Your ride today....

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Aravis

Putrid Donut
Location
Gloucester
An unusual (for me) straight-line ride yesterday. It will soon be pretty obvious why I was too tired to write anything last night.

The plot was that my daughters were all flying out from Manchester yesterday lunchtime. My wife was happy to drive them up, leaving little space for me in the car, but wanted some help with driving back. So, a chance for a ride into new areas whilst earning credits!

With a straight-liner I had the usual anxiety over wind direction. When the detailed forecasts started to appear they were pretty discouraging, but by the time they'd settled down it was looking like calmish for the first half with a stiff breeze in my face later on. I could live with that.

This is the route. Commendably direct; arrhythmic rather than hilly. Largely A38 to Droitwich, then minor roads passing Kidderminster to the east. Through the pretty town of Kinver to Wombourne, then a section of old railway to Wolverhampton. From then on, a succession of delightful minor roads through Eccleshall, Maer and Madeley to Crewe.

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We needed a meeting place. As a Strava activity title, Meet me in Middlewich had a good ring to it, so Morrison's car park it was.

I could have taken a more westerly line between Kinver and Eccleshall, but I was tempted by the old railway mentioned above. A mistake, I think - four rough and slippery miles where my main concern was staying upright. Eventually I came to an overbridge which was under repair so I had to leave the track earlier than planned, which I was very happy to do.

In Wolverhampton, an Edward VIII pillar box:

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Strangely I don't remember this much sun! Lights attached for the first time in a while due to the 4am start.

Heading onwards, the wind was increasing, but it was always coming slightly from the left and with lots of hedges to provide shelter it didn't spoil the ride.

After Eccleshall you have to cross some hills which mark the boundary between the Trent and Mersey river basins. The coincided with about 10 miles of heavy rain, giving it quite an upland feel.

The rendevous in Middlewich worked perfectly, and I was glad to learn than the main business of the day had also gone to plan. We had no problems on the M6/M5 coming home, but even so the girls were in Reykjavik before we were back in Gloucester.
 

galaxy

Veteran
off work :hyper: for a few days so got my @rse into gear this morning..as the last of the Darlington rides is this Sunday (the hell of the north) which is the 100 miler. and the old legs need some big miles in them :ohmy: so it was of to darlo to see my old cycling buddy Walter but rather just go straight there about 7 miles thought I would do the route were we first became cycling buddy's, way back in 2001:okay:
mileage ended up as 75miles:laugh:
dry but a tad windy. and was strange been alone but in a good way :biggrin:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1803464923

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Spent many a happy miles cycling round that part of the country, recognised the ford at Stanhope straight away, looks closed to traffic now.
 

Cavalol

Guru
Location
Chester
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Normal commute this morning, no cows on road, no diversion. The black and white cat wasn’t there this morning, but a bit further up the lanes a ginger one was on the verge. I told him to keep away from the road and it actually meowed at me!
The bright lights of Stanlow in the distance, dropped my phone in this field as I went to take pictures...
 

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Katherine

Guru
Moderator
Location
Manchester
[QUOTE 5365887, member: 9609"]I come across a fish n chip van in Lowick, the smell was over-welming and I just had to stop, I popped off the bar end tube where I keep my emergency tenner only to remember I had used my emergency tenner quite a few weeks ago. So there I am in deepest england, its getting dark, its getting cold, I have a very long way to go on a little bicycle, I'm hungry, there is the most gorgeous smelling fish n chip van and I'm broke ............ I even considered begging[/QUOTE]

Have you replaced your emergency tenner?!
 

Katherine

Guru
Moderator
Location
Manchester
I
@Katherine I Iove your bee pics, the last one especially is amazing. They would be a great addition to the street art thread, if you don't mind posting them again in there, I'd be very grateful, thanks.
I will.
I've been enjoying reading your street art thread over the last few weeks. A few pages at a time. I'm on page 54 atm, so nearly there. Then I'll post them.
 

booze and cake

probably out cycling
Ah thanks, and thanks:okay:
 

Rickshaw Phil

Overconfidentii Vulgaris
Moderator
Out again this morning using the Galaxy for its first outing since the century ride at the start of the month.

I went for one of my standard routes just for simplicity (must try a bit of variety soon) out through Condover, Exfords Green, Minsterley, Westbury, Melverley, Great Ness, Montford Bridge and back via Meole Brace.

It's a nice sunny day out now but was quite a chilly start meaning I needed a fleece on for the first time in ages. Lots of traffic on the main roads so it took a while to get going and I had an unscheduled stop when my chain jammed while shifting down from high range (it has done this randomly and I can't work out what the problem is).

En route to Plealey I encountered an equestrian with two horses (the first of several this morning). Tried to follow the van just ahead of me past them (giving lots of room) but a car came rather quickly in the other direction meaning I had to brake and drop back in. I got quite an annoyed look off the rider due to the squeal my brakes made.:blush: I caught and overtook another cyclist on the way into Pontesbury then had a pretty quiet and pleasant run all the way through to Melverley where I took the only pictures of this trip.

My legs ached pretty well after the ride on the Raleigh yesterday and that came back to haunt me from Melverley onwards as I struggled to keep up the sort of pace I'd normally do fairly easily. The climb before Great Ness felt like a bit of a slog today and the next one on the way to Bicton was similar. On this stretch I had three unnecessarily close passes as drivers didn't want to put a wheel over the white line which did rather annoy me.

At Shelton I found a second wind so stuck to the road for a bit as I was getting along at a good pace.

36.6 miles at 15.3 mph average. Fairly happy with that under the circumstances.

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From the English side of the Severn crossing at Crew Green. The campsite just across the river has a few teepees up.

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A look over the other side of the bridge.

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View to the Breidden from Melverley.
 

welsh dragon

Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll pass.
I am back from a 28 mile bimble . Did the Mach loop then before leaving Mach I turned onto a side road that goes through Mach golf course

I saw 3 jets doing the Mach loop as well and I took a photo for @roadrash showing a road sign for.Aberangell.:laugh:

Then did the smaller loop that I usually do. Lovely weather. Lots of sun and warmth. 3 roadies passed me and they all said hello, and 1 woman on a fat bike as well.
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welsh dragon

Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll pass.
I am back from a 28 mile bimble . Did the Mach loop then before leaving Mach I turned onto a side road that goes through Mach golf course

I saw 3 jets doing the Mach loop as well and I took a photo for @roadrash showing a road sign for.Aberangell.:laugh:

Then did the smaller loop that I usually do. Lovely weather. Lots of sun and warmth. 3 roadies passed me and they all said hello, and 1 woman on a fat bike as well. View attachment 427578 View attachment 427579 View attachment 427581 View attachment 427582 View attachment 427583 View attachment 427584 View attachment 427586


I should have said the photo of Aberangelll was for @twentysix by twentyfive . ^_^
 
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