totallyfixed
Veteran
- Location
- The only county without a McDonalds
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
.
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.
Seaton church through one of the arches
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
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]
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
.
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
.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.
Seaton church through one of the arches
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
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]
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
.
I gave your post a "like" for encouragement, not because I like your predicament 
