Your ride today....

[Elybazza61]

Nice dash in to work today on N1,lovely although a bit chilly morning with a bit of mist around;still ok for dark-ish lenses though.

Proper work-out with a final dash from Waterbeach to the A14 fly-over and once again having to slow down for the lights;no matter how many times I go to work that way more often than not the lights are on red.

Stopped the Garmin in Fen Ditton(gotta keep that average up) and poodled along to the Espresso cafe on East Rd for a coffee and date slice.

Two guys came in on an Enigma and Trek but totally ignored me so feck 'em(might have been intimidated by the club gilet)

https://www.strava.com/activities/543880964

MMM,coffee and cake;

Bah it's dirty now;

And a first ride out with these;

Absolutely wondeful;light,stiff and very comfortable even on a first ride.Might have to look at the stnd SPD ones for summer on the Planet X.

Now do I bunk off this afternoon for a sunny ride home,,,,,,,

 

[john59]

My usual 71 km circuit before work. It was misty first thing, and I believe the Mersey ferry was cancelled because of it. After about an hour the mist lifted and it was a beautiful spring like day with the sun shining through the rest of my ride.

View: https://www.strava.com/activities/544002016/embed/8fc13493cf2b1dd80416cb631c5801d5b562c417

 

[wait4me]

These photos are 1 from last Thursday while on holiday and 3 from today.
Riding in France (where I was staying) the area was rolling hills, nothing like Lincolnshire, and the drivers give bikes the space most of us dream of here.
The other pics are local from a 20 mile ride. No problems with any driver today, plenty of space from all. But April is "Cycle Safety Month" I begin to wonder if it's working. The second pic is of rape seed being sprayed earlier on the ride I passed a field that had just been sprayed, I had to stop to gargle and rinse my mouth to get rid of the taste. The one in the pic stopped when he saw me and waited till I was past and the wind was away from the road. Much as I enjoyed the difference today showed me how great England is in spring. I noticed how the rape seed and green fields of the corn crops gave an overall green and yellow scene, I also had a Yellow Hammer flitting along the hedge in front of me. Could these be a forecast of a Norwich City win against Sunderland on Saturday
Too far away unfortunately but the river pic has a Great Crested Grebe and a Heron in the background

 

[Hill Wimp]

Some of you will know that i have been off the bike since October and i was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue finally in January. After a brilliant tour around Holland, Belgium and France last July with @hopless500 i managed a few rides but gave up in October. I have been off work since December and the thought of riding my bike would sometimes make me feel physically sick because of the drop in my physical activities. However i'm now back on the road to recovery. In the last month i have managed a couple of trips into town but in the last week i have managed an 11 miler and today i did a glorious 17 miles around the local lanes.

The sun was hazy at first but i was soon taking layers off and i ended up in short sleeves for the final 5 miles.

Long may it last.

 

[cosmicbike]

Some of you will know that i have been off the bike since October and i was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue finally in January. After a brilliant tour around Holland, Belgium and France last July with @hopless500 i managed a few rides but gave up in October. I have been off work since December and the thought of riding my bike would sometimes make me feel physically sick because of the drop in my physical activities. However i'm now back on the road to recovery. In the last month i have managed a couple of trips into town but in the last week i have managed an 11 miler and today i did a glorious 17 miles around the local lanes.

View attachment 124705 View attachment 124706 View attachment 124707 View attachment 124708
The sun was hazy at first but i was soon taking layers off and i ended up in short sleeves for the final 5 miles.

Long may it last.

Good news, well done and stick at it

 

[nickyboy]

I've been getting fitter, knocking off PBs on quite a few of the local climbs. Managing quite a few hilly miles has helped and I'm a kg or two lighter

I don't know what came over me last night but I decided to plot a super-hilly route. 40 miles with 5,000ft of climbing. 3,000ft in the first 20 miles. All I will say is that I am obviously not as fit as I thought I was. Whilst the weather was lovely, I suffered.

The route was Glossop - Chinley - Whaley Bridge - The Middle of Nowhere - Cowlow Lane (more of that later) - Chinley - Marple - Glossop

Here is The Middle of Nowhere

For those familiar with such matters, that is the junction of Lesser Lane (which I was about to head down) and Long Hill Old Road (which I had just slogged up)

After that I took on Cowlow Lane. This is really hard. It sort of starts of with 10% but there is a stretch of 0.5km of 17%. To compound my struggle, a car was right behind me. It's single track, no passing places. If I'd stopped to let it past I couldn't have restarted. So I had to keep going, feeling the driver's eyes burning into my back which was going up at a rater sedate 4mph

Another really hard hill out of the back of Chinely, then relatively easy home. In total, 8 "proper" hills. Not many out today midweek but it was great weather to be out on the bike. Perhaps this weekend's ride should be a bit easier but the Peak District weather can be brutal so the temptation is to do crazy, epic adventures when the weather is good

 

[Racing roadkill]

I've been getting fitter, knocking off PBs on quite a few of the local climbs. Managing quite a few hilly miles has helped and I'm a kg or two lighter

I don't know what came over me last night but I decided to plot a super-hilly route. 40 miles with 5,000ft of climbing. 3,000ft in the first 20 miles. All I will say is that I am obviously not as fit as I thought I was. Whilst the weather was lovely, I suffered.

