Your ride today....

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wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
Not a lot to report as rides have been pretty short and lacklustre recently.

Monday went to view a complete shed of a car on the CdF and extended the ride afterwards to about 33 miles; descending into a stroppy antisocial thrash along the tow path which yielded many Strava PRs and disapproving looks :whistle:

Tuesday afternoon I rode about 5 miles out of town and back on the CdF to meet a mate for a 2.5hr-ish walk, then in the evening met some other mates in a park on the other side of town which was probably about an 8 mile round trip on the ofo. Utterly exhausted by the time I got home.

Yesterday felt pretty deflated from the previous day's exercise and lack of sleep (plus the heat was a killer as I found when the 40min walk to the shop and back felt like it nearly killed me), but it was such a nice evening it would have been a crime to stay in so I went out for a casual waft around town on the ofo; clocking up probably about 10-12 miles (I must try and fit my old-skool wired bike computer).

Yesterday's highlights included being startled by a rat or vole (not sure which as it was traveling so fast!) shooting across the tow path and managing to thread itself seamlessly unscathed between my front and rear wheels before I'd even had time to react :tongue:

Also highly entertaining was being passed by a guy on a road bike on Magdalen bridge at a reasonable speed; just for a laugh I hunkered down over the bars and gave it a big effort; slowly reeling him in and eventually passing him on the high st :laugh:


Had planned a largish ride today but need to be fresh tomorrow and both the wind and heat look to be against me so think I'll postpone. might go out on an egg run before it gets too hot though, since I only have 5 days supply left, the next few days are not really convenient and I think they tend to go quickly on a Monday morning..


UPDATE (I): Egg-run completed on the increasingly-usual loop; coming in at a little under 25 miles and 300-odd feet at 13.0mph and about 111bpm for 800kcal burned. It's absolutely sweltering out there; consumed a whole bottle of water in about half the normal time and even though the journey had been sedate sweat was dripping off my nose as I decanted the eggs...

Otherwise it was quite a pleasant ride; lots of happy cyclists around, a few knobhead close-passes but also lots of respectful wide-berths and self control. Saw some absolute muppet woman turn the wrong way down the bus lane outside the Head of the River on the Abingdon Rd; could potentially had been nasty had I arrived a few seconds earlier and been in the space she ended up occupying :blink:

Since I didn't eat before going out I felt properly, physically hungry / empty on the way back; something I've not felt for a while and an indictment of how my diet's slid somewhat. Back home and I had the usual for brunch; no pics of the ride so here's a terrible one of my reward instead:

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Arse is a bit sore again now but I'll shortly be pressing the ofo into action for a waft to port meadow to meet a mate for a bit of a swim :smile:


Update (II): Rode to port meadow via Wytham, bobbed about in the river for a bit, got a takeaway burger and some beer and had to dissuade some Irish-sounding kid that he had no right to take my ofo to ride home on :rolleyes:

I was very pleased that my council-coolbag (water bottles wrapped in open-cell foam inside my rucksack, shoes on top to provide more of an air gap and reflective towel placed on top which I was "swimming") did a superb job of keeping my chilled water comfortably cold for the hours I was out.

Cycled home the very long way through town which was very quiet; grabbed a pic outside the Sheldonan:

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Arse is more sore now thanks to cycling in mesh-lined swimming shorts :whistle:


EDIT having had a bit of a read:

Very warm & humid this morning, but with a slight easterly breeze off the North Sea, so I thought I'd do the known Woodbridge, Hollesley, Tunstall & Rendlesham route as that's mostly by the river or close enough to the sea to get the benefit of the cooling breeze.

Once on the bike I must have had some form of brain fart as I completely forgot about the planned route and went in completely the opposite diection inland to Ipswich and decided to make up the route as I went along. Round the top of town then out to Westerfield and east to the turn off for Little Bealings and back west to Great Bealings and a single track cut through lane to the crossroads with the Grundisburgh road. For the first time I took the lane opposite instead of the main road not knowing exactly where it led to - thankfully it came out a couple of miles later on the Boulge road which in turn led back to Hasketon and then the road into Woodbridge.

By now it was getting a bit too warm, so I headed back on the reverse of the earlier planned outward leg through Marltesham & Waldringfield where I diverted for a quick stop by the river. Resisting a takeaway meal & pint from the Maybush pub and making do with an energy bar & some of the orange squash & SiS Go Hydro mix from my bottle instead I finished off into Newbourne twice (from differnt directions), down to Kirton and home for a much needed shower.

With tomorrow predicted to be even warmer, there's no way I'm going out for any distance late morning or early afternoon.
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Wow - cracking effort at the best of times; let alone in yesterday's heat :blink:
 
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Archie_tect

De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
Location
Northumberland
Too hot to go out today... looking forward to a refreshing thunderstorm and downpour tonight- that'll clear the air nicely!
 

Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
Ebike to Sainsbury's this morning, no misbehaving dogs on the bridleway today and mackerel fillets found although as their were only two packs they quickly became sold out:whistle: Gave the ebike some stick on the way back doing un-ebike things like standing on the pedals and consequently got a new ebike PR on the 7.1% avg climb through the showground, so second only 7 secs off the possibly dodgy KOM of L***e Arm*****g. The wind nicely assisted on another climb with an avg speed of 15.6mph well sealing that ebike KOM. 9.56 miles with 643ft of an ebike motor often wondering what the hell I was playing at.
 

postman

Squire
Location
,Leeds
View: https://youtu.be/sPnayr6iSpY
It was Otley again today.A different route or rout as our American cousins say.But it was that hot.I stopped against the shade of a bungalow wall.Lord knows what the owners thought of a cyclist sitting on their lawn.What was nice a couple of younger more athletic cyclists asked if this broken down old relic was ok. Anyway a great route in up and over past the closed Royalty pub.Then down down down in to the back end of Otley.The heat did get to me,but i will say the sports powder i now drink,gives me a lift.It was one of you on here that told me about it.It tastes foul but mixed with fruit juice it's not too bad.Now a few days off,and next week i am aiming for Embsay Steam Railway,it might not be open but you can still sit on the platform,i think.Strange click the link it plays.
 
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Went out for some laps of Burrator reservoir today. Waaaay too hot. Car consistently reading 30.5C. But another 11.something miles, 3 laps.
I've now, with yesterday's ride, comfortably surpassed last year's mileage, which pleases me. Last year = 293.09 miles. This year so far = 313.34 miles. Maybe I'll get to 500 this year! I might even get to 500 by August...
Reset the Cateye to wheel circumference of 205, its default, to try and get it closer to GPS, and this seems to have done the trick, close enough for Govt work...
Have edited last ride to show elevation gain, as MMR have deigned to add it.
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colly

Re member eR
Location
Leeds
A very early up and out for me on my

''Out Before the Radiation Begins Ride.''

Bright and sunny as I set off even though it was just gone 4.30am. Cool, relatively speaking. East and out through Cross Gates and Garforth towards Selby. Past the old Selby Fork and in Monk Fryston it was off the main road and through Hillam and then the road to Gateforth. Pretty flat out along here so I made good time. Brayton arrived and I turned up into Selby.
At Selby I took the main road back towards Leeds. I think that was a mistake. It may have been 6am but the amount of cars and heavy goods vehicles making for the A1 and the A1M made it seem like a motorway itself. If I want a quiet ride I usually come this way so it was a surprise.
So back home before 7.30 and before the day had really started to warm up.

41.6 miles and 1300 ft of up.

View: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/51379552
 

Jenkins

Legendary Member
Location
Felixstowe
I know I said yesterday that I wasn't going to do anything much in today's heat, but it was a choice of roasting indoors or outdoors, and I much prefer the fresh air so went out on a bit of a utility ride.
Firstly a 10 mile loop into Felixstowe to recycle some empty bottles, get a little bit of cash out of the bank and to remind myself why I don't spend any time on the seafront on days like this. It was then up to Ipswich via Falkenham, Kirton & Bucklesham for a bit of shopping at Waitrose (cheese, baguettes & beer) and then home via the Nacton & Levington back road. Absolutely boiling and nearly emptied a 750ml bottle of squash in just these 30 odd miles!
Screenshot_2020-06-25 Say cheese Ride Strava(1).png
Screenshot_2020-06-25 Say cheese Ride Strava.png
 

gavgav

Legendary Member
Out for a ride in the sweltering evening heat, still 30c at 7:15pm. I’d arranged for @Rickshaw Phil and his brother, Doug, to join me and we met at the entrance to the estate, before heading out through Sutton Farm.

There was hardly a breeze and it was hot work to King St crossroads, where we paused for a drink and bit of a chat. Continued to Berrington and Eaton Mascott, some of the lanes covered in sand from the rains of last week.

The climb up to Pitchford Fork was hard work, in the heat, before we turned North again, as far as Cantlop. We’d said to Doug that he had an option of a shorter route home, from there, if he wanted to take it and he was flagging a bit, so had decided to before he’d stopped. He did well considering he’d not been out much recently though, with how hot it was.

So we parted ways there and I headed back through Betton Abbots and home, just as big spots of rain started to fall, didn’t last long though, but a pre-cursor to the thunderstorms of tomorrow, no doubt.

13.02 miles at 12.8mph avg
 

Landsurfer

Veteran
First decent ride since i fell off ..... that was nice ...^_^
The pictures show the Maltby and Harworth Pit rail bridges that i rode past / under today.
Harworth line has gone under trading estates and housing projects ... 1600 houses proposed without a school, doctors or any other infrastructure in place .. criminal !
The Maltby line is in regular use. It links the Sheffield lines to the ECML and is used mostly for freight and occasionally passenger when there are engineering works in place.
The cafe at Langold was open .. sort of .... a half hearted attempt serving just hot drinks and bacon and sausage sandwiches. The cafe at Oldcoats has a full menu served as a take away and good fruit cake. They refuse .. refuse, to sell fruit cake at Langold for reasons i cannot work out ... feel free to tell me ?
ps .. I've just noticed the pair of children's boots on the bridge parapet in the first picture ..... no idea ..... ???


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Railway bridges today ...
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