Your ride today.... (part 1)

[theloafer]

well today I thought I would go for a short spin to se how things were working out with my eye before Mondays check up as I is my b/day after all

(cyclists have to ride on there b/days right)

vision wise I cant see that much change

but then maybe I am expecting to much to soon

the surgeon on Monday will have more idea only problem I have now all my fitness as gone this is my second ride this year..
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/348412444

if you fancy a laugh legs like jelly but now for coffee and b/day cake

 

[laurence]

OUCH!

first ride for a year and sice having a load of 'old' blood drained from my knee several months back (which has scared me off cycling).

only a gentle pootle around richmond park, avoiding the bigger hills. stopped at White Lodge to find my favourite bench had been broken. another bit of a pootle, then espresso at the pen ponds hut, then pootled home.

most of me aches and my legs feel very hollow. my lungs hurt like crazy, but the knee seems ok.

i convinced myself to go out by buying the new Euskaltel jersey and it worked. also, the Pegoretti was wonderful, there is no finer bike.

 

[coffeejo]

most of me aches and my legs feel very hollow. my lungs hurt like crazy, but the knee seems ok.

Some people are never happy

 

[laurence]

Some people are never happy

odd, as it was knee i was most worried about!

 

[Old Plodder]

...first ride for a year.....

Glad you've been able to get back on your bike.

 

[laurence]

Glad you've been able to get back on your bike.

cheers. it felt good - apart from the pain. you forget just how good it does feel.

 

[Archeress]

Good to ride under clear blue skies this morning & very little WIND !!!
Rode out from NE Bristol passing thru' Coalpit Heath, Chipping Sodbury, Pucklechurch & Siston.

http://app.strava.com/activities/47448989

I was out that way today on the bike. Cycled out to the Bike Station lbs in Yate to check them out. Found them to be lovely and friendly in there, seem to know what they're about. Bought a new D shackle so i can leave one at work and have one at home for when i'm not commuting. Did the 16miles in 1hr15. Not too shabby as i have not cycled that distance in a long time.

Hugs
Archeress x

 

[PeteXXX]

40 miles this afternoon....shoreham>amberly> Arundel> Ford>Bognor etc got a bee sting on my arm for my troubles.

Tricky to click 'like' when you got a bee sting, but you know what I mean...

 

[flatflr]

Summary of rides for me as just back from visiting my brother and his family on the boarder between the Dordogne and Lot regions in France. Drove down with both MTB and road bike in the back of the car (wheels off with an old duvet protecting the frames). Only managed 4 rides as had to spend some time doing uncle stuff. Ended up with 2 x 35 milers, 1 x 30 mile and a 6 miles off road ride with 6 year old nephew and brother. Main limit to distance and time was how much I could last with as much water as I could carry as temps were between 28C and 36C so added an extra bottle cage to the bars on the road bike. Really good fun, great drivers (except the odd Brit and surprisingly the Dutch), some stunning views and amazingly smooth roads!!!

 

[ColinJ]

Some of you may heard that a little bike race is heading this way next July?

The race will be taking the peloton up my nemesis, the mighty, the fearsome, the, er, quite long but moderate Cragg Vale climb. I collapsed riding up that ascent a couple of months ago, which was when I realised that I was probably getting ill again. Anyway, I am back on my meds and had given myself 5 or 6 weeks to clear the worst of the clots in my lungs so it was time to do a decent ride. The weather was nice today, but is forecast to be bad for the next 3 days so I decided to do my 19 mile Cragg Vale loop and see how I got on ...

I took the precaution of leaving my GPS at home to avoid the temptation of monitoring my speed and trying too hard. I rode within myself and just enjoyed being out in the sunshine.

A mate rang to say that he was cycling through Littleborough and asked if I fancied meeting up with him so I told him to ride up to Blackstone Edge, and then ride down towards Cragg Vale to meet me coming the other way.

I'm sure that it is a coincidence that the battered surfaces that local cyclists have enjoyed endured over the recession years are suddenly being improved! The first half of the climb has over 100 defects marked for repair - they were numbered from at least 102 at the bottom and counted down to 1 at the top of the first half of the climb, where the road emerges onto open moorland. I assume that the top half will be sorted out later.

Some defects were quite nasty, some were nothing much, and some seem not to have been spotted. Hopefully when they come to do the repairs, somebody with some initiative will fix those extra holes too!

Another thing, and a bit of fun - the council has painted countdown markers on the road. They start at 8.36 km to go, then indicate 8 km, 7 km and so on to the top.

My pal joined me higher up the climb.

It was breezy today, with a ~10 km/h wind coming from the usual southwesterly direction which for most of the climb is a cross-headwind from the right. 4 km of the climb are exposed to the wind and I am hoping for a windy day up there when the Tour hits it. We could get some entertaining uphill echelons if they happen to get one of those 40 km/h wind days!

I made sure that I didn't make any silly efforts today. The veins in my left thigh have been badly clotted and the whole area is still in a delicate state so I was spinning tiny gears in Froome-mode all the way up the climb.

We stopped for a while at a couple of memorial benches to give my legs a break and to take a couple of pictures of me and my bike ...

Action man!

Nice scenery behind me!

We whizzed back over the lanes and back down to Mytholmroyd. I got a bit nervous on a 10% descent which had just received a new 'surface dressing', i.e. it had been littered with loose chippings to catch out unwary cyclists. I am very aware that if my drugs are doing their work properly, in an accident I should bleed 2.5 times as much as a 'normal' person, but I have no interest in putting that to the test!

A quick dash back on the A646 from Mytholmroyd to Hebden Bridge, then Colly put the kettle on!

