Your ride today....

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PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Friday's ride.. Posted late, as usual.

I was meeting up with my sister in Grantchester at 11:00, so decided to drive to St. Ives with the bike in the car, stop at the Park & Ride for £1 and ride the 18 ish miles alongside the guided bus route to Cambridge.

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I was taking a small hydrangea bush, grown from a cutting from my dad's old plant. It just hung on the rack, in a cornflakes box and a couple of bungee cords and arrived safe and complete :laugh:

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Brilliant shared user path. Wide, clear, with a smooth surface. Maybe Northampton could learn a thing or two about maintenance and design!!

Through Cambridge was easy as I followed a chap after asking him the best route to Grantchester.

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Once there, and had met up, I locked the bike up at the Orchard Tearooms and we went for a stroll for several miles around the local footpaths and nature reserve.

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Decent coffee, and an artisan scone :hungry:

After another wander across the Meadows, we retired to the pub for an orange juice and lemonade before she gave me a lift half a mile back to my bike, where I picked up an aspidistra grown from a cutting from my grandmother's Victorian plant (this fit in my rucksack, so didn't I have to lash it down on the rack!)

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On the way back through Cambridge, I stopped for a pic or two. This is St John's college, one bridge up from the Bridge of Sighs, then a few wiggles through the old city to get back to the cycle path back to my car.

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The windmill, in Over, alongside the guided bus route.

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Back to the car just as the sun was setting.

Lovely ride, sunny, chilly, dry and virtually windless!
43½ miles total. 37 on the bike, 5 walking and ½ mile in a car. Sort that out, Strava! :okay:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1288650964

:smile:
 

Lozi

Senior Member
This ride was actually yesterday but somebody pointed me in the direction of this thread so here goes. This is copied from my description on Strava.



Wanted to do some daylight riding for the first time in a what feels like months, the first issue was I left later than I wanted to do only got a little daylight and was pretty dark by the time I reached the canal. I had decided to extend the canal part of my route by a few miles which was a big mistake as the tow path got almost unridable at one point due to the mud and subsidence where I nearly fell off about 30 times... which brings me nicely onto the fact I did fall off, at speed in the mud!


As I joined the the canal after the steep drop near the blisworth tunnel I was chugging along trying to pick up some speed through all the mud, my glasses steamed up and I couldn’t see which resulted in me going off course. My front wheel slid of one of the wood liners next to the tow path then dug into some deep mud sideways on catapulting me over the handle bars landing in a load of deep sludgy mud on my back!


I jumped back on an continued past my usual exit bridge and into the worst tow path in history, after I exiting the canal I then travelled up the fake Birds Hill for the first time ever WHICH SUCKED! And nearly killed me.


I could hear many thorns and sticks stuck in my tyres hitting the road so I knew it was about to get worse. About 3 miles from home down a pitch black muddy backroad I got a puncture which I had to stop and change. The tyres were thick with mud as was pretty much the whole bike so I got absolutely covered, the worst thing other than the pitch black and mud all over the bike and me was the fact it was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING OUT! So I froze to death as well.


I just about managed to get the tube changed and pumped up with my incredibly inadequate little pump I carry and set off.


Half a mile later the front tyre was flat again! I’m guessing I didn’t manage to clear all the thorns or the tube got pinched against the rim.


I stopped and pumped it up again with the horrendously inadequate pump (which is a workout in itself).... something I had to do a further 6 times in the last couple miles home! All in the pitch black freezing cold muddy hell!


It’s fair to say I was relieved to get home, WORST. RIDE. EVER!!!!!!!!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1290264966

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Jon George

Mamil and couldn't care less
My cold seems to have peaked, so I took a short ride out this morning to Foxhall to fully test out the new crankset on Pasty #3 The Hybrid (possibly my new wet-weather ride for the winter) and also to see if I was fit enough to go to the pub. I may have had some company ....

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Bike seems okay and I believe I am well enough to go out for a beer or two. :cheers:
 

Dave 123

Legendary Member
Friday's ride.. Posted late, as usual.

I was meeting up with my sister in Grantchester at 11:00, so decided to drive to St. Ives with the bike in the car, stop at the Park & Ride for £1 and ride the 18 ish miles alongside the guided bus route to Cambridge.

