Beer?

[MatthewDav15]

I'm on my second "Biere Speciale". Figured I deserve it. Did just under 14 miles in 40:42 with an average speed of 20.4, gorgeous sunshine, lovely warm breeze. Sporting shorts & t-shirt.
Way home I got soaked & windswept (thankfully had the foresight to stuff waterproofs in my bar bag), took me approx 1hr 15 and brought my average speed down to 14.2mph. About 30mins after getting home, sun comes back out again. How sh*t is that!
I'm getting another beer if anyones wants one.
If you ever decide to trade the beer for a top-shelf wine, treat yourself to a solid vintage to celebrate beating the weather!

That is the classic UK/Northern European cycling experience for you—four seasons in a single afternoon! Crushing 14 miles at 20.4 mph is a serious effort though, so that sudden headwind and downpour just earned you every drop of that second beer. Don't let the sun coming back out ruin the mood; just kick back and enjoy the post-ride recovery.

 

[bitsandbobs]

Alvinne, one of the wackier Belgian brewers, has decided to throw in the towel. Various headwinds blamed.

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2026/08/06/ik-wil-de-eer-aan-mezelf-houden-glenn-53-trekt-na-ruim-23-j/

Always enjoyed their brews, although at one point they had an infection in their brewery, so they had huge problems with refermentation in the bottle. A bit of a trap for the unwary as beer ended up being sprayed over the ceiling if you weren't careful. They got it under control in the end and had a "fellowship" program where you paid an annual fee and received a number of beers every few months which they brewed on a relatively small scale. A cycle chatter was a subscriber - it's all somewhere is this thread, probably about a thousand pages back!