Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Cathryn]

Don't you just love it when you take a day off work and it happens to be gorgeous so you get out on your bike after a fortnight off it?? 40 gorgeous miles round Leeds/Ilkley area today. Some good hills, a chocolate muffin and the sun on my back!

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I like the ilkley route as well yesterday I did from harrogate over the moors to askwith then Ilkley, Otley, Arthington, Harewood Hill then back home to Harrogate. I was going to go from Harewood to wetherby then home but it started getting dark.

Didnt get a chocolate muffin though.

 

[cheadle hulme]

Sorry to spoil the good karma, but first ride back in the UK tonight and back to reality. Nearly knocked off by a bus that pulled back in too quick in Didsbury and too many pointless overtakes in Wilmslow traffic.

I've done 900 miles in France over the last month with just one slight incident (some French drivers don't like you not being on the cycle path). Otherwise, cycling in France is a revelation, smooth and quiet roads, with generally courteous drivers.

 

[willhub]

Sorry to spoil the good karma, but first ride back in the UK tonight and back to reality. Nearly knocked off by a bus that pulled back in too quick in Didsbury and too many pointless overtakes in Wilmslow traffic.

TBH I miss the challenge of all that round there, and it makes the ride a WHOLE LOT more eventful

 

[HLaB]

A great fast 46 miles with the club we averaged 19.9mph until the warm down after I left the club though I had some idiot on a Mobile phone try to kill me Dear Mr Driver please don't drive with your phone clasped to your ear making a right turn across two lanes seems hard for you as it is, I don't think the phone would have helped. Perhaps you should have waited for the arrow if you're that incapable.

 

[fossyant]

TBH I miss the challenge of all that round there, and it makes the ride a WHOLE LOT more eventful

Depends which bit in Didsbury - avoid the village centre.....Cheadle could have been near Parrs Wood.... too many buses going through Didsbury TBH - really is sh!t how many busses go through a nice village..... lot's ofl al fresco - what..al fresco to 1 bus a minute......it's that bad............. tis a shame - I work near there.........

 

[addictfreak]

Great ride today, around 55 miles about 90% of road. Taking in Bowes Railway Path, Tanfield Railway Path, Derwent walk and back via C2C from Lygetts Junction. Took me around 4.5 hours and thats with a puncture.
Surprisingly didnt see many cyclists out at all

 

[ACS]

Target for the day was 75 miles but only managed 55 . Got to 45 ish and just ran out of steam, think it was because I had not taken enough fluids on. Day was hotter than I appreciated and the blustery wind may have lulled me in to a false sense of security.

Anyway jumped off route and headed for home which in retrospect was the correct decision. Another day off tomorrow and I don’t think I have another 55 in my legs so a hilly 40 may be the order of the day.

 

[asterix]

Took a half-day off to go for a trundle round the country roads. Very pleasant, no idea how far but did about 4 hours, climbed plenty of hills (inevitable round here). Traffic: a few cars a white van, a tractor or two and a combine harvester no other cyclists. It's necessary to watch the drivers as they often wave at cyclists (no, honest, they do) and I don't like to seem rude. Temperature was 27c in the shade and the sun was hot. I don't seem to need as much to drink as I did in May.

 

[dellzeqq]

final recce for this month's FNRttC - combined with a final word with the proprietors of the Cabin Cafe and the Beach Restaurant. It's all good - apart from a pothole on the road in to Rusper. That we can live with......

 

[HLaB]

Wasn't very far but was fast. Typical I didn't get away from the office til 5.25 on the night I wanted to be early and managed to get down the road in time to see the last 10 minutes of the 1st half of the Celtic game and McDonald's goal. The cars I overtook probably got a bit of a surprise but I had a good tail wind but god was on my side as well as the Bhoys

 

[zacklaws]

After doing the "Big G"the other weekend I thought I would try the course for the "East Yorkshire Classic 2009" which was held the following day and part of the course ventured out into the same area of the wolds.

Day started off badly due to the rain, usually I would have gone but as I am still wearing a couple of dressing from falling off the other week, I did not want them to fall off by getting too soaked. Weather faired up in the afternoon and I set off, fully expecting to shorten the ride if the rain returned, instead the sun come out, along with the thunderbugs which all seemed to take shelter inside my helmet making it very unpleasant. After 30 miles I'd had enough as I was too tired from the previous days efforts but I kept going and the thought of climbing Nunburnholme again prayed on my mind.

Eventually I got round, not bothering to do the loop at the top of the course two more times, and finished off doing 62 miles in 4hrs 1min. Even though there was less climbing involved, I found it harder going than the big G, and felt like keeling over when I got home.

Even after a shower my body still itched due to them thunderbugs crawling all over me. Anyway decided I do not want to see my bike again this side of Saturday

 

[Will1985]

Bit of a windy TT yesterday, riding solo in a 2-up event. Field of 31 with the solos at the back end. Comparing times with the rider in front of me before the start, he said I'd pass him. So I reply "yeah - I'd say roughly at the bridge" (the footbridge over the course being 3.5km from the start). Without holding back, I passed him directly under the bridge! Obviously a bit of a fluke, although I knew it would be within sight of the bridge from passing someone in roughly the same place a couple of months ago

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I did my usual daily fast c.42km. It's just over 4km down some pretty busy roads - which combined with the heat is why I usually start before 6am - from where we're staying to my chosen start point on the wide Arakawa river bank cycling and running track. I do 16.5km (it's marked out) TT-style, hard and fast and usually into the strong winds that come off Tokyo Bay, until I get to the very end just where the final bridges go over the river and the cormorants stand on the rocks, and egrets poke in the grass and reeds that are the only bits of nature left next to the endless sprawl of factories and apartment blocks.

I stop and do some stretching and exercises looking out towards the bay. There's usually a couple of the most wiry old geezers who look like they've been running a marathon a month all their lives, who run down to the same point and stretch out, but other than that there's no-one there. On my cheap steel track bike, I pass plenty of other cyclists on their fancy Italian carbon frames inevitably equipped with Dura-Ace, but none of them can stay with me (a few have tried). They just can't seem to ride into the wind, and for some reason they never come right to the end.

Then I turn and coast back to my start point, with the wind behind me, just spinning the single gear much more relaxed (but still quick). Then it's back through the thickening to rush-hour traffic, hoping the traffic lights aren't too much against me all the way...

Coupled with the Japanese diet and the summer heat, this (almost) daily ride means I've lost a good 4kg in weight and I'm starting to look like my old self again. I'll miss Tokyo when I leave...

 

[tordis]

Found another route from Woolwich to Holborn Circus - I used the ferry to cross the river, but yesterday decided to go via London Bridge. Takes pretty much the same amount of time, and the ride is a bit smoother, with less bumps and wider roads. Found a nice bike shop on Tooley Street, too - I think I'll pay a visit tonight