Your ride today....

[Donger]

Yesterday's ride: A small group of intrepid clubmates took up my invitation to a grand day out on the Isle of Wight yesterday, and we did a 51 mile half island tour. There's something about going on a ferry that always turns a ride into an adventure, and this ride was no different. It was about £7 to park at the ferry terminal at Lymington, and £16 each for the open-ended day return crossing. Well worth every penny.
Rich, me, Dave and John:

Bike stowing was a little bit haphazard, but the sea was like a millpond, so the bikes were never going to fall over:

The island is quite hilly, and we amassed over 4,000 feet of climbing in 51 miles, but the roads were beautifully quiet. This was the only traffic jam we came across:

I had planned the route so as to head across to Shanklin and then return all the way along the South coast to the Needles before returning from Yarmouth:

This allowed us to stop for lunch at Ventnor, one of my very favourite places. I love the steep little hairpin bends on the way down to the beach, though I had to warn my mates that we would be climbing back up straight after lunch. Café legs are bad enough without the risk of seeing your lunch again at the side of the road!

We headed for my favourite watering hole, the Spyglass Inn, tucked away under the cliff at the far end of the beach, with its decking extending out over the sea. On a hot, sunny day I can think of nowhere I'd rather be. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast for most of the ride, and the Spyglass was heaving, with a massive queue for food.

So we moved on to a perfectly acceptable (though nearly empty) little cafe at the other end of the beach for lunch instead. We made it back up the cliff and up several more hills of every type as we made our way along more deserted roads along the coast. Beautiful views everywhere, interrupted by a five minute biblical downpour, and followed by a nice bit of sunshine for the rest of the ride. Last time I rode the island we missed the Needles, so I was determined to put that right this time. As the ferries return at 5 past every hour, and we had an open-ended ticket, we took our time and rode over to the Needles Visitor Centre. There we found a smooth tarmac track that cyclists are allowed to use, leading out to the Needles Old Battery, and running along the edge of a vertical cliff with fine views across to the mainland. Wow! What a cycle path. A recommended diversion for everyone who visits the island by bike. We climbed around a hairpin bend up towards the Coastguard station just for the hell of it, and to get an even better view:

Then back to the ferry terminal at Yarmouth:

All in all, a monumentally great day out that was enjoyed by all. My bike has developed an annoying click that just can't be traced, but it didn't spoil the day at all. The forecasted thunderstorms stayed away until just after we had left the car park for the drive home. That was a bit of an adventure, as we were right in the middle of the mother of all thunderstorms for over half an hour on the way home. It looked like nuclear warheads were going off all around us. Got around the plethora of road closures in Gloucestershire and back home just as the rain stopped. A grand day out that I would recommend to any of you.
Cheers, Donger.

 

[cosmicbike]

Needed to get the commuter bike back together for tonight so a quick dash out to Walton Bridge and back this morning on the Ti. The Winter miles are paying off, 21 miles at 16.8 mph average. The heavy overnight rain gave me a couple of lakes to ride through over Addlestone way, glad to have had the mudguards on.
Passed a couple of HDW riders along Chertsey Lane on route to their Staines bridge starting point.
Nice weather, back on the commute tonight.

 

[NorthernDave]

I'd arranged to meet a mate for an imperial half today - in hindsight this might have been a tad optimistic after yesterdays metric half given my current lack of fitness, but there was only one way to find out. Tim was on his fancy pants Cervélo P2 and treating the ride as triathlon training.

That said, the ride wasn't without incident virtually from the off - read on for a tale of overcoming adversity on 2 wheels...

