Your ride today....

[Rickshaw Phil]

Yesterday's ride:

A quick blast on the Raleigh in the morning trying to get some decent miles in before the forecast rain arrived. The route was Condover, Upton Magna, Walcot, Eaton Constantine, Cressage, Acton Burnell, Longnor and back via Condover again.

It was overcast with a light wind and was warm enough for shorts and t-shirt while getting the bike out but once I started moving it proved to be a bit too chilly for that so a fleece was donned. The A49 was a bit busy at the start but after that there seemed to be a notable lack of traffic this time - people put off from going out on trips due to the forecast? It didn't seem to have deterred too many cyclists though and there was a good selection of riders out.

This was one of those nicely uneventful rides that I always like. The most exciting thing to happen was disturbing a buzzard from the roadside, which did a very energetic climb in front of me before wheeling away over the tall hedge to the left.

I may have pushed on with a bit too much enthusiasm in the first few miles and paid for it in the middle of the ride where the lumpy bits were a bit of an effort. Some saddle soreness from about 20 miles didn't help (my own fault - wrong underwear for riding. It wouldn't have mattered if I'd only done a short ride).

From Longnor, I got on much better than expected and assume that it was from geting a tailwind, even though it was only light. The last bit to the A49 was particularly swift and enjoyable.

In the end it stayed dry all day so I needn't have rushed.

A tad over 34 miles at 15.2 mph average. I didn't stop for photos this time.

 

[cosmicbike]

One of my unremarkable 22 mile pre-working from home rides today, made noteworthy only by being struck not once, but twice, by the biggest bird crap I've seen, on the same hill descent at 26 mph. Made a splendid mess over my shorts and gilet, and it hurt more than you'd have thought.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Windy here again today but not as bad as yesterday and no rain. Just a short ride round the local lanes starting to Northwood, Whixall taking a diversion down Maltkiln Lane to cross the canal over Starks Bridge for a change then rejoining the original lane onto Fenns Wood, Fenns Bank, cross the canal again to Alkington, Tilstock,CotonWood,Coton, Quina Brook, Edstaston, Ryebank Foxholes where I stopped to try and take a picture of all the guinea fowl in the road but they all scattered, back to Northwood and back home just in time to collect our takeaway afternoon tea from the Moatshed. 20.2 miles @16mph. No pictures from the ride but a picture of afternoon tea .
View attachment 528003

You'll need more that 20 miles to burn that lot off

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

One of my unremarkable 22 mile pre-working from home rides today, made noteworthy only by being struck not once, but twice, by the biggest bird crap I've seen, on the same hill descent at 26 mph. Made a splendid mess over my shorts and gilet, and it hurt more than you'd have thought.

Big bird cr&p hit the car the other day. Must be the season for it. Supposed to be good luck isn't it? Any geese or swans about? above?

 

[AndreaJ]

You'll need more that 20 miles to burn that lot off

It did take 2 days to finish the cakes off😊

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

It did take 2 days to finish the cakes off😊

Well that's you nominated for sainthood now

 

[cosmicbike]

Big bird cr&p hit the car the other day. Must be the season for it. Supposed to be good luck isn't it? Any geese or swans about? above?

I figured good luck, the amount of mess it made I was looking for flamingos or ostriches

 

[Archie_tect]

or a passing Airbus 320...

 

[wafter]

After an unprecedented 125ish miles over Sun/Mon/Tue, along with both crappy weather and mental state I resolved to stay in yesterday. By dinner time I was going a bit mental and elected to allow myself some comfort food in the form of a trip to the chippy, so the Ofo was dragged out for an uneventful round trip of maybe 6-7 miles to the other side of town and back.

As always it was nice enough to get out on the bike / out of the house and in the short term the chips were fantastic, however afterwards I was reminded yet again of the many reasons I should avoid them; my gluttony leaving me feeling bloated and generally pretty horrible. I really should learn from this, but I doubt I ever will as I haven's so far


Today has been similarly horrible with grey skies, strong gusting winds and sporadic showers. After eventually dragging myself out of bed I packed up my wonky Topeak bottle cages for return to their supplier and set off to the Post Office during a clear period. Shonky goods deposited with the perpetually disinterested assistant I floated around the city for a bit.

The most exciting moment encountered involved smacking the side of some POS Chelsea tractor as its trajectory slowly gravitated across me toward the kerb; ever-reducing the space I had to ride in - presumably because the driver hadn't seen me / was just a complete idiot. 30 seconds or so later I heard the horn from the vehicle that had been following us both.. not sure if it was directed at me but the state of mind I was in, I was more than happy to stop and "discuss" the matter further with captain hornblower. Thankfully for both of us I was in no hurry to catch him up and he gradually disappeared into the distance once past me.

I made it home just in time as the sky turned black, the wind ratcheted up and the rain lashed down. The rain's stopped now but the wind's still howling; which is a shame as I quite fancy a few more miles but I guess that's unlikely to happen today and the rest of the week's looking pretty manky too.

While my legs are probably grateful for a rest I'm starting to feel withdrawal; the cycling being pretty much the only thing that's kept me going over the past 10wks spent alone, unproductive and stuck in my own head..

 

[EltonFrog]

A short utility trip in between heavy rain showers on the hybrid to the vets in town to get some medicine for Timmythecat. An out and back trip along the NCN 544 then through the ugly estate and straight back. The sun came out for the short while I was out which made me a bit to warm I’m my waterproof jacket. Still, I didn’t get wet.
4.26 miles not done in the car. Actually I’ve done less than 150 miles in the car in the last ten weeks. No photos, but here’s a photo of Timmythecat if you like mid yawn.

 

[Archie_tect]

A dark, drizzly loop against the wind up to Stannjngton past the Ridley Arms [used to do lovely Sunday roasts] with a fast home leg... just over 17 miles, 14.5 average out, and 16.7 back!

Looking forward to a hot shower to warm up!

 

[gavgav]

The last day of my week off work and a dry interlude between the rain, so I got out for a 50k in the blustery Easterly wind.

Out through Betton Abbots, to King St and then Atcham, Berwick Wharf, Upton Magna, Withington, Walcot, Isombridge, Longdon on Tern and Rodington.

The road to Roden was still blocked off with road closed signs and they really meant it today, as I got half way along to find lorries filling the road and tarmac being laid. No problem though, as there is another lane down to the main road, in the direction of High Ercall, where I joined the flow of traffic leaving a set of further roadworks and doubled back to Roden.

Continued on to Poynton, Bings Heath and up East Haughmond, back to Upton Magna, then retraced my steps to Atcham. The rat run between Berwick Wharf and there was completely car free in both directions, not had that before!

I then slightly varied the route back home, by taking the road to Cross Houses, a short section on the A458 and then lanes to Berrington and back around to Betton Abbots, then home.

One of those nice uneventful rides, other than almost hitting a rodent of some sort, at Poynton, which veered away at the very last second, as it was about to hit my front wheel!

33.81 miles at 13.6mph avg

Also, this took me past 1000 miles for 2020 and also past my total mileage for the whole of 2019, already!

 

[EltonFrog]

A quick dash out on the road bike before the forecast heavy rain. I headed out via Didcot to Wittenham clumps, you may recall dear reader that I often post photos of the clumps somewhat in the distance, so I thought I’d go up them today. There are two hills and one of them was an Iron Age hill fort. Not a brilliant day to go up, it’s a bit grey and it started to drizzle.

After a couple of photos and I made my way back home via Brightwell and North Moreton. I saw another ‘roady’ coming in the opposite direction, as I turned left into the main road and later I heard him changing gears behind me. There is a steep little hill coming out of the village and I thought he was going to drop me on it, for my own entertainment I though I’d make him work for it. He never did pass me to my surprise and as I rode into South Moreton he turned off towards Didcot. Still it kept me amused for a couple of minutes.

A soupçon over 18 really enjoyable miles and no one pissed me off.

A memorial to Charles Green of Little Wittenham. The only name on this stone.

One of the clumps. The ashes of our Nettiethedog are spread around those trees. She loved running around there.

Upton is somewhere down there.

 

[JPBoothy]

A short utility trip in between heavy rain showers on the hybrid to the vets in town to get some medicine for Timmythecat. An out and back trip along the NCN 544 then through the ugly estate and straight back. The sun came out for the short while I was out which made me a bit to warm I’m my waterproof jacket. Still, I didn’t get wet.
4.26 miles not done in the car. Actually I’ve done less than 150 miles in the car in the last ten weeks. No photos, but here’s a photo of Timmythecat if you like mid yawn. View attachment 529222

I don't think Timmy needs any medicine just somebody to release his tail from that Roof light window 😿

 

[welsh dragon]

Just 10 miles for me today mainly to test my new tyres and inner tubes. Feels fab and the higher psi is better as well. Glad I got Mr WD to use his compressor to pump them up.

At some points it was a bit cool and at other times the sun came out and it was quite oppressive.

Just my usual loop here. Very little traffic on the roads. If anything even less than the last few weeks so it was lovely and quiet.