Your ride today....

[geocycle]

A good-for-January forecast and a flexible work schedule coincided so a ride resulted. I took a bit of a gamble that the good local weather would be an indication of the weather deep in the Dales. I waited for the light frost to melt then headed to Kirby Lonsdale and onward to Sedbergh. I had my eye on Fairfield Mill for lunch, the last time I was there in July it was 35 degrees warmer but they were just as welcoming. Conditions looked ok so headed up Garsdale toward Hawes. Garsdale is always quite bleak because of its east-west orientation and steep sides meaning light and warmth tend to be in short supply. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the water falls in the rock bed channel and the industrial archaeology as I climbed Garsdale head and turned off at Apersett. This brought me up to the Ingleton road which I reached via Newby Head and Ribblehead. Another stop at the bakery in Ingleton before home. 122 km or 77 miles with 1600 m of climbing.

pictures are of mouth of Dentdale, Garsdale looking to the Howgills and Ribblehead viaduct.

 

[Dave 123]

A still and dry night called for a ride!
Lights charged and off I went down Bridgend and then up through Noss.
I stopped at the church

Then I went on around the Battisborough loop.

Coming back through Creacombe there was a hare in the lane. I whizzed by.

On the road back to home there is a grain store. At this point a rat nearly went under my front wheel!

Just before home a fox pelted out of the hedge in front of me and through a field gate.

I thought I might see a badger or barn owl, but what I saw was good!

10 miles. Lovely!

https://www.strava.com/activities/8456673183

 

[gavgav]

I got my first group ride in a while, with @Rickshaw Phil and his brother, Doug, this evening. It was properly cold again, so the thermals were back out.

We met and headed through Sutton Farm, Reabrook and onto the cycle paths to Heathgates, where a courteous driver let us across at the difficult crossing point.

Next was Sundorne and then onto the old canal path to Uffington, which we had to ourselves and the on the road to Upton Magna. I fancied taking on an extended ride and we climbed up East Haughmond and then enjoyed the descent back down and followed the lane back to Upton Magna from a different direction.

We continued on the Pelham Road and then down the first rat run, to Atcham, which wasn’t too bad and onto the old bridge where a pause was needed.

The second rat run up to Cross Houses was busier, but all traffic well behaved, then it was a short section on the A458, before turning off towards Berrington. The lane towards King Street crossroads was entirely ours, before we joined the road to Betton Abbots and home.

I’d done 19.59 miles at a slow chatting pace of 10.8mph avg. (Edited - 100.8mph would have been exhilarating 🤣)

 

[buzz22]

28 degrees, humid and some free time.
My Giant CFR got a ride on my normal 31km loop.
This picture is the scenery for quite a lot of the ride, gum trees and bush line most of the way.

A couple of minutes faster than last time, I averaged a bit over 27km/h in
1 hr 8 mins.
I've got a focus for my training now, there's a charity ride I'll be doing coming up at the end of march in the NSW alpine region.
Climbing will start to become a focus in the next couple of weeks and I'll be increasing my workload steadily.

 

[cwskas]

It has been quite cold overnight here and rained ferociously on Tuesday. So I have had to work to get in some miles.

Monday I did my now favorite 50 mile training ride out to Iredell and back. I thought the winds would be mostly quartering tailwind going and therefore quartering headwind on the return. I should have looked at that more closely as it turned out to be near head-on 18-20 mph with gusts coming back. I had spent the weekend in Galveston with friends and so hadn't ridden in 3 days and the combination made it a real chore for me to get home.

​

Wednesday I got out and managed 30 miles in 5° C and discovered I was a bit under-dressed for the parts into the wind. More of a chore than I like, but still good to get in the ride.

Today I got out on the Surly again for 22 miles. Winds were almost calm and I was dressed warmer. I think the rains on Tuesday damaged this section of the road. The creek is directly beside the road on this section.

And a screenshot from the following short video . . . just to demonstrate that I am actually riding that bike!
Or is it my body double? 🤔

 

[sevenfourate]

A good-for-January forecast and a flexible work schedule coincided so a ride resulted. I took a bit of a gamble that the good local weather would be an indication of the weather deep in the Dales. I waited for the light frost to melt then headed to Kirby Lonsdale and onward to Sedbergh. I had my eye on Fairfield Mill for lunch, the last time I was there in July it was 35 degrees warmer but they were just as welcoming. Conditions looked ok so headed up Garsdale toward Hawes. Garsdale is always quite bleak because of its east-west orientation and steep sides meaning light and warmth tend to be in short supply. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the water falls in the rock bed channel and the industrial archaeology as I climbed Garsdale head and turned off at Apersett. This brought me up to the Ingleton road which I reached via Newby Head and Ribblehead. Another stop at the bakery in Ingleton before home. 122 km or 77 miles with 1600 m of climbing.

pictures are of mouth of Dentdale, Garsdale looking to the Howgills and Ribblehead viaduct.

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Nice write up and pics (Viaduct is particularly impressive !). And i never tire of seeing pics of your bike. Love it.....

