can be left on her own, went on the club run yesterday and she was fine and had even managed to make sunday dinner before i got back .

 

[Old jon]

The weather is being kind, yet another fair morning happened. Still riding the easy ( ?? ) bike with all those gears so I foolishly reckoned a bit more climbing might be in order. Not really serious climbing, a bit more than a thousand feet in twenty five and a bit miles and by ‘eck I feel it now. Grumbling lower limbs . . .

A sensible place to start is the beginning, so I pedalled the bike away from home in the direction of Holbeck. This, when I concentrate, can allow the ride to take routes to different places. The first different place was Hunslet, I have not ridden through there since March or so and the same applies to all the rest of the ride. John O’ Gaunts and Oulton, pass the station and turn left to cross both the canal and the river. And start climbing again. Fitness is still lacking and on the second rise to Swillington I stopped. Gasping for breath and all that. Anyway, while resting I was admiring the large number of cuts and ( small ) holes in the front tyre, as you do. ‘Oooh, what’s that shiny bit?’ turned out to be a sliver of glass about 2 mm long stuck in the tyre. So I extracted the glass from the tyre’s embrace and went on my way. Why did I bother? There were bigger empty cuts all around the tyre, a Durano plus with about 2500 miles of use. It had coped perfectly well all by itself but I could not bring myself to leave the bit of glass in there. Oh well.

After Swillington there is Garforth, and this town can only be left by ascending. I stayed on the A 642 all the way to the lights at, you guessed, the top, and then turned left for the road to Barwick In Elmet.



Took a left turn again for the road to Scholes, crossed the erstwhile railway bridge, thank you Dr. Beeching, and reached the A 64. Another left then right onto Thorner Lane, left again for Skeltons and Red Hall Lanes and the A 58 and ish down to the Fforde Grene junction. I think that is how the pub’s name was spelt, who checks these things? Anyway, some incident had given the police an excuse to block what seemed to be the entire junction. I turned left again to climb Easterly Road and eventually found a right turn which allowed me to meander around an area I have not visited since my youth, and find my way to Stony Rock Lane via Compton Road and then back home. Probably added a couple of miles for the inept detour, but that is fine. Grin still in place.

A map with the detour bits obscured,

 

[Fonze]

Truly awful windy day, about blew me off my bike
But got 30km in and after bit of a blowout over the weekend back at it ..
Feels like winters just round the corner ..

 

[cosmicbike]

Commute to work and back. My lad came home and wanted to go to the park for some BMX practice. Bunny hops, wheelies and manuals apparently. I tagged along, pushing the Optima Lynx. After the weekends success of 40ft without falling off (over?), longer runs were required. The park is bumpy grass, but plenty big enough. My lad fell off lots, me, well I wobbled here and there but stayed upright. Managed 1.5 miles, lots of stop/start practice, and low speed stuff as the average was only 5 mph. Not sure I like the hub gearing, but it will do for now. And the boom needs to go out a fair bit too. I rode the last 0.2 miles on tarmac

You'll excuse the non-cycling attire, was in the middle of pulling up the bathroom floor when the 'lets go to the park' suggestion was made.

 

[pjd57]

Went out to join the Free Wheel North ride in Maryhill, but for some reason couldn't be bothered with it.
Baled out after only a few miles and headed home.

Thankfully I wasn't in long until my Mrs asked me if I could collect something in Kirkintilloch.

Nice easy 7 or 8 miles all along the canal.
Cleared the clouds from my head .
Around 25 miles in total.

Does anyone else ever go out in a group , then think they can't be bothered with it ?

 

[Donger]

Does anyone else ever go out in a group , then think they can't be bothered with it ?

I've baled out of a club ride in the past when it was all just nose to the bars, ass in the air stuff. Can't be bothered with racing about just to prove how fast you raced about!