Your ride today....

[13 rider]

My last holiday write up appears to have been somewhat controversial so to avoid upsetting anyone I decided to have a thoroughly British ride and to stick to the Queen's English in my report thereon.
Donning my best cycling tweeds, plus fours and brogues I waited until the stroke of noon before buttoning down the flaps of my deerstalker to provide protection from the fierce heat of the sun.
The roads were very quiet, apparently due to some soccer match which was played last night. Clearly Johnny Foreigner still hasn't twigged that cricket is the summer game. At least with the roads being nearly empty I didn't have to remonstrate with the locals about their dangerous habit of driving on the wrong side.
Exploring the locality led Mrs Celine and I to a celebrated local waterfall, which unfortunately has an unpronounceable foreign name.
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View attachment 419670
We carried on into the empty French countryside.
I stopped here to ponder over what beastliness a 'source du groin' might involve....
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....and to wait for Mrs Celine, who appears to be avoiding me.

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After a refreshing lemonade in a local café it was time to turn for home, a late luncheon and a piping hot bath.
Herewith a map of our ride in imperial measurements, naturally.
View attachment 419675

Chapeau

 

[Reynard]

My last holiday write up appears to have been somewhat controversial so to avoid upsetting anyone I decided to have a thoroughly British ride and to stick to the Queen's English in my report thereon.
Donning my best cycling tweeds, plus fours and brogues I waited until the stroke of noon before buttoning down the flaps of my deerstalker to provide protection from the fierce heat of the sun.
The roads were very quiet, apparently due to some soccer match which was played last night. Clearly Johnny Foreigner still hasn't twigged that cricket is the summer game. At least with the roads being nearly empty I didn't have to remonstrate with the locals about their dangerous habit of driving on the wrong side.
Exploring the locality led Mrs Celine and I to a celebrated local waterfall, which unfortunately has an unpronounceable foreign name.
View attachment 419669

View attachment 419670
We carried on into the empty French countryside.
I stopped here to ponder over what beastliness a 'source du groin' might involve....
View attachment 419671

....and to wait for Mrs Celine, who appears to be avoiding me.

View attachment 419672
After a refreshing lemonade in a local café it was time to turn for home, a late luncheon and a piping hot bath.
Herewith a map of our ride in imperial measurements, naturally.
View attachment 419675

I say, well done, old bean!

(Said in the best Charlie Ross fashion )

 

[Vantage]

My last holiday write up appears to have been somewhat controversial so to avoid upsetting anyone I decided to have a thoroughly British ride and to stick to the Queen's English in my report thereon.
Donning my best cycling tweeds, plus fours and brogues I waited until the stroke of noon before buttoning down the flaps of my deerstalker to provide protection from the fierce heat of the sun.
The roads were very quiet, apparently due to some soccer match which was played last night. Clearly Johnny Foreigner still hasn't twigged that cricket is the summer game. At least with the roads being nearly empty I didn't have to remonstrate with the locals about their dangerous habit of driving on the wrong side.
Exploring the locality led Mrs Celine and I to a celebrated local waterfall, which unfortunately has an unpronounceable foreign name.
View attachment 419669

View attachment 419670
We carried on into the empty French countryside.
I stopped here to ponder over what beastliness a 'source du groin' might involve....
View attachment 419671

....and to wait for Mrs Celine, who appears to be avoiding me.

View attachment 419672
After a refreshing lemonade in a local café it was time to turn for home, a late luncheon and a piping hot bath.
Herewith a map of our ride in imperial measurements, naturally.
View attachment 419675

Sorry

 

[Mr Celine]

Sorry

Phew, this means I can go back to posting my normal rubbish - but in English of course.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Lightweight here - I'm not up to mega-rides like some of you plus I've got no pic's either. Too wet.

Managed 34 miles this afternoon in the rain, well 23 actually (in rain).

The lovely weather here in The Lakes has departed, at least for today.

Toddled off from A Bit North Of Kendal heading towards Windermere & Ambleside and there were just tiny hints of rain on my cycling glasses and the sky was mid-grey and not too threatening.

11 miles in, part way between Windermere & Ambleside, the rain started heaving down and within half a mile I was sodden (bike is in summer mode ie no mudguards) and I decided to carry on and do the remaining 23 miles as no way was I going to get any wetter.

