Sea of vapours
Guru
- Location
- Clapham, Yorkshire Dales
Sorry to hear that. Certainly worth posting as it's at least the beginning of another twelve month series and I'm pretty sure that the last discussion on the rules strongly endorsed that option.
The Metric Century (100KM) A Month Challenge ChatZone
- Thread starter ColinJ
- Start date
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steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Well I did manage to do the 100km today - in fact it was my longest ride of the year (by all of 0.9 of a mile!). However I very nearly didn't get to go through with it, when after just 10 miles a car left hooked me at a junction nearly taking me out. The guy in the truck that was right behind the idiot's car gave a huge blast on his horn when he realised what was about to happen and that helped bring it to my attention so I could attempt to brake - obviously otherwise the first thing I'd have seen was the side of this vehicle coming right across my face. The truck did pull alongside to check I was okay, but all I could do was puff out my cheeks and shrug my shoulders - I was absolutely steaming as you can guess, but knew if I opened my mouth I'd have just let loose a volley of swear words and that wouldn't have been fair to him because clearly he was a nice guy and he knew that the other driver was the one who was a ****.
Kind of put a dampener on what was otherwise quite an interesting ride. Also putting a dampener - literally this time - was the rain that never really amounted to much more than spitting, but never went away either. Considered stopping for shelter a few times, but thought it was just easier to press on. But I did get to explore some new roads around Woburn and Flitwick I'd never done before and that's always fun.
- Location
- Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Umm, I think your watch might be running a bit fast.
GuyBoden
Guru
- Location
- Warrington
Sbudge
Cyclist
- Location
- NW London & The Chilterns
Not funny at all Steve, I'm glad you're OK. I assume the left-hooker just drove on oblivious?
steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Yup. Disappeared into the distance at high speed. I console myself with the fact that karma will catch up with him at some point (especially if he keeps on driving like that).
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I got another metric century in yesterday, a 103 km ride from the home of sister #1 in Coventry to the home of sister #2 in Leighton Buzzard.
I delayed my departure until 13:00 because of rain and thus managed to avoid all except for a few drizzly spells. I enjoyed some sunny spells on the way. What I did not enjoy was the nagging, blustery cross/headwind that hindered my progress.
I only averaged 21 kph (13 mph) but that didn't mean that ride felt easy. The wind made up in difficulty for the relatively flat terrain. I was carrying a 35 litre rucksack, which started feeling pretty heavy after 3 hours and terrible after 4 hours.
My delayed departure meant that I got caught up in rush hour traffic from NW of Milton Keynes down to LB.
I was coming in to LB on the A418 and had heavy traffic thundering past me so I opted to get off the road onto the segregated cycle path to my left. That turned out to be really good. The surface was excellent. I didn't see any broken glass and nobody else was using the path so I could ride along as fast as I wanted to.
I knew that there was a busy roundabout ahead where the A418 crosses the A4146. I had gone through my route on Street View before setting off so I knew that the cycle path went off to my left to cross the A4146 about 50 metres to the west of the roundabout. It was there that I made a really serious mistake ...!
I think that my blood sugar must have been getting low after 5 hours of battling that wind. The traffic was very heavy so it was hard to spot a gap in which to cross but eventually I saw that 3 cars were going straight ahead on the A418 which created a gap in the flow on the A4146. I set off to cross but failed to clip in first time, and then I realised that I had set off on the big ring and struggled to get moving ...
That small delay was enough time for 2 westbound drivers to fly around the island after the 3 northbound drivers had passed, and accelerate down my stretch of road. I was halfway across my side of the road when I looked to my right and saw both drivers emergency braking to avoid hitting me!
I mouthed apologies to them and got out of the way ASAP. Having had time to think about what happened, I am now pretty convinced that the 2 drivers must have been speeding but the fact is that I got myself into a seriously dangerous situation. I should not be relying on drivers not to speed out of a roundabout immediately after traffic has crossed in front of them!
Lesson very definitely learned! I opted to walk the bike across from the centre refuge. I waited for the traffic to stop at the roundabout, made eye contact with the drivers that I was crossing in front of and nipped across, watching out in case of cyclists or motorcyclists filtering through from my left.
I was quite shaken up by the incident. I know some people will suggest that staying on the road all along would have been the answer rather than using the path. I don't agree - I'd had several high-speed close passes before opting for the path, and the roundabout looked scary in rush hour traffic.
I think it would have been better to put the bike crossing another 25 metres from the roundabout so cars would take longer to get there, but OTOH they would be traveling faster when they got there.
My forum ride will be coming back into LB that way tomorrow so we will have to decide whether to use the path or the road and be very careful either way!
