A dry, sunny Saturday? Must be time for a ride!
On the Road Comp again partly to test ride after fettling the gears (and the new black bar tape), partly as it's still the one closest the door.
A familiar groove up Coal Road, Red Hall Lane, the A58 onto Whin Moor Lane and into Shadwell, turning left and along to Slaid Hill lights and right onto Wike Ridge Lane for the short plunge through the dip and onto Tarn Lane at the top of the other side.
A bimble along the top to Ling Lane and the steady descent on a shocking surface back down to the A58, before the fast descent into Scarcroft and right onto Thorner Lane for the twisty drop then climb up Scarcroft Hill across the former railway line (that Sustrans were going to turn into a cycle route but seem to have forgotten about...) and onto Milner Lane for the run along the ridge to East Rigton.
By this point I'd established that the indexing was a lot better, but still not
quite right. The spring in the derailleur is starting to go, so it might be time to take the plunge and replace the part.
From East Rigton it was onto Bramham Lane for the enjoyable deserted ride through the countryside across Jewitt Lane and all the way to Thorner Lane, where I turned left and headed through the dip, up the other side and down to Bramham, skirting the edges of the village to stop at the start of Paradise Way for a stretch and a photo:
Feeling much better than last weekend, I retraced my steps to the top of the hill and headed for Toulston Lane and out into the countryside again, eventually picking up Garnet Lane, across the A659 and on to the bridge over the A64 and the speedy descent down to Stutton. This road must be party central overnight judging by the number of McDonalds bags and wrappers on the verges...
For once I stuck to the main road through the village, crossing the bridge over Cock Beck and taking the single track road out to the A162.
Here it was right again and up the hill about 100m behind a lad on a blue and white Scott road bike. This can be a busy stretch of road and I feared the worse when I heard an HGV working down through the gears behind me - a Sainsburys truck no less and regular readers might remember that I've had a couple of close passes from their trucks on here. Not today, he passed with loads of room and when he caught the cyclist in front he did the same again. 60 seconds or so later, another Sainsburys truck caught me up and again, an exemplary pass. When he caught the other cyclist up he held well back waiting for a gap in traffic and gave loads of room when he overtook. Maybe the grief they had the other week on social media has resulted in a bit of driver awareness? Whatever the reason it made a pleasant change.
Eventually reached Raw Lane and turned left for Ulleskelf and started to motor on, slowly reeling the Scott rider in. Didn't quite catch him before the village though and we both went different ways, him sticking to the main road and me looping through the village before emerging back out onto Busk Lane and running on to Church Fenton past the aerodrome. I briefly toyed with doing a loop of the airfield but decided against it today, so straight into the village and then followed the road round to the right, over the railway bridge and the long straight road to Barkston Ash.
From there it's a quick wiggle on the A162 before the run to Saxton and onto Cold Hill Lane, where I stopped at Linda's Bench for some Haribo and a photo:
(If you look closely you might just see the cooling towers of the Lower Aire Valley power stations (Drax and Eggborough), where they no longer burn coal dug out of the ground beneath them, but instead burn wood pellets shipped in from the other side of the world)
Anyhow, it was getting a bit warm now so I took off my windproof jacket and got back on the bike and carried on along Coldhill Lane, heading for Copley Lane and Lotherton Gates.
Here it was right and the lumpy stuff before the descent into Aberford and the inevitable lumpiness of Cattle Lane before crossing Cock Beck again and the climb into Barwick, setting an unexpected PB - another one on the 'winter' bike...
Though Barwick and the climbing continues nearly all the way to Scholes, where the reward is a quick swooping descent to the Coronation Tree and the slight rise before the run down Leeds Road. Today was a rare treat as there was no headwind on here(!), so good progress was made down the hill and across Cock Beck for the final time today, before getting onto local roads up to home, going just past the door to round the mileage up.
36.0 miles (57.93km) in an acceptable
2h 30m at an average of
14.3mph with
1,660ft climbed. A good days riding, enjoyed it more than the last couple of rides where I've just not been feeling it - and it's another entry in the Half Century challenge. There were a few other cyclists out today, but not as many as might be expected.
And finally a map - after last weeks badly drawn chicken and squiggly ostrich, this one doesn't really seem to resemble anything, unfortunately...
) and there was a lot of traffic heading in there as well, so I stuck to the rat run to Berwick Wharf which was better than usual today.
. I then arrived at Walcot and took the road around to Rodington Heath. I was thinking to myself that it was a while since I'd used this section of road and when checking Strava I found that it was September 2014!!!!
and 6 weeks of a sling 
.She also showed me how to do it.
.Feeling great 24 miles.
