Your ride today....

[13 rider]

Day 3 of my Welsh adventure the main ride the Dragon ride Medio Fondo route (95 miles ) . Sorry for being 24 hours late it was a long day left hotel at 0600 walked in my house at 19.45 . On previous sportives I have always gone as hard as I can but today I decided to ride within myself and enjoy the scenery .Got to the start early in overcast conditions did 4 miles round the car park looking to round up to an imperial ton . It then started to rain heavily so I sheltered in a marque but thankfully the rain slowed as I lined up but the rain jacket was on. Soon on my way through Newport past the steel works heading out to the countryside .We steadily climbed out of Newport to the first proper climb the Bwlch (16.1km avg 2.8%) a nice steady gradient so pick a gear and spin up it . The views halfway are stunning looking back where you've come from .Over the top a great sweeping descent and then it's climb 2 Rhigos (6.1k avg 4.9%) again a steady gradient spun my way up . A stunningly quick descent from the top at the bottom there's a long straight but with no junctions over 40 mph with out trying . First feed station with a great selection of reel food . Fuelled by Jaffa cakes . Then it's climb number 3 Penderyn Moor (11km avg 2%) a long steady drag I'd kept my rain jacket on was sweating by the top . Stopped at the top to remove the jacket as the sun came out. Another great descent off the moor dodging sheep in the road . Then at 55 miles you turn onto a closed road which means one thing the timed section up Devil's elbow (1.83km avg 10.3% ) the climb I was worried about as it ramps to over 20% around the hairpins . I been advised not to look left at the bottom as you can see where your going so I looked left . Just stuck it in bottom gear and ground my way up . Took a lot of will power not to stop as the legs protested . This was the only climb of the weekend I saw people walking it lived up to its name just evil . The descent from here was still on a closed road so that was fun . Next feed station went savoury with sausage rolls and a cheese cob . A cheeky climb straight afterwards had the legs complaining . Climb number 3 Glynneath hill (3.2km avg 5.4%) another steady one so spun my way up . A bit more downhill then the final climb Cimla hill (2.8km 5.5%) found this one tough lots of changes of gradient but got up it . From here it's mostly downhill to the finish .On a dual carriageway in Port Talbot got past by a chaingang managed to tag on and found myself doing 25mph on the flat . Did one turn on the front but basically just hung on to the finish . Had to do another mile round the car park to pass the 100 mile mark .100.11 miles in 6hrs 58mins with just 8081ft of upness
All in all a great weekend away all 3 days were superbly organised today's scenery was awesome simply stunning at times .
For those of you who do Strava challenges I've completed the climbing one on the 9th of the month. Normally takes until around the 25th a hilly weekend

 

[13 rider]

Just discovered I ticked off 3 climbs in the top 100 climbs list over the weekend . The Bwlch ,Rhigos and the Tumble which added to my local climb Terrace hill makes 4 , 96 to go yep that's happening . Can't believe the Devil's elbow is not on the list much tougher if shorter

 

[gavgav]

I have a week off work, which has coincided with the Shropshire Monsoon season. We’ve had incessant torrential rain for a week and it is set to continue for the remainder of this week. There was, however, a window this morning, for me to get my June Half Century Challenge Ride in.

I woke early, to a streaming nose, which I’m not entirely sure whether it’s bad Hayfever or yet another cold. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a cold as I ALWAYS get one, on my breaks from work.

It was sunny but chilly as I set off amongst the rush hour traffic, up to Heathgates, through Sundorne and out onto the muddy old railway path to Uffington.

The road to Upton Magna was quiet, but I arrived in the village at School dropping off time and so had to negotiate the ridiculous parking and people wandering into the road!

The downhill section to Withington was nice, before I then turned and climbed up to Charlton and along the lane to Wrockwardine. I’d used the Cube, due to how wet it’s been and was glad I had on this lane, which was wet but also sandy and gravelly, from yesterday’s thunderstorms.

