Your ride today.... (part 1)
- Thread starter gbb
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a_n_t
Senior Member
- Location
- Manchester
12 miles, interval training, just over half an hour......ouch! 
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
I love this daylight thing
I got out for 35miles with a mate in the late evening. I wasn't as fast as I would of liked, carrying an injury 
but it was enjoyable nonetheless and the positioning on the road bike actually helps.
I got out for 35miles with a mate in the late evening. I wasn't as fast as I would of liked, carrying an injury but it was enjoyable nonetheless and the positioning on the road bike actually helps.
Angel Islington to Saxmundham - 102mi.
escorted the Babe to work yesterday morning, and hung around chatting to the chaps in the edit suite and the IT bod, which she enjoys. Drank very strong coffee....
and so, when I left her office at 8.19 I turned left. Had I turned right I might have gone to Northampton, but, turning left offered Essex, and that appealed. I'd had a decent Oatibix and banana breakfast, which, combined with the coffee, would see me through to a second breakfast at Maningtree Station.
Down to Aldgate, pootling behind an exquisite touring bike with an even more exquisite young woman doing all kinds of sketchy manoeuvres through traffic, and then left on the Mile End Road, past all those years spend drawing buildings in Tower Hamlets, over the Bow flyover and into Stratford, where, for reasons that escape me, I elected to take the Wanstead route rather than the Romford route.
So, after Gants Hill, it was miles and miles of dual carriageway with traffic lights. I got used to chasing the same truck away from each and every red light, but you wouldn't describe it as fun. Temporary, though, because from the M25 on the ride to Colchester becomes a succession of characterful small towns on the 'old' A12.
This, if you haven't tried it (Mouseketeers please note) is a very pleasant ride. The roads are two lane, unhurried, and flanked by the well looked after suburban front gardens - I don't think you can cycle a mile without passing a copper beech tree. Brentwood is sweet (although dug up in the centre) and Ingatestone and Witham sweeter still. The road takes you in to the centre of Chelmsford, which involved a bit of faffing around as I'd no map with me, but I did at least check out the new bus station, and very nice it is too, with all the passengers over the age of 105, before doing the obvious thing and following the railway line along Victoria Road, and catching a sign for Boreham.
I had to endure a bit of the new A12 after Hatfield Peverel, but took to the cycle path beside the road, which was considerably slower, but vastly safer. There was some unseemly wriggling across grass verges to catch the old Roman road to Copford and Stanway, and then in to Colchester and on to the dreadful inner ring road.
Two passers by told me to turn right at the Albert, and, recalling my last attempt to get to Manningtree ended in Ipswich, I was relieved to see a sign for the A137. This is a pretty road, well surfaced, and, again, lightly travelled, although a bus had blown up outside of Ardliegh, which took some time to get round. Maningtree at half past ten, and, to celebrate I pootled up to Mistley and back, just to take in the High Street and the view across the Stour estuary before returning to the station....
Disaster. No breakfast. A lightning strike had put out the electricity supply. So I contented myself with a warm apple juice and a warmer Pepsi Max, and, at ten before 12, pedalled in to God's gift to cyclists, Suffolk.
I managed to do the clever thing in Ipswich and pick the Rushmere road, which took me in to Woodbridge the quiet way, before heading north for Ufford and Wickham Market, intending to have breakfast (now lunch) at the tea shop on the green. But...when I got to Wickham the tea shop looked tired, and, with almost an hour and a half before the next London train, it seemed like a good idea to press on to Saxmundham. There's a bike shop of some vintage in Wickham, and I picked up a lock, thinking that the Babe and I could eat out that evening (food was now looming large in my mind).
The A12 north of Wickham is do-able if you don't mind making way occasionally to let the queue of traffic pass you by. I'd collected about fifty or sixty cars and vans by Stratford St. Andrew, and a few more again before the Saxmundham turn, which, again, is the quiet 'old' A12.
