Your ride today.... (part 1)

[coffeejo]

Did my second 50 miler of the week yesterday with my cycle group. We went down to Corrymoor Farm near Stockland who were having an open day - they breed Angora goats and have a very successful sideline selling Mohair socks, scarves etc, and did very well from my fellow cyclists. Not me, alas, as I can't cope with wool next to my skin, though I did indulge in a massive portion of cottage pie and a delicious slice slab of apple cake with clotted cream . Of course, I promptly regretted it as we turned right out of the farm gates and immediately went up a beast of a hill. In fact, hills were the theme of the day, which was a shock to the system as I've not been near one for a fortnight. Oh well, I reckon the 3000+ft of climbing may have just about cancelled out the cake. Maybe...

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Took a very short ride and went down to the beach and crashed out watching the waves and windsurfers...

 

[burndust]

home spin today....1hr 40....35 miles....no free wheeling lol.....followed by a 4 mile walk....to recover the old legs

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Cold bright breezy morning, I started out for Hanbury but after I spent the first hour battling the wind at less than 16mph I changed my mind and headed for Mappleborough Green, a slow hard slog into a stiff headwind on the way out and my first proper winter ride, overshoes, winter tights and riding the fixed, I must drop the gearing a smidge for future Sunday rides, got in the Cafe just before a couple of club rides rode in, Coventry Road Club and Mike Vaughen Cycles and spent far too long in the Cafe chatting to friends, half a mile from the cafe on the way back I punctured, a bit disappointing, Bontrager Racelite Hardcases are almost bullet proof but that was the third this year, but with the amount of debris on the road it wasn't surprising, the rest of the ride home was fun, I got the wind behind me a lot of the time and was flying along. to only do 58 miles was mildly disappointing but in the conditions it was a good ride, hard but fun.

 

[swee'pea99]

Out into Herts with a mate for my first proper full on ride since my operation (#617). Only 40 miles, but it was a seriously blustery day, with stiff winds blowing around - bafflingly always head-on, needless to say, despite the circular route. It was also doubling up as the first ride on my new +1, which certainly came up trumps - way the best bike I've ever ridden: comfortable, precise and stable, and very fast. One slight teething problem - the front mech refused to engage the lower sprocket, which made the hills that little bit more fun - but nothing a bit of lube won't fix, I'm sure. Looks like my plans to get back into etapery and the like aren't entirely unrealistic. Hooray!

 

[Archeress]

A lovely ride today with Stokes Cycling Club. Loved all the cycle paths we found.

http://www.strava.com/activities/92941176

Hugs
Archeress x

 

[Paul.G.]

Set off today with no specific destination in mind' mainly wanted to road test the new SKS mudguards on my road bike. About 6 miles into the ride and just on the south side of Reading near the canal i was stopped and asked directions back to NCN 5 by a mother and daughter duo who were cycling between Windsor and Bristol over 5 days. I know the Kennet and Avon like the back of my hand but I'm rubbish at giving verbal direction as I somehow always miss out vital bits of info which only come to mind once the person has set off so just for something to do I said I would ride in front and take them out of Reading, leaving them at a point along the canal where you I cannot really go wrong, thier destination for that night was a B&B in Newbury. Canal paths are not exactly ideal at this time of year, slick tyres and on the Colnago added some "interest" to the ride! Then about 4 miles outside Reading the chain on the daughters bike snapped and whilst they had quite a fair amount of kit such as spare tubes etc, They had no chain splitter or quick link and my quick link was too small as I'm running 11 speed Campag. So we cut and fixed the chain with my chain tool and after a cold 20 mins or so, they were safely on their way to Newbury and a visit to one of the three decent bike shops there (not halfrauds obviously) so I'm glad I was there to help and whilst I did not get many miles in, it was a very rewarding ride. I wish them both well on the remainder of their lovely journey.

 

[coffeejo]

Set off today with no specific destination in mind' mainly wanted to road test the new SKS mudguards on my road bike. About 6 miles into the ride and just on the south side of Reading near the canal i was stopped and asked directions back to NCN 5 by a mother and daughter duo who were cycling between Windsor and Bristol over 5 days. I know the Kennet and Avon like the back of my hand but I'm rubbish at giving verbal direction as I somehow always miss out vital bits of info which only come to mind once the person has set off so just for something to do I said I would ride in front and take them out of Reading, leaving them at a point along the canal where you I cannot really go wrong, thier destination for that night was a B&B in Newbury. Canal paths are not exactly ideal at this time of year, slick tyres and on the Colnago added some "interest" to the ride! Then about 4 miles outside Reading the chain on the daughters bike snapped and whilst they had quite a fair amount of kit such as spare tubes etc, They had no chain splitter or quick link and my quick link was too small as I'm running 11 speed Campag. So we cut and fixed the chain with my chain tool and after a cold 20 mins or so, they were safely on their way to Newbury and a visit to one of the three decent bike shops there (not halfrauds obviously) so I'm glad I was there to help and whilst I did not get many miles in, it was a very rewarding ride. I wish them both well on the remainder of their lovely journey.