Whilst in Wrockwardine, I unfortunately came up behind the dustbin lorry and had to pause behind them on the narrow lane, as they went about their business. I then had to follow them for a mile or so, which was horrid into the smell they were leaving in their wake

I managed to overtake them, before I dropped down and crossed the old A5 and on towards Aston Village. Then they overtook me again before I did the same to them in Aston, where thankfully I left them behind for good, on the fast downhill section to Eaton Constantine and Cressage.

The climb up Shore Lane, to Coundmoor, was hard work today and also the section towards Concord College and Acton Burnell, before turning through Pitchford, Cantlop, Betton Abbots and home before the rain comes.

32.19 miles at 11.4mph avg

 

[LeetleGreyCells]

I managed to get out this morning for three quarters of an hour after dropping the kids off at school. Just a quick 10 miles to stretch the legs on mostly country lanes. I even had a 'good pass' where a huge truck came up behind me, waited patiently then I waved him to overtake where he gave me lots of room - I gave him a thumbs up, got a friendly toot of the horn in response and off he went! I wish more drivers of all and every vehicle were like that.

It felt good to be back on the bike after nearly a week without a ride (the only two days it hasn't rained in the last week found me tied up with other tasks).

Looking forward to my next ride. Apparently, the heavy rain will stop of Saturday

 

[Old jon]

Sunshine and blue sky the other side of the windows, must be time for a ride. Quite a lot of walking was done yesterday, taking photographs of a bit of the Leeds Triathlon, so I was not sure how well the legs might work . . .

They did fine once I started moving, but I check a few parts of the bike before I ride, which reminded me the saddle was a bit slack. Soft might be a better word, it’s a Brooks and about four years old. Been tightened once a couple of months after purchase. The last time I had a Brooks saddle spanner in my hands was when I packed a saddle and spanner for the bike in Brazil, last February. Security at Mancester airport let me take the saddle, no problem. But. ‘Sir, you cannot take this on the plane, we can post it to you.’ I just gave up and told them to throw it away, I cannot abide fuss. Still have two spanners here in Leeds, I will put one in the checked luggage when I return to Brazil.

So, eventually I turn the pedals. The route had been decided and at least one weather forecast was predicting rain, the sooner I go maybe the less wet I become. Holbeck still is a demolition site, most of what is still standing is fenced off and boarded up though there are isolated outbreaks of building here and there. Escape along Water Lane, Great Wilson Street and Crown Point Road, cross the river to begin the climb up to the top of Boot Hill. Yup, there are bits of descent on the way to the top, all too short, they just do not provide enough of a rest. Once at the top, turn right for the ride to the T junction with Thorner Lane and turn right again. This leads to the A 64, a left turn and take the next right. This is Scholes Lane, when it reaches the ex railway it becomes Station Road, bends left to Main Street and is Leeds Road when it leaves the village in the direction of Barwick in Elmet. By ‘eck, it took longer to write that than ride it. From this direction it is a nice drop through Barwick all the way to the crossing of Cock Beck, when the road turns uphill again, with more downs and ups through Aberford on the way to Lotherton Hall and its gates. Another left and right jink and Copley Lane points in the direction of Sherburn in the same Elmet, which according to Wikipedia was an independent Brittonic kingdom between about the 5th century and early 7th century and later refers to a smaller area of what became the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Back to the present, turn right in Sherburn onto Church Hill, which levels off and after a while leads to the A 63. Ride under that and turn right to ride onto it and a choice of left for Garforth or sort of straight on for Micklefield. Left. Along the south side of Garforth, first exit from the roundabout onto the A 642 in the direction of Wakefield, which is a bit further than I want to ride today, so through Swillington, across the Aire and the Aire and Calder canal and after riding under the railway bridge turn right to ride steeply up past the railway station at Woodlesford. Almost in sight of home, turn right, it’s the A 639 and once John o’ Gaunts is reached there is a lot of the city of Leeds visible in front. Down, traffic and roundabouts, Hunslet is not as grimy as it once was, and the last few streets to home. Hello to a neighbor returning from an expedition and take the final left turn of the ride. Thirty three and a bit miles, big grin, not a drop of rain all morning. And the saddle, well, just not noticed.