The route was Glossop - Chinley - Whaley Bridge - The Middle of Nowhere - Cowlow Lane (more of that later) - Chinley - Marple - Glossop

Here is The Middle of Nowhere

View attachment 124709

For those familiar with such matters, that is the junction of Lesser Lane (which I was about to head down) and Long Hill Old Road (which I had just slogged up)

After that I took on Cowlow Lane. This is really hard. It sort of starts of with 10% but there is a stretch of 0.5km of 17%. To compound my struggle, a car was right behind me. It's single track, no passing places. If I'd stopped to let it past I couldn't have restarted. So I had to keep going, feeling the driver's eyes burning into my back which was going up at a rater sedate 4mph

Another really hard hill out of the back of Chinely, then relatively easy home. In total, 8 "proper" hills. Not many out today midweek but it was great weather to be out on the bike. Perhaps this weekend's ride should be a bit easier but the Peak District weather can be brutal so the temptation is to do crazy, epic adventures when the weather is good

You need to learn the art of the horizontal hill start. It's to begin with, but soon it becomes .

 

[EltonFrog]

My longest ride of the year so far because I've been training for and completed a half marathon I haven’t been on the bike so much.

I decided to ride to the JR hospital in Oxford today as it’s platelets day, not supposed to anything to physical but I got a bit bored of driving there so I got out the hybrid sorted out the tyres and set off, along cycle route NCN 544 which is a nice tarmac path all the way to Didcot then join NCN 5 to Oxford which is a mix of sublime paths to truly feckin’ dreadful especially from Abingdon park to Radley, you would make better progress cycling on a river bed with tyres made of blancmange. At Radley I gave up on NCN 5 and cycled the road, but on a busy junction there was a chap sitting on the side doing a cycle survey, I briefly stopped to chat but I had to get on and told him I would see him on the way back if he was there.

With just a five miles to go I was not going at the pace I would normally expect but I put that down to just not cycling very much recently up Headley Way (a hill) with half a mile to go, some young bloke on a BSO scalped on the pavement, I was not happy, no I wasn’t, I eventually caught him up I think mainly because he knackered himself up the hill...still a scalp is a scalp.

After donating platelets ( which was troublesome on this occasion but that’s another story) I returned to the bike only find that the back wheel wasn't turning freely, it seemed that the disc brakes had jammed on, no wonder I was struggling earlier! I managed to loosen them a bit and cycle to Beeline Cycles in Cowley and they got me out of trouble, it seems I might have had an air bubble in the line and it expanded with the warmth of the day, I need to deal with properly but I got going again.

I took part of the NCN route 5 that I hadn't been on earlier back along the Thames Path but that was bit pants like riding along a wash board so when I got back to Radley I gave up a kept to the roads.

I stopped and chatted to the survey guy, he was counting the amount of cyclist that were using the busy junction there, independently in his own time conducting a thorough survey to present to a the parish council so that might take the finding into consideration when the County Council build a new roundabout. Nice guy too from California originally.

On the way through Abingdon I saw man riding a very nice looking steel bike I wonder if it was @Fab Foodie ?

Finally got home after nearly four hours and 40.47 miles of not very good cycling on a lovely spring day.

A new bit of tarmac..about 60 feet of it.

Saw this on the way.

A machine that goes 'ping'

Along the Thames Path

Iffley Lock Morse and Lewis have a found a few bodies around here.

The man doing the surveys

Some baby baa lambs

 

[Accy cyclist]

A very good ride today with the Wednesday group. We've done the Whalley to Settle and back 50 mile run loads of times,but today i felt good as i didn't ride yesterday so i had loads of energy and the sun was shining with just a slight breeze!To make it even better the "stronger riders" are away in Majorca. The bloke who leads the group is away with them, so we didn't have to put up with him barking orders( I hope he doesn't read this!)

 

[gavgav]

Some of you will know that i have been off the bike since October and i was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue finally in January. After a brilliant tour around Holland, Belgium and France last July with @hopless500 i managed a few rides but gave up in October. I have been off work since December and the thought of riding my bike would sometimes make me feel physically sick because of the drop in my physical activities. However i'm now back on the road to recovery. In the last month i have managed a couple of trips into town but in the last week i have managed an 11 miler and today i did a glorious 17 miles around the local lanes.

View attachment 124705 View attachment 124706 View attachment 124707 View attachment 124708
The sun was hazy at first but i was soon taking layers off and i ended up in short sleeves for the final 5 miles.

Long may it last.