Got to Ambleside, quick coffee in the rain (no bike lock) and then back I went with a slight detour from the Windermere roundabout up to the road that leads back down to Ings. There is a section of climb up to this road that goes at 26% and it is just wide enough to zig and zag whilst huffing and puffing. Today it was very gritty and slippery and I almost got off and walked but heroically hung in to finish it.

Only other things of note were my gammy thumb that is shedding a blackened nail hurt like hell (left hand so not too may shifting and braking duties) and I forgot my rear light which was plain stupid really. I could upload a pic' of my thumb but it's pretty gross tbh.

Nice ride. I was filthy, bike was filthy. Showered & cleaned/lubricated respectively.

All in all it was well worth it.

 

[gbb]

19 miles this evening, lovely and warm , 26 or 27 c I should think. Had a massive shimmy on a short sharp downhill at 32mph...bugger I had to scrub off a lot of speed for it to settle. Headtube was flapping all over the place . I've suffered a lot of shimmy as I've got back into cycling over the last 2 years I thought I was getting top side of it ..perhaps i am but that was a fair speed for round here given the lack of real hills.
Very nice otherwise.

 

[PatrickPending]

My ride yesterday - a warm one but managed 107Km - Blaby - Wigston - Newton Harcourt- Great Glen -Little Stretton - Houghton on the Hill - Ingarsby - Beeby - Hungarton -Marefield -Burrough on the Hill - Somerby - Knossington -Braunston - Launde - Loddington - Tugby - Goadby - Glooston - Cranoe - Welham - Great Bowden - Foxton - Saddington -Fleckney - Arnesby - Peatling Magna - Countesthorpe - Blaby

That climb up from Launde isn't getting any easier but managed it just about haha - quite surprised how dry everything looks too - was glad I took 2l of water with me!Photo near Borough on the Hill...no I didn't cycle along it on my road bike!

 

[pjd57]

Many kudos to you, that was a ride and a half, twice on that canal on the same day, with yesterday's relentless drizzle too!

My ride ... ahem ... yesterday, Sunday.
The Scottish drizzle did come back yesterday, still quite hot and clammy though.
I had proposed a Glasgow Belles ride to the Campsies of Clachan, well, to the bottom of them, the visitor's centre.
It is a lovely route, first along the canal , then a turn off after Kirkintilloch onto a decommissioned railway path.
It is a good 7 miles across town for me to get to the start of the route, there was hardly anybody about at 9am, so I made it in record time, just over 30 minutes.
Only another Belle was there to join me, of my same ability and frame of mind: getting wet was not a problem, an average of 10mph wasn't an issue either.
Not far from our destination, I got distracted admiring the scenery, rode into the kerb, promptly fell off! This is the second time in a week, I'm a proper numpty!
We took a slightly different route back to show my new friend a segregate facility she wasn't aware of, then we parted ways.
I carried on to the east end to visit a friend, then to Tesco before heading home.
48 miles for me, was too wet to be bothered make it 50, besides my pannier weighted a tonne with the shopping
Mist on top of the Campsies: the road leading to the top of the hill in the picture is the Crow road, a popular run for road cyclists.
I've never tried to get up there, because I would be terrified to come back down!
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At the visitors' centre there is a lovely cafe cum art shop, a couple of craft shops, and, of corse, the famous LBS Wheelcraft, run by Al the wheel builder.
Useful to know if you don't have access to a car but would like to visit (there are many walking paths that start from here), round the corner there is the terminal for bus x85 from Buchanan bus station, the service is frequent.
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Some more pictures from the route:
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Strava link for the locals, avoiding going through Kelvingrove park as it was blocked due to an event.

My Edinburgh run was on Saturday.
Lovely day.
Now I know why you rarely hear people talk about cycling on the Union Canal .


The Kelvin valley railway path you were on is a really nice route.
I've used it loads of times. The led rides from the White House have been along to Milton of Campsie a few times.
I must have pictures of the old station somewhere.

 

[I like Skol]

Headed out on the MTBs tonight after tea with youngest Skol Jnr. After the recent moor fires which seem to have calmed down now we headed for one of my all-time favourite teenage rides on the local hills.

