Your ride today....

[Reynard]

Just 11-ish miles for me, in the company of Wiggy #2, the Chartres. Off to Ely via the usual route of Downham Common, California, Orwell Pit etc. Roads were very mucky, thank goodness for full length guards and flaps.

For some reason, the traffic in town was insane, and it seems to be a growing trend for motorists not to leave any space between them and the kerb for cyclists to filter past. Now I'm not going to ride on the wrong side of the road, but a sneaky bit of pavement hopping was employed to avoid the worst of the queues. Where that's not possible, I had no choice but to get off and wheel the bike. Numpty of the day was a 4x4 totally blocking not just the cycle lane on the Prickwillow road, but also the pavement.

Cyclist numpties of the day are those who don't see the need to lock up their bikes. Someone left a Brompton merely leaning up against a sheffield stand. That's just asking for trouble, really...

The market was hideously crowded, Tesco less so. Picked up the bits I needed and tootled home.

So good to get out without needing a snorkel. And the post-ride bowl of curried parsnip soup went down a treat.

 

[tallliman]

I've been laid low for a few weeks with a bad back, told by the physio that I shouldn't do more than an hour or two on the bike at one time. Good news is that I was freed from that limitation last week so planned a 100km ride out toward Sleaford trying to avoid all the flooding in the East Midlands and Lincolnshire (I succeeded!).

The ride was pleasant, passing through rolling countryside for 50km until I made it to Cafe Velo Verde. It's now passed it's two year anniversary as a cafe and serves amazing bacon rolls and as a treat I also had a Belgian Bun! Truth is that I hadn't really enjoyed those miles....my back was hurting a bit and I was tempted to give in there and roll to a station nearby. The only saving grace so far had been that any flooded roads I'd found had been missed due to an opportune turn in my route. Still, the day was decent and there was no wind to speak of so I decided to carry on - I could always abandon into Newark.

From the cafe stop, I headed east through high-hedged roads in peaceful solitude, barely a car in sight and on some familiar roads. I don't know why, but the roads between Long Bennington and Hough on the Hill are always a pleasure to ride, rolling and exposed but just peaceful and serene. For some reason, I had The Black Crowes' song "Girl From a Pawn Shop" going through my head. One line from the chorus in particular kept coming to mind "there's a passion in being alone." It struck a chord with some of the reasons I love riding, the night commutes in my bubble and the quiet often windswept Lincolnshire roads.

The rest of the ride passed pretty uneventfully even with a mile on the A17 and I rolled into Sleaford 5 minutes after the train departed so an hour's wait. Nearly decided to roll onto Skeggy but knew of lots of flooding to the east so decided against. It was just a perfect ride.

 

[Landsurfer]

I rode from Rotherham Rail Station up the canal to Meadowhell then north up the TPT to Thorpe Hesley and back.
The scenes along the canal where sobering.
At New York stadium there was deep silt on the track and a water line just 2 ft from the top of the protective levees, the trees where full of waterborne debris well above my head height.
At Ickles Lock it was awful, a narrow boat partially sunk, another one in the garden of the keepers cottage and a water mark well up the walls of the cottage. At Holmes lock the lock gate tops where buried in tree stumps and debris.
Just before Meadowhell there where huge tree trunks, felled trunks, jammed under all the bridges, the force and power of these trunks in flood water must have been tremendous judging by the damage to steel railings along the river.
First time ride on the TPT north section, straight for 3 miles, woodland either side ... gentle gradient ...
Short ride but eye-opening.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

Eager to get out this morning and enjoy a little bit of light in the sky and dryness. My ride took me out the Rattlesden, Felsham and Gedding. I stopped near Gedding Hall to take a photo, about the only place you can see it is standing on the slightly elevated road, no doubt Bill Wyman loves the seclusion. I continued onwards to Drinkstone Green and stopped near the smock mill for another photo but I got a bit of camera shake, perhaps the cold. I commented to myself that despite the foilage of the trees telling us it is autumn the skies and air told me that it is deep winter. Windspeed was only 2mph but direction wise was NNE and the temperature according to the met office was 5.7 degrees C, it certainly did`nt feel it.
I continued towards Woolpit Green and then had a nice downhill and suddenly had an idea, instead of going back on the same route past Stowmarket golf club ( I`d already noted that the road was very wet and slippery along there) I`d turn right towards Finborough. This also gave me three nice gentle climbs before reaching the main Stowmarket Bildeston road. This road can get a bit scary during the week with the usual nutters but I guessed it would`nt be too bad on a Sunday. In fact one car gave me such a wide birth I was convinced they were trying for the ditch on the otherside, a favourite place for vehicles to end up ! So I had another nice descent past the school at Finborough and eventually turning right into Combs lane and then followed my outward route back home, A total of 23.7 miles at an average of 17.5mph. The coldest part of me were my feet, body wise I was dry as the Sahara desert, probably freeze dried I think ! My water bottle (I did`nt need a drink) felt so cold, at least it backed me up with my take on the chill factor. Happy days.

