Your ride today....

[Hill Wimp]

My ride today was to see if I could manage a 20 mile ride. To date, the most I have done since my last back op 6 weeks ago is 15 miles, to it is quite a large jump. The plan was to follow a set route and not worry about speed. The route was to take me through a lot of climbing for these parts, drop down onto the Cheshire plain on the Chester side of life and then turn around and do it all again.

Nothing much happened, except the sun came out from sunrise onwards and it promised to be warm and sunny... I kept my speed down, didn't push myself too hard and made sure I had a dose of morphine before I walked out of the front door. My route through Delamere Forest told me I won't be going that way next week, they are resurfacing (parts of) it. So that is off the agenda which is a shame because I had planned on using it from today onwards. Oh well.

I did meet a couple of riders (only one of them had a problem) whom I offered assistance to, but there was little that could be done once the problem was known - a blown rim. They had a long walk back...
I got home just in time for lunch, knackered and now not able to do anything else for the day, but I did manage 20 miles with +1000 feet of climbing (ignore strava it has robbed me of over 400feet!)

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for @Hill Wimp


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I was down there not that long ago... Them there be the welsh mountains where dragons lives @welsh dragon well not that dragon but...

https://www.strava.com/activities/333906428 20 miles in not too bad a time for me, I was expecting the average to be much lower!

Beautiful photos Emma

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

A ride out with @gavgav today and my first ride since last Sunday (I've been lazy and used the car for commuting all week ).

No Doug this time as he is out providing his professional services to Boyzone at their concert in Telford.

Gav fancied heading west and into the flat lands round Melverley using some roads I don't usually go down so we met up at Meole Brace and started out. Intitially we were making use of NCN Route 81 so after Montford Bridge turned left for Montford and Shrawardine. It's some time since I went this way and that was in winter so I'd forgotten how pretty it can be, although it is just as up-and-down as I remember which is why I usually go a different way.

We passed through Pentre and had a quick refreshment stop by the Royal Hill Inn (we'll actually go and have a dring there one of these days) then continued towards Melverley via a slightly less direct route than usual. It's lovely out there and some proper summer warmth at last but the wind is still making itself felt (was recorded at 15 to 17 mph while we were out according to the Met Office) and we'd been riding directly into it. That changed at Crew Green though which helped us along for a while.

After the climb from Prince's Oak we stopped for lunch near Shotten before heading to Halfway House (took a while to cross the A458 here as it's a key route to and from Mid Wales for holiday makers) then Westbury where rather than doing the usual left turn we went straight on up Hinwood Lane. I haven't been this way for a while and remembered it as a bit of a climb. It's actually not as bad as I recall from this side and has a nice descent from Hinwood into Asterley where we turned again heading for Farley and Edge then dropping down the hill through Hinton to Lea Cross. Here we had to cross the A488 which is not a nice road - I went for a gap when turning off it only to look back and find Gav hadn't.

Another detour from my usual routes followed when we went through Annscroft and Hook-a-Gate (nice lot of downhill along here) then finally took a short cut through Meole Brace (which I don't recall having ever gone down before) bringing us back to where we'd met up.

After saying our farewells it just remained to do the climb back to home - I added in a little loop around the block giving 36.6 miles for the trip at 11.6 mph average. A nice ride out in good company.

Thatched cottage at Shrawardine.

Nice gate house or barn a bit further up the road (think it was by Alderton Hall)

The Royal Hill (which isn't actually on a hill )

Just pump up the tyres and it'll be fine.

I tried to get a photo indicating how strong the wind was but we're near some trees here and the flag was all over the place in the turbulence. Look at that blue sky though.

A view of the Stiperstones from Hinwood Lane.

Gav tackling the appropriately named Shorthill.

Back to suburban reality. About to go our seperate ways at Meole Brace.

 

[Sandra6]

Mr6 and I decided to take the folders out to the coast to explore the new(ish) traffic free route, but the weather decided to change when we got there. Mr6 was goose pimpled before we even got the bikes unfolded so we abandoned the ride and drove back via silloth, where the sun was shining. Determined to get at least a few miles in we set off along the sea front with the wind at our backs.
We turned right when we ran out of path and headed back the longer way by road.
The road goes through the middle of the cow fields and the cows don't know they're supposed to stay in the fields. I'm not sure they know how much I dislike cows either.
The first two weren't so scary, but i didnt make eye contact while I pedalled fast around them! But a bit further along there was a group of six and they looked mean. They didn't even move for the car hooting its horn!
I wasn't taking any chances, keeping my bike between me and them I walked up the grass verge and kept my distance. Mr 6 took up a protective stance keeping me between them and his bike!
We made it back to the main road and completed a nice 5 mile loop, but give me Sunday drivers over cows any day!

