The 2016 Half Century (50 KM or 50 Mile) A Month Challenge - Chatzone

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Saluki

World class procrastinator
If you do the camel trail from Padstow. Take the left fork just before Bodmin and ride to the end and find Snails pace cafe as recomended by @Saluki and me .May Google it to see it's it's open at time of year
The snails pace is on its winter break until March. Lots of lovely cafes in Wadebridge though ^_^ cafes in Bodmin and in St Tudy, after the Snails, if you want to ride a couple of miles up the hill.
 

Katherine

Guru
Moderator
Location
Manchester
Thanks @ColinJ
Well done to everyone and good luck with your targets and challenges in 2017
 
Managed my 50 miler for December, meaning I did that for 11 out of the 12 months of the year - only failed to do it in January, which considering I wasn't a CC'er back then, I think I can excuse myself! Now that's left me with just 34.5 miles to do on New Year's Eve to get to 3,000 cycling miles for the year for the first time ever!

Nice one Steve, 3k miles will be a great milestone.
 
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ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
It almost certainly isn't going to happen, but with 21 days left this year I still need to do the equivalent of 15 50 km rides to hit my amended amended distance target for the year ... :whistle:

It would be quite an end to the year to do in December on my singlespeed winter bike what I didn't get close to doing in any other month on my multi-geared bike!
Well, I got stuck in and ... I DID IT! :okay:

I decided to take advantage of the unseasonably mild conditions and brought my Cannondale out of hibernation to make it easier to hit my target. It was doing my head in riding up and down the A646/A6033 on the singlespeed bike. I wanted to get up on the hills while they were ice-free and most of those hills are too severe for my s/s's 52/19 gear.

I did 14 rides over 50 km in December including one of 102 km, and I also did a 25-miler.

That's probably the best December of riding I have ever done - 528 miles or 851 km. Bring on 2017!
 

Nomadski

I Like Bikes
Location
LBS, Usually
And another one over the line . Talk about leaving late @Nomadski :okay: you had me worried .
27 finishers now

I know! I had a few opportunities to go riding early on in December, but when they passed things caught up with weather, or just too tired after early shifts. Did my 4am - 12pm shift today then just had to get out, I couldn't fail in December! :biggrin:

Thanks very much @ColinJ for setting this up. Has certainly got me doing more miles than I would have done without it so.

Congratulations to the other 26 who completed it (hopefully one more to come in) and good luck for next years, especially those who didn't quite make it this year.
 

13 rider

Guru
Location
leicester
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ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Local rider Littgull had hurt his back and taken 2 weeks off his bike. I wanted to get a 50 km ride in today and he wanted to see how he got on with that distance, in order to see if he could do a local audax event with me on Sunday. We did the first part of our planned hilly route but had to make a detour halfway when we discovered that road repairs on Midgley Rd down into Mytholmroyd did not complete as planned at the end of March. Part of the retaining wall for that steep descent was washed away by flood waters on Boxing Day 2015, and the council are still sorting it out ...

Before the flood:

Midgley_Road_climb_to_Height_Road.jpg


After the flood:

Midgley Road Boxing Day 2015 flood damage.jpg


Midgley Road Boxing Day 2015 flood damage closure.jpg


We had to improvise an alternative so we descended through the village and took a narrow, steep road (Naylor Ln) down to the A646. It is a bit iffy as a descent because it is steep, narrow, gravel-strewn in places and abruptly terminates right on the main road below. It would be very easy to overshoot and end up out in the busy traffic flow. I think I might ride up it for the challenge in future but will generally avoid it as a descent.

After that we headed back to Mytholmroyd and rejoined our planned route. Brian had already concluded that though his back was improving, it was not ready for the weekend audax's 115 km with 2,250 m of climbing, so we opted to take the easier option out of Mytholmroyd on that side of the valley. The hard way is up Scout Rd, and then Steep Ln, which is, er, steep! Bad for bad backs, so we headed off up England's longest hill instead, the Cragg Vale climb. Its length means that the average gradient is much lower - 3.3% with a maximum of about 8%. Halfway up, we turned left and rode round to Craggies cafe. We normally like to sit outside but there was a really chilly wind blowing today so we opted for the warmth of indoors instead. We chatted a while and ate our lunches before venturing back out to face that wind. Fortunately, we only had 3 km to go to the top of the hill, and after that a rapid descent to Littleborough, where Brian turned for home.

I took the scenic route out of Littleborough via Caldermoor and Calderbrook rather than riding straight up the A6033. Calderbrook Rd is closed to motor traffic at the northern end due to a landslip a few years ago, but it is still passable by bike so ignored the road closure signs. What I hadn't noticed was that it is now closed even to pedestrians, and therefore to cyclists. I soon found out why ... A whacking big excavator had dug a huge hole in the road to lay a new water main. Fortunately, nobody was actually working there today so I was able to pick my bike up and clamber over the big pile of earth dumped at the side of the hole. If I had slipped I would have fallen about 8 ft into the hole with my bike. Luckily, conditions were dry today so I was clambering on soil rather than mud.

I got through the works and then emerged onto the A6033 and headed home where I did a loop round the block to increase my tally for the day.

Nice ride, and it was good to see Brian back on his bike.
 
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