Your ride today....

[gavgav]

I bagged my April Half Century Challenge Ride today, up in Wales, as I’m at the caravan to commiserate in becoming another year older. Thankfully the Man Flu that I came down with, on Saturday, has mostly relented, but I felt very lethargic and lacking in energy, still, when riding today. That might also have had something to do with the strong and bitingly cold wind that was blowing, what seemingly felt like, as a headwind for 80% of the ride At least it was gloriously sunny, but there was very little warmth in the sun today.

I set off down the main road to Barmouth, which was refreshingly incident free today and then rode down the promenade, pausing to watch the large waves crashing against the sea wall in the wind.

I crossed Barmouth Bridge, which was heaving with walkers and cyclists, meaning rather a slalom route was required and the train came across from the Fairbourne direction, which I’ve only seen once before. The views out to sea were immensely blue.

I then set off up the Mawddach Trail, towards Dolgellau, enjoying the views and it was very busy on there, today, with families enjoying an early start to the Easter Holidays (PD Days?)

The wind was mostly behind me up the trail and so I made decent progress, before branching off and out of Dolgellau, towards Cymer Abbey, just below Llanelltyd, which was my destination for today. I’d seen signs for it, on many occasions, but never been and so decided to head there today. I paused by the river, first of all, enjoying the splendid view up to Cader Idris, which still has pockets of Snow on its summit.

I then went up the driveway to Cymer Abbey, which isn’t particularly big, but is free to enter and provided me with a good spot to enjoy a snack and walk round for 15 minutes.

I then retraced my steps and this meant turning into the wind, for the whole journey back, as it was veering from Westerly to Northerly. The section along the Mawddach Trail was a real hard and Winterly like cold slog, with me having to drop down the gears and pedal hard to hit 7 or 8 mph, along the flat, which is 6 mph less than I would expect along there.

Only notable thing to remark on, for the route back, was my stubbornness to cycle up the ridiculously steep bank from the promenade to the main road at Llanaber, which I successfully did for only the Second time!

Arrived back at the caravan having done 34.69 miles, with 1803ft of climbing at a snail pace of 10.4mph avg.

 

[Katherine]

I did my first non stop ride since the accident last October.
No stopping for a rest or photos, checking the map etc
It was my Farnworth, Stoneclough, Whitefield, Prestwich, Agecroft , Swinton loop. Normally it's 19 miles if I don't take a detour through Heaton Park, which I didn't today, but for some reason it was 18 miles. It's a hilly route but great fun on the descents.
Will go further next time.

 

[robjh]

This was my ride yesterday - I didn't get home till 11pm which is my excuse for posting a day late.

There was a gusty north-easterly all day, so I headed south-west and took advantage of cheap train tickets to get me back in the evening. I live just south of Cambridge and set out at 7am and rode to London, where I stopped for late breakfast in Islington about 10.15. I stopped off by the Houses of Parliament to see some of the fun there at the moment, then headed over to SW London where I diverted to see a few old haunts and places with family connections on my way down to Epsom. Then up to Epsom Downs and Box Hill for a late lunch. I had thought of going to Leith Hill as well, but was running a bit late (too much sightseeing), so I carried on south to Horsham and Steyning. The absolute highlight of the day was the ride across the South Downs from here to Worthing - a very steep climb but then a view for miles with the deep blue sea on the horizon. I finished with a ride along Worthing seafront, before getting a 7pm train back to London. It was a glorious day, a good tailwind, a great ride (123 miles), and a late return home.

Lea Bridge Road and the new cycle path ; outside Parliament

Box Hill ; South Downs

Worthing sea front

 

[Mr Celine]

For once a week off coincided with some decent weather, though not according to the met office who were telling me at 1:30 that the sun would be gone by 2:00 and it would be overcast all afternoon. It did briefly cloud over around 5:00....
I headed east up Tweeddale and tried out the new Walkerburn - Innerleithen sustrans bimble track. This is completely unsignposted at its start in Walkerburn and took some finding. It's a pleasant enough cycle alongside the river but no quicker than the back road along the south bank which is pretty much traffic free anyway and isn't overrun with dogs. I had to stop briefly for a P...

I did a short loop round Cademuir Hill to the south of Peebles which passes through sheep country.
The farmer must have got a job lot of these 'sheep miscarry too signs' as there were loads of them. The triangle on the left also says it.

Looking south up the Manor Valley towards Dollar Law 817m which still has some snow on it.

Then back down Tweeddale sticking to the roads. Today's map -

53 miles @ 15.5 mph, 861m ascent.

