Your ride today.... (part 1)

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I was supposed to be kayaking on the river Usk, but I seem to have lost my paddling mojo so I went for a ride....
I set of at 9am, just about dressed right. I headed over Barrington hill, there were plenty of people coming the other way. It took me an age to cross the A505, then it was a drag up to Great Chishill. Through the lanes of Essex I passed a young lady roller skiing in the opposite direction, that made me smile. She was giving it some welly!
At Saffron Walden I stopped at the market and bought a custard Danish from this stall
View attachment 62868
Very good it was too!
Off I went in my custard fuelled state toward Ashdon, then on past my old house in West Wratting. There were hundreds of Fieldfares in the hedges, and I must have spotted a good dozen Bullfinches too!
I took the indirect route to Newmarket via various villages, I soon reached the Legoesque land of the stud farms. This is one of the gate houses to Cheveley stud-
View attachment 62869
Inside there isn't a blade of grass out of place.
I stopped at Newmarket for a bite to eat before heading in the direction of Brinkley. From ther there is a series of hills down to six mile bottom.
I eventually found myself in Haslingfield...... Do I make my second assent of the hill to Barrington? If I did this I'd have to go up Old Wimpole hill too, and I was approaching 75 miles.... In for a penny!
As I entered Barrington I had that familiar airless feeling from my rear wheel.... If only I'd gone the other way..... Something even worse could have happened!
The sun was rapidly sinking as I got to the top of the hill, it wasn't too arduous...
View attachment 62875
I was looking for treble figures today so at Longstowe I turned for the Gransdens.
At 88 miles my thighs started to cramp, so I eased up. At a gated track I got off to stretch, one foot went on top of the gate.... Ooooh, bliss! As I raised the other one it started to spasm quite badly, so I got it back down sharpish, otherwise I may have got stuck! I'm not sure if it was the crooning down from puncture fixing that brought it on, but I had some medicinal jelly babies!
I'm so glad I had the cramp as what happened next was the best bit of the day...
In a field to my right was a Barn Owl flying with me at eye level, he went down and came straight back up. At this point a Buzzard flew just over the top of my head then over the Owl, they exchanged looks. Not 50yds down the road I flushed a Sparrowhawk from the hedge, he went low from his perch, then shot up to about 20 feet, then stooped leaving me for dead!
The sun was now bidding it's farewells
View attachment 62878
I did the last 10 miles at a reasonable pace in lovely dusky orange light.
101 miles at an average of 15.6mph.
A splendid day!

Great write up and love the pictures. You were so lucky with the barn owl. thank you

 

[mcshroom]

I went for a ride up Wasdale today.

Very calm and peaceful on the way up the valley, and the clouds started to clear just as I was reaching Wasdale Head

Lunch at the Inn,

then headed back out of the valley to Drigg and up the coast.

The Seascale-Sellafield path on the way home was a challenge on 28mm Marathons as there was quite a lot of wind-blown sand on it. Also one of the 'Northern Belle' locos was parked up in the yard at Sellafield (no photo, the police don't like you taking them through that fence)

Just got home before it got dark
http://www.strava.com/activities/224420182

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Today was sunny cold and windy...so I thought I'd head to the most windy place i know here Devils Dyke. It's half the climb of my 'local loop' at Kantara in Northern Cyprus, but the wind & cold and the winter kit and a week off the bike all added up to slower than usual, not that that matters really. I say cold, it felt like the north pole to me, but there were loads of roadies in shorts and short sleeve jerseys...are you all insane??? lol!

http://www.strava.com/activities/224390138

 

[Mandragora]

Tarka Trail, Braunton to just past Torrington and back. Lovely when I set out, but I struggled on the last 10 miles back, until I realised the sun was long gone, it was freezing cold, and I'd gradually got colder and colder too. Dozy mare. I stopped for a few minutes to answer the Sustrans survey that was being done up there while putting on my coat and gloves... and the last three miles were happier! Glad I got out, as now the nights are darker and we live in a remote area, I've not been out after work for about ten days now, and I was missing it.

 

[ColinJ]

I went for a ride up Wasdale today.

Very calm and peaceful on the way up the valley, and the clouds started to clear just as I was reaching Wasdale Head

Lunch at the Inn,

then headed back out of the valley to Drigg and up the coast.

The Seascale-Sellafield path on the way home was a challenge on 28mm Marathons as there was quite a lot of wind-blown sand on it. Also one of the 'Northern Belle' locos was parked up in the yard at Sellafield (no photo, the police don't like you taking them through that fence)

Just got home before it got dark
http://www.strava.com/activities/224420182

That's my kind of cycling!