Saxmundham really is God's waiting room. You can half close your eyes and see the tumbleweed rolling down the High Street. I blew in at five past three, and pottered about in search of a sandwich, finding only a bread roll in the bakers. But...there was a train, and, changing at Ipswich, I was back in the Great Wen just before six, and at the Babe's office just after for the return commute. She was a little put out that I'd been to Suffolk on my own, but there's a twist she doesn't know about yet - I got a 'phone call as I went in to Woodbridge, and this morning I'm seeing a chap about some work. These gloriously free days might be coming to an end...
escorted the Babe to work yesterday morning, and hung around chatting to the chaps in the edit suite and the IT bod, which she enjoys. Drank very strong coffee....
and so, when I left her office at 8.19 I turned left. Had I turned right I might have gone to Northampton, but, turning left offered Essex, and that appealed. I'd had a decent Oatibix and banana breakfast, which, combined with the coffee, would see me through to a second breakfast at Maningtree Station.
Down to Aldgate, pootling behind an exquisite touring bike with an even more exquisite young woman doing all kinds of sketchy manoeuvres through traffic, and then left on the Mile End Road, past all those years spend drawing buildings in Tower Hamlets, over the Bow flyover and into Stratford, where, for reasons that escape me, I elected to take the Wanstead route rather than the Romford route.
So, after Gants Hill, it was miles and miles of dual carriageway with traffic lights. I got used to chasing the same truck away from each and every red light, but you wouldn't describe it as fun. Temporary, though, because from the M25 on the ride to Colchester becomes a succession of characterful small towns on the 'old' A12.
This, if you haven't tried it (Mouseketeers please note) is a very pleasant ride. The roads are two lane, unhurried, and flanked by the well looked after suburban front gardens - I don't think you can cycle a mile without passing a copper beech tree. Brentwood is sweet (although dug up in the centre) and Ingatestone and Witham sweeter still. The road takes you in to the centre of Chelmsford, which involved a bit of faffing around as I'd no map with me, but I did at least check out the new bus station, and very nice it is too, with all the passengers over the age of 105, before doing the obvious thing and following the railway line along Victoria Road, and catching a sign for Boreham.
I had to endure a bit of the new A12 after Hatfield Peverel, but took to the cycle path beside the road, which was considerably slower, but vastly safer. There was some unseemly wriggling across grass verges to catch the old Roman road to Copford and Stanway, and then in to Colchester and on to the dreadful inner ring road.
Two passers by told me to turn right at the Albert, and, recalling my last attempt to get to Manningtree ended in Ipswich, I was relieved to see a sign for the A137. This is a pretty road, well surfaced, and, again, lightly travelled, although a bus had blown up outside of Ardliegh, which took some time to get round. Maningtree at half past ten, and, to celebrate I pootled up to Mistley and back, just to take in the High Street and the view across the Stour estuary before returning to the station....
Disaster. No breakfast. A lightning strike had put out the electricity supply. So I contented myself with a warm apple juice and a warmer Pepsi Max, and, at ten before 12, pedalled in to God's gift to cyclists, Suffolk.
I managed to do the clever thing in Ipswich and pick the Rushmere road, which took me in to Woodbridge the quiet way, before heading north for Ufford and Wickham Market, intending to have breakfast (now lunch) at the tea shop on the green. But...when I got to Wickham the tea shop looked tired, and, with almost an hour and a half before the next London train, it seemed like a good idea to press on to Saxmundham. There's a bike shop of some vintage in Wickham, and I picked up a lock, thinking that the Babe and I could eat out that evening (food was now looming large in my mind).
The A12 north of Wickham is do-able if you don't mind making way occasionally to let the queue of traffic pass you by. I'd collected about fifty or sixty cars and vans by Stratford St. Andrew, and a few more again before the Saxmundham turn, which, again, is the quiet 'old' A12.
Saxmundham really is God's waiting room. You can half close your eyes and see the tumbleweed rolling down the High Street. I blew in at five past three, and pottered about in search of a sandwich, finding only a bread roll in the bakers. But...there was a train, and, changing at Ipswich, I was back in the Great Wen just before six, and at the Babe's office just after for the return commute. She was a little put out that I'd been to Suffolk on my own, but there's a twist she doesn't know about yet - I got a 'phone call as I went in to Woodbridge, and this morning I'm seeing a chap about some work. These gloriously free days might be coming to an end...
Auntie Helen
Ich bin Powerfrau!
- Location
- 47906 Kempen, Germany
Great write-up Dell. I was faffing around Colchester and Ardleigh yesterday morning so surprised I didn't run into you. The lightning strike at Manningtree station hit one of the chimney pots, apparently, so they were all worried it was going to cause some major problems, but I think things are back to normal now.
snakehips
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Twixt London and Leafy Surrey
I went out for a 100 km run from Kingston to Ascot and back. Not a good day (or perhaps week) for cycling in the Ascot area. Plenty of traffic jams featuring lots of expensive cars , coaches , stretched limos , people carriers etc. Judging by what I saw as I went past the racecourse itself , everybody wanted to get in to a car park and drink champagne while dressed in their finery.
