Your ride today....

[SteveF]

A loop out to Billericay on the new bike, very pleasant it was too..

View: https://www.strava.com/activities/561929226/embed/8f4206cb7b1ec8b0308bb94bdbdd5a12c93dbe02


A piccie of a random farm, although it does look quite attractive, the real reason I stopped had more to do with it being at the top of a ruddy hill and I needed to have a gulp (or two) of water:

Further into the ride I nearly got lured off route, managed to resist!!

 

[Surlydave]

Training ride around west Suffolk, for Lejog later in the summer. Probably not enough hills!! !https://www.strava.com/activities/562013855

 

[PeteXXX]

Friday/Saturday I rode.Today I must w*rk

 

[Stonechat]

Club ride to Sonning today (actually Sonning Common, a few miles beyond Sonning)

I was mildly concerned at having some fatigue in my legs, but pace was manageable.
Route out through Winkfield and Twyford
The sun was out, and it brought a fair share of motorists and being bank holiday w/e there were events on (including Windsor Horse show we encounterered on route home). Many queues of cars

Going through Sonning, delightful area as always.

The club ride had split into shorter and longer rides, and our group on the longer run of 6 people, lost two as they peeled off to destinations of their own.

Pleasant stop and not wanting to go through the park, we went through Windsor.
Nearing home, I had about 55 miles done and wanted a bit more so did another loop

63.32 miles done, so a metric century.
15.3 mph average
1693 feet climbed

Arrived home to find Mrs S out and I am apparently cooking tonight (don't mind really)
Could have done a few more miles!

NIce sun and warm at the end though was chilly start
https://www.strava.com/activities/562012188

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Usual 30 mile pootle with our lass. Very windy but warmer. Coot chicks getting bigger in Abbey Park, saw some ducklings, a huge grey heron and a couple of little egrets. Don't know what our lass did to the coffee but it tasted of soap! Lazy afternoon watching the snooker now on the cards.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Daventry the destination, 57 miles the journey. Lumpiest ride this year so far combined with a strong cold wind made for a hard slow morning in the saddle. That was my first visit to Cafe Roso for about three years, and I missed the turn, but managed to find the cafe without to much difficulty. My ride out took me through Marton, Leamington Hastings and across Grandborough fields and over the bridge to Flecknoe and onto the main road through Staverton and onto Daventry. On the way back I rode out of Daventry through the Royal Oak industrial estate and picked up the A45 to Willoughby and back across Grandborough fields, when I got to marton I stayed on the Banbury road to Princethorpe where I picked up the fosse way, crossed the A45 and continued on the fosse way till I turned into Coalpit lane then turned left into Wolston then turned right and into Coventry past the speedway and through Binley Woods across the city and home.

 

[Racing roadkill]

https://www.strava.com/activities/562047533

Isle of Wight knobber fest for me today.
Its normally a nice event, as long as the weather is bad, and the choppers don't / can't ride. The weather was brilliant, so there were a lot of truly shockingly bad riders out. The consolation is that the majority of the worst offenders were helpfully wearing their club kit, the absolute worst of the bunch ( how the Sam Hill hell he didn't end up in a pile of broken bikes and riders, after the chronically stupid, Darwinian pass up the left, whilst we were trying to avoid a downed rider, I'm not sure) happened to have a club kit, which is local to me.

Any way, ignoring the ( admittedly relatively small ) number of Kamikaze pilots, out today, the weather held out brilliantly, and the ride went well, with no technicals, or crashes from me ( just the aforementioned chopper idiot incident).

Waiting at Southampton.

During the crossing.

Calshot, from the ferry out.

The feed station / checkpoint at Yarmouth.

All in all, my faith in this event is untarnished, it is a fantastic day out, and a shoe in for this month's Metric. I've just noticed I've managed to get 82 PR's and second quickests. That's a lot for one ride.

 

[mark st1]

Isle of Wight knobber fest for me today.

