Your ride today....

[Rickshaw Phil]

A couple of rides once again:

Yesterday: I should have got out in the morning before it got too hot really but didn't. After lunch I decided that it wasn't too bad out, especially with it being quite breezy, so got the Kingpin out for a bit of a jaunt.

I headed over Lyth Hill then dropped down to Condover where I picked up a nice tailwind that helped along Lyons Lane towards Berrington and Cross Houses. I headed for Atcham next where lots of people weer cooling off with activities on and in the river, then carried on to Upton Magna. There were a handful of fellow cyclists about here who I overtook, to their surprise, on the way to Uffington.

The front brake had been making a horrendous noise on every stop through the trip, making me wonder if I had got a smear of grease on the wheel rim when I worked on the bearings recently, however silence was restored along the old canal path to Heathgates once everything got a coating of dust from the gravel surface. Ah well, that saves a job.

I followed the riverside paths into the Quarry, where the stage is being dismantled from the weekend concert, and met a friend so stopped to chat for a while before heading back via Porthill and Meole Brace.

21.4 miles at 12.5 mph average. I have a speedometer on this bike now which will make it easier to keep track of mileages.

Headed along Lyons Lane.

Welcome to Italy Shropshire.

This one didn't come out quite as expected as I couldn't see the screen in the sunlight. It does show there were a fair few people enjoying the river.

At Upton Magna.

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Today: The forecast shows 37C for this afternoon (though at the time of writing it doesn't look like we are going to get quite that hot here), so a morning ride seemed a good idea before it got too bad. The knockabout bike was convenient so I got that out and headed over Lyth Hill with the intention of bimbling round the lanes a bit.

This time I carried on over the top of the hill and dropped down on the Annscroft side then took the lane towards Plealey but doubled back towards Longden. All was going well and it was pretty pleasant being out. I'd got about halfway along the lane to Longden when an insect hit me between the eyes and I immediately felt the pain on my nose - the sting of a bee was left behind and didn't half smart. A passing cyclist stopped to check if I was okay and offered the use of an epi-pen if I was allergic. I'm not but really appreciated the concern. I don't suppose you'll see this but thanks anyway.

I decided to cut the ride short and headed to Exfords Green along School Lane then took the road to Hunger Hill, deciding to take to a bridleway I've walked but never cycled just after Westley. That may have saved some distance but I think it probably would have been faster staying on the tarmac.

My face was swelling quite well by the time I got back and has been pretty uncomfortable.

11.1 miles at 11 mph average. I've had better rides.

Just a couple of snaps from the top of Lyth Hill.

 

[ianbarton]

A few miles north in Shropshire it briefly got to 40C and fluttered around 37C. These were temperatures in the sun, not the shade. I was glad to spend most of the day inside (very rare for me).

 

[Donger]

Meet Archie. Don't let appearances deceive you. Archie is a little b*****d.

While Mrs D has been in hospital, Archie has got me up at about 4.45 every morning. Yowling, prodding me, standing on my chest and flicking my nose etc. Being by nature a crepuscular little critter, he just has to have his important tummy rub on the top step of the stairs, and have his ears scratched and a prolonged game of peek-a-boo through the bannister rods all before 5am. Not a minute later. I give him his breakfast and chuck some more ice cubes in his water before getting myself some cereal and a cup of tea (as by now I am wide awake). I turn round to find Archie has f****d off back to bed! MY bed.

There is one practical upshot, though. It means I can get out for my daily bike ride while the air is still relatively cool. Today I made it a very flat, very steady plod of a ride out to Epney and back via Moreton Valence. Just the 14.8 miles. I got home before 8am and it was already what I would normally describe as a lovely summer's day. It is going to be a real scorcher later. Glad to have got my ride out of the way early ..... thanks, I guess, to Archie.

p.s. Today I got to look through the binoculars of one of the twitchers at Epney .... and confirm that it was the Caspian tern that I saw in Frampton the other day while all the bird watchers were crowding out the waterfront at Epney, 3 miles away!