And the map . . .

 

[AndreaJ]

My usual Monday avoid the bin lorry ride but I decided to go the opposite way round to usual which it turns out is the best way to avoid the bin lorry, the lanes are very narrow in places and there isn't always quite enough room to get past them although they are normally careful about getting past. I set off in the warm sunshine past the Moat Shed and signs for more road surface dressing through to Foxholes where I had to duck to avoid a low flying guinea fowl who took off right next to me as I passed, they make a lot of noise and don't fly very well. Carried on to Poolhead, Edstaston, Waterloo back on the loose chippings towards Coton, Coton Wood, back into Whixall being chased by a cocker spaniel towards Alkington, I had to wait at the canal bridge while a boat passed and they wound the bridge back down, the man in charge of winding the bridge up and down was very apologetic for delaying me although I assured him it was fine, up to Fenns Bank where the council have ruined another perfectly good road by covering it in loose chippings, these were much looser than the last ones and I had to stop twice to shake them from between my tyres and mudguards as they kept getting stuck, they do seem to be very large for chippings. Set off again into Whixall back towards Northwood and home. 21 miles @average 15.4mph

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I got in my first ride for a fortnight this morning. I've been off the bike partly due to the weather, partly due to things I needed to do and partly due to pulling a tendon in my hip (still don't know how I did it) which frustratingly put me out of action just when the weather was good last week.

Today's ride was therefore not going to be too adventurous and I aimed to head out through Condover to Longnor and Acton Burnell which is a route that gives me a few options for shortening if I needed to. The knockabout bike got an outing this time because it was convenient and because I knew there may well be water splashes to tackle after the recent rain.

I started off well enough but had an annoyingly long wait to get onto the A49 for the short section I needed to use. After that it was a fairly quiet run and with a following wind I got along at a good pace without having to press on.
I could feel the tendon working but it didn't feel painful so when I turned back towards the wind after Longnor it was a good incentive to take things easy to keep it that way.

I decided to extend the ride on reaching Acton Burnell, heading to Cound Moor and Harnage (didn't see @gavgav on the bit where our routes overlapped). I'd had pretty good weather from the start but at Harnage the wind seemed to go cold and there was more cloud about even if it didn't look particularly threatening so out of caution I decided to take the shorter option after Cound and head towards Pitchford and Cantlop.

Approaching Condover again from the direction of Cantlop there was a lorry with a massive bulldozer on the back heading towards me up the lane. Not sure where that was headed. The driver didn't look very sure either.

I didn't fancy plodding into the wind for the last bit, especially along the main road, so headed for Lyth Hill instead and on one of the lanes spotted a fox trotting up the road ahead of me before disappearing into the undergrowth. I haven't seen a live fox for a long while so appreciated that.

23.4 miles at 13.1 mph average. The hip feels fine afterwards so hopefully it won't take too long to build back up to some longer rides.

Between Acton Burnell and Cound Moor. There was some great sunshine for the first half of the ride.

At Harnage.

Between Cound and Pitchford.

The cloud is building to the east as I cross Lyth Hill but doesn't look rain laden just yet.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Having got back, the threatened wet weather seemed to be running late so I took the chance to get out my latest purchase, a 40 year old Dawes Kingpin (as mentioned in the "Show us your Dawes" thread) and take it for the test ride I meant to do last week. I probably covered about 5 miles doing loops round the village interspersed with tweaks to get the fit right and find that it rides well and promises to be a sound buy once properly cleaned and fettled. Looking forward to more trips on that.

