Your ride today....

[BSRU]

A very good 102km ride this morning with 1120m of going up.
Felt good the whole ride and managed to beat my personal best on a cat 3 climb even though I rode it after almost 80km.

Certainly a very good day to be out and about.

Now time to recover with a short walk to the cake shop.

 

[EltonFrog]

35 miles on my Brompton through the lanes in Oxford. It was a beautiful morning; lovely sun which seems to ease my joints. The Brompton is getting more comfortable by the ride and is real fun on the downhills. I love cycling in Oxford: on my way out to NCN51 I saw several 90 year old dons on bikes, a guy on a super-fast Cervelo TT machine and a very fat man riding with an even fatter English bulldog in the basket on the front of his bike.

I went through Kiddlington, Bletchingdon, Kirtlington, past the Oxford polo club, Chesterton and back to Weston, Islip, Elsfield and then took a detour to Wood Eaton, which is such a beautiful village. It's almost as though it hasn't changed in 200 years. It's not quite Hardy country but it could be:

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I'm feeling a bit tired now and so may have a little snooze in the chair this afternoon....I believe it's called doing a Rocky.

I know that area very well.

 

[EltonFrog]

40.04 Miles today, my Three (actually two) Hills challenge. Set of along the A417 to Streatley up Streatley Hill which is bugger of a climb, the gradient steepens as you pass a side street on the left (The Coombe) then is made difficult by the fact that road seems to steepen as you climb up to the summit with the steepest sections at an approximate 16% gradient, length – 1.3km height Gain – 125 metres, I don't know for certain but I think it's harder than Leith Hill in Surrey. Then a nice ride round the country lanes to Pangbourne, Tidmarsh, then up Sulham Hill, which doesn't look much but it takes some getting up, then a return journey to Pangbourne with the intention of going up Whitchurch hill, but it was blocked by some little fat twit (with whom I'd had a barney with at the toll bridge a few minutes earlier) that managed to jack-knife his very large Winnebago & trailer at the bottom of the hill (i laughed....just a little bit). I wasn't bothered, I've been up that hill many times, I know I can do it. I turned around and went to Goring the flat way, had a bacon sandwhich, with HP sauce in the cafe (please note @PeteXXX ), and came back home via Cholsey, South Moreton and West Hagbourne. A lovely ride, a bit windy in places

Wittenham Clumps in the distance.

Didcot cooling towers

Stokenchurch, somewhere over there in the far distance.

 

[Saluki]

Quicky in the sun today. Actually not that quick, we averaged 10mph.
We got on our CX bikes, rode up the Marriotts Way to Whitwell Station and had coffee & Cake. Then we rode back again.
We got about half way back and saw a nice American young man having a breather - we'd seen him twice on the trip. He looked very tired. He'd been given a Carrerra Subway by a friend of the family and he was getting used to cycling for the first time since pre-teenage years. He looked about 22 or 23.
He said that he was going as far as Drayton but wasn't sure he had the energy. We said to ride with us and he chatted happily about getting his NI number, looking for a job and moving to Norfolk last month, for the next 6 miles. We then said "Drayton, here you are then". He was astonished that the trip went so fast. Bless him. We told him about CC.

23.3 miles at 10mph average. Slower on way home than out as we were full of cake.

 

[Jon George]

Slower on way home than out as we were full of cake.

 

[Jon George]

A short 10 miler to check out a replacement cassette on #1.

This out near Levington.

And this near Nacton.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

More nice commuting weather and the wind isn't too bad. I took a slightly longer route to work (but not as long as yesterday) through The Quarry and along the riverside. Unfortunately there was a rider down on the towpath at Castlefields. She was being attended to by a group of passers by and was able to talk to the emergency services herself so not very bad and after checking and being told there wasn't anything I could help with I pressed on feeling subdued. (The adjustable stem on her bike had snapped off at the pivot - don't know if that was the cause of or damage from the crash). The rest of the ride was better but not quick as the paths were busy with quite a few people out walking and cycling.

It was my work experience lad's last day today - don't know where the fortnight went. He's done really well with all the tasks set and it's nice that he's stayed attentive and enthusiastic throughout despite it being rather a slow time for us. He'll do well in the future I think.

The ride home was along my longer route (mostly cycleway seemed like a good idea on a Friday afternoon) but I decided on a whim to avoid the dullest bit and extend it a bit further and was very glad that I did as I met a chap with a recumbent trike (a very rare sight round here) and had a nice long chat.

24 miles for the day at 13.7 mph average bringing me up to 209 miles for the last seven days. Been a while since my last 200+ mile week.

Sorry, no photos today.

 

[coffeejo]

Went for a hilly ride on the Brendon Hills and Exmoor today. I'll regret it when the alarm goes off at 4am. But the views were incredible, especially on the long climb up Sticklepath. I've been down it a few times but this was my first ascent. I'm glad I only quickly scanned the map before plotting the route as there were more chevrons than I was expecting. Didn't topple over sideways, though, which was a bit of a worry at times. Also failed to stop to take any photos, even when it (briefly) flattened out or dropped down a bit (just to be cruel) as I knew if I stopped, I might not get started again! Still, now I've done it in on go, I'll be able to stop next time to admire the scenery.

Took this photo on the domesticated slopes of Exmoor a bit later on:

Exmoor

• coffeejo
• 10 Jul 2015

10 July 2015

49 miles, 3714 feet of climbing (I think that 1400+ of those were on Sticklepath!) and a top speed of 44.2 mph on one of the descents.

 

[gavgav]

Summer visited Shropshire for 1 day and so it was a warm evening ride for me, getting my 50k ride for the month in, as it's a busy rest of month and so may be my only chance of a longish ride.