 

[ianrauk]

Archie may be a little b******d, but.. he's a handsome little b*******d

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

A little potter to South Queensferry this morning with my wife. The air was lovely and fresh near the shore, much warmer and muggier inland. 25° on our return.

 

[cyberknight]

kudos to anyone attempting to ride in the heat , im wimping out till tomorrow

 

[Vantage]

I went out at 6.30am yesterday with the mutt. Even that early it was damn warm.
Onto today and muttly and I have just returned from a ride in the park. I decided to take the scenic route home.
1st it was up a steep rocky trail with a school fence on one side and trees and stuff on the other. The rocks were sending me all over the place. My mountain biking skills have all but vanished. Not helping matters was me using the electric motor in one of its highest settings. Steep. Rocky. Why wouldn't I?
Cue lots of bumping off rocks, tree roots, more rocks, etc. Eventually I decided it was a good idea to get off the rocky trail and go up through the forest bit. Completely forgtting all the steps to climb. It's OK. I had a motor. On my already heavy touring bike. With thin as tracing paper tyres. What could go wrong? Aside from the rear wheel spinning out and/or gripping and thus slamming the front tyre into said steps, it was interesting. What made it more interesting was the very deep and thick nettles bushes on both side of the heavily overgrown path. Was I wearing shorts? You betcha! I made it up the first step. The second one caught me out. Bike stopped. Me losing balance. Me falling into said thick, heavily overgrown nettles. Me wincing in pain as my bare legs got the stinging of a lifetime. I didn't swear. Honest. Not learning my lesson I got up and immediately used the throttle to motor my way up the remaining steps. Then I throttled through the rest of the forest till we emerged onto the estate. My steering had been a bit sluggish coming out the other end. Either a rock or a step had pinched my tyre and it was flat. T'was a slow flat though so twice on the way back home I stopped and inflated it.
I'll fix it later when my legs recover.
Fun day!

 

[AndreaJ]

A much better day to be out and after waiting just long enough for the village school traffic to clear I set off towards Northwood hoping to get out before the road was closed again for the white lines to be painted on the recently surface dressed bits. Made it in time and turned off to Bettisfield and across the Welsh border to Hanmer. Took the usual route back to Breadon Heath and into Welshampton by the school. It looks like Stocks Lane will be shut for all of August, hopefully to fix it as it is one of the worst lanes in North Shropshire. Crossed over the road to Lyneal finding the lane blocked by a lorry and workmen replacing a telegraph pole, as they were nearly finished it wasn’t a very long wait and I was soon on my way again, carried on past the vineyard to Colemere, Pikesend and Brown Heath. Took a longer way to Loppington, Horton and Edstaston before a wander around Whixall. I was following a heavy rain shower for a few miles, the lanes were very wet as far as Dobsons bridge where one side of the bridge was wet and the other was dry! I didn’t manage to catch up with the rain though, it is very dry here so we could really do with some rain now. 34.6 miles.
View from Tarts Hill

 

[galaxy]

An absolutely stunning day for a bike ride, before the oppressive heat comes, sunny and very warm but bearable and very little wind.

Something completely new for me also, as I’d arranged to meet some friends in Leominster and with the kids away at Scout Camp and on a sleepover, they brought bikes and we rode together for what must be the first time in about 13 years!

The drive down was fine and I’d just got changed into my cycling shoes, had a quick snack and they arrived. I’d devised a route, following much studying of maps, that was either lanes or “B” roads, but with it all being new territory you never quite know what it will be like or how many hills there would be. Amy had asked for not too many hills!

We set off out of the busy Town Centre and down some quite hilly lanes, before joining the “B” road to Choltrey, Lawton and Eardisland. Traffic was busy until we crossed the A4110 but then quietened down. Eardisland is a beautiful chocolate box village, set on the River Arrow, but the lane we wanted to turn onto (Broom Lane) had road closed signs 🤦‍♂️ We decided to risk it and see how closed it was, turned out to be fine and to be honest a car could have got down through where the cabling work was happening. How nice it was though to not have to worry about traffic.

We followed the lane through beautiful countryside, alongside the river, onto Staunton on Arrow, before turning towards Stansbatch and the first proper bit of climbing we’d encountered.