 

[vernon]

This is outside @vernon's country residence, the Temperance Hall in Kirby Stephen

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You should have knocked. Fenton's there and he'd have made you a great full English breakfast sandwich.

He can't eat them on account of them being a two-handed affair.

 

[Elybazza61]

Fairly eventful club ride today;had to stop twice while heading to where I was going to pick up the moderate pace group when I heard a clunk on the bike,initially thought it was just the chain or some-such a minute or so later the bars started dropping! Obviously I hadn't tightened them up enough so out with the Lezeyne multi-tool to fix it and then carried on.Got a spurt on so as not to miss the group and the bike felt like it was pulling left so stopped again to spot that the saddle was pointing at a slightly off angle causing my weight to shift the bike to the left so out with the 'tool' again.
So now I head out thinking I still may be ahead of them,pause again to see the easy group coming up the road."Oh they just passed us" they say so I think ok I may catch them if I put a spurt on;so off I go hacking at on the moderate group route(easy's have a shorter one) to no avail for quite a bit until I see two groups along the river bank road in the distance.With that I put in another spurt and passed the easy group to finally tag on to the mods nearly 20km's after riding away from the easy group.Needless to say the coffee(no espresso though) and muffin went down a treat at the Welney wildfowl centre.

A nice steady ride back with the group until Little Downham where I turned off to come home,whereupon I thought I had picked up a puncture so haeded straight over a junction only to stop and find the tyre ok,
so a gentle cruise back just in case.

Still a nice day(did spit of rain a bit) to complete the June Strava MTS, so a good months riding with over 1250 kms done and the Fondo completed too

https://www.strava.com/activities/334044914

 

[Goonerobes]

I thought I would re-visit a route that I did for the first time 6 weeks ago, only today it was to be in the opposite direction (anti clockwise) to try & get a different perspective on the scenery.

Leaving home at 9:30am I headed briefly through the forest en-route to the Test Valley & North Wessex Downs, two pretty areas of arable countryside & small villages with thatched cottages galore.

Little did I know when I crossed the river Test for the first time at Kimbridge what an important part of my day the river was to be as I must have crossed it & it subsidiaries at least another dozen times times & even had a farcical situation where at a junction I took the left fork & the Garmin said "off course" so I went back & took the right fork only to be told "off course" again? A little head scratching later I went left & "off course" only to cross the river again 500 yards later & was back on course so I can only imagine the stupid thing was trying to sent me up the river!!!

With the river now behind me I passed through St Mary Bourne & Hurstbourne Tarrent before stopping for lunch on the village green at Vernham Dean, knowing that my one & only little climb of the day lay just ahead, 41 miles into the route. Lunch & climb done it was time to head for home, through Abbots Ann & Red Rise before picking up the river again & running parallel to it through Houghton, Bossington & Mottisfont & then back via Awbridge, Wellow & the forest for home.

78.3 miles, blessed with nice weather & some lovely scenery, the only downside being the state of the roads as whilst there was only 3000ft of climbing, my arms, shoulders & neck all ache like nobodies business from holding on for dear life on some of the worst tarmac I've ridden on!!

https://www.strava.com/activities/333992604/

How many times across the river............

The North Wessex Downs

 

[13 rider]

Out all day tomorrow so ride today. Took the defy to try a longer ride as I have only rode it for an hour so far. Out from home to meeting point at Cossington via Newtown Linford ,Sharpley hill ,Woodhouse eaves ,Quorn , Mountsorrel and Rothley . Met up with mate Andy .Headed straight up humble lane climb and then instead of our normal route through Ratcliffe we headed to Rearsby then turned left to Thrussington then right to Hoby and on to Ragdale .Just here my strava stopped recording just before I probably smashed my of up Ragdale hill on to Seagrave by a new route down berrycott lane a lovely quiet lane Then off to Andy house in Sileby .A quick refreshment break then on to Home via Mountsorrel , Rothley ,Cropston and Home . 35.53 miles at 15.6 mph in lovely sunshine but why is still so windy first time on this lightweight bike I was being blown sideways didn't suffer that on the hybrid loads of riders out today .After 2 hours on the defy Just felt a slight back ache I think the seat height still needs a tinker or may just be getting use to the drops rather than the flat bar hybrid

 

[Saluki]

Oh, ok, we went to 2 pubs.