Glorious sunshine as I set off, but sill a gusty wind about. This really is the year of the wind

I took the cycle paths out of Town and joined the very busy road out through Four Crosses, Bicton and Montford Bridge, where there seemed even more traffic than normal, probably avoiding the busy roundabouts on the A5 bypass that carries loads of holiday traffic to North Wales at this time of the year. All well behaved though.

I branched off at Montford Bridge onto the lanes to Shrawardine Pentre and Royal Hill, before taking the shortcut that @Rickshaw Phil had shown me, down to Crosslanes. What was apparent was that there has been an outbreak of Surface Dressing on roads in Shropshire this week. My trip out on the cycle paths in Shrewsbury was alongside newly dressed roads, avoiding the odd chipping that flew towards me and about half the lanes I went onto had also been done. Why?!

At Crosslanes I went onto some new territory up to a small hamlet called Argoed, before arriving in Kinnerley and Dovaston. I then turned in the direction of Kinton, thinking to myself that the lanes looked different to the 1st time I'd used them in May. As I arrived at the junction I wanted, I found there was a good reason for that, I'd turned off the Dovaston road 1 junction earlier than intended and come from the other direction .

I climbed up to Kinton, where the clouds had gathered and were starting to look very threatening. I had washing out and so was hoping the rain would stay away until I got home.

From Kinton I dropped down to Felton Butler and then retraced my steps back to the busy road into Shrewsbury. There is a long climb up here and still a lot of traffic about, who unfortunately had left their brains behind this time, with numerous close passes, fast passes and 1 chap giving me a wide berth but almost wiping out someone waiting to turn right from the opposite direction in Bicton

I arrived home, still dry and got the washing in before it started to rain!

32.6 miles at 12 mph avg

 

[Racing roadkill]

170 odd miles today, beautiful weather, superb ride, loads of PRs, all done on the new Triban 520, what a bike .

https://www.strava.com/activities/343309157

 

[jhawk]

Not today's ride, but yesterday's instead!

Many kilometers, lots of hills, a great ride until I reached that dirt 'road' I was telling you all about. I actually tried two other ways to get to my host's place, all failed miserably. Finally I settled on the long way round and the dirt 'road'. I ended up having to get off and push for the majority of it.

The ride started out well enough. Stopped off to pick up some granola bars in town before heading out.

Crossing the Mundleville Bridge...

Next came the covered bridge. The province used to be full of these bridges. Unfortunately, due to arson, or falling into disrepair, they are starting to dwindle.

Riding through the quiet country lanes of Targetville and Brown's Yard was a stark reminder of the beauty of New Brunswick that oft goes unnoticed.

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Edited for continuation.

I ended up having to re-adjust my route twice before finally taking the correct, albeit longer route. First road I tried to go down - impossible, dirt and sand-filled for the most part. Second road - loose gravel and big rocks - 'You'll never make it without doing some serious damage to your bike', I thought. So doubled back again to finally take a longer route which brought me all the way around in behind where I wanted to go, so I put in a further few kilometres than I had planned. But all of that would later seem insignificant...

Because - for a solid hour, I ended up having to push the bike through this:

After the hour of slogging down that dirt track, I finally came to my host's house. Man, what a view. Rewarded for all that hard work.

I also found this poster inside her house, which I thought was very inspiring!

After a cosy, but slightly cold night's sleep in the hammock, I woke up at 5:30AM. I've no idea why.

Was treated first to this view from the window...

And then to a glorious sunrise at around 6:30.

Finally, this is my full route.

Tomorrow, I ride home!

 

[Racing roadkill]

Just a short hop to loosen the legs today.

https://www.strava.com/activities/343574358

 

[Simontm]

170 odd miles today, beautiful weather, superb ride, loads of PRs, all done on the new Triban 520, what a bike .

https://www.strava.com/activities/343309157

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That pub looks familiar..where is it?

 

[Simontm]

Just a 57 miler today, the Surrey section again.
Bit warm and this is the first time I've done this section at the weekend, bit busy innit?
Passed a bloke on a Bianchi at the lights at West Byfleet, purely because he had difficulty in clipping in but he appeared to take a bit of offence to that and tried to catch up with me. The next thing I know he's popped down Oakcroft Road whilst I've gone on to Coldharbour.
After passing him for a second time past the Wey Bridge I have a tail all the way to Clandon where I pulled over to have a bite of flapjack. Saw him ahead on the Epsom Road and thought "shall I reel him in again?" But decided to save my legs
Stopped for a pic at the bottom of Leith Hill

Then did an agonising climb - my legs have been stiffed all week so definitely a rest day tomorrow.
Stopped at the cafe entrance to make a bottle up and have a banana and to pick up my lung which I coughed up somewhere
Watched others climb up and said to a bloke in a 2014 Ride London top "it's the downs I can do." Bless him, he gave me encouragement about how near to the top I was when I bombed past him the other side, I said "I told you I was better downhill" said to another bloke enjoying the decent how much I hated the final ramp and I don't think he believed me until,I slowed to 9mph
Up Box Hill and as I said first weekend trip, boy that's busy


Then off again. By the way any cyclist wondering about the big bloke on the diverge seemingly having a fit on Headley Common, that was because a wasp banged into my arm, somehow got stuck and was giving me multiple stings. Bizarrely the haven't come up but I get the occasional jolt on my nerves.
Back through Oxshot and Esher then home.
Even with the aching legs I did it in 4 hours and bizarrely 48 PBs, dunno how that happened.

 

[LarryDuff]

37 miles this morning. Against a strong breeze on the way out. Legs still feeling a bit stiff and heavy from the gran fondo giro ditalia ni 3 weeks ago.