Your ride today.... (part 1)

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On winter days like this I pity those who have little or no appreciation of nature, it was glorious from start to finish. The perennial question over porridge and honey is "where shall we go?". That's the trouble with Rutland, too much choice though I admit, not a bad problem to be faced with. We don't have wallpaper in our dining room, one wall is covered in 1:50,000 maps so we can sit and look at cafe stops [denoted by little bike stickers] and plan a route.
Nineteen days post op and in my infinite wisdom I decided we would do a ride that was all hills, on fixed of course, sensible no?
First sight of interest was a buzzard being mobbed by a sizeable flock of rooks, buzzards don't have great dexterity to compete with the corvus family but boy, when they pick up the slightest thermal they leave most other birds in their wake. A couple of miles further on and we see a guy on a TT bike trying to get up a very shallow incline on the tri bars and doing around 10 mph at best, his position was one of the worst I have ever witnessed on a bike, I really wanted to help, but he was obviously a triathlete :smile:.
Into the Welland valley via some stunningly pretty villages and through the village of Harringworth that is home to the longest brick built viaduct in Europe.
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Seaton church through one of the arches
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We are now at the lowest point of the ride, about 8 miles from Hallaton where we hope to refuel at the little village cafe, because in terms of hills the hardest is yet to come. The climb from Great Easton to Horninghold is a tester, into the wind and with a final kick of around 15%, oh, and it is over a mile long. I knew this would be interesting and a good test for the old ticker on a 50t chainring and 18t rear sprocket. If this picture of dr_pink dancing on the pedals up the steep section is a bit blurred, I hope I can be forgiven
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The view from the top looks out over Eyebrook reservoir with the village of Stoke Dry on the left, as usual the camera does not do it justice [actually it's more to do with the useless person who took it]
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On to the cafe only to find it was closed for refurbishment, disaster! No food with us, only water and 31 hard miles done. Oh well, good training although the next 16% hill nearly had me track standing. Our discussion at this point went something like this:
dr_p - I hope we don't meet any other cyclists going the same way
me - If I see one behind I will pretend to stop and take a picture
dr_p - Great idea!
Long pause
dr_p - But if it's a triathlete we ride harder
me - long sigh

Nine hills later [yes I counted, sad but true] and we bowled down into Oakham. One of the harder "leisure" rides I have done for a while. Highlight of the ride was a Red KIte having fun with a Crow right in front of us, with the sun lighting up the red from behind, great stuff.
Tomorrow I have to go shopping :sad:.
 

Chappy

Guru
Location
Dorchester
At last a break in the weather managed to get out for a 45km today. Sods law I got a puncture got some great pictures from it though.

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coffeejo

Ælfrēd
Location
West Somerset
We don't have wallpaper in our dining room, one wall is covered in 1:50,000 maps so we can sit and look at cafe stops [denoted by little bike stickers] and plan a route.
What a fantastic idea :becool:
Our discussion at this point went something like this:
dr_p - I hope we don't meet any other cyclists going the same way
me - If I see one behind I will pretend to stop and take a picture
dr_p - Great idea!
Long pause
dr_p - But if it's a triathlete we ride harder
me - long sigh
:laugh:
 

DaveReading

Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
Location
Reading, obvs
Lovely ride in the Chilterns ticking off a couple more chunks of the Chilterns Cycleway, about 35 miles in total plus another 5 to get back to where I'd parked. Last few miles were a bit hairy heading southwest straight into the low sun.

Stopped to offer help to a couple of girls wheeling their bikes (p*nct*re), but sadly my services weren't required as help was already on its way.
 

Herbie

Veteran
Location
Aberdeen
Mine was so good. (I did go for that ride...glad i did)
Just over 20 miles, but since the rear ends a bit sore...:biggrin::blush:
Suns been shining here all day, 13 or 14 degrees, 15 mph winds made it a bit slow on the outrun, but fast home (20 -25 mph for 6 miles :biggrin: ).
Very very glad i went....now i feel guilty about feeling good :biggrin:

How was yours....

First real ride of the year this morning...only 15 miles in very cold conditions but sunny blue skies....great to get out and blow some cobwebs away
 
@postman :hugs: I gave your post a "like" for encouragement, not because I like your predicament ^_^
@totallyfixed you and @dr_pink are awesome riders! :eek:
Very kind of you to say so, but in truth dr_pink is the awesome rider, she has the natural talent to be right at the top if she had the time to train her competitors have, I have no choice but to keep up or I get left behind :cry:
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
A couple of miles further on and we see a guy on a TT bike trying to get up a very shallow incline on the tri bars and doing around 10 mph at best, his position was one of the worst I have ever witnessed on a bike, I really wanted to help, but he was obviously a triathlete :smile:.
I find it really difficult not to say something when I see somebody who has got their bike setup way wrong. Small errors don't bother me much, but when I see men my height (6' 1") on 56 cm bikes with their saddles down on the top tube, their knees stuck way out, and barely able to turn the pedals on the slightest incline ... :whistle:
 

Glow worm

Legendary Member
Location
Near Newmarket
Was in London last night for a brief visit to relatives. I don't mind the place as such, but blimey- am I glad to get home. So was definately ready to get back to a solitary 12 mile ride around my local patch,

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Just 3 hours before I took the above pic, I'd been battling the Chelsea tractors on St John's Wood High Street in London. And now....calm. It's funny how many Range Rovers they seem to need in St John's Wood, and yet those of us who live out here seem to manage quite happily without them!

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Big Sky country. The biggest tree on the far right I call ' cuckoo tree' as there's often one singing from it during late April May time. Some of them have reached Angola now. The tracking devices have shown for the first time that British cuckoos migrate as far south as that. Top research that, and hopefully the cuckoos will be heading home safely soon.

Other than that, just a fem. marsh harrier and very distant barn owl today on Burwell Fen.

Near Reach Lode Bridge it was good to catch up with JME who was also out for a spin in the sunshine. He writes an excellent cyling blog in Cambridge and is often over this way. He's back in the saddle after a few weeks off.

I like these fenland off road routes as I often seem to meet up with regulars along the way who over the months/ years have become friends. Ain't cycling great!
 
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booze and cake

probably out cycling
Did an 'other forum of the mono geared variety' ride today *gasp-burn him!*

Ambling 55 miles from home to Greenwich observatory, we stopped off briefly here
P1010202Large_zps2899e2d2.jpg Beofre heaing up to the wonderful Mill Hill (apart from having the A1 in the garden) Observatory
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....where we got a great view of our moon and of Jupiter and its moons, with this beautiful old piece of kit, the name of which has already escaped me.
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Another whopper, not in use but still mighty impressive
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and some lovely old retro tech about the place.
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This ride/viist was organised from November so we've all had our fingers crossed for clear skies, we could not have been luckier, there was not a cloud all day or night.^_^
 

Wayne Tully

Senior Member
You did the right thing, I took a drop just outside of Cobham on my way to Box Hill. In the time I was there recovering, so did two others but they hadn't got to us so a bit sorry we couldn't warn them.


I braved it and came off too, I continued to meet up with the club but it wasn't getting any better so I baled to a train station, wasn't having fun so what's the point?

The club were going to go down Hollingbourne hill, I hope they're OK.
 
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