As the weather was so gorgeous, after a nice sausage (Linda McCartney) or 2, a poached egg and some beans for brekky, we got on our bikes and headed off for a ride.

We had this ride all planned out and headed off to Norwich on the cycle path then out via Sprowston Road and across Mousehold Heath on the cycle path, through the Heartsease Estate (quickly as that's where I got assulted) and then off on the Plumstead Road and headed for Salhouse. At the 12 mile point, we pulled into the Woodfords Brewary complex and had a half of shandy each (mine was vile and I put it in a potted plant) and shared some chunky oven chips. I'm sure that they were oven chips, cooked and then nuked to reheat. Not worth 4 quid if anyone is thinking of a visit!


Onwards to Ranworth and passed the Maltesers Pub where we normally have a cuppa and up the hill to South Walsham and on to Hemblington where my GPS decided that we had gone off route, flounced big time and turned itself off in a huff. Really! It's worse than a bloomin' teenager. I must have the only Garmin bike computer that has a hissy fit when we get diverted due to the gas mains being worked on.

We turned it back on and, thinking it would put us back on route, followed the sulky thing. It took us to Little Plumstead, which is all fine and dandy, had we wanted to go there in the first place. I am going to call it Kevin, after the moody teenager in the Harry Enfield sketches. I manually put in Brundall and off we went again. It did take us to Brundall and we found our way to Station Road and the Yare Pub where we had a cola and shared an ice-cream.

We got Kevin the garmin to then take us to Thorpe. It decided that we were off down the A47 dual carriageway. I think that it might be possessed and maybe I should call it Christine instead. I said "bugger all this, let's go to Postwick" (pronounced Possick for those who don't live in Norfolk) so we did and picked up the cyclepath and headed into Norwich down the Yarmouth Road to the Station. We followed the riverside cyclepath and stopped at one of the dragons.
Norwich has a small dragon infestation at the moment. They will all go after the school holidays.

From there Christine/Kevin was in a right snit and we told it to take us home, just to stop the stupid thing beeping every 5 seconds. We followed the cycle paths, it beeped crossly as it wanted to go up the main roads.

Once home, it said that I'd ridden 16 miles in an hour and 17 minutes and had come back from Ranworth instantly in a dead straight line. I didn't teleport so have downloaded the ride from Kenn's GPS which decided to behave. I am going to have to have a word with my Garmin. I might threaten it with a factory reset and see how that works out.

35.39 miles in 2:55:17 so we didn't hurry and all the back tracking, stopping, swearing, starting and then crawling along the riverside path at 5mph didn't help our average but we had a good time.

 

[coffeejo]

Nothing exciting today, just 40.61 miles, 30 of which were with some of the women from my cycling group. Sad to report that our coffee stop, the post office in Curry Mallet, wasn't up to its past standards now that it's under the third lot of owners in the four years since I first went there. My flapjack was delicious so no complaints there, but the place seemed to lack its former character. Oh well. The last mile of the ride saw me hit my target for the month (800 miles) and I am officially shattered. Haven't yet told my legs that they'll be doing the same again in July, with the aim of toughening them up enough for my first 1000 mile month in August or September.

 

[Archeress]

Just a little ride today. My wrist is still quite uncomfortable at the moment so I took the mountain bike out and cycled over to the archery club. Didn't shoot as my wrist isn't up to the strain and shock from a bow. I spent a pleasant afternoon sat in the shade by the club house watching everyone else shoot, while a dog from the livery stables next door lay on my foot. There and back, a pleasant 8.7 miles.

Hugs
Archeress x

 

[Racing roadkill]

https://www.strava.com/activities/334126802

Nice day for it (again).

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Took the MTB To Keilder today, and rather than do the usual Lakeside way or blue/red routes I went exploring the forest tracks

From Kielder village I followed the route of the Forest Drive passing over Blakehope Nick and then descending to reach the A68 on the far side of the forest.