 

[Paul.G.]

I've just come back for a few days in Notts visiting the relatives and managed to get a ride in

There's a cracking set of bridleways, towpaths and old rail lines that have all been converted to make a wonderful network of off road routes, and it starts within 150m from my folks' house , where I can follow a bridleway out to Cossall and pick up the Nottingham Canal and follow that all the way up to Eastwood

Once at Eastwood it's a short road section up the bugger of a hill to Heanor and then a quick dodge through some back streets to pick up the bridleway that leads to, and through, Shipley Park eventually joining the Nutbrook Trail...

...which is followed to join the Erewash Canal...

...which leads easily through Sandicare, and Long Eaton ...

...to join the River Trent at Trent Lock.

A super track runs along the edge of the Trent as far as Beeston Marina where I took the Beeston Canal which heads for the centre of Nottingham

However I turned off at Dunkirk, and cut through a few side streets before crossing the University Campus and Wollaton Park, then it was just a few more side streets before reaching Sandy Lane LNR which is just a stones throw from my folks.

Total distance is 34 miles, of which around 3 miles in on road, and most of those are quite residential ones.

Looks like a really beautiful ride, great pictures.

 

[burndust]

69 miles with 4500ft of climbing for me today with @400bhp. We had decided to go for a flat ride across The Cheshire plain rather than up in the hills, which it wasn't quite. We met at Ashley at 7:30 am fully expecting to be rained on and headed off towards Biddulph, final destination the hamlet of Bagnall in Staffs in between Leek and Stoke. As we passed Congleton and headed over Biddulph Moor the wind picked up and I remembered that it wasn't all that flat around there. The small villages in that area are very picturesque even with the fog that had descended around us. We even had to cross a couple of fords which was a first for me on 23's but it went fine. We arrived at the cafe stop and consumed a large full English each . I had a hot chocolate (deluxe of course) and ceremonially recorded it all for @potsy (see what you could have had )
View attachment 31902 View attachment 31904

Oh, the black pudding was hiding under the tomato.

We headed back through Tunstall where we were confronted by a small lake that had manifested itself across a road. 400bhp went first and promptly performed a near perfect head first dive into the said puddle. I was impressed by his casual check of the bike remount and continue on regardless. The motorist waiting on the other side of the flood seemed more concerned about his wellfare than he did. We then headed for the A50 to TT it back home with a nice tailwind. It was then that 400 bhp commented that one of his winter boots was saturated with water. I did contemplate asking if the aditional rotational weight was making accelaration harder than when his bottle had been full as a fixed mass earlier on in the ride and how Newtons laws of gravity would influence his thinking, but thought better of it.
Anyway the rest of the ride was hard fast and fairly uneventfull, although one point of note was that we had not been caught in a single shower. To the BBC weather forecasters.

no offense but you actually ate that....doesnt look to appealing tbh

 

[Rasmus]

Strongs winds made for hard work on a 140km trip along the Clyde and into the hills to the North and West. Very much worth the effort though, with lots of sunshine and views of snow on the top of the mountains.

Here's Ben Lomond from across the Loch:

 

[Linford]

Usual training ride this morning up the 800ft climb in a couple of miles...actually made it about 880ft of climbing because I endeavoured to track from side to side to knock the edge off the 1:4 bit.

 

[cyberknight]

62.6 miles on a medium club run, a very sedate pace TBH
Fecking cold and raining so i got very wet and could hardly walk when i got home , feet were very painful so i had to get into bed for a while till some feeling came back.

 

[Linford]

62.6 miles on a medium club run, a very sedate pace TBH
Fecking cold and raining so i got very wet and could hardly walk when i got home , feet were very painful so i had to get into bed for a while till some feeling came back.

Was it worth it ?

 

[Wayne Tully]

Club ride this morning, out of Sittingbourne, up and down Hollingbourne Hill down to Yalding and onto Teapot Island had a lovely bacon and egg sandwich before heading up Red Hill and heading along to climb Bluebell Hill and back into Sittingbourne, was a rather nasty head wind on the way out but that rectified itself on the way back, wasn't a taxing pace and came in at about 55 miles.