It's almost two weeks since my last ride, but life has a way of doing things like that.
It also meant I was limited to a couple of hours, or so, this morning but the sun was making an appearance and there was blue sky, so why not?
On the Giant as it has mudguards and it rained quite a bit last night. It felt a bit chilly too, so i wore longs and a long sleeved top and got the shoe covers out again.
Coal Road, then the usual combination of roads into Shadwell, before the climb up to Slaid Hill lights. I really do need to work on my fitness.
Still, right at the lights and on through the dip, then onto Tarn Lane to loop back round into Scarcroft.
Onto the A58 and the long downhill in front of me - decision time though. They'd been surface dressing the road further on three of four weeks ago, but surely it would be OK now? Only one way to find out...
It wasn't horrendous, but it wasn't great either. Still a fair few loose chippings, especially off the lines that cars had cleared and the surface throughout was coarse and lumpy.
Still, it's mainly downhill, so stick to the clear(ish) line and get on with it.
Through the fringes of Bardsey and on to Collingham, where a tight turn took me to the road to Linton and over the bridge into the village.
Regular readers might remember me referring to 'lumpy Linton' due to the undulations and boy were they hard work today.
Eventually the village was cleared and it was into Wetherby, with a loop around the town centre, avoiding homicidal pedestrians, and out on the Walton Road over the A1(M).
Between the fields and past the racecourse, before a right took me down to Thorp Arch, over the river and into Boston Spa.
A short wiggle along Main Street, then the Clifford turn and briefly back into the countryside.
Through Clifford and down the hill into Bramham. Which then means up the hill out of Bramham.
I was huffing and puffing at this point, so stopped at the bench before the bridge over the A1(M) and had a break and a flapjack bar.
Rested, back on the bike and over the motorway, then the steady climb up past Bramham Park, staying straight on at the fork and heading through the lesser Wothersome Dip, which had a fair bit of mud and grit in the road, but I avoided it and powered up the other side. Well, I got to the top anyway...
Along there to Milner Lane, then the drop into Thorner and another decision - straight up Sandhills, or the steadier route up Carr Lane? There is pretty much the same amount of climbing to be done to get home, but the Carr Lane way spreads it out a bit more.
I was up against time so took the shorter (if steeper) route up Sandhills.
Skeltons Lane, then Coal Road and local roads down to home, into a stiffening headwind.
26.40 miles (42.48 km) in
2h 13m at an average of
11.9 mph with
1,325 ft of up and an average temperature of
15.0°C
I'm going to be brutally honest now - there were parts of that ride that I didn't enjoy that much. A couple of the hills were really hard work, but I only have myself to blame as it's down to (among other things) a lack of time on the bike.
That said, I feel better about it now and after a bowl of pasta and a coffee I'm glad I got out there and got a ride in.
I beat the rain too, which is a bonus and there were loads of cyclists out making the most of the sunshine.
And to end, a map: