Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Dave 123]

I had a bowl of porridge this morning as the whole world raves about its energy giving properties. It is complete and utter muck! Luckily the energy thing worked .
It was a touch chilly as I set out sporting my new San Pelegrino jersey, the first one was bought in July for my birthday but had to be returned for an xxxxxl, bloody Italians!
I went down to Essex via Barrington hill and Great Chishill, Bishops StortfordCC were out in force, presumably heading for Cambridge. Once over the county line into Essex the roads get resurfaced which is a rare treat these days. Coming into Wendens Ambo there is a small hill with a turn at the top. I'd been catching up with 5 touring cyclists and a lone rider behind them, at the bottom of the hill the lone rider got past..... Then the back 3 decided to go 3 abreast up the hill with a car coming the other way, I was boxed in. My eyes were rolling but I gave them a pleasant "morning".
In Saffron Walden there were a few cyclists stopped at a cafe, but I rolled on back
toCambridgeshire. I had a little detour to a village called Carlton and on to Burrough Green with its cricket pitch in the middle of the village. At Dullingham I turned off right and eventually ended up in villages I'd never heard of, Lydgate, Dalham and Ashley, all 3 drop dead gorgeous!
In Ashley I stopped at the pub for a lemonade and a crunchie. I went back out to my bike with my drink, there was an old boy out having a fag, he spoke deepest, darkest Suffolkeese. At one point he said "oi go n play pnftttfftehh on a tooooosday"...... It was at this point that I knew I should be responding but I didn't have a clue what the man had said! My face must have looked blank, he was expectant. "You know what pétanque is?" "Oooooh, yes, pétanque, of course!" I bid him farewell and headed for Newmarket, then Exning and finished at Burwell where the boss was visiting a friend. The bike went in the car, 70 miles was plenty for today.

 

[Dave 123]

Pedal for Scotland, a 50 mile charity ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh with over 8000 riders. Perfect weather for it today, even a favourable breeze! Strava here.

Garlic Breath?

 

[Brandane]

Garlic Breath?

It's in Edinburgh; 'nuff said .

 

[Pikey]

Did the New Forest and Coast 100k, what a gem!
I'd never been to the new forest before, it's chuffing lush.

 

[gbb]

Compared to you all, just 18 miles but tagged onto a rider who overtook me, held on for 5 or 6 miles...better than id have hoped. Disappointed to still find I cant fully inflate my lungs when pushed, but a lovely sunny ride on one of my old short routes.

 

[Bryony]

I did 2 rides today the first was a Skyride Local ride, we were doing it initially for my eldest step daughter as she really enjoyed the ones we did last year but she changed her mind and didn't want to go, but David and I decided to go along anyway. It was quite a pleasant ride from Minnis Bay to Reculver along the sea wall, it was a nice warm day with a gentle breeze and the sun was managing to burn off the thick fog that we woke up to! We had a cafe stop when we got to Reculver, but unfortunately the cafe had no cake!! Just as we were setting off back to Minnis Bay one of the ride leaders had a clipless moment in front of us all, which gave us all a bit of a giggle! All i all it was a very well led ride.

The towers of the ruined St. Mary's Church at Reculver (with added ride leaders!)

The ruins of St. Mary's Church

The second ride of the day was at Fowlmead Country Park, David wanted to take his MTB round the MTB trails so I rode round the tarmac track and the leisure paths. In all I've done about 15 miles today.

Out on the leisure paths

At the Fowlmead lake

 

[Supersuperleeds]

55 miles the journey, Desford the destination, a short ride, short when compared to last week, over to Tropical Birdland at Desford out of Coventry though Wood End, I embarrassed Myself at The Henley Rd Deedmore Rd junction , I had my first clipless moment, on through Shilton Withybrook and Monks Kirby, beautiful bright breezy but chilly morning that warmed up nicely as the day progressed, the breeze was fun on the way out as I flew before it but not as much fun slogging into it on the way back, got into Birdland just before it got busy, it was the site of one of the controls on an Audax and got somewhat busy by the time I left. Back through Kirby Mallory, Sutton Cheney and Shenton, then followed a regular route up Purley Chase, through Ansley and into Coventry.

http://www.tropicalbirdland.com/

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I do a lot of my riding out that way, lovely quiet roads and nice and flat

 

[cyberknight]

Only time for a quick blast around my usual loop, 24.2 miles and i was on course for 21 mph average till the last hill where i got stuck at the junction at the top behind a queue .
http://www.strava.com/activities/191289065

 

[Glow worm]

A 22 miler here in the flatlands this afternoon.

First through the villages of Bottisham and Lode, then onto the Lodes Way cycle route. Took a detour to Upware along a quiet lane. I have never seen anyone else on this road apart from a lone horse once. Today - couple of other cyclists with little one on board were battling the rough surface too...

After Upware, an empty and lovely bridleway...

I soon arrived at a nature reserve called Kingfisher Bridge. There's a big lake there so there's plenty of waders about. This time last year I saw three ospreys here, pausing to fish on their way south. No ospreys today, but my favourite bench was free so I sat there for a while...

In fact no one was about at all, not even in the hides. Quite surprising on such a warm day.

Headed back through Wicken Fen and down the Lodes Way. This is Wicken...

