Your ride today....

[Rickshaw Phil]

Tuesday 20th of May: Another nice day with the possibility of showers later on. I wanted to get out and test the knockabout bike after having to change the back wheel, which had cracked in two places - fortunately I had been able to swap to one from my winter set. The ride to Oaks, Pulverbatch and Wilderley is always a good one and also gives several bail out options if the showers roll in sooner than expected.

Heading over Lyth Hill at the start you'd hardly know from the track across the top that we'd had some rain overnight. I paused for yet another tweak of the saddle at the top, which felt really good on the way to Plealey and especially so once I started the climb up to Oaks - much more like I want it to be.

The two climbs at Broom Hill were despatched with relative ease and the undulating section to Wilderley flowed well too. I hadn't really planned to go to Picklescott this time but I was enjoying the ride so much it seemed a shame not to.

There were clouds starting to bubble up over the Long Mynd and by the time I reached Smethcott (where I had a bit of a detour to visit the church) I started to think that perhaps I wouldn't extend the ride again. By Leebotwood I could see streaks of rain descending from the cloud so that seemed to be the right decision. I looked at the rainfall radar later which showed that I would have ridden into the rain if I'd gone to Dudgeley and Hollyhurst. I had a good ride back through Longnor and Ryton then at Condover was surprised to find a "road closed ahead" sign for the stretch of road I'd just ridden - the first I knew of it.

I thought I'd round up the climbing by heading through Little Lyth this time and found the climb here to be easier than it's felt on this bike for some time - I think I must be on the right track with the set up.

26.26 miles this time (I liked the symmetry of that) at 12.2 mph average. 1919 feet of climbing according to Strava.

Crossing Lyth Hill the first time.

On the way up the climb to Oaks.

Descending towards Pulverbatch.

Nice to see the White Horse at Pulverbatch is still going. Too early for a beer though.

At the top of the Pease Lane climb, a few fields in this area have recently been bought by the Forestry Commission and a new wood has been planted.

Another tempting pub but they don't open Monday or Tuesday.

A little detour to look at the church at Smethcott.

Clouds are threatening as I look back towards the hills from Ryton.

From the same spot - there are more clouds bubbling up in the direction I'm headed too. It did thunder later on.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Friday 23rd of May: I'd intended to take my brother out for a ride with a planned stop for a pub lunch. Unfortunately he'd caught a stomach bug so that wasn't going to happen. I thought I'd still go out anyway and decided to take the Galaxy off on a trip around my Melverley loop as I haven't done that for quite a while.

The bridge that takes the cycle route along Roman Road at Meole Brace was due to have been lifted out for refurbishment later in the day so I wasn't sure if it would be open. It was though, so I didn't need to mix it with the traffic through the busy junction alongside and at the time of writing the lift still hasn't happened - I think the blustery winds may have caused a postponement.

At the next junction a motorist let me across but my foot slipped on the pedal and I'm not quite sure how I avoided ending up in a heap on the road in front of them. I did scrape my leg on the chainring though. After that it was less eventful as I got out of town heading to Montford Bridge at a fairly decent pace. I seemed to breeze up the climb at Bicton but it felt like I could have gone faster on the descent. At Forton I thought it was lucky that nobody was coming the other way when a black Alfa Romeo overtook into a corner.

It was pretty good riding to Great Ness then Pentre. I seemed to pick up speed after The Royal Hill and really enjoyed sweeping through the lanes on the way to Melverley. When I joined the main road at Crew Green I'd hoped to pick up a tailwind. I was going fairly well here, but nothing special, however the climb from Prince's Oak felt really good - this is where I feel that the shorter cranks are really beneficial.

Reaching Halfway House I started going well again and kept up a good pace to Westbury. The stretch from here to Nox is where I had expected to get the most out of the tailwind but although I was cruising along quite quickly it never felt exceptional. The climb over the railway bridge at Nox is where I'd usually feel the effects of fatigue from pushing myself on this route but today was no trouble. I did enjoy the descent towards Lea Cross, however a tractor then a fast-moving black Alfa made me have to slow down on one of the best bits. Hang on a mo....... that number plate looks familiar...... surely that is the same black Alfa that I encountered at Forton!