I delayed my departure until 13:00 because of rain and thus managed to avoid all except for a few drizzly spells. I enjoyed some sunny spells on the way. What I did not enjoy was the nagging, blustery cross/headwind that hindered my progress.
I only averaged 21 kph (13 mph) but that didn't mean that ride felt easy. The wind made up in difficulty for the relatively flat terrain. I was carrying a 35 litre rucksack, which started feeling pretty heavy after 3 hours and terrible after 4 hours.
My delayed departure meant that I got caught up in rush hour traffic from NW of Milton Keynes down to LB.
I was coming in to LB on the A418 and had heavy traffic thundering past me so I opted to get off the road onto the segregated cycle path to my left. That turned out to be really good. The surface was excellent. I didn't see any broken glass and nobody else was using the path so I could ride along as fast as I wanted to.
I knew that there was a busy roundabout ahead where the A418 crosses the A4146. I had gone through my route on Street View before setting off so I knew that the cycle path went off to my left to cross the A4146 about 50 metres to the west of the roundabout. It was there that I made a really serious mistake ...!
I think that my blood sugar must have been getting low after 5 hours of battling that wind. The traffic was very heavy so it was hard to spot a gap in which to cross but eventually I saw that 3 cars were going straight ahead on the A418 which created a gap in the flow on the A4146. I set off to cross but failed to clip in first time, and then I realised that I had set off on the big ring and struggled to get moving ...
That small delay was enough time for 2 westbound drivers to fly around the island after the 3 northbound drivers had passed, and accelerate down my stretch of road. I was halfway across my side of the road when I looked to my right and saw both drivers emergency braking to avoid hitting me!
I mouthed apologies to them and got out of the way ASAP. Having had time to think about what happened, I am now pretty convinced that the 2 drivers must have been speeding but the fact is that I got myself into a seriously dangerous situation. I should not be relying on drivers not to speed out of a roundabout immediately after traffic has crossed in front of them!
Lesson very definitely learned! I opted to walk the bike across from the centre refuge. I waited for the traffic to stop at the roundabout, made eye contact with the drivers that I was crossing in front of and nipped across, watching out in case of cyclists or motorcyclists filtering through from my left.
I was quite shaken up by the incident. I know some people will suggest that staying on the road all along would have been the answer rather than using the path. I don't agree - I'd had several high-speed close passes before opting for the path, and the roundabout looked scary in rush hour traffic.
I think it would have been better to put the bike crossing another 25 metres from the roundabout so cars would take longer to get there, but OTOH they would be traveling faster when they got there.
My forum ride will be coming back into LB that way tomorrow so we will have to decide whether to use the path or the road and be very careful either way!
shirokazan
Veteran
This is the section from Wing to LB, isn't it? I've used both the road and the path in the past: I tend to use the path unless the traffic is fairly quiet. Note that just before the roundabout there is an entry point from the path back onto the road, meaning that you can do most of the section from Wing on the path and rejoin the road to get across the roundabout.
Anyhow, glad that you're still in one piece!
steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Interesting - I usually use the road from Wing all the way to the roundabout and switch to the cyclepath at that point! However, I'm usually turning right at that roundabout rather than going straight on, so I'm crossing the A418 first, then the eastbound A505, which is a little easier to do - traffic isn't going quite as fast round the bend and you have much better visibility of it. Anyway, it'll be easier on Saturday afternoon - less traffic than on a midweek rush hour for sure.
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Sbudge
Cyclist
- Location
- NW London & The Chilterns
An alternative to the usual ride reports, this is from the gravel route I did last week (already posted). Interesting idea I thought. (Please excuse the dodgy music, the selection on there isn't great)
https://www.relive.cc/view/1109102472
https://www.relive.cc/view/1109102472
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
We used the cycle path on the forum ride on Saturday and I realised that the crossing point is much closer to the roundabout than I'd remembered. Using it was fine the second time round, with lighter traffic levels, but I think it is definitely too close to the roundabout when there is frenetic rush hour traffic. I am an experienced cyclist and I had looked for a suitable break in the traffic on Thursday, but 2 motorists still managed to get scarily close to the 'kill zone'!
Lilliburlero
Pro sandbagger
- Location
- South Derbyshire
Weather looks good tomorrow, so I`m going to have crack at doing a 100 km ride in the morning for the 100 km challenge and a 50 km evening ride for the 50 km challenge. The morning 100 km ride will be a nice and easy solo spin, but the evening 50 km will be a group ride averaging 19/20+ mph 
Lets see how my little legs cope
Lets see how my little legs cope
- Location
- Egham
Got the August ride in on Monday. A bit lumpy, and after 2 weeks on holiday with not a great deal of cycling I really felt it. Happy to still be in it after 8 months, and still doing the metric half every month just in case....