We were back onto “B” roads then, with some climbing and then a nice descent into Presteigne and indeed Wales. What had been very noticeable on the ride so far was the dreadful road surfaces. I thought Shropshire was bad enough, but it has nothing on Herefordshire, with multiple potholes and badly worn surfaces.

We skirted the outside of Presteigne and then joined another “B” road, in an Easterly direction, towards Combe and Coombes Moor. This was fabulous cycling country, flat for a good 5 miles, quiet traffic, beautiful countryside and cloudless skies. Andy remarked to me that “this is the life” and indeed it was.

Approaching Shobdon I had plotted a quiet lane to miss some busy junctions out. As we turned onto it, we found some proper hills for a mile or so, quite a pull up there and not helped by me swallowing a fly 🤢 Sounded worse than when I’m trying to do an LFT test, gagging, but some water and a cereal bar sorted me out.

We were now in Uphampton and heading for Easthampton. I almost took us past a left turn that we needed, but had been following the saved route on Strava and quickly realised before we descended the hill too far. The descent to the “B” road was fast and about the only smooth surface we found all day!

We were heading for Mortimers Cross now, a nasty and renowned junction for accidents, dog leg across the A4110, but we got across fairly easily and then had quite a climb up to Lucton and Croft, skirting the edge of the castle grounds. There was plenty of amusement though, at us being passed by “Del Boy and Rodney” (ok it wasn’t really them but a very authentic replica) in their Yellow Robin Reliant, with tannoy blasting out, closely followed by a decorated old Capri and then a gorgeous old convertible Wedding Car with the Bridge and Groom in 😆

At Yarpole we turned back onto pretty lanes again, towards Bicton and Eyton. It was quite lumpy but then a nice descent back to the main road. From there it was a flat run back into Leominster, which was heaving now.

We loaded the bikes back into cars and changed out of our sweaty clothes into something clean, before driving the short distance to the pub we’d chosen, The White Lion. It got a good write up on TripAdvisor and didn’t disappoint. We enjoyed a pint of Butty Bach and excellent home cooked food, including some of the best homemade Chips I’ve ever had, in the Beer Garden.

We parted ways having thoroughly enjoyed the day.

The ride was 29.77 miles at an avg speed of 13.2mph and just short of 1500ft of climbing, so Amy was happy that whilst we climbed a few hills, it wasn’t too hilly.

I live just outside Leominster, opposite Berrington Hall of the A49

 

[DCBassman]

Yesterday: a trip out to Brentor to collect an old Samsung phone from a friend.
Always a grind getting there, always a hoot coming back, with a few spots at over 30mph. Pretty much downhill all the way, once you've ground up to Brentor church. On the outward journey, I dog-legged around the car park triangle at St.Michael's church, to avoid the steeper ramp and the traffic that zooms up and down it.
The Alivio RD-M4000 on the Scott behaved a bit better, but still not right.

This also shows where I stopped in the gateway to the path up the tor to the church, to reward myself with a long drink for grinding all the way up through the village, then all the way up to the church. Then...zoom!

 

[wafter]

This week in cycling has been full of excuses, the best ride I've managed being a 5 mile round trip to a client on Wednesday.

This morning I awoke in the usual malaise having spectacularly failed to manage my sleep and diet; feeling subsequently crap as a result. I have a few social appointments later in the day and don't want to be a miserable prick, so prescribed a quick ride this morning in an effort to address that possibility.

For some reason the Boardman Team Carbon was calling me today so I wheeled it out of the shed, through the cramped and over-grown, Krypton-factor that is the garden and put some air into its now totally flat tyres.

It's first outing in two years and it felt significantly more sprightly than the CdF - compact and responsive whether that be under acceleration or turning. The 105 calipers and Tiagra shifters can't match the hydro 105 setup on the Genesis, but don't feel so inferior that I'm conscious of it in use. The mostly-Tiagra groupset shifts nicely , although the upshift on the FD is so heavy compared to the 105 that it almost feels like I've hit the stops. The composite frame feels stiff yet very well damaped and certainly not uncomfortable on the high-pressure 25mm tyres compared to the CdF's steel frame and 35s.