The route can only be described as epic! After climbing to a trig point there follows a rocky but fast descent that seems to last forever. Before we reached the bottom Jnr was complaining about his arms being battered and pumped by the relentless broken stony surface. Once at the bottom we went again and slogged our way back to a high point before once more throwing ourselves off! In the distance over Manchester we could see the advancing greyness of approaching rainfall while we still enjoyed the dry warmth of the evening. We joined the Pennine Bridleway and crossed Ogden Brook before the final off-road climb and another fast bumpy descent to Arnfield Reservoir.

A sign of the huge struggle put up by the fire service against the moor fires could be seen at Arnfield Farm which appears to have been used as a base station and pumping point for the campaign. A huge 9" hose snaked up the track and disappeared onto the moors and the now dormant trucks, vans and appliances stood dripping in the rain that had finally arrived. The firemen were nowhere to be seen and coils of hoses lay discarded all around as they had abandoned their clear up, perhaps to move indoors somewhere out of the rain for a brew or maybe having packed up for the night to come back and finish off the next day?

From here we jumped on the Woodhead Rd for the final miles through Hollingworth and Mottram to get back to the car, arriving dripping wet just as the heavens fully opened!
It was a great ride, with endless downhills and although only a little over 10 miles it was truly comparable to anything we have ridden in much more exotic UK locations, but amazingly just a short couple of miles from our doorstep

 

[Levo-Lon]

Sundays ride which my Strava failed to record.
But Strava let's you share , excellent.
No good if your on ya Tod tho

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I'll be honest though, & state that I've never visited (the remains of) Dob Park Lodge
Looking at it, online now, I really ought to make time
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What a co-incidence
This was the 'centrespread' picture in the 'Picture Past' supplement of this mornings 'Yorkshire Post'

Just a photograph of the page;

 

[pjd57]

After a long run on Saturday, it was a day off on Sunday.
Monday , just a run across the city .
Today a pleasant 15 miles round the west end of Glasgow and into Bearsden.

 

[mgs315]

Something a bit different today. Went back to one of my childhood parks on the road bike to take advantage of the dry conditions to throw it about on some grass and dirt. Heavy going that cyclocross lark. Fun not having to worry about being run over, just take a very wide berth of the dog walkers and keep the speed down at times. Will definitely be doing it more regularly, alas neither of my two bikes are suitable for CX conversion though. May sell the commuter to fund a second hand CX bike which can do double duty.

On the way back the wind was fairly favourable too so decided to go for it on the mile or two of main road. Ended up having to overtake two vehicles that pulled out on me not realising I was going pretty much at the speed limit and even got a compliment from a van driver at the next set of lights for how I was able to keep the pace up for the distance which was nice of him though I could hardly say anything back due to lack of breath haha. Actually I’ve generally had nice experiences in that area. Surprising considering it’s a terrible place to drive!

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Not a bad morning for an outing. Mrs 26 and I headed out to Alfrick Pound where she turned around as she had stuff to do. It was a bit of an ankle check for her as she has a small strain causing problems. Seems she got away with it. I carried on over Acton Green for Bishop's Frome and Burley Gate. I took to the lovely quiet lane through Westhide before crossing the Hereford main roads. Some of these lanes were in a terrible state. Hereford CC - please please sort your roads.

I continued to cross the Wye at Mordiford and decided for a change to go by Bogmarsh. Strange name for a hill. After Little Dewchurch comes the descent to Hoarwithy and another bridge over the River Wye. I took the standard climb out of the valley but instead of aiming for the Marcle ridge I dodged by Lyne Down and Gwynne's Hill. From there I took a bit of rarely used lane to Much Marcle.

Now I was on a fairly standard run back but I did wonder whether to loop to Ryton or stick to the Broom's Green run. Broom's Green got the vote so it was just a case of rounding the southern flanks of the Hills and a dive through the Castlemorton lanes. It's fairly obvious whose roads I'm on. Worcestershire has much better surfaced roads than Herefordshire. C'mon Herefordshire. Must do better. 68 smiles

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

A quick one this morning using the knockabout bike: over Lyth Hill, across to Longnor, Acton Burnell and Harnage then back via Cantlop, Condover and Lyth Hill again.

Nice riding conditions out with a comfortable temperature and hardly any wind. The only downside was getting stung on the belly by a bee. That smarted a bit.

Apart from that I enjoyed the trip and it has eased the legs a bit after climbing a Welsh mountain at the weekend.

24.6 miles at 14.4 mph average. No photos this time.