From there I followed the Pennine Way southwards for a short distance before cutting along another track to pick up the Border Country Ride for a few miles before turning off onto another track to descend to the road end at Waterhead.

At Waterhead I picked up a superb bridleway that heads back westwards Kielder Water and then contours above the Lakeside Way back to the village and my startpoint.

Apart from 2 or 3 cars on the forest dive, I didn't encounter another person until I got back to the village.

But I did see at reasonably close quarters (in order I spotted them)...

a huge dog fox
a doe red deer
another doe red deer but with a bambi
another fox
a young red deer
a wee mouse, which I narrowly avoided squishing
plus the usually plethora of buzzards and kestrels

I also had an 'off bike excursion' accompanied by a puncture - i'm not sure if the off caused the puncture or the puncture cause the off, but my GPS tells me I was travelling at over 20mph at the time. i've got some excellent gravel rash now, but its far easier to live with then tarmac rash.

31.6 miles and 3100ft ascent

Here's a map

And a gradient profile

 

[Brandane]

This morning I headed off "down south", to Moffat in the borders - where incidentally I did my secondary schooling while my parents lived abroad. The occasion today was the Moffat Classic Car rally, an event which has grown over the years to become one of the biggest classic car rallys in Scotland. I thought that it would be bad manners if I didn't enter into the spirit of things, so I put my 1976 Puch Alpine into the back of my not so classic Toyota Corolla and headed off.

The classic bike:

First thing on arrival in Moffat was a fuel stop; so a bacon and egg roll with a coffee from a very nice café on the main street. Then watched the cars congregate for their 45 mile circuit over the A701 to Devil's Beef Tub and Tweedsmuir, then onto a minor single track road with a climb or two (!!) over to St. Mary's Loch and back to Moffat on the Selkirk Road.

The Devil's Beef Tub: (not my photo)

Near the top of the climb from Meggetts reservoir:

The first half of the ride was all uphill, first of all up past the Devil's Beef Tub, then the climb pictured above where I may have walked a bit , my excuse being that the Puch is a tad high geared for this terrain! The second half of the ride was more rolling hills than brutal climbs, but with a headwind, grrrr..

I stopped at St. Mary's Loch for a while, as did some of the cars; including this one which I used to lust after as a boy:

Had a chat with some of the car owners, refuelled with some healthy chocolate brownies and Irn Bru, then headed back into the wind for the ride back to Moffat. With the mileage at 45 when I got there, I had to go and do a wee 5 mile extra circuit to make it up to the half century. Strava here. A good afternoon for cycling, apart from that wind!

 

[ianrauk]

A lovely, warm, some times hot sunny day today.. perfect for a cycle ride to the coast. Whitstable. This was @Trickedem 's recce for next months FNRttC, so though I should invite myself along as the destination, the Waterfront @ Whitstable is probably the best you are going to get when it comes to a cyclist friendly cafe/bar with great food and a brilliant view. Joining the recce was @rb58 and the legend that is @zigzag .

6.45am, in blazing sunshine at the spiritual start of the Friday Night Rides. The Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner.

The Horseguards Horses making there way to their barracks in Hyde Park.

The dilapidated Russian Submarine U-475 Black Widow in Rochester, with Rochester Castle in the background.

St Mary The Virgin Church in Upchurch, not many churches with a steeple like that.

The Waterfront Cafe/Bar Whitstable

Only one mechanical, A puncture... but no... a faulty inner tube... @rb58 as usual ;-)

So 139 miles for the day. We got lost a couple of times, but a great ride never the less. Century #16 for 2015, 151 over all.

I am feeling a bit sunburnty crispy...a good thing I splashed the factor 50 all over before I left. And at the end of the day I think I scrapped off a kilo of dirt and flies that stuck to my legs.

Cycling in the summer with yer mates? Nothing beats it.

 

[derrick]

A nice 50 mile club ride this morning, 10 of us set of for a ride around Hertford way, Uneventful ie no punctures, no idiot motorist's, The weather was Fabulous, ended up back at Bike Boutique for a beer. After that we popped down to our local LBS for a coffee and a chat, A bit of a lazy afternoon, Then of to do the local 10 mile TT. Back home now sitting in front of the tv, Laptop on my lap, Getting stuck into my second beer, Great day spent with mates from our club, Life is good.