It was also very windy which made some of it not much fun at all.
Anyway , here are some pictures of things you can do with chocolate ...
Things you can do with chocolate
It was also very windy which made some of it not much fun at all.
Anyway , here are some pictures of things you can do with chocolate ...
Things you can do with chocolate
BigonaBianchi
Yes I can, Yes I am, Yes I did...Repeat.
- Location
- Iskele TRNC & Mordor UK
....took a ride on the darkside...MTb'ing
through the woods ....really had fun ...sat in a churchyard and chatted and rode back...the forks were with me
.
Weird not being clipped in, fun ducking anbd diving through the bushes and branches...made a welcome change to dodging Juggernauts and vans on A roads around the coast.
through the woods ....really had fun ...sat in a churchyard and chatted and rode back...the forks were with me.Weird not being clipped in, fun ducking anbd diving through the bushes and branches...made a welcome change to dodging Juggernauts and vans on A roads around the coast.
JamesM
Senior Member
- Location
- West Yorks
I had a nice ride out this morning - first non-commute ride for ages. I went from Baildon, up Hollins Hill, through Menston and Burley in Wharfedale to Ilkley, up past the Cow & Calf and back to Baildon over the moors (route)
The speedo said 19.42 miles in a little under an hour and a half at an average of 13.44 mph. I maxed 43.7mph coming down from the top of the Cow & Calf which is quite a climb for someone who does most of his cycling on the tow path! Took me ten minutes to get up it and it's not that far...
The speedo said 19.42 miles in a little under an hour and a half at an average of 13.44 mph. I maxed 43.7mph coming down from the top of the Cow & Calf which is quite a climb for someone who does most of his cycling on the tow path! Took me ten minutes to get up it and it's not that far...
Recce for Bromley Cyclists ride with Andy Ilovebikes and a few others. Starting off in Robertsbridge, Kent, a westerly clockwise direction into East Sussex passing through Brightling, Cowbeech, Muddles Green, Berwick amongst others. Lunch of roast pork and a beer for me, roast turkey and an orange juice for ilovebikes at the Yew Tree in Arlington. After lunch, on to the Cuckoo Trail, down through the marshes to Pevensey, along the coast then up to Battle. Train to Sevenoaks, then a nice 6 mile spin home.
willhub
Guru
I did the Ron Kit today, thought it'd be slow but since I had the route in my GPS I was able to be at the front, so we where going out at around 22mph, then about the same in lol, was going to do rose dale chimney, well wanted to, but I was advised that in the wet like this and with cars coming down a 33% could be potentially dangerous. It was a good ride with well over 5000ft of climbing, set off from my house at 6:30am so did additional miles.
118 miles, 18.14mph average speed, on the way back home I was streaming along at like 23, some of the guys at clifton CC said they are amazed how much I've improved in terms of speed and climbing.
118 miles, 18.14mph average speed, on the way back home I was streaming along at like 23, some of the guys at clifton CC said they are amazed how much I've improved in terms of speed and climbing.
Nice 50 miles off road (almost all anyway) from Guildford to Brighton with a chum. Super ride, slap up seafood platter on the sea front, and robbed blind for the train fare back.
For anyone that knows the Downs Link route, there's now a large Co-Op in Southwater, which is very handy for a stock-up en route.
For anyone that knows the Downs Link route, there's now a large Co-Op in Southwater, which is very handy for a stock-up en route.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Just a couple of miles...........
Pottered off with my son to locate the 'local' route to the Trans Pennine Trail - it passes within half a mile of our house.
Anyway, because it was raining, I took the fixed (guards) as I didn't want a wet ass (riding in jeans) and even did some 'off roading' on it
Found it, after 13 blooming years of not looking for it.......
As soon as it stops raining, we are off..........
Pottered off with my son to locate the 'local' route to the Trans Pennine Trail - it passes within half a mile of our house.
Anyway, because it was raining, I took the fixed (guards) as I didn't want a wet ass (riding in jeans) and even did some 'off roading' on it
Found it, after 13 blooming years of not looking for it.......
As soon as it stops raining, we are off..........
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