Cracking title that

 

[13 rider]

Set off this morning target Mays 100km . Out at 0900 weather not to bad bit windy .Plan was for a big sixty/seventy miler .Anstey ,Cropston out to Beacon Crossroads and then Charley Rd to Shepshed . Belton . I caught and passed a rider here and then become aware he was on my wheel on the incline into Diesworth .At the top of the climb he came by and went on the front and thanked me for passing him as it had got him going instead of pootling .He was riding to Newark from Ashby so following my route for a few miles .So for the next hour we rode together but pushing on . Diesworth ,Long Whatton, Kegworth ,West Leake , East Leake ,Costock ,Wysall . I finally parted company as I turned for Willoughby . Really nice to have company chatting away for an hour . I noticed in this hour I covered 18.5 miles a bit above my pace I might pay for that .Into Willoughby over the A46 then turned right into the headwind. Along drag along lawn lane . Through Grimston and Saxelby into Asfordby across the A607 .Rolling terrain all into a headwind towards Gaddesby legs are being to feel it now .Out to Ashby Foeville back to Gaddesby then Rearsby .Stopped at my favourite bench at Rearsby by the brook for a snack and a rest .This where I checked the milage and plotted a new route home to do just enough .Thrussington to Ratcliffe on the Wreake on the downhill of humble lane I normally top 30 mph but today I had to put in an effort to do 20 mph the wind had really picked up .Cossington ,Rothley out to Swithland ,Cropston and Home 64.74 miles done in a tad over 4 hrs . But boy do my legs ache now really struggled the last 10 miles .I swear my long bid tight are to tight in the legs I can't wait to remove then when I get home ,2 weeks ago I did 77 miles in shorts and my legs were fine roll on summer please . Again loads of rides out today

 

[mark st1]

Went out on a introductory club run today with @Mr Haematocrit formerly otp. Went with the guys at https://700cc.org nice bunch of people. Was very apprehensive looking at the rules and regs but all very much common sense really. Split in to 2 groups of 6 including the ride leaders nice mixed group and lovely riding with a bit of a wind break when not on the front. Blooming freezing to start with my fingers were numb lovely when the sun warmed us up though. All local roads to me so all very familiar. Stretched my legs a bit on the way home but noticed the head wind a lot more !
Just under 45 miles with 526 ft of climbing avg speed of 15.3 mph. No pics today as I didn't want to intrude on unfamiliar people lol.
https://www.strava.com/activities/561893756

Cheers
Mark.

 

[Dave 123]

A tandem ride for us today out to Ely.
We had the wind on our backs heading on the outward journey so we were flying! Once at Cottenham there were lots of bikes coming the other way, turns out there was a charity ride that started out at Impington.
Out through the flat fen before the slight bump of twenty pence hill, then a left and right at Wilburton. We passed another tandem doing the charity ride.
Soon we got our first glimpse of Ely cathedral across the fields of rape, then I took a wrong turn!
We were supposed to be meeting our friend Rebecca for tea so Jo sent her a text, turns out she was in Cambridge! She thought we'd be later.
So once at Ely we called in on our friend Mick, who kindly got the kettle on.
Then we rolled down the road, all 100yds to Peacocks tea room to meet her ladyship, fresh back from Cambridge. Our first ever time at Peacocks, and they missed our order out. We waited ages, then Jo kicked off! They were very apologetic!
There were plenty of charity ride bods about

Tea taken, we set off back into the wind. In Wilburton a group of 6 riders chatted to us and then down twenty pence we blew them away. They were 90 miles into a 100 miler, but I have to get my thrills somewhere! By Cottenham they'd caught us.
Back through Cambridge for an ice cream and up Madingley Hill. Once back we HAD TO go round the block to get the 50 miles. Made perfect sense to me!

https://www.strava.com/activities/562173677/segments/13618083966

 

[NorthernDave]

The Tour de Dave (TdD) for me today, featuring elements of TdY Stages 1 and 2.
Like much of the other Tour that's been going on, mine wasn't televised either....