 

[pjd57]

a familiar run along the canal to the Falkirk wheel.
But it was a bit different today. Free wheel North have started doing some longer rides, so today we met at the White House in Maryhill and went to the Wheel.
I came back on my own though as I didn't want to have a 30 minute lunch stop.
Best of both worlds. Nice sociable plod out then pushed myself a bit on the way home.
Thankfully there was next to no wind.
Anyone familiar with the route knows all about the long straight bit that can be brutal.

 

[EltonFrog]

I got in my first ride for a fortnight this morning. I've been off the bike partly due to the weather, partly due to things I needed to do and partly due to pulling a tendon in my hip (still don't know how I did it) which frustratingly put me out of action just when the weather was good last week.

Today's ride was therefore not going to be too adventurous and I aimed to head out through Condover to Longnor and Acton Burnell which is a route that gives me a few options for shortening if I needed to. The knockabout bike got an outing this time because it was convenient and because I knew there may well be water splashes to tackle after the recent rain.

I started off well enough but had an annoyingly long wait to get onto the A49 for the short section I needed to use. After that it was a fairly quiet run and with a following wind I got along at a good pace without having to press on.
I could feel the tendon working but it didn't feel painful so when I turned back towards the wind after Longnor it was a good incentive to take things easy to keep it that way.

I decided to extend the ride on reaching Acton Burnell, heading to Cound Moor and Harnage (didn't see @gavgav on the bit where our routes overlapped). I'd had pretty good weather from the start but at Harnage the wind seemed to go cold and there was more cloud about even if it didn't look particularly threatening so out of caution I decided to take the shorter option after Cound and head towards Pitchford and Cantlop.

Approaching Condover again from the direction of Cantlop there was a lorry with a massive bulldozer on the back heading towards me up the lane. Not sure where that was headed. The driver didn't look very sure either.

I didn't fancy plodding into the wind for the last bit, especially along the main road, so headed for Lyth Hill instead and on one of the lanes spotted a fox trotting up the road ahead of me before disappearing into the undergrowth. I haven't seen a live fox for a long while so appreciated that.

23.4 miles at 13.1 mph average. The hip feels fine afterwards so hopefully it won't take too long to build back up to some longer rides.

View attachment 470289
Between Acton Burnell and Cound Moor. There was some great sunshine for the first half of the ride.

View attachment 470290
At Harnage.

View attachment 470291
Between Cound and Pitchford.

View attachment 470292
The cloud is building to the east as I cross Lyth Hill but doesn't look rain laden just yet.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Having got back, the threatened wet weather seemed to be running late so I took the chance to get out my latest purchase, a 40 year old Dawes Kingpin (as mentioned in the "Show us your Dawes" thread) and take it for the test ride I meant to do last week. I probably covered about 5 miles doing loops round the village interspersed with tweaks to get the fit right and find that it rides well and promises to be a sound buy once properly cleaned and fettled. Looking forward to more trips on that.

There’s a Kingpin Facebook page if you’re interested, there’s some enthusiastic KP owners on there.

 

[PatrickPending]

My ride Sunday - I do try to do a ride each year ut east to Fotheringhay - its a nice ride but quite long, 168Km Blaby - Wigston - Newton Harcourt - Houghton on the Hill -Ingarsby -Tilton on the Hill - Loddington - Belton - Eyebrooke Reservoir - Stoke Dry - Lyddington - Seaton - Harringworth - Laxton- Blatherwycke - Bulwick - Southwick - Cotterstock - Fotheringhay - Nassington - Yarwell - Nassington - Apethorpe - Kings Cliffe - Blatherwycke - Laxton- Deene - Gretton - Lyddington - Stoke Dry -Great Easton -Medbourne - Nevil Holt - Welham- Great Bowden - Foxton - Gum;ey - Saddington - Fleckney - Arnesby -Peatling Magna - Countesthorpe - Blaby...phew - got rained on between Gumley and Fleckney and after fleckney the roads were as dry as the proverbial bone….would have gone on to do 200K otherwise... ahem honest ...still first imperial century of 2019 and only my second since coming back from a broken hip in 2016 so quite happy! The church at Fotheringhay was covered last year due to restoration works - nice to see they turned out well.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

There’s a Kingpin Facebook page if you’re interested, there’s some enthusiastic KP owners on there.

