Time limited this morning, so with just an hour or so it was out of the door and down the hill heading for Barwick Road with an idea to ride out to Aberford and back.
However, after yesterdays SMIDSY in Wetherby I had another,
much closer one today.
A car pulled out of a car park turning left in front of me and just as I was pulling on the brakes and thinking "Goodness, this is a bit close", but thinking it would accelerate away, it stopped and indicated to turn right into a side street.
With no room to go round it on the inside it was full on brakes and I just stopped in time, also managing to unclip and not fall off. I might have sworn at this point and the Garmin subsequently showed a significant spike in my heart rate for some reason.
To the credit of the to the driver, they stopped in the side street and after asking "where did you come from?"
apologised profusely once they realised what they'd done, asking several times if both me and the bike were OK. A genuine mistake then, which I'm sure would have been some comfort to Mrs ND had events turned out differently.
Anyhow, back on the bike and down to Barwick Road, over Cock Beck and the climb up the hill towards Scholes straight into a surprisingly stiff headwind.
The adrenaline from earlier was no match for this and it was a slog to the top of the hill and I very nearly binned the ride off at that point. I suspect that today might be my slowest time up that hill since I got a road bike.
But being pig headed I turned right at the Coronation Tree and up the hill, before the mile long descent into Barwick - still hampered by that wind.
In Barwick I stopped at the Maypole and turned for home - still a bit shaken up by events and not fancying slogging into the wind for another couple of miles. Back the way I'd come, at least this time with a tail wind on the steady climb towards Scholes, which is almost unheard of.
Down the hill to Cock Beck and still having some time, left and through Manston, stopping by the park gates for a photo to add to the YBIFO a gate thread:
Then grabbing another pic at Christ Church opposite for YBIFO a church thread:
Round to the other entrance to the park and another pic for the YBIFO a memorial thread:
Then back on the bike and up to home on local roads, thankfully without further incident.
8.7 miles (14.0 km) in a moving time of
42 mins at an average of
12.2 mph with just
403 ft of climbing.
Not the ride I'd envisaged, but it seems that it really is true that any ride you can walk away from is a good one.
And to take a positive from events, let's hope that one motorist has learned a valuable lesson today.
At one point I wondered whether I may have to stop to chip ice off my arms! I'll put that down as a wardrobe miscalculation. A great 41 mile anti-clockwise loop, taking in a section of cycle path through Abbeydale that we have never used before, and then up Fiddler's Hill from Brockworth and past Prinknash Abbey up to Cranham. The climbing just carried on from there, with a sharp left up through Buckholt Woods, before returning via Cranham.
But it's not in too bad nick for a sand/stone road, as long as you avoid the edges of tractor tyre tracks. Still decidedly 10mph max stuff unless you're into extreme stone road riding, though.
