Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Peteaud]

Todays midweek ride was on my lonesome as Mrs Aud was busy.

Seeing as the weather was pretty good, and the roads are drier round here, the plastic bike got its 1st run of the year.

Picking up NCN 30 i went across the moors, thrugh Fivehead and across to the now passable Westmoor road across the levels. The water has dropped a good 5 feet since i was there a month ago and most of the place is drying out, although some of the potholes and gravel bars are there to catch you off guard. Climbing up Burrow Hill and past the Cider Brandy place i rejoined the NCN and headed home via South Petherton and Seavington. The new Synapse bar tape is comfy, as is the Fizik Aliente Saddle i fitted early in the year. Riding this bike just makes me smile so an easy 33 miles with 1800ft climbs.

I just need to find a good cake stop out there for the summer runs.

Cant see any trolls lurking under the bridge.

Typical Somerset Sign Post.

Fivehead church.

One of my favourite bits of road.

The road across the levels is now dry.

Westmoor road

The cider Distillery.

Doesn,t look hi tec

Bike shot

The route.

Mac grade 8.9% with 1822 ft climbs

 

[welsh dragon]

Todays midweek ride was on my lonesome as Mrs Aud was busy.

Seeing as the weather was pretty good, and the roads are drier round here, the plastic bike got its 1st run of the year.

Picking up NCN 30 i went across the moors, thrugh Fivehead and across to the now passable Westmoor road across the levels. The water has dropped a good 5 feet since i was there a month ago and most of the place is drying out, although some of the potholes and gravel bars are there to catch you off guard. Climbing up Burrow Hill and past the Cider Brandy place i rejoined the NCN and headed home via South Petherton and Seavington. The new Synapse bar tape is comfy, as is the Fizik Aliente Saddle i fitted early in the year. Riding this bike just makes me smile so an easy 33 miles with 1800ft climbs.

I just need to find a good cake stop out there for the summer runs.

Cant see any trolls lurking under the bridge.

Typical Somerset Sign Post.

Fivehead church.

One of my favourite bits of road.

The road across the levels is now dry.

Westmoor road

The cider Distillery.

Doesn,t look hi tec

Bike shot

The route.

Mac grade 8.9% with 1822 ft climbs

Beautiful photos as always peteaud. Many thanks for sharing

 

[Wayne Tully]

In case its not obvious, I like your current mtb ride not the last road bike ride

Haha, cheers.

 

[i hate hills]

Mallorca day 2 - 130km of sunshine, blue skies and smooth roads.

From the hotel in Playa de Muro down to Sencelles then on to do the climb of the Puig de Randa. Lunch there then back to the hotel via Montuiri. Slightly downhill with a tailwind nearly all the way home meant we were averaging nearly 30mph in the bunch with a maximum recorded of 41.9mph

Anyway here's some photos of the day.

Coffee stop in Sencelles


View from Randa looking towards Palma


Cura monastery at Randa


Another ride planned for tomorrow so hopefully the weather will stay fine

You are SO bloody lucky....hope you enjoy yourselves

 

[i hate hills]

Was away on holiday last week so it was good to be back on home turf for a couple of rides. I had my main bike at the LBS for some major work while away, so I buzzed aroud the flatlands on my Brompton yesterday. Here it is at Swaffham Bulbeck Lode ( a waterway leading to the River Cam then Ouse)

View attachment 40158

I like the way the peat hereabouts plays havoc with the telegraph poles as it dries and shrinks. Some are at unbelievable angles. These not too bad though. Yet.

View attachment 40160

After a spin on the Brompton yesterday, I caught the bus today, my last day of holiday, to my LBS in Newmarket to pick up my bike and cycled home.

The drier weather has opened up some of my preferred off road tracks and bridleways again after the wet winter. This is a huge relief as I will do almost anything to avoid roads. This track links Exning, Suffolk's westernmost village, with Burwell, Cambs. The hedge on the right marks the county line (with Suffolk to the right). The bike is weighed down with a few day's shopping from Newmarket (I don't normally ride with so much stuff on board)
View attachment 40162

Came home along the Lodes Way, a largely car free route.
I've just come back from a week's holiday in Austria where every town and village seems to be linked with such cycle paths (below). I reckon you could cycle the length of the country along such routes- bliss (though maybe with a few more hills thrown in than hereabouts). Here, with our crap motoring centric approach to transport policy, we can only dream of such things, but paths like this (on Burwell Fen), where they exist are welcome - and extremely pleasant.