After crossing the main road at Lea Cross without issue there is the short but sharp climb at the aptly named Shorthill then some flowing roads to Exford's Green. I knew I did have a decent tailwind now as I genuinely can't recall when Exford's Green last felt this easy in this direction.

Heading back through Condover seemed best to keep the average speed up in the last few miles but finding the wind working against me now and combined with the exertion so far I ran out of puff so just had to do the best I could.

34.5 miles at 16 mph average from my speedometer. 1394 feet of climbing. I enjoyed getting out to have a good blast and really loved doing it on the Galaxy.

Pausing for a slurp of water between Great Ness and Pentre.

The Royal Hill.

Westbury.

Ouch!

 

[buggi]

Paddy is my ride today. Paddy Power 😂

 

[VinSumRox]

Nice 38 mile cafe run with OH , bit breezy and a wee bit lumpy route.

 

[CarbonClem]

Had a day off work today. Left Gloucester and headed towards Monmouth through the Forest of Dean, on to Abergavenny, over the Blorenge Tumble (ice cream on top) then return via Usk, Chepstow over the Severn Bridge and back to Gloucester.
110 miles, 6614 feet, 1 99 cone and 2 flat whites.

 

[Binky]

I binned club ride as raining so went for a spin with wife this afternoon. Breezy but warm and sunny. 30 miles 2300ft.

 

[Mburton1993]

A long, exhausting but quite nice ride.

Excluding Manchester city centre and another bit it's a good route: lots of cycle lanes.

Ball ache of a headwind on the southbound stretches though.

Went along the Leigh to Walkden guided bus lane path on the way back, I recommend avoiding it, last time I rode it was two years ago and it's gotten very bumpy since.

 

[HLaB]

We changed our Saturday group ride route today as roads were supposed to be closed. But from friends reports it was open and others were shut 😕

It was a nice change though 👍 10miles to meet them (avoiding the supposed closure) 27miles to the cafe, 17miles to the pub and then 12miles 🏡

 

[wafter]

Out fasted, later than usual for a short-lived corruption of the now-weekly charity shop trawl on the Fuji; managing all of one outlet before everything closed.

I meandered across the city in the welcome sun (and less-welcome humidty) eventually finding myself in Summertown and scoring an unprecedented amount of reduced chicken from M&S

Given the heat I decided to return to the hive to drop off the spoils; electing to take the tow path on account of the usual static roads. This turned out to be mistake as there was evidently a university rowing event on so the river was packed, with walking pace through the disperate throng of assortedly-half-cut bodies littering the route being as good as it got.

Winnings chucked in the appropriate places at home it was back out across the city, ultimately to Yarnton to loop back on myself and return on the tow path. I think I passed fellow forum member @Rocky, after he identified himself to me as something more than the usual human-shaped object to be avoided - hope you both had a pleasant walk

A stop was had at the monkey bars for a short, gentle session on the rings given various niggling injuries; which fingers-crossed seem to be recovering (well, nothing obviously ruptured or fell off). After a load of stretches the world seemed a much nicer place with the rest of the ride taken at a much more relaxed pace; crossing Port Meadow to shake down Waitrose for some yellow-stickered treasure; by which point the weather had cooled leaving a really pleasant evening filled with lots of happy, chilled people.

Turns out I hit it a bit early so got few reduced bargains, however did stock up on some essentials since it seemed a shame to waste the bag space. Earlier on the tow path out the Isis pub looked appealing and I chanced the river again on the way back - this time finding it practically deserted; fantastically peaceful and immeasurably more pleasant.

Stopped for a (bargain £1.50 from the tap) tonic and got talking to a couple after they rumbled me inspecting the nice swept-back bars on one of their rides - turns out they live very close to me and it was great to have a casual chat with some sound folks.

Now back home after about 35 miles I've done a little bit more with the weights and after a shakey start everything now feels really niiiiiiice thanks to the day's proceedings. Looks like I'll be pushing the fast out until tomorrow; since I have food that needs eating I'll probably look to use it as a jumping-off point into low-carb rather than trying to keep it going over more than a couple of days.

A fantastic contrast to how a similar day would have been spent this time last year before I moved; likely sitting with my head up my arse wishing I could spend the day as I have today