The forecast was for much rain from mid-morning so after toying with the idea of taking the Pro Carbon for it's first ride of the year, I decided to use the Giant with it's mudguards.
Onto Coal Road and barely a mile from home we spotted a council worker ahead putting out cones around a 'Road Closed' sign. No problem, he was only setting up, so surely he'd let us through?
As it turned out, we never found out - as a loud hiss and instant lumpiness made itself felt from my back tyre. Oh fiddlesticks!
Two options - change the tube at the roadside, or with the tyre still partially inflated make a dash for home and get the best bike out?
The other bike option won out and less than ten minutes later I was pumping the tyres on the Pro Carbon up, as it's not been used for about 6 months.
A squirt of oil on the chain and we were off again, this time risking a quick blast up the A64 to Thorner Lane to avoid the now almost certainly properly shut Coal Road. Down the hill into Thorner, then up Church Hill back out of the village, with me noticing the higher gearing on the first climb of the day (36/28 as opposed to 34/32 that I've been riding for months).
Through the dip at Wothersome and on down the road to Bramham, legs warmed up now and feeling good and with the roads still nice and quiet.
The climb up Town Hill next and as I got the hammer down, I heard Tim shout something, (which I presumed was about how nice this hill was) but on reaching the top he was nowhere to be seen so I pulled in and waited.
A couple of minutes later he huffed into view, as he'd changed down to the small cog at the front the chain had jumped off so he'd had that to sort, then tackle the hill from a dead start.
From there we climbed the easy side of the Windmill, which gave us a long descent towards Clifford. I hit 44.5 mph on the way down, but by heck that road is lumpy
Through Clifford and the long way round to Boston Spa and over the river to Thorp Arch and up to Walton, where someone was cooking bacon for breakfast but we had no time for such things as we headed out into the countryside and up to Wighill.
I was leading at this point, but knew Tim was keeping pace with me as I could hear his bike rattling away behind me...
"What's rattling?" said I. "Not sure but it can't be anything important." said he...
Down the hill into Wighill I heard a cry of "Hang on!" from behind, so pulled in again and was joined a minute of so later by him carrying one of his two water bottles and the remains of a broken bottle cage which had sheared off and that he threw in a nearby bin.
On again towards Healaugh and as we started the gentle climb towards the village we found the source of the rattling on his bike - one of the gear change levers on his bike (TT bars) had jammed in the up position slamming him immediately the smallest cog at the back. He also reported that he wasn't sure if the lever for the front mech felt 100% too...
Hmmmm....what to do - we still had 35+ miles to do at this point - would we have to abandon?
After much fettling, we set the rear derailleur at a more sensible gear, locked off the lever and he was now riding a very fancy S/S. We decided to push on to Bilborough and make a call if we were continuing or not.
If I'm honest I struggled to keep up with him on the section of the ride that came next, so much that he overshot the turning for Bilborough and we ended up taking the cycle path at the side of the A64 to get back on route. Over the bridge and down by the services and he was happy to continue.
From there to Acaster Malbis it's mainly downhill or flat and we fair flew along, although he was spinning out at anything much over 18 mph so no records were set.
Up onto the Solar Cycleway (NCN 65?) on the ridiculously narrow access and onto the bridge over the River Ouse, where we stopped for Haribo and a photo:

It was absolutely glorious at this point, with no sign of the heavy showers that had been forecast - the bike was filthy from the country lanes as it had clearly poured down over night though.
Off the cycleway and onto the road through Naburn and out towards Stillingfleet. It's as flat and open as you like out here and a notable head wind had sprung up from somewhere. I was leading at this point, since at least I had gears to help and it started to turn into a bit of a grind. As the road turned through 90 degrees for the run down to Cawood bridge we hoped for some respite, but oddly we still had a headwind...
No problem, we'd soon be over the bridge and turning through another 90 degrees so that would be that. Nope, despite completing 3 sides of a square we still had a stiff headwind to contend with. Who says mother nature doesn't like a joke?

Anyhow, the good news is that we'd arrived at Mrs B's Lakeside Café so it was time for a nosebag and a breather in the glorious sunshine.

The café was quite busy and all the bike parking was taken so I had to improvise...quite a few nice bikes parked up there today and we had a bit of a chat with a few riders.
All too soon though the butties and coffees had been consumed and it was time to get back in the saddle.
The road on through Ryther and then around the former RAF Church Fenton is one I've ridden many times before, but I can honestly say I can't ever recall it being such a grind as it was today into that wind .
Through Church Fenton we got some respite from the buildings, but the long straight mile to Barkston Ash was the same as was the road to Saxton, and by this point the sun had gone in and some ominous looking clouds were gathering ahead.
We continued to grind the miles out up to Lotherton Gates and on towards Aberford, with the steep descent into the village being a welcome relief. The only problem was that we had to climb back out of the other side up Cattle Lane!
From Cock Beck it's constantly up all the way through Barwick and nearly to Scholes and I was struggling by this point, but eventually we reached the drop down into Scholes, then the drop down Leeds Road which was still into that pesky wind.
Over Cock Beck again and the climb up the other side, with local roads up to home, just as the rain finally arrived.