I'm pleased with how the ride went. I haven't had any adverse reaction to my efforts so I will do the route again next time we get a sunny day.

 

[PeteXXX]

A mate and I plus his 17 yr old son went to Cannock Chase for a blast round Follow the Dog. We didn't do the Monkey Trail (the longer more technical route) as the poor boy is not as fit as his Dad and needs training up quite a bit for longer and more strenuous rides

For anyone that doesn't know these trails, search for 'Follow the Dog' or 'Monkey Trail' and lots of Youtube vids show what they're like!
Surprisingly, for school hols, it was really quiet! No fearless 14 yr old kids showing us up.. lol

The shorter trail is only 7 miles, and the longer one is 13, but there is no flat riding. It's either UP or DOWN, and in my mind, if you down do the UP, you don't deserve the pleasure of the descents!!

The scenery is great, when you get the chance to look..

and there's quite a few jumps and drop-offs, but most have a chicken run if you don't want to launch yourself off them.

One drop I've not conquered before is the Werewolf Drop. Always chickened out for some reason, but not they've cleared a bit of scrub and re-modelled it a bit, it's not to bad if you take centre line (not that you have many options, as the trees are quite close together) and remember to turn sharp right as soon as you land!

There are several Boardwalks across the more swampy bits with pinch points and steps to keep you focused.

For some reason or another, I rode of the side of one of these once, and believe me... It can get muddy! lol


At the end of the trail, there's the Stone Rollers. They used to be hard pack dirt but a while ago they replaced them with flattish rocks. I actually preferred the dirt track, but, hey, it's their ride so they can do what they think is good
Mate's lad really enjoyed it even though he was knackered by the end but he reckoned that the macho pics of him 'on the trail' will impress his new girlfriend and earn him some Rambo points.

As it's a Forest Centre, there's a café, and if you have kids and a Mr or Mrs who doesn't want to ride the trails, there's a Go Ape area for the kids to swing through trees and zip wires while Mum or Dad can take off on the bike

The Swinnerton Cycle shop is on site as well for local expertise and running repairs. They also have a bike wash for a quid if you need it. (Bike Hire as well, but they can run out of them in peak times)

BTW, Best not to go at weekends unless you have to as it can get darn busy...

 

[Saluki]

We rode to the railway station today and got on the train to Norwich then on to Cromer. We had a quick wander around Cromer, inadvertently as we followed the signs but there were people everywhere. Just like Alp de Huez only flatter with shops either side. We got off and walked through and it took an age.
Then we found ourselves on the coast road and the sea on our left. We followed the coast road along and after about 7 miles or so, stopped at the Spar shop for some Jelly Babies as we had left ours on the kitchen counter (not there now, the greyhounds have stolen them). At this point Hubbies dietician woman rang and despite him saying that it wasn't convenient to talk now she ploughed on and on and on until she was done. Apparently this couldn't wait until dialysis tomorrow when she is going to leave him written notes saying exactly what she had just told him.
Finally got moving again and carried on around the coast road and stopped off at Happisburgh for a nice Calipo. In fact we had 2 of them - they were the Mace cheap verson so smaller. One each to eat, the other in our water bidon to make it cold and orangey. V nice.

From there, Hubby said his legs were not feeling the love so we headed inland to Lessingham, Ingham, Stalham (stopped at Tesco for more jelly babies and a bottle of still water) then on to Wroxham, Salhouse and then home on the Plumpstead Road, down to Thorpe Hamlet and to the train station.
The train ride home was horrendous, there was a huge family who were loud loud loud, kids running up and down the carriage. We were very glad that ours was the first stop.
40.22 miles with a ride time of 3:08:27. We were happy.

 

[derrick]

22 miles tonight with the other half, her last training ride before our London Cambridge ride, if she ain't ready now she never will be, she is really looking forward to it. hopefully i will get out on my own in the morning.

 

[Glow worm]

A nice sunny POETs day ride here this afternoon.

Having driven (shudder ) back from seeing my parents up the road in North Norfolk earlier, I was ready for a nice solitary, traffic free ride.

Just an 11 or so mile circuit across the fen, rarely topping 12 mph, so an idle bimble really. Headed out to near Longmeadow where a massive water sprayer was irrigating a spud field. The water was also over shooting onto the lane and it was great to stand there underneath it and enjoy a free cold shower in the heat.

Then I joined the Lodes way once again, free from cars and so it seemed the rest of the human race today which, being a miserable sod, suited me fine!

The view from Reach Lode Bridge of the waterway below. The reeds are still alive with the sound of reed and sedge warblers, hopefully rearing the next generation of cuckoos as well as their own of course.

I then headed for home via the bird hide at Tubney Fen where a pair of little egrets turned up, Though not rare these days, they still add a touch of the exotic to the flatlands with their pristine white plumage. From Reach, I then took an isolated bridle path to avoid the village, to Swaffham Prior. It is a great route this one as it is car free, and shorter than the road route. And a lot more pleasant as well.

The Red Lion beer garden looked very inviting at Swaffham Prior as I idled past, but even though it's a POETS day I resisted and headed home. Must be getting old.

 

[Cubist]

Rode both loops at penmachno today. Awesome. One guide tells you its a bit featureless, and the gnaaarrboys write it off as dull, but they clearly haven't ridden it all on a steel hardtail! Absolutely knackered by the end, but jt has some fabulous descents, techy climbs withplenty of welsh rock to test you. I broke my chain about half way round and needed two powerlinks. I used o e on my mates bike last month a d discovered that I only had a 9 and 10 speed ones. A wonderful passerby gave me a spare so we were fine until cubester pinchflatted 200 yards from the carpark.

Full on enough for me, definitely one to do again.