Your ride today....

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Mrs M

Guru
Location
Aberdeenshire
A Fitting Farewell:
Not the way I would have hoped to bring up my 1,500 miles for the year, as today's ride was to the crematorium and back. But what a farewell for a fellow clubmate. Some riders were following the cortege all the way from Stroud to Gloucester. We rode out to Coney Hill via Brookthorpe and Matson, hoping to stay just ahead of the cars until we approached the crematorium, so that we didn't hold everyone up. Five minutes after we got there, the cortege turned up and we all slotted in behind it. Brought a lump to my throat and made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. What a fantastic sight, 26 cyclists following the hearse, 12 of them in Kingsway CC club colours ... and so many other friends waiting there. A lovely down-to-earth service and a really nice heartfelt speech from @gordyfinbar . Great to see @Dark46, pretty much the whole club and so many familiar faces who used to ride with us. Really glad we did that as a club. A fitting send-off for one of our own. Rode back the same way we came, making it 19.4 very pensive miles.
Donger.
Top notch, well done
 

Mr Celine

Discordian
I went for an after work ride and reckoned a gentle bimble pace would be just right for producing enough of a breeze to counteract the 27C temperature.
At every bathing spot I passed on the rivers there were kids cooling off (it's the first day of the summer hols here). I got to Ettrickbridge (more kids underneath) and decided to blast up the Swire, swoop down the other side and dunk my head in the Yarrow Water. This plan went swimmingly (!) until two thirds of the way down, when at 35 mph the handling of the bike suddenly changed. The front wheel looked OK so emergency stop time, revealing a flat back tyre. I put the bike rubber side up in a handily placed passing place.
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The only difficulty I had was not being able to find what the p fairy had jabbed it with.
Having fixed it the thought struck me that there are far worse places and worse weather to have to fix a puncture in.
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By now I'd cooled off enough so didn't dunk my head in the river. The map -

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30.8 miles at 14.1mph 2173' of up.
 

twentysix by twentyfive

Clinging on tightly
Location
Over the Hill
Time for an evening outing with the GV guys. Some great chat in the peloton. 10 out tonight. Lovely evening with little wind and warm. It doesn't get better than this. It was a fairly brisk ride out through the lanes for Hartpury and up onto the ridge at Woolridge. That's where the cracks showed with some of us being distanced on what is a steep but short climb. We regrouped on the other side and as we hit the A40 the speed went up to over 30 mph. I hung in for as long as possible. The gruppetto of Ken, Pete and me did bit and bit down the A48 at evens before there was a regrouping after Westbury and the lanesy run back. Then in the foothills before the "Widow Maker" the gruppetto reformed as the strong lads aimed for home. Fast tonight so I earned my pint at "HQ" after. 33 smiles
 
Another evening ride for me once the football was done. It's just too hot here during the day in any case...

Fancied something a bit different to what I've been doing of late, so rode out to Coveney via Downham, the Hythe, Red Caps Drove and Way Head. Instead of carrying on across the fen towards Ely, I did an about face and rode back the way I came. I normally don't do this, because there are two long and reasonably steep climbs that have to be negotiated between Way Head and Downham, but hey, I did Mill Hill the other night, right?

Actually, the climbs weren't as bad as I thought, and oddly enough, I rather enjoyed tackling them.

Got the clothing right this time - a windproof gilet over a long-sleeved base layer was just the ticket. It was lovely to be out, saw another wonderful sunset, rode under the light of a rising full moon, ingested some extra protein into the system thanks to the swarms of flies, and rode alongside a field of cut hay - which smelled absolutely amazing.

Only one other cyclist out tonight - a chap tootling off to the pub by the looks of it. But there were several groups of people out with cameras and long lenses - were they looking to photograph barn owls?

In any case, that was 12-ish really enjoyable hilly miles - well, what passes for hilly in this neck of the woods...
 

xzenonuk

Veteran
on my ride earlier i had 3 slightly scary moments, soon after i set off i saw 2 boys on the path next to the road i was on, by their body language they were up to something and one had a large stick, as i passed one of the wee fannies whipped his stick and made a massive loud high pitched noise....

clearly trying to startle me and possibly cause an accident.

number 2 fanny was some younger woman in charge of a car, she over took me on a narrow road and nearly hit an on coming car, she got 3 car spaces ahead of me before getting stopped at traffic lights, i really wanted to say something but i refrained as i saw the little kids in the back of the car giving me hand signals......

my 3rd and biggest scare was on broxburn high street, i saw a police van and they looked at me then they whacked on their blues and twos, and done a u turn, i thought they were gonna come up to me but they sped past lol
 

jongooligan

Legendary Member
Location
Behind bars
[QUOTE 5294007, member: 9609"]Sun Down Moon Up ride

I think I made a wise choice the night to give the football a miss and clock up some miles instead. You just can't turn long summer evenings like this!

Now that had to be better than the football ?[/QUOTE]

Excellent and, yes, it is better than the football.
 

Rickshaw Phil

Overconfidentii Vulgaris
Moderator
[QUOTE 5294007, member: 9609"]Sun Down Moon Up ride

I think I made a wise choice the night to give the football a miss and clock up some miles instead. You just can't turn down long summer evenings like this!