The bloody damp, depressing fog has hardly lifted for days here, but rumour has it that we will be blessed with better condition tomorrow, in which case I will try and get some hilly miles in!

 

[vernon]

you can imagine how I felt when I saw this place.

View attachment 62844

Sadly Mrs @vernon said he'd gone out to Boroughbridge in search of pies and an anarchist.

you should have told me you were going to be in the area and I'd have made arrangements to be at my pied a terre instead of engaging in a search for the Boroughbridge anarchist.

 

[vernon]

I'll be visiting all four of my grandparents and my best friend from school tomorrow or else I'd pop by again.

Tell me where the cemetery is and I'll meet you there.

 

[Mattonsea]

Only a quick ride with the Wheelers last evening...... 6.3 miles on cyclepaths..... and I needed it...

My elderly parents have been ill for sometime and my mother was taken into hospital 3 weeks ago and Dad followed suit after a further 5 days after a fall...... I lost my Dad on Wednesday at 02:30 in one hospital and Mum also on Wednesday at 13:20.... in another hospital yes 10 hrs and 50 mins apart...

So yes I needed the ride last night..... Hoping for another ride on Sunday with my youngest ..... her first time out on her new Road Bike.... then back to the Funeral Arrangements on Monday

Thoughts for you and your family .

 

[Gravity Aided]

4 miles yesterday, trying to see if plastic coated gloves will block icy winds from freezing ones hands. No, they won't. Today's test-At LBS urging, I am riding in the new shoes without cleats for a couple of days to get used to them. They did improve my speed, even on the Trek 800. So bicycling shoes do improve my speed, even without cleats. 7.1 miles today, 3 second best efforts on segments near my home. Even with 21mph winds. Temperatures warmed up to 11c 51F today, but tomorrow the temperature will drop throughout the day to the 30's F,0c range.

 

[ColinJ]

Gravesend.

Oh, I thought it was in Bury!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Only a quick ride with the Wheelers last evening...... 6.3 miles on cyclepaths..... and I needed it...

My elderly parents have been ill for sometime and my mother was taken into hospital 3 weeks ago and Dad followed suit after a further 5 days after a fall...... I lost my Dad on Wednesday at 02:30 in one hospital and Mum also on Wednesday at 13:20.... in another hospital yes 10 hrs and 50 mins apart...

So yes I needed the ride last night..... Hoping for another ride on Sunday with my youngest ..... her first time out on her new Road Bike.... then back to the Funeral Arrangements on Monday

Sorry about your loss.

 

[Glow worm]

Just a short 13 miler here today. A quick circuit was the plan, though it never quite works out that way with my slow pace.

Saw some spindle in a hedgerow at one point, always good to see some colour at this time of year...

Swaffham Bulbeck Lode looking very placid. I wondered if it will be covered in ice at all this winter...

Last summer, I watched a pair of cuckoos in the nearest tree on the left (above) - can't believe they're probably (hopefully) in Central Africa now, and with luck I'll see them again next year.

It was a day for seeing old friends and at Reach Lode Bridge I caught up with JME author of this great local blog
He was more mud than human having come off a few off road tracks on his way riding home from the deep fens. We watched a barn owl and what I think was a fem. hen harrier on Burwell Fen in the late afternoon sunshine.

We went our separate ways as the sun set on the flatlands. It was a great sunset, though my crap efforts at photography don't do it justice.

At Tubney Fen near Reach, quite by chance, I caught up with some friends who'd come over from my village to watch the starlings come in to roost at dusk. As a naturally solitary, miserable sod, even I must admit it was fun catching up with old pals.

The starlings are drawing some crowds now. Sadly most drive there, but at least it means that people still value nature.

My moonlit ride home, complete with barn owl at Swaffham Prior made it a really great ride. .

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Only a quick ride with the Wheelers last evening...... 6.3 miles on cyclepaths..... and I needed it...

My elderly parents have been ill for sometime and my mother was taken into hospital 3 weeks ago and Dad followed suit after a further 5 days after a fall...... I lost my Dad on Wednesday at 02:30 in one hospital and Mum also on Wednesday at 13:20.... in another hospital yes 10 hrs and 50 mins apart...

So yes I needed the ride last night..... Hoping for another ride on Sunday with my youngest ..... her first time out on her new Road Bike.... then back to the Funeral Arrangements on Monday

They are together....sorry for your loss.

 

[coffeejo]

I stopped at Newmarket for a bite to eat before heading in the direction of Brinkley.

I lived near Brinkley until we moved to Wales when I was 5.

 

[Dave 123]

I lived near Brinkley until we moved to Wales when I was 5.

Surely Wales was better?