View attachment 40164

With a new chain and cassette after 3500 or so miles, and a bunch of other stuff the LBS fixed, the bike is handling like new again and should see me through another year. Was a great 12 mile ride home in the Spring sunshine and heard the first chiffchaff of the year as well. Summer is on its way and hopefully the 6 house martins I saw on Saturday in Austria heading north will be following me home soon.

lovley report and pics.

 

[arranandy]

Arranandy, do you have plans to ride 'Sa Calobra' ?

I'm counting down the days now til we fly out

I've done Sa Calobra a couple of times in past but wasn't planning to do it this trip however that may change.

Great descent, really technical at bits but the ascent is a bit of a grind

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

So we had a number of options for rides today..

Plan A - cycle to Rannoch Station, train to Roy Bridge, cycle back... 110km
Plan B - cycle to Rannoch Station, train to Crainlarich, cycle back... 100km
Plan C - drive to NW of Aviemore, cycle circular route 65km...
Plan D - drive to Pitlochry, cycle circular route 88km...

Well the weather this morning promptly ruled out going west, that was where the really bad weather was and was going to get worse. High winds would have made even getting to the railways staion (due west from here and even more exposed) almost impossible and neither of us fancied cycling most of the day in rain when if we headed east instead we could avoid most of the rain (always assuming the forecast is correct that is). Looking west it was bleak, dry at 8am but looking bleak/foggy and pretty dismal.

So we opted for plan D... drive to Pitlochry (we needed some supplies anyway), park up at Loch Faskally car park (toilet and free parking unlike Pitlochry itself) and head out for an interesting hill-start. There's a near straight 300m climb out of Pitlochry on the route I had chosen... hummm legs & asthma usually need at least 30 mins cycling before I can hit that, some of it with +10% for longer periods of time... but the road was quiet and it really didn't matter how long I took, just as long as I didn't stop - I wasn't certain at times I would get going again (). I never stopped, I just came close to being stationary several times! But the views from the top were worth it...

Looking forward to where we are going

Looking back where we have come from

Looking forward to the downhill to come

From there it was a long slow descent with a wonderfully smooth road surface before some more interesting climbs after we went off onto some back lanes (single track). It's a long time since I have had to resort to standing on the pedals to actually keep the bike moving uphill... usually I can maintatin my rhythm and stay sitting in the saddle but the 20% gradient was almost too much for me today! (I didn't stop but was counting pedal strokes - always a bad sign...)

Lunch took a long time coming today and we had some nasty winds to deal with over one of the tops before we could drop into Blairgowrie and take a well earned break.

Just before lunch (somewhere around Blairgowrie looking northish)

From there it was backlanes and wandering (sorry that should read struggling) against a solid headwind which was unyielding and exceptionally tiring. DUnkeld visitors centre came as a welcome break from the wind before we headed off to follow the A9 cycle route (NCR 83 & 7) before heading off onto backlanes and some more interesting climbs before Pitlochry. I much prefer backlanes where you don't have to worry too much about traffic and can cycle alongside each other, but just occasionally I really wish they were not quite so lumpy... And the weather - well it was sunny for virtually all of the day, windy at times (at time too windy as well) and it only started to consider raining as we arrived back at the car park - success!

Another 89km ride with 1290m of climbing... (56miles and around 4,250 feet I think). http://www.strava.com/activities/122103768

There is just a chance I could be really glad of that weather front coming in tomorrow with high winds and lots of rain - I think I can see a lie in happening.

 

[coffeejo]

I just need to find a good cake stop out there for the summer runs.

I know some .......................... but you'll have to start coming out with the cycle group before I tell you

For my part, spent the afternoon enjoying the sunshine in the Quantocks. 52 miles, either going up a hill or down one. And then up again. Photos etc to follow later.

 

[Peteaud]

I know some .......................... but you'll have to start coming out with the cycle group before I tell you

.

I am working on it.

 

[coffeejo]

I am working on it.