View attachment 384748

I was taking a small hydrangea bush, grown from a cutting from my dad's old plant. It just hung on the rack, in a cornflakes box and a couple of bungee cords and arrived safe and complete :laugh:

View attachment 384749

Brilliant shared user path. Wide, clear, with a smooth surface. Maybe Northampton could learn a thing or two about maintenance and design!!

Through Cambridge was easy as I followed a chap after asking him the best route to Grantchester.

View attachment 384751

Once there, and had met up, I locked the bike up at the Orchard Tearooms and we went for a stroll for several miles around the local footpaths and nature reserve.

View attachment 384747

Decent coffee, and an artisan scone :hungry:

After another wander across the Meadows, we retired to the pub for an orange juice and lemonade before she gave me a lift half a mile back to my bike, where I picked up an aspidistra grown from a cutting from my grandmother's Victorian plant (this fit in my rucksack, so didn't I have to lash it down on the rack!)

View attachment 384750

On the way back through Cambridge, I stopped for a pic or two. This is St John's college, one bridge up from the Bridge of Sighs, then a few wiggles through the old city to get back to the cycle path back to my car.

View attachment 384752

The windmill, in Over, alongside the guided bus route.

View attachment 384760

Back to the car just as the sun was setting.

Lovely ride, sunny, chilly, dry and virtually windless!
43½ miles total. 37 on the bike, 5 walking and ½ mile in a car. Sort that out, Strava! :okay:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1288650964

:smile:


Pssst! It's Trinity, not St Johns.
 

PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Pssst! It's Trinity, not St Johns.
I knew it was called summat :rolleyes:
 

Bonefish Blues

Banging donk
Up the main estate drive and I spied the Longhorns in a corner of the field, I went to say hello
View attachment 384726
Apropos of this the tastiest joint of beef I have every eaten came from one of his ancestors. Om and indeed nom.

Vicarious riding only again yesterday, whilst dogging* along nearby lanes when I met one of the Welshest** people I've ever met and was able to direct him to some decent riding hereabouts. Nice bloke and good to meet someone who had obviously just gone out to ride somewhere unfamiliar, and was following his nose, as opposed to a GPS-guided, laser enabled, processing power in excess of a Saturn V pre-planned route.

Dogs enjoyed the 7-odd mile walk, too.

*Previous post refers :smile:
**In an accented sense (am of Celtic persuasion myself, lest anyone thinks ill of me)
 

LeetleGreyCells

Un rouleur infatigable
I had to be quick this morning hence no photos. I had a mechanical mishap on my mountain bike which I quickly set right and then managed to get going proper.

Headed out to Thorpe Salvin, passing the ruins of Thorpe Manor. On my way to Whitwell, I found a fellow cyclist with a puncture. He borrowed my rat-nosed pliers to get a hawthorn out of his tyre. My good deed done, I quickly got to Whitwell and then headed toward Clowne.

The Clowne Half Marathon was on and I saw the lead runner huffing and puffing along, and lots of very cold marshals standing around. Community police were about too.

Stopped for a breather and a bite in Clowne then continued on to Barlborough before heading home.

Distance: 31 km / 19.25 miles
Ride Time: 1 hour 48 minutes
Average speed: 17.1 km/h
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
I had plans to knock out a 100 today. The weather was cold, though not below freezing so no ice or frost. It was a beautiful sunny blue sky day. I cycled to Strood to meet @Trickedem. We made our way to the Hoo Peninsular where we did a nice loop, then on to Nells in Gravesend for brekkie. Back to Strood where I had to say bye to Tim as he had an afternoon engagement. The plan for me was to cycle to Faversham following the FNRttC route, however then Man Flu hangover I have was giving me chesty breathing problems with the cold air. So I changed my route, following National Cycle Route 17, following a couple of miles of bridleway, (luckily dry) to BlueBell Hill, then downhill to Maidstone where I followed the Medway River path to Farleigh, then a climb out of Farleigh to home.
So, 62 miles for the day. Back at home with some warming cups of tea and my chest seems to have returned back to normal. A shorter ride today, but a nice one never the less.

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Trickedem on Hoo
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Hoo, to the right is the Thames Gateway Container Port
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Bluebell Hill
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Any spare Pumpkins going?
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