 

[pjd57]

Slight frost and some fog when I went out at 10.
Walked to the main road before getting on and heading to Cambuslang , via the city centre .
There were a few road closures around George Square for the lights getting turned on tonight, so my route home took me along the Clyde and through the west end.

 

[Dave 123]

Just a short loop late on. I got caught in a cold shower...

https://www.strava.com/activities/2872145145

 

[Donger]

I realised the other day that, in nearly 1,000 bike rides, I'd only ever twice done a straight A to B ride. I always end up doing there-and-back-again rides or rides looping around to finish where they started. With that in mind, today was too good a chance to turn down. My mate Paul drove me out to the middle of the Mendips before handing the car over to his wife to go see her parents nearby. We rode home to the outskirts of Gloucester, starting with a ride around the Mendips and a great descent of Cheddar Gorge.

The goats were out in full force ..... kamikaze goats straying randomly across the road and ninja goats clinging to impossible ledges in the cliffs.

Then followed several miles of intense concentration as the Strawberry Line trail was muddy and rutted, and it was like cyclo-cross at times. After Clevedon, we took the little lane to Portishead that runs immediately beneath the split level M5 motorway. At a point exactly 50 miles from home, and from where a big detour would have been required, we came across this deep flood taking up the entire road:

I ended up dipping each foot in the water three times, and arrived home feeling like I was in the early stages of trench foot!

After more dodgy, muddy tracks around the car import compounds at Portishead, I had another new experience, as we found our way onto the M5 Avon Bridge. Looking across the protective barrier, it was quite nice to note that we were travelling faster than the northbound M5 traffic! We stopped only once for refuelling, calling in at Shirley's Café in Severn Beach after skirting Bristol and Avonmouth. My bacon and mushroom sandwich and black Americano went down really well and propelled me the required distance to get me home again. The weather was grey, to the point of nearly raining, so no great photos. I do quite like this one though, with the reflections from one of the Severn bridges:

Made it home in 7 hours 48 (including the café stop) having covered 77.5 miles. It rained for the last 20 miles or so, and was dark for the last 15 miles, slowing us down a bit. All in all, a great adventure, and my Metric Century-a-Month Challenge ride done for November (124.7km). Who cares about the cold and the rain? Loved every minute, despite several long sections of virtual cyclo-cross. Cheddar Gorge owed me another downhill as I'd previously climbed it four times but only ever descended it on three occasions.
Cheers, Donger.

 

[AndreaJ]

Haven’t managed to post many rides on here recently as the puppy is teething and needs constant supervision but she’s sleeping now. Better weather today with no wind and no rain until I was ready to go when it started to rain again, set off on one of my usual routes but the “wrong “way round starting towards the Moatshed, Horton, turning to Foxholes following the lane to the end and turning back to Poolhead, Ryebank, up to Edstaston past the chicken farm to Waterloo, through some big puddles where it was flooded on Monday to Abbeygreen and on through to Coton. Headed through Lower Houses, Hollinswood , Alkington over the canal back towards Hollinswood, over the canal again and turning for home through Welshend and Northwood. The lanes are either covered in mud, mushed up leaves or floods, some of them are covered in all 3! so I was a bit muddy when I got back and the bike is filthy again. Enjoyable ride despite the rain but no other cyclists out this afternoon, lots of dog walkers though and 1 horse rider. 19.5 miles @15mph.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

A quick (for me lol) 20 something miles ride with some of the Glasgow Belles.
It has iced up overnight for the last week or so here, so we did a later start, at 11, trying to avoid slimy leaves and black ice on the paths we usually ride.
I walked out of my housing estate with the bike, because we don't get gritted.
Took to the main roads to the meeting point, meantime the sun did come out to warm up the day a wee bit.
We didn't do anything strenuous, but a brisk (for us!) pace was needed to keep warm.
We followed the river Clyde for a bit, going west till the Transport Museum, then turned east towards the former Commonwealth Games athletes' village to the Velodrome for a cuppa.
The cycle path, well, it's really a large shared pavement, was untreated, quite frosty in shaded areas.
I had visions of a bike/riders pile up there, luckily it never happened
Managed to take some stunning views of the Clyde, which I shall promptly inflict to you readers 😄

Some semi-frozen Glasgow Belles:

Views of the river taken from the back of the Transport Museum.
I love the back entrance, much more striking than the front:

Entrance to the Cuningar Loop, an East End green space managed by the Forestry Commission.

