Your ride today....

[colly]

Out early this morning, early for Boxing Day anyway. Just after 7am into a dark morning which was cold but not freezing. I keep my Garmin in my rear pocket so I don't know what the actual temperature was.
East down Oakwood Lane and Foundry Lane, up to Cross Gates and out past Colton towards Garforth. I had thoughts about running out to Selby and returning via Cawood or York but I knew we had family coming today so instead I chose a shorter route and after a mile or so down The Great North Road, the old A1 as was, to just after the Selby fork I turned right and west to take me though Ledsham and Kippax where I turned and made for Great Preston. From there it was a matter passing through Swillington and climbing back up to the A63 near Colton and straight back home. Just in time to join the lovely Mrs Colly for a morning cup of tea back in bed.

24.2 miles and 1300ft of up.

View: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/60671480

 

[DCBassman]

Just 8 miles this morning, miserable but nice to be out and a quick stop at the supermarket on the way home.

View attachment 565298

That's a lovely bike.

 

[AndreaJ]

It had actually stopped raining in Shropshire so a quick ride before storm Bella got here. The constant rain has finally washed most of the mud and hedge cuttings away and the wind was drying the roads off so for a change I didn’t get wet/muddy. I set off to Northwood, turning by the canal at Hampton Bank and across to Breadon Heath then down the only muddy lane of the day to Coptiviney, carried on to Ellesmere passing lots of dog walkers by The Mere, through the town to Lee, Bagley, Weston Lullingfields, Marton, Burlton, Loppington , Wolverley and home. Got home just as the wind was starting to get worse. 26.3 miles on a much better morning than some of my last rides.

 

[Jenkins]

An afternoon Boxing Day bimble on the 29er back to mum's, this time with a backpack to pick up a couple of bits that I had to leave there yesterday. Took a mixture of bridleways and on road down to Felixstowe seafront and then followed the roads that run parallel to the coast. Plenty of people about walking on the prom, but wrapped up in padded coats & bobble hats trying to keep warm on the grey & breezy conditions. Picked up my bits - plus a bonus takeaway piece of raspberry roulade and a large helping of leftover turkey - and then up Gulphur Road to the rough track that leads to the back road for a circuit of Falkenham and back home for a relaxed 15 miles in a bit of an attempt to mitigate the overdose of food from yesterday.

 

[cookiemonster]

A glorious morning here in HK. 😎

 

[Mike_P]

A cold sunny morning but some deafening house or car alarm had been going off since 5.15; by mid-morning it was safe to open a door as silence had broke out. Holiday outings over for the ebike as it was back on a shopping run. With only two bars showing for the battery largely assist off outbound and on the climb of "Humps and a HilI", used because I was wary what state the avoiding cycle way was in, only 2/5th assist used rather than max. Some roads were littered with small branches which made avoiding significantly tree lined cycle ways a good move, while the temperature implied sheltered routes could be icy.
Largely an out and back on the same general route and as is seemingly the case with trips to Morrisons by the time I had come out of the store rain had set in, although it then conveniently stopped. 4.7kg in the rucksack so assist used a touch more on the way back just in time to avoid longer spells of rain. 8.73 miles with 575ft upwards.

 

[delb0y]

Only 12 miles this morning (which is pretty good for me, these days). Very pleasant and lots of water!

 

[Spiderweb]

Out on the Paul Hewitt at 11am for a steady ride into York for coffee. A bit nippy but lovely blue skies on the way in but poured it down on the way back, absolutely soaked to the skin!
29.24 miles with an average of 13.5 mph.

 

[Grant Fondo]

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A glorious morning here in HK. 😎

HK riding this time of year is great, so lovely to see those pics

 

[gavgav]

After a couple of days of Christmas indulgence, I was in need of a ride today, to burn some of it off. Storm Bella had been through overnight, but brilliant sunshine arrived this morning and despite it being chilly and a strong south westerly wind blowing, it didn’t feel too bad in the sun. What I did know was that there would be a LOT of water about.....

The legs felt very lethargic, as I set off through Sutton Farm and Betton Abbots. I’m sure I could feel Turkey and beer at the bottom of the legs! I branched off onto lanes to Cross Houses, encountering my first 3 floods of the ride, along the way, then arrived at the Atcham road to find road closed signs there. The river had been out on the road, before Christmas, but knowing it had dropped a bit, over the last few days, I decided to risk it and with the wind behind me, I had a good speedy run down, to find it wet and plenty of debris, but no floods.

I continued on to Berwick Wharf and then along Pelham Road, to Upton Magna, before finding a big flood at a place i’ve never seen one before, only just passable on the bike, with a wind assisted freewheel through. The downhill section to Withington was nice, with the wind behind me, another couple of small floods, before I turned towards Rodington and the section I thought may be the worst for floods........It was, with no fewer than 5 in a mile, one of which was deep enough to soak my knees in the bow wave and another that I only just made it through, with a fast run up and freewheel. Avoided wet feet though!

I had also turned into the wind now and boy was it strong, with a real battle up to Rodington, Somerwood Heath and the long climb to East Haughmond. That was a real slog and at times I must have been struggling to make 2mph. One lady, enjoying the wind assisted downhill, from the opposite direction shouted to me that’s “it’s better this way round” she’s not wrong!!

I then went over the side of Haughmond and enjoyed the nice descent back to Upton Magna, just needing to be careful with walkers that had no road sense and potholes full of water. From Upton Magna down to Uffington was another battle with the wind and a couple of idiots who needed to slow down considerably in their cars, especially on wet lanes, with 5 cyclists and 3 horses about. Both were told so.

From Uffington, I took the old canal path to Pimley, encountering 2 groups of walkers who must have been 15 to 20 deep, so much for the rule of 6 then.....before following Sundorne Road and the inner ring road cycle paths, to Reabrook.