So - i'm guessing the rear 'water bottle' is actually a tool-holder. What do you manage to cram in there out of interest........?

 

[geocycle]

Nice write up and pics (Viaduct is particularly impressive !). And i never tire of seeing pics of your bike. Love it.....

So - i'm guessing the rear 'water bottle' is actually a tool-holder. What do you manage to cram in there out of interest........?

Thanks. Good observation, but no that’s actually a thermos inside a neoprene sleeve. Mrs G is away using our stainless steel flask so I picked up a rubberised aluminium flask in our local Blacks. It proved less effective at retaining heat although is lighter than SS. I felt having coffee to hand was important with temperature hovering 2-5 degrees. I have looked at those tool boxes although I usually have a saddlebag instead.

 

[sevenfourate]

Thanks. Good observation, but no that’s actually a thermos inside a neoprene sleeve. Mrs G is away using our stainless steel flask so I picked up a rubberised aluminium flask in our local Blacks. It proved less effective at retaining heat although is lighter than SS. I felt having coffee to hand was important with temperature hovering 2-5 degrees. I have looked at those tool boxes although I usually have a saddlebag instead.

I clearly saw the saddlebag and did wonder !

 

[All uphill]

I’d done 19.59 miles at a slow chatting pace of 100.8mph avg.

I'm impressed; how fast do you go when you are trying @gavgav ?

 

[sevenfourate]

I'm impressed; how fast do you go when you are trying @gavgav ?

Impressive.

Z: speed rated tyres I presume ?

 

[theloafer]

with the sun in the sky it seemed only right to go for a ride a slow pootle around the lanes .. at Cliffe bank there were snowdrops

and not long after Hilton there was a Christmas tree with golden bows

32 miles https://www.strava.com/activities/8460494578

 

[gavgav]

I'm impressed; how fast do you go when you are trying @gavgav ?

A slight typo there 🤣

 

[buzz22]

An early ride this morning out to ANSTO, Australia's first and only nuclear reactor. The site produces products for medical purposes and industry.
It was built in 1958 and where it's located was previously fairly remote but suburbia has gradually crept in to the edges of the exclusion zone.
To get there I get to cross the Woronora River which is just down the road from my place. A shared pathway runs under the road bridge where I took this photo:

Not a breath of wind so the river was like glass.
The whole route is hilly so great training.
It's mainly bike paths, the Council has done a great job.
I rode my old Raleigh mtb as I knew the gearing would come in handy and the pace was going to be fairly relaxed.
As you get closer to the reactor site there's a series of gates to pass through:

I didn't grab any photos of the site itself as security is fairly strict, this was the 2nd last gate.
I headed home for a total of 21km at an average of 16km/h. Slow but tough going.

 

[gavgav]

A murky Saturday morning ride, but felt much better for having got out at the end of a long working week.

I followed the same route as Thursday night, to start with, to Heathgates, Sundorne, Uffington and Upton Magna, then up East Haughmond.

I then deviated away from that route, down the nice descent to Somerwood and Rodington Heath. I resisted the first road back to Upton Magna, knowing it would likely be flooded in the usual spot and so continued on and took the lane to Withington.

I then climbed back up to Upton Magna, along the Pelham Road to Berwick Wharf and to Atcham. I took the hillier route home from there, up Chilton lane, on which the first section was a muddy and debris strewn mess, following the River Severn being sat on it a couple of weeks ago.

From King Street I took the usual route back through Betton Abbots, along which 2 groups of fast cyclists whizzed past me, far too closely for my liking and with not a glance my way. Obviously far too important for the likes of me 🙄

21.77 miles at 11.6mph avg. Tomorrow mornings job is to wash the bike, as it’s a filthy mess after this weeks rides.

 

[Donger]

It started off as a routine ride through Severnside (Elmore, Arlingham, Frampton etc) just to keep the miles ticking over and get me up and started. Just before the end, I glanced at my computer and saw that I was close to a metric half century, so as a spur-of-the-moment thing, I carried on around the block to bring up 51.5km (32 miles) so that I could get a belated entry into the Cyclechat Metric-Century-a-Month Challenge. Hopefully that challenge will give me the incentive to start munching the miles on a regular basis again. I'm not fit enough yet to enter the Metric Century version of the challenge ... currently stuck on 97 centuries, which is quite frustrating.

A flat grey day around here. Cool rather than cold ... maybe because I was so well layered up. Anyway, it stayed dry, which is the main thing. Lots of cyclists coming the other way when I got near Epney. Various club jerseys from Chepstow, Bristol, Worcester, Malvern etc. I think it may have been the annual Jack & Grace Cotton Memorial 100km Audax. I rode that one once, but it involved driving to the outskirts of Bristol, just to ride right through my own stamping ground and then drive home again. A nice event, but a bit pointless for me, given where I live.

That's 129 miles for the month for me now. A decent start, given that I'd only ridden about 75 miles in the previous 5 months. Onwards and upwards.