54.6 miles (87.87km) in 3h 56m at an average of 13.5mph with 2,109ft climbed and an almost tropical average temperature of 16.1 degrees C

Now I've had something to eat and sorted myself out I'm quite pleased with that, although I'll admit it was probably more miles than I should have bitten off and I didn't really enjoy the last 10 miles or so at the time.
Still they all count and the only way to improve is to get out there.
Plus, after all that the ride was completed as planned, we were only a couple of minutes slower than last time we did that route, it's another ride in the bag for the Half Century challenge and the Boardman performed impeccably to say I'd just taken it out of storage and done nothing more than pump the tyres up and put a bit of oil on the chain. So in my book that's not a bad do.

Mrs ND helpfully advised that about 20 minutes after I set off again after changing bikes, there was another loud hiss from the rear tyre on the Giant and it's now as flat as a pancake - a quick attempt with the track pump is having no effect at all and there looks to be a shard of glass embedded deep in the tyre so I'll sort that out after tea, which gives me an excuse to avoid some Sunday night telly.
At least it got me back home before giving up the ghost - and it's provided clear evidence why I need so many bikes...

And to end, a map:

 

[Pale Rider]

Today was a first for me, as I joined what I think we can call a Group Forum Ride (with 3 of us anyway!).

@Rickshaw Phil arrived at mine and we headed off North of Shrewsbury, to meet up with @Pale Rider, who was down here for a few days.

We used familiar paths up to Heathgates, but then I cycled on some Town roads, for the first time, before we joined Ellesmere Rd, as far as Albrighton.

We then turned onto further new cycling territory and met @Pale Rider. We had a good chat and whilst we were doing so the forecast rain arrived and was heavy enough for me to don a waterproof.

We followed the lanes to Upton Magna, having a good chat as well, and saw a GB Triathlete that @Rickshaw Phil and myself know, along the way.

The section between Upton Magna and Atcham saw us meet loads of cycling groups, one set not doing us a favour by turning into a junction on our side of the road !

A quick pause at Atcham and then the climb up Chilton Lane, before I had to go my separate ways, in order to play Cricket this afternoon.

It is Bike 4 Life, today, where around 12000 motorbikes run from Shrewsbury to RAF Cosford, for charity. I could hear the cacophony of engines, as I cycled back into Shrewsbury and also had to negotiate the spectators and cars (doing stupid things and being abandoned all over the place!) as I crossed over the A5.

Despite the rain, a thoroughly enjoyable ride and made all the better by the exceedingly pleasurable company of @Pale Rider and @Rickshaw Phil.

I look forward to reading the write up of where they ended up on the rest of their ride, later on today.

21.9 miles at 13.1mph avg for me

One of the pleasures of riding in experienced company is not having to worry about the route

Which is my way of saying my report will be short of geographical information.

Phil and Gav made good time to my brother's holiday lodge at Hadnall, and we were soon on our way.

It almost goes without saying, but the pair of them are very agreeable company and a pleasure to ride with.

Gav set a decent pace on his road bike and we were soon at his departure point somewhere south of Shrewsbury.

Good effort on his behalf turning out on a cricket match day, because if I know anything about village cricket the team will need all the support it can get, so I was pleased he was able ride with us and still make the game.

Phil and I decided to head for Church Stretton, where Phil knew for a bait stop.

Riding in these parts is mostly on country lanes, not much in the way of motor traffic and not too much in the way of ups and downs.

The last couple of miles into Church Stretton is along a slight incline, but also into the prevailing breeze which made it surprisingly hard work.

The cafe Phil picked was all but full of roadies, including about eight or 10 on a club ride.

Coffee and a toastie for me, both of a good standard and fair value at £5.25.

My parked ebike attracted some interest from a few of the roadies, the only comment I overheard was positive.

We also saw a few mountain bikers going up towards The Burway climb, they had route boards on their bikes so it looked like an organised event.

Like Gav, I've never seen quite so many cyclists on a Sunday ride.

Some spots of rain on the way back.

I decided to go after a roadie on the last, longish climb of the day.

When I caught him, he said he was very relieved I was on an ebike because he had thought he was being wiped up by an older bloke on a flat bar hybrid.

Pleasant guy, and a strong rider - I only just caught him as we crested the climb.

Phil was getting a text message or two as it was getting towards tea time when we got back to the lodge.

Too many texts can irritating, but this was his brother offering to get some beer in, very handy because Phil had just said to me he fancied a slurp when he got home.