 

[roadrash]

@Mr Celine what did that sign say...sheep misca…. too..

 

[Mr Celine]

@Mr Celine what did that sign say...sheep misca…. too..

Sheep miscarry too.

Probably aimed at dog walkers as much as road traffic. Or possibly cyclists as sheep don't always hear us coming.

 

[roadrash]

Thanks, I was racking my tiny brain trying to work it out

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Out with my brother this morning for his longest ride in around 18 months. The route was a local loop: Condover, Atcham, Upton Magna, Uffington, into Shrewsbury along the riverside then out again over Greyfriars bridge and a not very direct route to Meole Brace to make the most of the off road cyclepaths.

There is glorious sunshine out today but a chilly easterly wind so we both had winter layers on again. After having only done infrequent short rides for so long Doug seemed disappointed in places that he wasn't able to go faster. I was fairly happy to go at the pace we were doing however as I don't want him to push too hard too soon and put himself off.

We took the shorter way to Atcham, avoiding Cross Houses, and paused for photos on the old Atcham Bridge. Doug didn't feel like going through Attingham Park so we took the direct way to Upton Magna (with Doug setting a personal record on the Strava segment along the way despite being out of practice) and had a break at the cafe at the Haughmond Inn. It' the first time I've managed to get in the place. Nice, and worth going back to in my opinion.

Setting off again we had the climb to Downton but not before I'd got some photos in Upton Magna which took longer than expected due to a motorist stopping right in the middle of shot just as I was ready to take the picture.

Doug had got a fair way ahead and I really needed to push to catch him up. That done we headed to Uffington and along the canal path which was dry but very rough as always and quite popular with walkers today. We continued along the riverside to Greyfriars Bridge just in time to have the pleasure boat Sabrina pass underneath us.

We'd managed to pace it so that Doug was just starting to flag by the time we got back. I'm hopeful that if we can get more regular rides up to this sort of distance he can build back the cycling fitness he's lost.

18.6 miles at 11 mph average.

Doug on the old bridge at Atcham.

Not the best photo but taking a break at The Haughmond.

Blossom at Upton Magna..........

............. and lambs in the field.

Sabrina taking a few tourists for a trip.

 

[arranandy]

I've had a brilliant day in Orkney.
Flew up from Edinburgh this morning , getting our grandson home .
Usually it's bus and boat but he has been wanting me to cycle up here with him.

Picked up a hire bike from Orkney cycles before 12 , a Giant road bike.

We settled on heading from Kirkwall to the Italian Chapel.
View attachment 461786
No sunshine here today and a bit cold.
Straight route with very few flat bits , but the boy coped.

View attachment 461787
The Churchill barriers leading to the Italian Chapel
View attachment 461788
after a rest for the wee guy back home in Kirkwall we done another couple of shorter local runs and stopped off at St Magnus Cathedral
View attachment 461789
it has been a great day out.
I'm on a midnight boat back down to Aberdeen , then a bus home to Glasgow for 11 tomorrow morning.


So after talking about this adventure for years, we done it.

Great trip. Been to Orkney a few times with work but never managed to see anymore than Kirkwall and the Flotta oil terminal

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Cold but bright and with a new home made cassette on it was time for a test. Fairly standard route to take in the wild flowers at Brand Green. The wood anemones have been joined by bluebells. Either one is late or the other early. I stopped at Ashleworth Ham to check out the wildfowl before heading into a stiff cold wind. That took its toll. Reaching the final mile I realised I'd forgotten my key. So I rode over to visit my daughter. She took pity on me and gave me a bite to eat and a lovely cup of tea. 52 smiles

 

[Andy in Germany]

The plan was to go for a 60k ride today and finally start the post cold/flu/Asthma building up kilometerage to the goal of an imperial century this year.

Unfortunately last night I got distracted by a certain cycling forum and when I looked at the clock it was getting on for midnight. This rather scuppered plans of an early start.

So instead I decided on a less ambitious pootle around the local towns. This still involved going down a Scary Hill Of Doom, because every cycle ride here involves a scary hill of doom at some point. Usually twice.

After this came one of my favourite rides ever, through a local forest and past this building which is used as a forest excursion destination for local kindergartens:

About this point I was becoming aware that I hadn't eaten enough, so I made a stop in the next town to pick up some nutritional health food a bag of cheap own brand 'Snickers' type bars (On the basis it's got peanuts in it, nuts are healthy, therefore this is healthy) I hooked around the end of the airport:

I followed an old railway line into the town of Bernhausen. There was a signpost pointing along a well made cycleway to Neuhausen, which I was aiming for, but I'd cycled that route last year and I knew it was a fiendish trap: as soon as it got close to Neuhausen it went around the wrong side of an industrial estate and dropped me onto a busy road.