The Lodes Way was busy with cyclists. Always good to see.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

 

[PeteXXX]

Today was the Gorilla Sportive in Oundle. Originally, three of us were riding over from Northampton to meet the other half a dozen who were driving to the start.
One chap had a bit of a health scare so decided not to ride the 32 miles to Oundle. T'other chap had sold his Road bike and was doing the ride on an S-Works MTB so didn't want that many road miles.
Stuff it, thought I.. I'll do it on my own

The alarm clock sounded at 05:00 (I'm really not used to this sort of shock since working late shifts for a couple of years!) Still, the bike was prepped and the porage was ready to cook. Everything was ready to roll out of bed, shower, feed and roll out of the door.
There was a bit of a chill in the air at 05:45, but still OK for shorts, but I did pop back indoors to grab my jacket!

Orlingbury church in the murk of the dawn.

As expected, the roads were lovely and quiet. In fact, I only saw a couple of cars in the first 12 miles.
I used a route I've done before to get to Oundle. Burton Latimer (past my place of work) onto the old A45 to Cranford then up the hill to Brigstock and then to the start line on Oundle Quay. There's some lovely lanes to ride to get there.
I met the rest of the lads and had a free cuppa before getting my starter pack, route and timing chip, and we off on time at 08:30.

These are the longer distance starters getting ready for the off at 08:00. We were all doing the 45 mile route.
The half way stop for us was in Manton, by Rutland Water.

Free snacks there . As much as you wanted to eat really, but not advisable to pig out with 60 miles under my belt & another 22 miles to go! Nice touch to supply jelly beans and jelly babies...

From the rest stop, there was a bit of confusion about the route as there were no arrows to point the way, but with some help from the locals and a few other riders, we found the right road. There's quite a few testing hills on the route to conquer, but only one Cat 4 according to Strava. I really don't believe that!

Back to the finish for a lovely bowl of pasta washed down with a free beer from Nene Valley Brewery, which is located next door to the Gorillafirm bike shop. (Now, that's convenient!)

82 miles ridden in beautiful weather in lovely countryside. We've all decided that we're up for it next year as well

http://www.strava.com/activities/191048769

 

[Hacienda71]

75 miles for me today to see stage 1 of the TOB. The ride didn't set off too well when the GPX file wouldn't show on the Garmin. So I thought hey I will just use the navigation using the maps on the card in the Garmin. Well that didn't work very well and I ended up looking at the overall maps. I decided to head to Warrington then Widnes and then to Sefton Park via Liverpool airport. All was going well I don't mind busy roads but somehow ended up on the DC between Widnes and Liverpool airport. Not good. Full on 70 mph limit with no hard shoulder, the junctions were a nightmare being passed on both sides at 70 plus is not nice. I thought ok I will get off at the next junction and find some other way. In the meantime a small hardshoulder about a meter wide had appeared. A bit of a sanctuary from the carrigeway. Well it would have been if had gone on rather than stopping abruptly just over the top of a rise. I stuffed it big time. My fault for being on a road totally unsuitable for bikes. Luckily I landed still clipped to the bike off the road on a concrete area rather than in the carrigeway

Those of sensitive disposition may wish to look away now.

As well as me I managed to ruin a pair of shorts, a mitt, an arm warmer, a leg warmer and a sock.
The bike on the other hand apart from a few lights scuffs was ok. So as you do as nothing was broken I hopped back on the bike and rode the rest of the way to Sefton Park. Caught most of the race and was pleased to see Richard Handley and Jon Mould in the breakaway . Sefton Park was resplendent in the sun and there was a good friendly crowd.

My phone camera was not taking good photos of the action but here are a couple which aren't too blurred.
Had a chat with an old guy who used to ride back in the day who pointed me in the direction of the old road back to Widnes which was godsend after the DC on the way out then back via Warrington on more familiar roads.
Strange despite feeling a bit sore and stiff. I quite enjoyed the ride. Not sure I will feel the same in the morning.

 

[beardy01]

My ride today was 54 miles from london to brighton for marie curie in the " do it for charity " bike ride. Was tougher than i thought it would be once out of london with long ramps coming one after the other then up ditchling beacon after about 49 miles. Thoroughly enjoyable and raised about £280 for charity also wanted to get under 3hrs 30mins and did it in 3hrs 23 so a great day all round only downside was the 3 hour train journey to get home due to cancellations and missed connections !!!! Made the beer taste even sweeter tho

 

[MikeW-71]

Took a ride out to the airport in leisurely mode. Even had my baggy shorts and one of my looser jerseys on. The mission was to see the Spitfire and Hurricane that were scheduled to land at about 2:45 to refuel.

Nice weather, a good few other riders out, including one roadie that got the shock of his life as a squirrel ran out in front of him and missed his wheel by inches!

Got to the airport nice and early and picked a spot near the Vulcan.



Had a practice with the camera just to get warmed up, this guy was always buzzing around:



By now the place was absolutely rammed with cars and people, and the keen eyed spotted our main attraction approaching. But only a solitary Spitfire! I videoed it landing but no sign at all of the Hurricane

Once refuelled, he taxied out again:



Then he waited... and waited, until a second Spitfire roared overhead That was the cue for the first one to take off and they formed up to head south in formation.

What a lovely sight and sound.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

My daughter was home this weekend so it was a dad/daughter outing today. Nice pootle in the late afternoon sunshine. Daughter struggled a wee bit on the upslopes but that didn't detract from the outing. We stopped at a dovecot which is a rather good one to check it out and provide a wee rest. Got back after 42 miles for Tea at M-i-L's (or nanny's). All good stuff!!