This implanted the drinking thought in my mind, so my very enjoyable day is drawing nicely to a close with a couple of cans on the deck of brother's lodge.

About 40 miles, not too many hills, and in as pleasant company as any cyclist could wish for.

 

[Elybazza61]

Actually got out on a club ride with a little cool down to make up the 100k;pleased with the ride considering I haven't managed many long rides this year.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1524670682/overview

Also did a commute yesterday so another 60k racked up there.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1521415052

https://www.strava.com/activities/1522946530

Helium was ossum as usual and bottom was kept comfy with the This Is Cambridge bib-shorts.

 

[TigerT]

My rides this weekend.... It's been a gorgeous weekend here in Zürich. I managed to get two rides in.

Friday: the friend I went riding with wanted to go out again. I managed to get out of work early and we were on the road by 5pm. The plan was to head out past Griefensee and on to Pfäffikon, from there taking a different route back through Effretikon and Dubendorf and home. It was a beautiful warm evening and we got glimpses of the sun setting at various points. 59kms A pretty good way to start the weekend.


The sun starting to set over the Pfäffikersee

Sunset selfie before heading down to Wangen.

Sunday: I was going to take a rest, my legs were pretty tired. So I set out just to do my regular Sunday coffee ride. Apart from the fact my Garmin died and refused to track any GPS signal, the first part went according to plan. Though I had to take a different route due to a village closure and roadworks elsewhere. I was sitting enjoying my coffee and cake thinking that I didn't want to go back the same way, so I got the map out. Here the idea of a rest went a bit wrong. Firstly I ditched the Garmin and switched to my watch - Also a Garmin, but a working one! I decided to head out on Route 5 and switch to Route 77 taking me to Brugg. Here I switched to Route 60 which takes you cross country through lots of villages, including Birmenstorf, Mülligen, Windisch and Niederwenigen. Finally picking up Route 29 to bring me home along the River Glatt. Glad I did it. At 91kms, it's not my longest ride and also not the most I've climbed at roughly 700m but the hills were longer and steeper than I'm used to and I managed them all, so pretty happy with that. Was a bit warm though 22 - 27. degrees.


The plan for a Sunday Coffee Ride started out so well.

Leaving Baden for new adventures

Heading out into the countryside at Birmenstorf

A nice bit of shade before a bit of a climb down by the River Reuss in Mülligen

The bike having a rest under a tree in Windisch

And a map of the 2nd part where I had working GPS

 

[colly]

Not so much a 'ride out' more of a 'journey to' for me today.

The plans were to be at my sons house for around lunchtime to enable him and his partner to get out for a lunch with friends unencumbered by a 15moth old and a 4 year old.
I'll ride down and meet you there I said and after an awful lot of faffing about I finally set off at around 11am. The clouds had gathered and it looked ominous. Dire warnings of being out in a storm had Mrs Colly glancing at me frowning, tutting and asking 'are you really going to ride in the rain??'
The answer was obvious ''it's not even raining yet. If it does rain. I'll pull over and call you to pick me up''
The response to that I can not reveal on a family forum save to say Mrs Colly's expletive vocabulary is wider than I knew.

So it was out and east, up to the A63 at Cross Gates, on via Colton, Thorpe Park and past Garforth, and eventually Micklefield. I picked up the old A1 and went south taking all the way down to Ferrybridge where I cut off the A1 and turned west past the looming cooling towers of the power station.
I was on the wrong road I found out after a few miles. I imagined the road I was on would bring me through Knottingley and into Ponte-Carlo.
Instead it headed uphill into the top end of Cas-Vegas. No problem I turned a left and headed for Ponte via Monkhill instead. ( Monkhill........sounds picturesque doesn't it? It's not. )
I passed the remains of Pontefract Castle which, to be fair, has seen better days.
In it's heyday it will have been a magnificent sight and I'm sure would have had wonderful views. : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontefract_Castle

It's still well worth a visit though.

I turned right onto the main Knottingley / Pontefract road and headed into town. It's a busy town, too busy really, and at one of those double roundabout junctions with a lots of roads feeding traffic into the system I got baulked by a car and rather than taking the road I wanted, for safety's sake, I ended up going left towards Hemsworth and Ackworth. I could have stopped and turned around but I knew there was a right hand turn I could make to bring me back to where I wanted to be. I didn't realise it was two and a half miles or so. Eventually just before Ackworth I turned right and north to bring me into Purston Jaglin.
Purston Jaglin if you're wanting to impress ..................Featherstone, if you simply need to let someone know where it is.
I arrived safely having only been gently rained on for the last mile or so. Mrs Colly was already settled in, tea in hand, having arrived 15 mins beforehand.