Fantastic news

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Lovely sunny day today, little wind and temps rising. Mrs 26 and I met Julian and Sara at Powick. Tenbury Wells was our quest. So off on the traffic dodges around Worcester with Martley in our sights. Here Mrs 26 headed for home while the tremendous trio took to the hills. The Teme valley is indeed a lumpy ride but always beautiful and quiet too. With the weather set fair it couldn't get any better.

TABS did us some lovely refreshments in Tenbury before we took to the long climb to Bockleton. Some more ups and downs were taken well, especially by Jules. He was on form on the hills today. More lumps had to be conquered along the Frome valley before we climbed out and over to the Leigh Brook. Sara headed home while Jules and I took a slight diversion by Bransford to top up my miles to 60+. The route is usually fairly tough with all the climbing but it didn't seem as tough as it can be sometimes. All good tho'. I'll take an enjoyable ride over the hills tough or not so tough anytime.

 

[Tiny01]

In from work @ 4.30pm , sun was shining then it was spitting with rain but thought I'm going to have a ride out on my 5 day old bike & once away it fealt good , was lucky with the weather though it was breezy along the river Blackwater , love to do this sub 1 hour but only been cycling 1 month so guess it will come , certainly something to aim for .

 

[Fab Foodie]

My longest ride of the year so far because I've been training for and completed a half marathon I haven’t been on the bike so much.

I decided to ride to the JR hospital in Oxford today as it’s platelets day, not supposed to anything to physical but I got a bit bored of driving there so I got out the hybrid sorted out the tyres and set off, along cycle route NCN 544 which is a nice tarmac path all the way to Didcot then join NCN 5 to Oxford which is a mix of sublime paths to truly feckin’ dreadful especially from Abingdon park to Radley, you would make better progress cycling on a river bed with tyres made of blancmange. At Radley I gave up on NCN 5 and cycled the road, but on a busy junction there was a chap sitting on the side doing a cycle survey, I briefly stopped to chat but I had to get on and told him I would see him on the way back if he was there.

With just a five miles to go I was not going at the pace I would normally expect but I put that down to just not cycling very much recently up Headley Way (a hill) with half a mile to go, some young bloke on a BSO scalped on the pavement, I was not happy, no I wasn’t, I eventually caught him up I think mainly because he knackered himself up the hill...still a scalp is a scalp.

After donating platelets ( which was troublesome on this occasion but that’s another story) I returned to the bike only find that the back wheel wasn't turning freely, it seemed that the disc brakes had jammed on, no wonder I was struggling earlier! I managed to loosen them a bit and cycle to Beeline Cycles in Cowley and they got me out of trouble, it seems I might have had an air bubble in the line and it expanded with the warmth of the day, I need to deal with properly but I got going again.

I took part of the NCN route 5 that I hadn't been on earlier back along the Thames Path but that was bit pants like riding along a wash board so when I got back to Radley I gave up a kept to the roads.

I stopped and chatted to the survey guy, he was counting the amount of cyclist that were using the busy junction there, independently in his own time conducting a thorough survey to present to a the parish council so that might take the finding into consideration when the County Council build a new roundabout. Nice guy too from California originally.

On the way through Abingdon I saw man riding a very nice looking steel bike I wonder if it was @Fab Foodie ?

Finally got home after nearly four hours and 40.47 miles of not very good cycling on a lovely spring day.

View attachment 124716

A new bit of tarmac..about 60 feet of it.

View attachment 124717
Saw this on the way.
View attachment 124718
A machine that goes 'ping'

View attachment 124719
Along the Thames Path
View attachment 124720
Iffley Lock Morse and Lewis have a found a few bodies around here.

View attachment 124721
The man doing the surveys

View attachment 124722
Some baby baa lambs

View attachment 124723

Not I.
I was out on a long walk with the dog today over Boars hill, even stopped for a brew!
The only bike I've ridden since the weekend is the BSA folding shopper running errands. :-/
You were right in my patch, if I'd known you could have popped in for a coffee/beer and chat!

 

[EltonFrog]

Not I.
I was out on a long walk with the dog today over Boars hill, even stopped for a brew!
The only bike I've ridden since the weekend is the BSA folding shopper running errands. :-/
You were right in my patch, if I'd known you could have popped in for a coffee/beer and chat!

View attachment 124742

View attachment 124743

I was wondering if you still had that shopper. The bloke I saw was riding a light blue Holdsworth I think.

 

[Donger]

Just a slight variant of my regular 20 miler to Frampton and back tonight, so I'll spare you the details. But had a magical encounter with a barn owl near Longney, and the Severn looked glassy and serene at Epney tonight.

Looking back over my records since I started cycling at the beginning of 2009, I've just calculated that I am now 56.8% of my way around the world! (14,157 miles out of 24,901 done so far). Now that gives me an idea for my next target! Might set some kind of unofficial record for a (21st) super-heavyweight.