Your ride today.... (part 1)

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iGaz said:
Did a bit of cyclocross action today. Only a 20mile ride, 10 of which off road along the North Cornwall path between Gwithian and Portreath.

Met a couple MTB riders going the other way struggling against the wind.

The best thing about a CycloX bike, is that you can go off road, but still maintain Roadie speeds on the road!:blush:

You can go off road on normal road bikes ;), on a club run we went through tatton park on this bit of bumpy off road, I was getting some air and doing about 15-19mph, nearly slipped when my front wheel locked, we where beating the MTB's!!
 

Peter

Senior Member
30 miles in the sodding rain, absolutely drenched, from head to toe - the sun is shining now?!
Well at least I got out.....
 

Mortiroloboy

New Member
9, yes, 9 miserable miles, it started to pee down, the wind was blowing it straight into my face, within 5 minutes I was soaked to the skin my shoes were full of water, and I was cold, so turned for home, a nice warm shower, and a hot cup of coffee.
Try again tomorrow...
 
Don't you lot just grin and bear it when you get wet sometimes? I cycle home a couple weeks ago, 65 miles, by the 5th mile in I was drenched, feet cold, could not get any worse, got to top of pennines near this reservoir, decided it's time to put my arm warmers on, had abit of Mars Bar, started to rain very heavy, big drops, so I set off. Go to Huddersfield, was still soaking, half way through it dried up and by the time I got home, about 40 miles from there I was nice and dry ;)
 

colly

Re member eR
Location
Leeds
Sat 16th

Nice run out to York to meet up with some other forumers.

Uncle Phil, Spandex, HelenD123, Arch, Danny, and Frustruck (all the way from Preston)

Rode up to Castle Howard and Malton and back to York via Stamford Bridge. Then for me back to Leeds.

101 miles

www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=7924
 

Joe

Über Member
Just under 70 miles for me at 17mph. Horrible rain and wind for the majority and suprisingly cold. Being an idiot I went with no overshoes, fingerless gloves, and too few layers - paid the price! Fingers were especially bad, I could hardly brake or shift. Legs went at about 60 miles too, I have no stamina these days:sad:
Home and cosy now though and I will no doubt forget how much it hurt by the next time I want to go out:biggrin:
Loads of close passes too, mostly by caravans:angry:
 

trio25

Über Member
MTB race today, legs are dead and I rode badly. But still another trophy was aquired.
 
The Etape Caledonia but I think everybody knows the story :becool:

On the positive it was nice to see Arranandy, Alves and Gavintc and the weather turned out to be not bad a bit damp in the morning but it turned into a nice day weatherwise. It was a reasonable pace 19.1mph but with a 15 min p'ture interupt and a 27 wait at the top of Schiehallion :wacko:
 

zacklaws

Guru
Location
Beverley
Today I finally rode up to Whitby from Beverley, something I have always wanted to do, 120 mile round trip. It turned out to be more demanding than I planned on. From Beverley up into the North York moors via Malton and Pickering was brilliant and was keeping to time. Finally had a clipless moment going up a steep hill, dropped my hat, and forgot to unclip to pick it up. Half a mile down road began to think my landing in the area of my hips was nice and soft and discovered two well crushed bannanas in my back pockets so ate them there and then. Result was sticky handlebars for approx next 60 miles.

Almost at Whitby, I could see the abbey with 8 miles to go according to a sign, the countryside turned into a mass of hills, the worst was a 30% one which I had to walk up and it went for ever. When I got into Whitby I wanted to sack it I was hurting that bad. After Whitby heading down to Scarborough it was hill after hill which I struggled with due to the earlier hills plus it was head wind till I got home.

Into the Wolds near Filey, more hills, and then torrential rain for about an hour. Finally arived home totally shattered about 30 mins later than planned, which was not to bad. Total journey, 9hrs 6mins, averaging approx 13mph.

Anyway, I never ever want to go to Whitby, or anyone ever, ever suggest a ride to Whitby again on a bike and I never want to see a hill for at least the next 24hrs. But hell do I feel good for doing it.
 

albal

Legendary Member
Location
Dorset
was a bloody nightmare, took a wrong turn & paid the price walking in rain (the 'road' disappeared) & a handful of flats never again.
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
160km (100 miles) AUdax organised by Hull CTC and started at the Humber Bridge car park and went through the wolds to Malton then looped back.

The weather was fine in the morning then there were several down pours and a temperature drop before the weather faired up with an accompanying temperature rise.

I made the cut off by five minutes, I'd anticipated being at least an hour faster. Last week's workload and lack of sleep clearly had a detrimental effect on my performance.

The Flying Gate was a pleasure to ride.
 

Auntie Helen

Ich bin Powerfrau!
Well today I decided to mosey over to Harwich to scout out where I need to go on Sunday night to catch the ferry for my German River Tour.