The plan was to ride back after baby sitting duties were performed but an afternoon in the sun, kicking a football about, playing with toy cars and doing jigsaws had me deciding a lift home with Mrs Colly was the better option.

View: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/22360491


Just under 24 miles with about 1800 ft of up.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Further to the reports of @gavgav and @Pale Rider:

Headed out early and got to Gav's after having passed a fair few motorbikes heading for the Ride for Life event and a few spectators already claiming their viewing positions a good three hours before the event was due to kick off. We then headed to meet up with Pale Rider, arriving early even though we'd spent most of the ride catching up with each others news.

Having all met up properly, we headed south, passing Atcham before parting with Gav so he could head off for his match, then Pale Rider and I carried on south through Condover, Ryton, Longnor, All Stretton and into Church Stretton where we paused for lunch at The Hollybush , which as previously mentioned was pretty packed with cyclists.

Loads of other cyclists out today, in fact I'm not sure if I've ever seen so many out at once locally. I imagine plenty of cafe's will have done a good trade today.

The return was via Acton Burnell, Pitchford, Cross Houses and Atcham (where we took a detour through Attingham Park) before retracing our steps to Hadnall. and was made easy by a following wind pretty much all the way, but not helped by intermittant showers.

After parting from Pale Rider I headed back the way I came into Shrewsbury but varied the route a little into Castlefields and over the footbridge before heading out of town through Abbey Foregate and Belle Vue. I had a brisk headwind most of the way so it took a little longer than hoped but that beer waiting was worth the effort.

A nice day out.

64.3 miles total for me today. An imperial and a metric century within 3 days - pleased with that.

Sorry, no photos this time. Too distracted by chatting.

 

[13 rider]

Today was another of my forum rides a ride with a start point but no finish as we do a loop and people bail where they want to . Specificly designed so the south Derbyshire crew to visit Leicester CC favourite cafe stop Nice pie . Rolled out the door at 0620 to head for the start point 6 miles away for a 0900 meet . Started with arm and leg warmers soon realised I was overdressed . Arm warmers last 30 mins and leg warmers an hour until I found a nice bench to change at . Anstey ,Groby ,Ratby ,Desford ,Thornton ,Newtown Linford ,Loughborough ,Quorn ,Mountsorrel ,Rothley ,Cossington the 6 mile trip had turned into 38 . Just as I'm heading for a descreet call of nature @Lilliburlero past me doing an extra loop . I'm first to the meeting point @tallliman was next then @Supersuperleeds then finally @Lilliburlero made it . After a few minutes of chatting the 4 of us are off ,Syston ,Barkby ,Beeby first climb of the day out of South Croxton and on to Gaddesby and were making fairly rapid progress so replanning the route on the fly so we don't get to the cafe before it opens .Gaddesby ,Rearsby ,Ratcliffe on the Wreake up the Wreake valley with a nice tailwind ,Thrussington ,High ,Asfordby and the next climb up Saxileby Hill . Wartnaby and turn straight into a strength into headwind the 2 miles to the cafe along a straight road turning into a bit of silly racing @Supersuperleeds unwittingly lead me out for a final sprint first to the cafe . Sat outside in the where various cake sandwich's and beans on toast were devoured . @Supersuperleeds went for a chocolate cake which had cream eggs on it it did look .After a relaxed stop were off again. The wind had picked up a bit so 3 miles of headwind before we turned off to a nice descent into Wymeswold on to Hoton ,Prestwold ,Stanford on soar another climb to Normanton ,Zouch ,Long Whatton ,Diesworth and Belton . Here @tallliman turned for home to complete a metric century at the other end of the village @Lilliburlero turns for home to do some extra miles for another Imperial ton . Leaving me and @Supersuperleeds heading towards my house . An long drag of a climb out of Whitwick and I'm doing maths to see if I going past the ton so a slightly extended route back to Anstey where we part ways leaving me one last climb to home 102 miles for me at 16.4 mph and 4500ft of climbing @Supersuperleeds got home with a 111 miles on the clock . Fantastic ride today in great company and glorious weather anyone else sunburnt ?

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

........... anyone else sunburnt ?

Yes, forgot to mention that. Didn't put any suncream on until the sun actually came out at the cafe stop. Oops.