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contender for bike in front of a gate thread

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a wee romantic moment with the bike in some soon to be fields of gold

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looking south to the distant border and wondering how Engerland is getting on in the football (i wasn't really)

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heading west towards the Eildons

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I love a bit of sunset
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and over the other side of the hill

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I love a bit of the moon rising too
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The Hill is 'Hedgehope' ower the border in Engerland

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Now that had to be better than the football ?[/QUOTE]
Fantastic photos.:thumbsup:
 

Rickshaw Phil

Overconfidentii Vulgaris
Moderator
The lovely weather continues and I got out on the Raleigh early to try and avoid the worst of the Friday traffic. The route today was a variation of my Upton Magna, Walcot, Cressage, Acton Burnell loop.

I started off by going over Lyth Hill which was great for views but now the crops have grown up a bit, not great for visibility when crossing the A49, which was busier than anticipated (mostly lorries at this time of day). A suitable gap came up eventually and once past this obstacle the lanes were as quiet as I'd hoped.

At Atcham I headed through Attingham Park as I'm wont to do then rejoining the road I overtook a lady escorting her child to school by bike - a bit of a busy road to take a child on but nice to see that they are confident enough to do it.:thumbsup:

After Upton Magna I took the same detour I did last time I was here. Yes, it's still rough at the one end but going in this direction it has a good lot of downhill. After Walcot the wind was helping me along so the bit of climbing seemed nice and easy today.

I mentioned on Tuesday when I was last here that the road had been melting and was going to be a sticky mess - well, it has been and to the point where chunks of the road surface have been pulled up by passing vehicles then dropped in lumps nearby. It all seemed to be on the other side of the road which was fortunate for me this time but that isn't going to be fun when I next ride the other way.:dry:

At Cressage I went up Wood Lane for a change and climbed up to Harnage Grange where I took another lane I don't use often which has some nice views before dropping into a secluded little valley. My attempts to get photos here were thwarted by my phone crashing (it's behaved a bit oddly recently so is possibly showing signs of failing).

There was a nice tailwind to Longnor but also a slightly scary moment when I thought a tractor was going to pull out from a field even though I was in the way.

38.4 miles today at 14.4 mph average. A rest or only a very short ride tomorrow I think.:laugh:

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At the start; another fabulous day in Shropshire.

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The coach house at Attingham Park.

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On my way to Harnage Grange. Incidentally, that's the same Raby Estate as in Raby Castle, County Durham.

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A scene that couldn't look much more summery just after Harnage Grange.........

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....... before I descend into a pretty little wooded valley with a ford to cross at the bottom.
 
Two rides from this week . Ride one : Tuesday , managed a wee 5 miler on the MTB before work. My god the heat up here , great weather for holidaying in . Everyone and their auntie out it seemed. Ride two : Today , 10 MTB miles and a cuppa stop at my mums thrown in. A little bit cooler today. A bit more managable for cycling in . Off with pals to football tonight ....real football that is in the form of the mighty Brechins first pre season friendly against Dundee. Hope to get out on bike tomorrow if not 1. Hung over 2. Arrested . Laters.......
 

derrick

The Glue that binds us together.
Nice ride to Brighton, 5 of us left Enfield at 6 am this morning nice easy ride through London, stopped for a bit of breakfast about 20 miles from Brighton, then on our way again, nice beer and food in the pub in the marina. then a train back to Kings Cross. Then a 11 mile ride back to our local, great ride with great mates.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1671427974
 
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TigerT

Veteran
Location
Zürich
This morning I had to stay at home and do boring things like washing clothes..... But I got a bit distracted. I had to go down to the cellar for something - can't even remember what! Sitting in the corner in pieces behind my other bikes was the first proper road bike I bought when I came to Switzerland 8 years ago.

For some reason I came over all nostalgic and it was the only bike I wanted to ride today. So 1.5 hours later, having found all the parts, it was on the bike stand looking pretty good. Turns out my guess work setting up the front derailleur was pretty good - just 2 short test rides and it was up and running again.

More boring stuff, including shopping, completed and despite the temperature hitting 30 degrees it was time for a ride. For the authentic nostalgic feeling , I dug out my old 'King of the Pies' Jersey that I used to wear back then (now sadly too big but I wore it anyway) and headed out to do the ride I always used to do back then.

I headed out along the River Glatt to the airport, out across the hill to the Katzensee (small lake near home) and back. Only 20kms, but back then it was all I could do. I love my fancy new carbon bike, but taking the old Secteur out was good fun, I had a smile on my face the whole way around. Lots of memories.
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Last outing for the 'King of the Pies' Jersey - It used to be too tight!


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My almost 7 year old Secteur - newly reassembled after being in bits in the back of the cellar.
 

pjd57

Veteran
Location
Glasgow
Today's ride was a trial run for a solo charity event I am doing in 2 weeks.

Plan is to cycle from the charity shop my Mrs volunteers in in Glasgow through to the Scottish parliament and back. Doing it on the canal paths. It's longer than the road route , but a lot less hassle.

So today I tried it one way and got the train home.
I'd never cycled the Union canal before.
I'd been warned on here about all the bridges, very tight , no view of the path ahead, but didn't expect so many.
Then there's the long wet cobbled path through a tunnel and three aquaducts with narrow cobbled paths.
I got off and walked all of them.

The Union canal doesn't half wander , not your normal long straight stretches.
Anyway I got there and got my train back to Glasgow.
The main run was 55 miles , another couple back to the train station in Edinburgh , then a few more home in Glasgow took it up to 63.

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