One of the jobs on my 'to do' list has been to put my mudguards back on in readiness for the trip (and German rainstorms) but I hadn't quite got round to it. Never mind, the sun is shining and the sky is blue.

I had looked on the OS map and seen a possible cycle-only shortcut between Harwich and Wrabness which would mean I could avoid the A120 for more of the route. I decided that it would be wise to go the direct route there and to try out this alternative on the way back.

So, off I set, pootling onto the NCN51 which goes to Harwich (although not to the ferry port, at least not directly, so I was planning to leave it at Wix). Within about five minutes there were some spots of rain. Never mind, I thought, they will stop soon. Indeed they did, but had left enough water on the road to make my mudguard-free front wheels a bit of a pain. Every time I went through a small puddle the water is flung up into the air and then lands on my head, chest, arms... my fluorescent yellow jacket now had enough muddy brown spots to give me a distinctly dalmation-esque look.

At Wix I turned onto the A120 for the final seven miles. It's a fast road, although single rather than dual carriageway at this point. With the tailwind I found I was flying along, doing 20mph most of the time, going up to 25mph, still doing 18-19 up the hills. My usual speed would be between 12 and 15 so this was rather exhilarating, especially when large lorries went past.

I followed the road signs to the ferry terminal and found myself alone there, rather like the Marie Celeste. No people around at all. I found a waiting area which was open but there was no-one inside. I couldn't see where pedestrians/cyclists were supposed to check in, unless it was where the cars do, but gave up looking. No doubt I will be able to find someone to help me when I turn up at 9pm on Sunday along with hundreds of cars and lorries.

So... now to find the sneaky back route from the ferry port to Wrabness. My Satnav had the route (and I had a backup OS map in my bag) and so I wended my way towards the petrol refinery, or whatever it was. A security chappie showed me where the path was and I set off along it. Unfortunately it was very rough ground and another random chap who appeared told me it's like that all the way. It was at this point that the heavens opened and I decided that wet, rough ground and my lack of mudguards wasn't a good combination. So I turned round and retraced my route to the A120.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, it was almost like hailstones. I had sandals and shorts on so it was a good test for my clothing choices for my tour - I wasn't cold, just wet, and those raindrops stung! However a previously unsuspected problem appeared... because of my vanity about cyclists' tan I have eschewed gloves since the sun arrived so that my hands are the same colour as my forearms. However, I quickly discovered that in monsoon rain conditions the grip shifts aren't easy to grip without gloves. I couldn't change gear at all, as much as I tried, as my hands just slipped around the grip shifts. A single-speed Trice isn't the easiest thing in the world to ride around roundabouts and on fast roads, I can now inform you.

I sheltered under a shop awning for a few minutes as the worst of the rain came down but could see blue sky behind the raincloud and soon enough the rain was just spitting so I set off again on my singlespeed Trice (on the big chainring at the front, somewhere in the middle on the back, so about gear 23 out of 27 - which is quite a high gear!)

As I zoomed down a hill on the A120 I held my right hand up into the slipstream to help it to dry (wiping it on my clothes didn't help as they were soaked). In due course I had enough grip to change gear again, which was a relief.

I didn't entirely retrace my route home, I did a detour to Wrabness to see the other end of the footpath I hadn't taken. This was a much nicer route than the A120 into a headwind as it didn't matter if I was rather slower. Which, of course, I was. I was also absolutely covered in mud from the front wheels, I could feel it on my face and had to periodically wipe my sunglasses clean. The strong headwind made things a little chilly at times and despite the sartorial disaster I would have appreciated some socks with my sandals. But after 10 minutes or so (including some uphills) I had warmed up and things were back to normal.

There were a couple more showers on the way home but nothing too bad and I couldn't get any muddier than I actually was so wasn't an issue. The other end of the footpath to the petrol refinery at Harwich seemed as bumpy/unmade as the Harwich end so it's probably a good thing I didn't perservere with that one.

When I got home (after 33 miles in total) I had two cups of tea and also finished both portions of chocolate cake. One was James's, of course, but I felt I deserved it more...

So, I shall retrace the Wrabness route to go to the ferry on Sunday night, but will then join the A120 for the final 4 miles rather than trying to go off-road with fully loaded for touring kit. And hopefully before then I will manage to find out where I check in for the ferry.
 

bonj2

Guest
vernon said:
160km (100 miles) AUdax organised by Hull CTC and started at the Humber Bridge car park and went through the wolds to Malton then looped back.

The weather was fine in the morning then there were several down pours and a temperature drop before the weather faired up with an accompanying temperature rise.

I made the cut off by five minutes, I'd anticipated being at least an hour faster. Last week's workload and lack of sleep clearly had a detrimental effect on my performance.

The Flying Gate was a pleasure to ride.

damn, i was going to do the east riding 150 one but I DNSed 'cos i was itching to test my new MTB frame out in the peaks! * maybe would've met you vern...;)
never mind another time
*it passed with flying colours
 
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