I ended up doing a quick 16-ish mile loop to the nearest town and back; the ride being particularly rapid for me at 16.2mph average and a fairly lofty 151bpm mean. Obviously from the elevated heartrate I put in more effort than I usually do, however the ride was disproportionately quicker anyway; and largely in-keeping with the 15-ish percent deficit in mean speed I seem to get when moving from the Boardman to the Genesis.

I can't put my finger on exactly why (maybe weight, wheel inertia, geometry...) but the Boardman always seems to goad you into going faster, while the Genesis just like to roll along - horses for courses I guess and as usual I'm very glad for having got out

 

[Donger]

The club was laying on an additional "local pootle" of a ride today, so I was tempted back into the fold to do my first club ride of the year, thinking it would be a gentle affair. Two of us oldies recovering from covid and a father and son combo made for a nice little group. Just the 23.4 miles, but it turned out to be at a pace that was faster than our usual club rides. Kudos to little 11 year old Liam, the Boy Wonder. Cruised along at 20mph no problem. Climbed and descended with ease. This was actually the ride I really needed. I only just kept up at times, and probably averaged 3mph faster than if I'd ridden alone. Heart rate OK when I got home, so all good.

As to my self-imposed Tour de France Challenge, I failed to get out every single day during the Tour, but I did at least get out 18 times for a total of 409.6 miles . My second biggest monthly total ever, after having only done 516 miles in the first 6 months of the year. I'm feeling almost ready for a proper club ride now. I reckon within a month I'll be giving it a crack. It has been a long way back, but it is all coming together now. Mrs D is making a remarkable recovery, so it is starting to look like within a month or so I might be able start going out for longer rides again. Touch wood.

 

[lazybloke]

Up early for my 10th "lunacy challenge"ride of the year.
NCN 22 to Westcott looked almost autumnal after the heatwave, but still green at the millpond.

Hemmed-in between the North Downs and Greensand Ridge, yet there was a vista of fields under a wide open sky. Then into some lanes.

Headed up Leith Hill past the church where I married, and through Coldharbour before descending to Walliswood. Found a phone box that still has a phone.

Was running a bit late now. Sped up to cover the distance so went straight past my parents without popping in. Curtains were shut anyway.
went past a small and very quiet protest site near Brockham.

Some quiet roads near Ranmore Common.

42 miles, with a fair bit of flat but definitely some stiff climbs, 2667 feet of ascent. Not a fast day but still got my heart up above 180bpm. Felt v hot afterwards, and legs are tired.

Been living and cycling these bits of Surrey for too long, and it's feeling a bit samey. Normandy next month should be a good change of scenery.

 

[cyberknight]

Bad one today !
group ride in blustery conditions so we were taking turns at the front , after my turn i did a flick of the elbow and started to pull out of line but the rider behind had overlapped wheels and took me down into a ditch .Only a superficial scratch to the bike where the chain jammed and i have sore ribs and scratches from brambles, the one behind hit the deck hard damaging his shifter , torn jersey , road rash and badly cut knee so he had to call home for a pick up ( luckily his son was in and has a van ).2 others ran into the back of him and both had minor scratches etc.
After the injured chap was picked up we decided to reduce the length of the ride to the nearest cafe as we didnt fancy the full distance just in case and every time i got of the saddle my ribs ache .

 

[13 rider]

Bad one today !
group ride in blustery conditions so we were taking turns at the front , after my turn i did a flick of the elbow and started to pull out of line but the rider behind had overlapped wheels and took me down into a ditch .Only a superficial scratch to the bike where the chain jammed and i have sore ribs and scratches from brambles, the one behind hit the deck hard damaging his shifter , torn jersey , road rash and badly cut knee so he had to call home for a pick up ( luckily his son was in and has a van ).2 others ran into the back of him and both had minor scratches etc.
After the injured chap was picked up we decided to reduce the length of the ride to the nearest cafe as we didnt fancy the full distance just in case and every time i got of the saddle my ribs ache .
View attachment 654145

I hope your shoulder didn't suffer any damage again