 

[Katherine]

Got absolutely drenched this morning only 2 miles from the start of the club ride. So much for the weather forecast saying light rain and drizzle. Luckily I had decided to wear longs and overshoes. Week 4 of clipping in, going well but first time in the shoes which lets in water through the holes in the soles. What a stupid place for holes! So came home in soggy socks. Horrible. The rain had stopped by the time we reached The Anderton Boat Lift and good use was made of the hand dryers (think Mr Bean!) We had a lovely return ride in the afternoon sunshine in beautiful countryside. I only needed to add 2 miles to complete another 100k which I'm pleased with.

 

[PatrickPending]

Not done an evening ride in ages = especially after a longish run in the morning - but made it out for a quick 38km run down to ashby parva... should do evening rides more often = lovely sunset and got back before it got dark......

 

[C R]

Got up early to try and fit a ride, as Mrs C R had a family swim session scheduled for some point before lunch.

I was out at 7:40, and headed towards Kempsey for a loop I know takes me about an hour. After my efforts on Friday I thought I might have to take it easy, but legs were feeling good, and managed a steady 16mph through Kempsey and Kerswell Green up to the turn for Croome at High Green.

On the A38 just out of Kempsey there was a crow picking on some roadkill, which turned out to be a bird of prey. I don't know what kind, but it was about the size of a wood pigeon, brown with black bands along the edge of the wings. Such a shame.

Turned right at the top past High Green, going past Croome along Rebecca Road, the day was beautiful, and this was the view over the railway

Carried on turning left towards Wadborough via Besford Rd, and then straight towards Stoulton, but turning left before the main road to head home via Littleworth and past Norton church.

14.5 miles in just under an hour, which is five minutes faster than my best time in this route and takes my April total to 111miles.

 

[gavgav]

One of the pleasures of riding in experienced company is not having to worry about the route

Which is my way of saying my report will be short of geographical information.

Phil and Gav made good time to my brother's holiday lodge at Hadnall, and we were soon on our way.

It almost goes without saying, but the pair of them are very agreeable company and a pleasure to ride with.

Gav set a decent pace on his road bike and we were soon at his departure point somewhere south of Shrewsbury.

Good effort on his behalf turning out on a cricket match day, because if I know anything about village cricket the team will need all the support it can get, so I was pleased he was able ride with us and still make the game.

Phil and I decided to head for Church Stretton, where Phil knew for a bait stop.

Riding in these parts is mostly on country lanes, not much in the way of motor traffic and not too much in the way of ups and downs.

The last couple of miles into Church Stretton is along a slight incline, but also into the prevailing breeze which made it surprisingly hard work.

The cafe Phil picked was all but full of roadies, including about eight or 10 on a club ride.

Coffee and a toastie for me, both of a good standard and fair value at £5.25.

My parked ebike attracted some interest from a few of the roadies, the only comment I overheard was positive.

We also saw a few mountain bikers going up towards The Burway climb, they had route boards on their bikes so it looked like an organised event.

Like Gav, I've never seen quite so many cyclists on a Sunday ride.

Some spots of rain on the way back.

I decided to go after a roadie on the last, longish climb of the day.

When I caught him, he said he was very relieved I was on an ebike because he had thought he was being wiped up by an older bloke on a flat bar hybrid.

Pleasant guy, and a strong rider - I only just caught him as we crested the climb.

Phil was getting a text message or two as it was getting towards tea time when we got back to the lodge.

Too many texts can irritating, but this was his brother offering to get some beer in, very handy because Phil had just said to me he fancied a slurp when he got home.

This implanted the drinking thought in my mind, so my very enjoyable day is drawing nicely to a close with a couple of cans on the deck of brother's lodge.

About 40 miles, not too many hills, and in as pleasant company as any cyclist could wish for.

Fabulous, glad you enjoyed. We must do it again, when you are back down here. Cricket went well, we had a good win and I managed 27 not out (with a couple of big sixes, which is a rarity for me!) and a wicket on the bowling front. Not sure I will be able to move in the morning! Safe journey home.

 

[cosmicbike]

Finished work at silly o'clock this morning, and having chosen to cycle in found the ride home hard going. Up by lunchtime, and I opted for a ride out this afternoon and taking the van to w*rk tonight. A nice, if windy, 26 mile loop out to Chobham and back, a route I haven't done for a while. Made a nice change from riding around Windsor Great Park which tends to be my default.