 

[Glow worm]

A 15 mile lunch time ride here across the flatlands to a village called Horningsea to buy some garlic, onions and other seeds for the allotment. There's a bike shop there too so it would have been rude not to pop in .

The route there from my village uses a network of tracks and bridleways across the fen that, by some quirk of history have never been metalled, so Mr Toad and his impatient chums are kept well at bay. And blimey- it really is lovely...

There are miles of these tracks, sadly only really cycleable in Spring/ Summer when it's dry (Unless you don't mind the mud). Part of why I love this time of year. There was a huge flock of redwing a bit further along- a reminder that winter is only just passed. I wondered about their journey in the coming days/ weeks back across the North Sea to Scandinavia and beyond to breed.

After spending a fortune on seeds (is growing your own really any cheaper?- I doubt it sometimes!) and lusting after a few new bikes in the LBS, I crossed the River Cam and cycled north to Waterbeach. No one was about at all. Perfect for a miserable sod like me!

After Waterbeach I crossed back over the river at a lock and did some illegal riding acorss some land with angry signs screaming 'bikes need written permission to access'. Sod that. This is such a critical route, linking eastern Cambs with the rest of the county- in a civilised country, it would be a good quality cycle route/ path. Here you have to run the gauntlet of miserable fat cat landowners- happy to take our taxes for their subsidies- and do naff all in return.

Rant over, here's a pic of a field of hyacinths in Waterbeach. The chap who grows them must be getting on a bit now as he used to grow far more. Still, a lovely sight and my poor camera work does them no justice.
Edit- a fellow called Mr Shipp has been growing hyacinths here since WW2. Apparently he is the custodian of the National Collection.

Lovely day here if a bit blowy. Looks like it could be cooler by the weekend so will have to make the most of it while it lasts.

 

[arranandy]

Another day, another Mallorca ride. Something a bit different today - a ride to Cala san Vicence then on to Cap Formentor and back. No photos today as I forgot my camera so I hope the Strava file will suffice

http://app.strava.com/activities/122096038

 

[booze and cake]

Having done no proper riding outside London this year, today I finally escaped the clutches of the capital for a ride in Essex. So with me on my singlespeed and a mate on his new geared Defy we headed out from his place in Brentwood for a ride out to Saffron Waldon.

It was bright and dry and with the wind on our backs we felt rather speedy on the way out. My mate was in charge of directions and chose a method best described as winging it, so we had a few wrong turns and a few occasions at junctions wondering why the village or town we were looking for was seemingly absent from the signage. I love cycling round Essex but have no sense of direction and never know where I am in relation to anywhere else, so at times I thought the signs were a massive wind up. When we finally came across a sign with somewhere we wanted we would continue along past no turn offs and then we'd get to the next set of signs and all of a sudden our desired village/town was missing.

We got to Saffron Waldon in pretty good time, we had hoped to have a butchers around the massive country pile at Audley End but it was closed until the end of March, whoops. Nice looking pad tho and some impressive hedging. We turned around for the homeward leg, into the wind, what seemed like all of the wind. We had a 40+ mile ride back into a unrelenting 20-30mph headwind, and having no gears made this a real struggle. The feelings of awesomeness from our speedy outward trip quickly evaporated. After being battered by wind in the wide open Essex planes we took shelter in a pub in Rittle for a couple of pints before pushing on to Brentwood.

As if I was'nt worn out enough already, I had my mates 2 boys under 8 to exhaust the last of my energy reserves playing games and being used as a climbing frame for a few hours. All in all a great day out, a proper ride of two halves, with all the suffering on the return leg. 94 singlespeed miles for the day though so pretty good going, for me anyway..
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2365534

 

[Alistair thomson]

Was out today on a 20 miler . Strong winds, rain, and bloody hail . Didn't help getting lost in Glasgow . But finally made it home soaked to the skin numb feet and hands , what a miserable day But I loved it .

 

[arranandy]

Not today's ride but yesterday. A big ride taking in 3 classic Mallorca climbs - Lluc, Puig Major and the Coll de Soller. 139km with 1730m of climbing. I was pretty knackered when I got back to the hotel yesterday afternoon.
http://app.strava.com/activities/122375599