In addition, I forgot to post my Halloween ride when it happened so I'll add a couple of spooky pics from the night on this post:

 

[EltonFrog]

The Fragrant MrsP and I went out for a breakfast ride this morning, nice bright sunny morning but a bit taters! The bakery we usually go to was closed, always is on a Monday but we forgot, so turned around and went to the Harvester instead. After breakfast we went to a bit of shopping in Didcot and came back.
A 12.6 mile loop had to keep stopping though because I’m still tweaking the new gears, think I’ve got them sorted now. All the new components on my bike make it feel brand new.
No photos just maps and a screenshot of the sat nav map still showing all six Didcot cooling towers!

 

[Levo-Lon]

Local ride with my good lady, about 14miles, i was decidedly under dressed and felt chilled through when we got home.
But a nice ride, flooding in the nene valley around ferry meadows wasn't too bad.

 

[The_Weekend_Report_Guy]

I am BEAT!

God knows what I did over the last week or less, like 400 km on the MTB in 6 days.

After today's ride https://www.strava.com/activities/2873906446 I am over 15.000 km for the year, and puts me at only 1000 km away from my goal at the start of the year. If everything goes well I will reach and pass my goal of 10.000 miles and 300.000 meters of 1.000.000 feet..!!

 

[jongooligan]

Just a lap of Derwentwater from Keswick for me today. Quite cold here and when I got to the cattle grid at the foot of Cat Bells there was a covering of ice across the whole road. A walker had just shouted a warning to me so I'd slowed right down and unclipped from my left pedal just in time to see another walker measure his length as he slipped on the ice.

That spoiled it a bit for me and straight away I decided to cut short my intended route. As it was I had one hairy moment in Grange but just managed to stay upright. Once on the Borrowdale road I knew I could relax a bit as it's a gritted bus route but was glad to get back to Keswick having covered only ten miles in an hour cos I'm such a scaredy cat in the cold.

Going to be even colder tonight so no riding for me tomorrow.

 

[Old jon]

Wonderfully sunny morning, here in November that means chilly or something like four degrees. My much better half thinks I am brave to go riding when it is this cold and I often agree with her. But I wanted a ride.

Nothing new today, a bit of thought about potential slippery bits of road then me and the fixed ventured off towards Holbeck. And then Hunslet before the climb to John o’ Gaunts. That bit went well this morning, mind, the whole ride did really. Down the hill past Woodlesford station, the junction at the end is in a bit of a cutting, railway line to the left, and under trees as well. Noticeably colder at the bottom but the road was clear. Turn left and cross the Aire and Calder Navigation, further on it looked like that or the river had flooded the fields. Not to the extent of the floods around Sheffield and out Doncaster way but still a lot of water where it should not ought to be.

Onwards, and ‘cos Swillington is next, upwards. There was a lad running with his bike up the next slope. Almost as fast as I was riding. Up the next rise to the village, this road keeps rising all the way until Garforth appears in front. And then its downhill to the roundabout. Second exit and the road up and around the northern edge of the town and as I neared the traffic lights I was very tempted to take the left turn for Barwick. Feeling idle maybe. But then I thought something about doing the miles and carried straight on to Lotherton Hall. Which is another draw. Coffee and sandwich and a warm up was attractive indeed.

Nope, turn left to go to Aberford. Up and down, under the A1(M) and turn right on Main Street. Left onto Cattle Lane, where a five minute grub break was had once I had ridden out of the shade. It is not far from here to Barwick in Elmet but the road rehearses a couple of times before the drop to cross Cock Beck and the long drag out of the valley to the defining feature of the village.



It has three pubs as well, the video goes past two of them. Beer later, let’s ride through Scholes and across the former railway line to the A64. And along that to the end of Thorner Lane. After a short ride along there, Skeltons Lane took me to an episode of good mannered confusion at the crossroads with Coal Road, and then to the A58. A slightly sedate descent of Boot Hill, the legs were tired now, and a wander through some of Leeds’ outskirts to finish off a twenty eight mile ride in front of home. With a smile, it was a good ride.

Familiar roads

 

[gavroche]

Nice weather today so I decided to go and see my son in Rhyl but on the way, I pushed on to Prestatyn, passed the school where I will be tomorrow and back for a coffee and biscuits at my son's , then back home. 34 miles all together but my drop in fitness, due to less riding in winter, showed. Tired legs when I got home.