[No photos today. Sorry - I forgot to take any!]
@Vantage couldn't make it in the end so it was just Guy, me, and my non-CC pal (Bill) who was riding
his DIY singlespeed bike. I was riding my
former DIY singlespeed which has now had 5 extra gears added***, but which I still usually leave in one gear. I did so again today - the 42/15 - approx. 74 gear inches. That was low enough to get up the sporadic stiff little climbs, okay for slogging into the frequent headwinds in the first half of the ride, but high enough for whizzing back with the nice tailwind.
Because we didn't need to go to Glazebrook station after all, Bill parked just off the A57, and we then cycled over the Warburton toll bridge to meet Guy at Heatley. We found him there chatting to another couple of cyclists and at first I thought they might be tagging along with us, but they were waiting for someone else and were going to do their own ride.
Yes, it was a very good day out. Guy applied his powerful and deceptive accelerations a few times into the headwinds on the first half of the ride. He rides a big gear and has a smooth pedal stroke so it is often tricky to spot when he is pushing harder, except for one subtle clue, which is that one is suddenly 50 metres behind and desperately trying to catch up! Bill and I did get our own back on Guy a few times on climbs though - Guy has more power (which helps on flat roads), but we have more favourable power-to-weight ratios (which help us going uphill).
We did a very quick detour to the entrance to Oulton Park to take a look at the big, powerful cars which were racing there today. We then continued on our way to the cafe stop, where we found
@neil_merseyside waiting for us. He had driven over for a chat and a snack. It was nice to see him again, and we will try to meet up for another ride later in the year.
The drizzle cleared up after the cafe stop and the sun finally appeared. We also had wind assistance at last, so the return leg passed more quickly than the outward leg.
We bade farewell to Guy in Lymm, and headed back over the toll bridge. I realised that I was going to be a couple of km short of my desired metric century, so I persuaded Bill to ride towards Glazebrook and back to make up the distance.
Check out my Harrogate ride in 2 weeks time, folks. The Humber Bridge imperial century ride will be in a month or so. I also promised Guy that I would do another lumpy (but shorter) ride from Hebden Bridge, so that will be squeezed in somewhere.
*** Though I nearly turned it into a
ZERO speed bike this morning... I loaded my bike, pannier, helmet etc into the back of Bill's car and was about to lock my front door when I spotted my rear wheel still in the house!