I laughed cynically and headed north to where I was pretty sure there was a secret traffic free route. Then things got a bit strange:

Suddenly there were no more signs to Neuhausen. I knew the route roughly from the map, and Neuhausen was most certainly in this direction, in fact I could see it in the distance, but even the signs pointing towards the large and obvious collection of houses in the middle distance refused to admit this.

The weirdness factor was increased because I was at this point riding alongside the airport, so every now and again I'd hear a noise and turn to see a large aircraft apparently belting along at several hundred kilometres an hour through a field of cabbages. They even put the control tower in a housing estate:

Still, I made it despite the signs, and after a long ride against the wind (of course) suddenly found that in the manner of German towns I had abruptly dropped from open fields into an industrial area...

(Part II follows...)

 

[Andy in Germany]

Conscious of my obligations to fellow CC members, I made a detour to photograph central Neuhausen.

The things I do for you, honestly.

This is apparently the largest village church in Europe: it says to on the sign on the wall.

So there.

Neuhausen has a funny history: It was semi-independent´ for many years because it 'belonged' to a king who ruled a different bit of Germany, so it was technically part of another country until 1806.

Central square in Neuhausen, flags (L-R): Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Europe and Neuhausen. Town hall and illegally parked BMW in the background.

The route out of Neuhausen follows an old tram route which used to run to the big local town of Esslingen, until the local councils decided such things were obsolete and everyone would drive a car in future.

The fact that everyone now had to drive a car because without the tram there was no alternative made this a rather self-fulfilling prophecy:

Back on 'my' side of the valley, I stopped to take in the view and make a tastefully artistic image of the Xtracycle against the glowering sky, earning strange looks from local people unused to my strange bike photographing habits.

This is part of a the 'new' town built in a former US Military base. Apparently these green spaces are there to collect rainwater and prevent flooding further down the hill.

After escaping this, I climbed across more fields towards our village, past this mysteriously abandoned farm I want to buy, restore and open as an educational centre.

Beautiful Wife is unconvinced.

I was going to call this picture "The farm before the storm' but that would be a terrible pun, so I won't.

Another one of my favourite places, the turn to the track that leads back to our village. Expect pictures of this in different seasons.

And finally, the obligatory 'I can see my village from here' shot. This coincidentally shows the entire section of the ride that didn't have a headwind:

About 30k all told in just over two and a half hours. How much of this was forward progress and how much was eating chocolate, taking pictures and backtracking after a missed turn shall remain a mystery...

 

[gavroche]

In my quest to improve my fitness for the oncoming Isle of Man trip next month, my stepson and I decided to ride up the Great Orme in Llandudno and the Little Orme on the way back. The Great Orme has a gradient of 12% in the last mile and am pleased to say that I managed it reasonably well. We stopped at the top for a cup of coffee before the long descent into West Shore. I enjoyed the ride and look forward to have another go at it maybe on Sunday. It took me 15 minutes to reach the top and my stepson 12 minutes. Bear in mind he is 20 years younger than me. I think the distance from bottom to the top is 4.5 kms.

 

[Dave 123]

Luckily I had the forethought to put my thick gloves, armwamers and 2 Buffs on, otherwise I’d have been chilly!

A tandem ride, down through fields of new calves and lambs in Connington and then up and over the freshly constructed flyover for the A14. At least there was silky tarmac, a rarity round here

Then on the St Ives. We stopped at Toms Cakes for a flat white each, sitting in the sun.

Back down the busway, Great Crested Grebe displaying on Fen Drayton lakes.

26 nippy miles

https://www.strava.com/activities/2286241944

 

[8mph]

My longest ride on my road bike so far, Southbourne in Dorset to Elcombe near Swindon. I'm glad to find out that the bike is comfortable over a longer distance but I didn't have all of my cycling kit with me and had to ride in a pair of hiking trousers and trainers.
England looks lovely and green and there were loads of cyclists out and about today. I noticed a
distinct lack of village shops, I didn't find one until Amesbury, 40 miles in.

The last 20km were a little exposed and my clothes felt flappy and wrong. I must add roubaix leggings to the ever growing shopping list!
I was going somewhere near my
max and managed an average speed of 18mph, the journey took
3hrs 46 minutes, 67.9 miles 1,135 M elevation.