Final stint was along the slippy old railway path and through Sutton Farm, to home.

At the start of 2020 I set myself the goal of trying to hit 2000 miles for the first time in a year. I’d got within 200 miles of it, a few years back and then Covid came along, which I thought might kill those chances......but it actually spurred me on to get out much more. Working for the NHS, I’ve literally run myself into the ground and what has kept me going is getting out on the bike, regularly. I’ve probably done less longer rides but many more short rides of around an hour. Today’s ride took me past that 2000 mile target, on what was my 99th ride of the year. Only 600 less that what I’ve done in the car.

23.99 miles at 11.6mph today.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Like most on here I needed to get out and burn off a bit of Christmas excess. Feeling a bit unimaginative in the route planning stakes I aimed to sort of do the reverse of what I'd done last time but it ended up varying somewhat from that.

The thermometer said 5C but the wind felt arctic and I could well believe we might get snow showers later. For starters I headed up Lyth Hill which was packed with cars as people headed up for walks and had the first flood of the day for me to wade through. I then dropped down to Hunger Hill and headed for Condover, colliding with a squirrel on the way. It ws nowhere in sight when I checked so I didn't kill it, but hope I haven't inflicted major injuries.

From Condover I headed along Lyons Lane for Berrington and Cross Houses with a bit of a detour on the way to see how high the water was at Boreton Ford (you wouldn't have wanted to cycle through it today). Like @gavgav I found "road closed" signs at Cross Houses but decided to risk it knowing that the level has fallen and it proved to be the right choice as the road was clear (whether it still is by the time I write this is another matter).

Reaching Atcham I made for Upton Magna at a nice wind-assisted pace until I found the same flood that Gav mentions which needed wading through. Next stop was Withington and suspecting that the direct road to Walcot could be quite damp I headed the longer way round - which was every bit as bad as I'd feared and I splashed through about five floods on the way. While paused to put on an extra layer at Walcot I notied a car pull up a short way back down the road, the hazard lights went on and the driver got out to peer under the bonnet. I think that they may have come from the Isombridge road - if so, that one would have had a deep flood on it today and I wouldn't have taken a vehicle along it.

After Walcot I turned into the wind and climbed up Bluebell lane, crossed the old A5 then headed through Uppington to Eaton Constantine. All nicely uneventful and would have been great if it had been a little less cold and windy. At Cressage I climbed up Shore Lane which turned out to be surprisingly busy with motor traffic, walkers and other cyclists. Having been through a few minor floods so far I began to wonder if heading to Acton Burnell was a good idea. There was a flood on the way last time I was here and if it had got deeper last night I could well end up ruining another pair of shoes. I opted instead to head to Harnage and drop down the hill to Cound (a flag saying "Merry Christmas" was flying today) then return up the not too busy A458 to Cross Houses and retrace my steps through Berrington to Condover and over Lyth Hill. Some threatening looking cloud started to roll in during the last few miles and it did rain lightly in the last couple of miles.

33.7 miles this time at 12.2 mph average. Given that Gav and I shared the same roads for a while I'd be curious how long we missed each other by.

A lovely sunny day from Lyth Hill at the start but the wind was bitter.

Being nosy at Boreton Ford. The gauge shows a metre but from the deposits of sand on the road it looks like it has been twice as deep.

At Atcham the level on the flood plain has gone down quite a bit but may well come back even higher when last nights rain works its way down from Wales.

Leaving Upton Magna. I haven't seen it flood here before.

Jumping on to much later in the ride, it's not long until sunset but the cloud rolling in is going to obscure it.

The first and last little flood of the day. I wonder how long before it gets seen to this time.

 

[cookiemonster]

HK riding this time of year is great, so lovely to see those pics

I have some more, especially wildlife ones, as I had my Canon with me on Sunday. HK’s wildlife was showing off too. Just need to download them.

 

[colly]

Another day and yes, another spin on the bike.
Mid morning and I was dressed, fettled and raring to go......and go I did.
East ish and south ish to Killingbeck then east a bit more out to Barwick-in-Elmete past Stanks and Scholes. Aberford came next and it was left and north up through Aberford, Bramham, and into Wetherby. Feeling a bit jaded I turned onto the A58 back towards Leeds but turned at Collingham up Jewitt Lane and made my way past Hetchel Woods and through Thorner, up Sandhills, past Bramley Grange and back home.
The last 30 or 40 mins the temperature dropped like a stone. Maybe not freezing but I was cold by the time I climbed off.

End to end it was 25.6 miles and 1350ft


View: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/60714104

 

[Jenkins]

Back to work tomorrow, so a trip into Felixstowe to get some food & squash, home for a quick cuppa and then out again up to Martlesham to pick up some bits I'd ordered from Screwfix.

After the strong winds & rain from storm Bella last night, the roads were a bit of a mess, but not as bad as I'd expected - plenty of small twigs & branches off the trees, mud and flooding on the roads. Nothing impassible on a bike, but the worst of them on the Waldringfield road did prove to be deep enough to be a bit of a test for my boots (£20 Aldi walking boots!) but they passed with flying colours and dry & warm feet. Bright sunshine and a cool breeze made for a pleasant ride, with the exception of the short sharp shower and noticable temperature drop that came with it. Loads of people out and about both on foot and on two wheels making the most of the sunshine.

This from the road out of Newbourne sums up the afternoon - flooded roads, sunshine and the shower cloud that caught up with me 15 mins later

 

[Dave 123]

Just 12 local miles, but the first ride since becoming a dog owner again!
The lanes were filthy!
Not too much crap on the road after the storm. Nice to be out.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4525462285