Your ride today....

[iancity]

Not much to show for today, pleased I went out though as I wasn't planning it but fortunately had an hour or so window - would have been easy to sit in the house and watch the football in the warmth but those calories are not going to shift themselves :-)
Usual route, extended a little bit as I was feeling fien - hate the wind, and forecast showed 22mph and upwards but it turned out not quite that bad
Oh, and the little 'un insisted I take "Kitty" with me "in case I get lonely" so she features on the photos

 

[skudupnorth]

We have left Cornwall

 

[cosmicbike]

Well that was pretty horrid. Not been on a decent 'me' ride for a bit, so out on the Van Nic about 8 o'clock this morning. I'd plotted a 30 odd mile route straight North past Slough, Farnham Common and back via Stoke Poges in order to grab a 6 square gap. It was 5 degrees C when I departed home with a cold North-Westerly wind and raining to boot. I told Mrs CB I may not be long....
Bit of a slog out, and a cheeky little lump towards Farnham Common caught me out and was harder than it should have been. Some nice roads, some not nice roads, all of them wet. The run for home was extended slightly by going off course and home via Eton.
33 cold wet windy miles, on the plus side I got the squares

 

[Spiderweb]

A lovely day in North Yorkshire so a steady pootle to Cawood. 20.5 miles with an average of 15.4 mph.

 

[Donger]

Another great club ride today. At 33.2 miles (for me), it was a bit shorter than usual. As always, that means there's going to be a big climb. This was the route of the club ride (Check out the spike on the profile!):

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/c...syJ5qPvRC7_WbV6jhMbq8fNF5tOrHfZO36XCW85pH_s4Q

After starting off with the first 15 miles being a straight reverse of one of our usual finishes, we headed into Stroud to make for the Malthouse Café at the Salmon Springs for coffee and cakes. Just as we hit Stroud town centre, our intermediates shot past us, and some of our social group gave chase. One of our lady riders commented on " a bit of a testosterone rush there" -which I thought was on the money. Soon after that, we arrived at the café stop at the back of a big combined group of 17 riders - and they'd just run out of cakes (!!!!!) and I had to make do with just a cappuccino. Turns out it was actually a cake rush.

The big climb came on the way back, with us taking on the lane through Ruscombe and up to Whiteshill and beyond. Always a grind, that one, but (as I pointed out), you often get to see deer grazing among the horses in broad daylight near the middle of Ruscombe. Today was no different, and Tina and I (at the back yet again) were privileged to see a couple of deer in a dell about 100 yards away. They watched us and we watched them as we ground our way past uphill. Beautiful moment. The others were waiting for us at the T junction in Whiteshill, and none of them had noticed the deer (as usual).

Of the 10 of us, I was pleased to be the 8th one up from Whiteshill to the top of the big hill on the main road. It's nice not to always be last.

A lovely sunny, if chilly, day today. Insisted on wearing my shorts, and didn't regret it. I have a big audax next week, and I'd love it if we have the same weather again. I love a nice Autumn ride.
Cheers, Donger.

 

[Old jon]

Well, I knew it was going to be cold. Forethought is not something I am noted for but when it comes to temperature I will be that wimp. An extra layer, the big pair of cycling shoes to make room for the thicker socks. Did I ever mention the manual? I have two pairs of these shoes and each pair came with its own manual. Never have I even heard of a manual for a pair of shoes. If you ever thought of it, how would you compose it? I reckon three sentences covers all eventualities, how do you expand that to fill a manual? Ah, lets ride.

A quick glance at the bike before starting off, the front brake blocks looked a bit worn. By the time I had loosened the cable for room to change them I could see there were still grooves in the things. Retighten cable and off I go. The sun was bright enough to lighten the gloom of Holbeck this morning, but by ‘eck it were chilly. Escape by way of Water Lane and Great Wilson Street on the way to Crown Point Bridge and the ever changing tarmac turmoil between the bridge and the bottom of Eastgate. Regent Street, Roseville Road and Roundhay Road all sound grander than the reality, but do lead to Oakwood and the clock it stole from Leeds Kirkgate Market. Keep on the Wetherby Road and all too soon the bottom of Boot Hill is reached. It took me a long time but the end of the climb was reached at last.

The level stretch that follows is a most welcome rest, then turn left onto Whin Moor Lane and enjoy the sight of a couple of Red Kite whiffling about in the breeze. Cannot gaze for long of course, so follow the winding road all the way to Shadwell High Street and for once, turn right. Always wary of the cast iron decoration of the road along here and today there was added extra horse feathers to contend with. It is odd that folk are expected to clean up after their dogs. Anyway, straight over the crossroads and up the rise to cross the A 58 and ride to Thorner.

The original thought had been to ride about twenty miles today, so the only way out of Thorner was up Sandhills. Google Earth titles the road Lower Sandhills and this time it is wrong. They ain’t any lower. But they were quicker than expected, probably due to a tailwind. After the slog up to Skeltons Lane the level, wind assisted ride back to the A 58 was wonderful, as was the brisk descent to the right turn towards the park gates at the top of the last bit of climbing. Ride the three Rs, see above, in reverse and negotiate the aforementioned road not works and there is little much further to travel to clock just twenty miles as I pulled up beside our lass chatting to a neighbour about a shopping trip. I kept the smile hidden, just in case I was invited.

Map of a less than daunting ride

 

[NorthernDave]

After yesterdays abandoned ride, I grabbed the chance of an unexpected spare hour today for a quick leg loosener.

By 'eck it were cold. Extra layers on including two pairs of socks and overshoes and it was about right.

With just an hour or so, and after a late night last night at a friends 50th, today was never going to see any records set and the first mile was just getting the legs working, but Coal Road, Skeltons Lane and the long descent down Sandhills into Thorner (the opposite direction to @Old jon above) got me feeling a bit more like a cyclist.
Along Main Street and out of the village for the climb up Milner Lane onto the ridge then between the hedges with a stiff crosswind making itself felt at the gaps up to Holme Farm Lane where a quick check of the time suggested it was a good point to turn back, so retraced my route into the village and stopped by St Peters Church where there is a poppy display:

Back on the bike and to the Mexborough Arms and a right turn onto Carr Lane for the least worse climb out of there.
Left on the A58 then up Coal Road where a moron in a Megane passed close enough to touch, then apologised profusely through the back window when he realised I was going to catch him in traffic waiting for the mini-roundabout...
It's then a 20mph limit and according to Mr Garmin I was doing 19 mph but a jerk in a Merc still had to get past and tripped the "Your Speed Is..." sign at 36mph That said it was a nice wide pass, but what can you do?
From there it's local roads down to home without further incident.

11.22 miles (18.05 km) in 54m at an average of 12.4mph with 521ft climbed and an average temperature of 5.0°C

Enjoyed that, good to blow the cobwebs away (literally) and it's always nice to squeeze in an unexpected ride and once again, the Giant didn't fail to put a smile on my face. Lots of cyclists out and about too.
Then within 10 minutes of getting home we had a short, sharp hail shower, so it looks like I timed it right for a change.

And to end, the map:

 

[C R]

Cold first thing, but with the clock change meant there was almost daylight by the time I set off.

Full autumn gear on, including overshoes, hoping my feet wouldn't hurt as much as a couple of weeks ago.

Out up Hatfield Bank, past Pirton, over the motorway, left up Kinnersley, and left again towards Pershore going past Dunstall Castle, with the Sun coming up by the tower among the clouds

Then on to Pershore, and on towards Pinvin. The road is still closed, but the cycle path is open, so no diversion for me.

Onwards across the A44, through Pinvin heading for Upton Snodsbury. I took a bit of a detour via Seaford to add some distance. The ford doesn't look overfull.

Still, I used the foot bridge to keep my feet dry. Stopped here for a drink and a nut bar, and then onwards towards Naunton Beauchamp, where they had this display

Then onwards to North Piddle and the A422. The A422 is somewhat narrow, with fastish traffic, and some blind bends, but this early it is almost empty and it is a quick dash to Broughton Hackett, and then a left onto the lanes for Churchill, White Ladies Aston and left on the A44 for Egdon, and almost immediatly a right for Windmill Hill and Drakes Broughton aiming for Wadborough.

Once in Wadborough home is close, but my legs were starting to flag, and there was a cold cutting wind that made the last few miles a bit of a chore, but the glorious sunshine made up for it.

31.8 miles at 13.8mph, and 180miles this month, the most miles I have done in a single month.

 

[iancity]

Good opportunity to get out for a few hours today, but ended up doing less than an hour :-(
Don't know what it is, yes it was cold (and a bit wet) but I was wrapped up well, had loads of time, just didn't feel like putting a good 3-4 hours in, kept on making excuses to myself why I had to be back when in reality I didn't at all
Anyway, better than sitting on the couch for an hour

 

[gbb]

Busy day with family so I just grabbed an hour locally riding round parkland etc. No great distance, certainly no great speed and it was quiet out there.
5 minutes after I took this photo, the scene had darkened and the effect was gone...

 

[galaxy]

Saturday was Pannier ride. Into Leominster for Bread and Milk. Loaded into Panniers. Hence the ride name. Still 14 miles very enjoyable if not a Tad fresh.
Sunday was mountain bike through the lanes to St Michels and cake and coffee. About short but very enjoyable 12 Smiles

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Not my usual style to include so much text in my ride reports, but this one was historical for me, so listen and weep for just this once. I have been planning to do the Devon Coast to Coast for a few months now. Officially it starts in Ilfracombe and ends at the Cremyll Ferry in Plymouth. However I needed to bolt on another 50km to bring the total distance to over 200km each way for Audax purposes. AND I needed to get back to my amended start point in Porlock. So I had to return the next day bringing my total to over 400km. Normally the ride is completed in 3 days ONE WAY. I did it both ways in two. Pasties for me. I had never done a ride of such proportions back to back so I was interested in what my body and mind did. I was surprised it coped remarkably well albeit my legs lost speed and power after about 350km and silly-elevation.