If I register on Facebook I'll waste more time than I do already on here. Sounds tempting though.

 

[EltonFrog]

If I register on Facebook I'll wase more time than I do already on here. Sounds tempting though.

There's two or three chaps on there that really know their KP's so its a good resource.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Didn't get for a ride yesterday as it rained the whole day. Today it eased off in the morning and after lunch I took the chance to get some more miles in. The route today was aimed at seeing what flooding issues there were locally so I headed into town and along the riverside before heading out to Uffington, Upton Magna, Atcham, Cross Houses, Condover and back over Lyth Hill.

I didn't have to go far to find my first flood as the underpass at Meole Brace was impassable. Luckily I didn't need to use it as I was heading to Porthill and Frankwell. At the Welsh Bridge the river level was high but not yet in danger of causing flooding. It isn't expected to peak until tomorrow afternoon though and there is more rain expected tonight which will change the situation so the flood barriers are being put up.

I carried on through the Quarry and got almost as far as the English Bridge before the water lapped over the path so I carried the bike up the steps, rode past the Abbey and headed for the bridge to Castlefields. As has been mentioned plenty of times before, the old canal path is very rough and muddy so I took a tour round the Sundorne area to avoid the worst bit and rejoined the path by Pimley Manor before heading out towards Upton Magna. There were a couple of floods on the way that needed to be waded through and they wouldn't be the last.

The riding to Atcham then Cross Houses was nice and easy with the wind behind me. I hadn't seen many cyclists up to this point but there were a few small groups along here.

On my way to Condover I thought I'd take a small detour and see what the level was like at Boreton ford. I was quite glad I hadn't made a crossing of this part of my route today as with a level of 1.6 metres (5'3") showing on the gauge both the ford and the footbridge were impassable (the approach to the footbridge on the other side would have been thigh deep by my estimation). I'd just put my camera away when a small lorry approached from the other side. Fortunately he thought better of it and backed away. Others haven't always had as much sense.

23.5 miles today at 12.4 mph average.

Shan't be using the underpass at Meole Brace today.

Time to leave the towpath and head up the steps to the English Bridge.

At Shrewsbury Abbey.

Roses at Upton Magna.

Definitely not using the ford at Boreton today!

Poppies on the approach to Condover.

 

[booze and cake]

After discovering the London Taxi cab that was converted into a seating area and planter, and the sleeping whippet bench that I posted here: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/my-picture-of-the-day-wheres-yours.117414/post-5646657 and here: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/your-bike-in-front-of-something-different.236003/post-5646653 were part of the London Festival of Architecture, I managed to find a few more examples.

Some more benches

This bench and planter has an outer shell made of mesh, that has been filled in with recycled rubble from the building site next to the bench. Good idea.

Here's an installation called 'lunch break' featureing 40 gold angels relaxing on swings near St Paul's cathedral.

More info: https://www.architectsdatafile.co.u...festival-of-architecture-reveals-lunch-break/
This one is called 'love without borders'

Then home for lunch and a bike swap, I have to rotate the fleet to ensure no bikes get jealous or feel left out. At the Dulwich Picture Gallery is 'the colour palace' which looks like a landing craft for psychedelic invaders. https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.o...nka-ilori-chosen-for-second-dulwich-pavilion/

And over on Cornhill outside the Royal Exchange is this bench based on the tube map, I really like this

 

[cyberknight]

Getting fed up now , been off the bike 3 days as its been pretty much constant peeing it down and flooding roads on my commute