Tales from today's commute....

[Arjimlad]

Usual 10 miles in, all good, shower at work. Will be 5 miles home this evening. Thursday will be 10 miles each way in & out of Bristol, evening ride will be particularly hot, plus it is uphill most of the way!

 

[HLaB]

Decided to take advantage of the light and weather to forego the train journey tonight.

The amount of roadworks road closures where only a pedestrian could get through made the rural roads a bliss. I wish I had stopped at a pub and got some photos as I had more time than I thought.

 

[biking_fox]

Warm (hot!) but ok so far. Very still today with no clouds so will be worse this evening. Loads of cyclists out, everyone just takingit steady.

 

[ianrauk]

I'm off all this week, my partner has had a major op, so at home being nursemaid. so no commuting in this hot weather.
On one hand im missing the Cycle commute as I always do when off from work, on the other hand, relieved not having to cycle in this extreme heat and sit in a swealtering office all day.

 

[Alex321]

Didn't cycle in today, due to forecast of 34-35C at home time.

I can do that temperature unladen, but not with several kilos of rucksack on my back, adding weight and blocking sweat evaporation.

 

[wafter]

Did well last night - managed a very sedate, shortened variation of the usual (if less-so-recently) north loop, coming back in along the tow path.

At one point passage was hampered by the skinny bits of an apparently fallen tree, and being snippy-season I had the secateurs so took off the worst of it to clear the majority of the path. 25 yards further down I bumped into a chap I know from the pub who lives on the river and was helping a mate with his boat.

As we stood chatting another mate (and regular, more-accomplished cycle commuter) was passing and stopped, and we ended up going for a swift couple in Jericho.. which was nice.

Then it was onward to the shops and finally to the usual pub for a single tonic with the usual Tuesday night folks; vacating when the England game started.


After a hot night (and facing the mild but tangible repercussions of cycling yesterday with arms uncovered and pasty chest partially exposed through my open shirt / I finally relented and donned my favourite white linen shirt (usually reserved for more dressy occasions, but very necessary in the brutal sun).

Oddly enough, while expecting a lot of bad driving due to the elevated temperature I've actually found the opposite over the past few days - a nice example being this morning where a crawling HGV driver clocked me loitering off his outside rear quarter and bothered to pull in slightly and beckon me past through the open window - to much gratitude as I went by

As usual it makes such a difference to my state of mind to have these little, life-affirming positive and mutually-beneficial interactions with people rather than the - at times - constant, unnecessary conflict that stems from peoples' arrogance and selfishness.

The butchers already looked somewhat dishevelled when I arrived; leaving with only two sausages although they were great this morning so I regret not going for the third.

Made good time so stopped for a bit of bramble butchery on the tow path as they're properly rampant now and there are seemingly always a new load of canes poking out across the route. I got a few encouraging / positive comments from passers-by, which is always nice