So, out on Coal Road where I was over a mile from home before I realised that I'd not started the Garmin
Onto Skeltons Lane and then right onto Thorner Lane and part of TdY Stage 2.
Left onto the A64, then right for the sprint into Scholes and through the village and on to Barwick, where they were still packing up. Through there and on to Aberford, heading under the A1(M) and up to Lotherton hall, before taking the road towards Sherburn.
I left the TdY route to turn up to Saxton before heading from there to Barkston Ash and on to Church Fenton.
From there I turned along the southern side of Leeds East Airport and took the back road to Ryther, where I joined the TdY Stage 1 route to Ulleskelf and nicely into the prevailing head wind.
Just before reaching Ulleskelf there were a several promotional things made from hay bales, so I stopped by one for a picture and a drink:

Refreshed and back on the bike it was through Ulleskelf, over the railway line and into the wind out to the A162 on Raw Lane (very appropriate name...).
Down the hill, before leaving the TdY route to head through Stutton and up Garnet Lane, where it started to rain.
Over the A64 bridge and on eventually to Toulston Lane and back into the headwind. Brushed the top side of Bramham before tackling the Windmill, where I set a new best top speed (for me) of 43.4 mph on the way to Clifford.
From there it was back down to Bramham (into the wind again) before climbing up to the bridge over the A1(M) and the slog to Thorner, broken briefly by the plunge into Wothersome Dip with the inevitable climb up the other side...
The wind was right in my face here (why do I persist in riding this route this way?) and I was really feeling it, so I broke out the emergency Haribo Tangfastic and immediately felt marginally better
Eventually flew down the hill into Thorner and back onto TdY Stage 2 through the village and the grind up Sandhills over the huge "VAN ZYL" that's been chalked on the road, leaving the TdY route as i turned back onto Skeltons Lane where a nice person in a BMW X3 decided it would be acceptable to pass within a foot of my elbow...
From there it was back onto Coal Road and then local roads to home.

37.32 miles (60.06 km) in 2 h 33 m at an average of 14.6 mph with 1,627 ft climbed. All in all, a good do in increasingly rubbish weather. Plus it's the metric half century in the bag for May on day 1

Edit to add, according to Garmin at some point I was 7m below sea level! Checking it seems most of the section between Barkston Ash and Ulleskelf is below sea level - I've never noticed that before...

Then spent this afternoon on the settee watching the other Tour...

 

[derrick]

Another ride out to Cambridge,Second time this week. This time with the other half and Vic, We got blown out there but it was a hard ride back, Again a nice bit of breakfast at the Copper Kettle, on the way out i kept getting a whiff of bacon, so when i got to the Copper Kettle it was a lovely toasted bacon sandwich, The wind was against us going back, was a hard ride back. But we got back to to the Salisbury pub, (one of our locals) Had a couple of beers, Vics Husband met us there, So a nice little chat with friends,
A perfect day. good ride, good company, good beer.
https://www.strava.com/activities/562278460

 

[Pale Rider]

Most of you seem to have had reasonable weather today, but for me it was 50 miles in wind and rain.

It was an out and back from Sunderland to the Headland at Hartlepool, mostly on the NCN track.

What would be a very agreeable ride was spoiled a bit by the mud as much by the rain.

The wind, as ever, was double-edged - largely against on the way out, largely behind on the way back.

Getting filthy was not so bad as I was finishing the ride at home where I have all that's needed to restore cleanliness.

But it was a good thing I wasn't on an early season tour, turning up at a bed and breakfast in the condition I arrived home in would have been no fun.

 

[Donger]

Today was a special away day for our club, as we drove into Wales to do a joint KingswayCC/Caerphilly CC ride. We all met up at the Tommy Cooper memorial opposite Caerphilly Castle and split into ability/speed groups. That's me, fourth from the right:

Three of our club got together with six of theirs on the most relaxed version of the shorter ride on offer, and headed off to Llantwit Major and back, via an undulating, 47 mile route that included 2,800 feet of climbing. What a great experience it was, too. Very friendly locals made for a great social ride, and paid for our coffee and cakes in the Velo Cafe in Llantwit Major. They'll be doing a return visit to Gloucester on the next bank holiday weekend, so we've planned a particularly nice scenic route and an unusual cafe stop for them. All in all a great day, (despite one local rider breaking his new chain twice in the first 7 miles, and one of ours heading off up the slip road for the M4 Eastbound at one point!), and can't wait to repeat it. Many thanks to everyone in the Caerphilly CC that arranged this ride, and for your hospitality. Loved the whole experience.