It is a tremendous route that you can complete in one go like this if you are prepared for a long day and are quick through the feed points, sight-seeing, and are confident with night riding and navigation. The section between Porlock and Ilfracombe is only 50km but has 1500m of elevation. It is beautiful but very hard with gradients of 15-25% to quote conservative road signs. Strava tells a scarier story. The utterly fantastic Porlock Toll Road is a Category 2 climb.

Day 1 entailed about 8 hours of sleet and rain and I got lost in Plymouth on my way to my B&B. I had to nip out to eat, and as I was travelling light, I was still in my cycling get up. Not recommended in Plymouth in a Saturday night.

Day 2 had a strong, cold headwind for most of the journey. One of the highlights was descending the 7km Porlock Toll Road in the dark that I had climbed the day before. With a lovely surface, no cars and switch backs right to the bottom of 1500m I was lost in a world of deluded Alpinism. Somehow I am missing about 4km from Strava. Exmoor and Dartmoor lay lines must be to blame. But there we are: Somehow I completed 2 big days back to back. What a fantastic part of the world. If darkness and time hadn’t been against me I would have stopped at @DCBassman ’s house for some coffee. Another time for that goal!

Southbound day 1

Northbound Day 2

 

[DCBassman]

Cracking write-up! I'm aiming to do Ilfracombe to Brentor tomorrow. Weather and wind look to be favourable so far. The house you would have stopped at is not mine, merely where we are dog-sitting at the moment. My abode is orders of magnitude more modest...

 

[The_Weekend_Report_Guy]

View: https://www.facebook.com/pablo.alves.92560/videos/10158813367314616/


Not sure how to post a video here... That is what the link above is, yesterday we climbed this little pain in the butt hill.. 500 meters at 20% is more then enough when you are 93 kilos.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

A couple of rides to report as I haven't been online for a bit.

Saturday: Winter has arrived in Shropshire. We didn't get the snow reported elsewhere in the thread but it's been feeling properly arctic out. I set out on the knockabout bike and stuck to my tried and tested Upton Magna, Walcot, Cressage, Acton Burnell, Longnor, Condover route, starting off by heading along the main road which turned out not to be the best move as there was so much traffic. I did have a good tailwind though, once I'd found a gap to get on the road, which swept me along to 27 mph before I turned off towards Condover for the first time.

Doubling back into the wind it slowed me down but not as badly as expected and the penetrating coldness of it was more of an issue despite having on lots of layers and wearing my full finger gloves for the first time this season. The ridewas going fairly well and I enjoyed the middle section where the wind was behind me again and helping through the undulating bit.

I'm not sure exactly where I first noticed it but a problem presented itself part way round when I noticed I was getting a thump through the frame when using the back brake. Having had this before I was fairly certain this was a failure of the back rim which is rather inconvenient. I carried on carefully and decided to go over Lyth Hill on the way back to keep off the main road as much as possible.

Just under 35 miles on this trip at 13.8 mph average and a 30.6 mph top speed (think that was the descent into Cressage). I did take a couple of photos but one didn't save and the other was boring so I won't inflict that on you.

Sunday: I couldn't look at the bike 'til the afternoon and the wheel is definitely kaput with a section of the rim split and peeling away. I swapped it for one of my winter wheels (worn but serviceable) and will sort out a new one in due course. Swapping wheels showed up clearance problems with the dropout which I knew about but had bodged a fix previously. I don't want to do that everytime I use a different wheel so I spent time tweaking the alignment of the dropout using a large adjustable spanner until I got a good fit. Unfortunately by the time this was done I didn't have time to get a ride in.

Today: I was up bright and early to find a hard frost. I decided to keep the test route simple - the reverse of Saturday's route which can be shortened if needed. As it turned out I had to shorten it a little anyway due to a closed road.

Leaving the village, the frost gave a very wintery look then the view from Lyth Hill was one of frost, mist and fog in various patches. In the very cold air I couldn't press on like I normally would so it was a fairly leisurely ride through Pitchford to Acton Burnell where it was more misty than at home. After dropping down to Cressage I coud see that I was close to a bank of fog which I did slowly ride into as I climbed up through Eaton Constantine, then abruptly rode out of again at Uppington and had brilliant sunshine for the rest of the trip.

I hadn't seen any cyclists so far on the ride but I caught and overtook a couple on the approach to Upton Magna and there were the odd ones coming the other way or stopped at the roadside after that.

33 miles today at 12.9 mph average. No issues with the bike following the work and I got better photos:

Concord College in the mist.

Frosty still at Withington.

Pelham Road, on my way to Atcham.

Cronkhill.