Your ride today....

[Aravis]

I was too tired to post anything yesterday. The reason is here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/576946550

I'm trying to build towards an attempt on the "one day in the year of Tommy Godwin" challenge, adjusted to 209 miles to recognise more recent developments. I was torn between another 150 or the first of two back to back centuries, probably erring towards the former because I think the Godwin attempt is still a couple of weeks away at least.

I started in crisp, dreamlike conditions, with birdsong everywhere, and that continued for the first 50 miles or so. The first sign that all might not be completely well was the loss of half my voice; my speaking voice was OK but the higher "crooning" voice, which I confess I use rather a lot when cycling, was missing. The air was often thick with oilseed rape pollen and perhaps that was the reason. Today my voice is slowing recovering.

For a while I thought I was heading for a doorstep to doorstep average of 14 mph, but after passing through Warwick everything became more laboured and soon neither of my initial objectives were looking attainable. The sight of the Malverns in the distance from a ridge near Stratford was quite an encouragement and I never felt as though I wouldn't get home. Looking for an alternative objective, I was aware that 129 is the lowest number which hadn't previously featured on my list of centuries, so I decided to aim at that. A bit of jiggery-pokery at the end, and this was duly recorded. It felt odd to be avoiding some of my favourite little diversions in case they turned out to be a bit too long.

I fell asleep in the bath afterwards. Is that dangerous?

So, an extra 80 miles on top of that? It seems a little improbable at the moment!

 

[Dogtrousers]

^^^^^ Good to bump into you guys yesterday on The Great Escape. Was hoping to catch up with you later, but a combination of waiting an hour plus for a sausage roll at the Blue Egg and your obviously superior speed put paid to that. Next time...

I saw the queues in the Blue Egg. I felt very smug about the fact that I had a handlebar bag stuffed with pork pies.

 

[arallsopp]

We knew the Blue Egg would be busy so we went to the CoOp, grabbed picnicy type stuff and sat on Fitchington Village green a couple of miles down the road.

I felt very smug about the fact that I had a handlebar bag

Great to see Des and catch up with good friends on The Great Escape yesterday. The swooping lanes were too tempting for the Encore, but that little 2 mile jaunt portaging foodstuffs was pretty testing for the 'bents clean lines. No jersey pockets on a recumbent, and with no rack, pannier, bar bag, bottle cage, etc, things do get a little tough

Have to sort that before the next one. Great riding with you all.

 

[Dogtrousers]

It was Ellie's maiden imperial century ride. She did brilliantly, not only did the 100, but smashed it. A great cyclist.

Last year I did a 100 mile ride along with a friend's daughter. She had never ridden that distance before. And of course she was leaving all of us old gits for dead on the big climb at 90 miles. Ellie and @martint235 passed me for the last time around the Toot Hill area going like absolute trains.

Doncha just hate young people.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Bright and breezy! A lovely route to The Anderton Boat Lift today with the Salford cycling club. From Swinton, we went through Astley and Leigh, Culcheth and Glazebrook, before tackling the Warburton Bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal. For only the second time, I didn't drop under 10 mph, which is one of my personal challenges. Riding through the Cheshire lanes was lovely. Today we went through Lymm, High Legh, Arley and Great Budworth. The coffee and cake were delicious and demolished too quickly for a picture! We sat outside on the veranda watching some Vikings having a battle. No idea why they were at The Anderton Boat Lift!

View attachment 128541

View attachment 128542

DId you go up/down in it? (we did it, back in 2009, during a weekend over near Chester)
It's an experience



The maze is constructed from the old counterweights

 

[cyberknight]

Results are in 23rd on the medium route yesterday , fastest was over an hour quicker and th slowest nearly 4 hours slower.

 

[EltonFrog]

A utility ride today on the Whyte Coniston, legs are a bit tired after yesterdays 6 mile run, but needed to get things done, a visit to Chilton garden centre, to swap something bought yesterday, but I forgot the receipt so the had be postponed, so onwards to wards Rowstock but cutting off by Harwell Campus to got down the new cycle path across farm land down to Harwell Village, then on to Didcot, to the bank and then to the barber to have me Barnet trimmed, after that I stopped at the cafe had a bit of lunch then cycled home along the 544 cycle route, where upon I me a lady riding one of those Taga trikes, I've never seen one in real life before, we stopped for a chat, she loved the thing and did a lot of miles on it. Just after she set off I met a neighbour who was towing a trailer on his ladies BSO with very soft tires and rusty chain, on the way to his allotment. I told him to come over to my place after and I'll pump his tires and sort his chain out for him. Once home I decided to back to the garden centre this time with the receipt and do what I set out to do in the first place. 15.77 miles in the end, lovely weather.

That strip of green in the middle is where the Didcot to Newbury railway used to be.

They are building a new jct here for the A34 at Chilton

The new path from Harwell Campus to Harwell Village, s'lovley.

The miniature railway track at Chilton garden centre, one day I'm gonna have a go on the train that runs a long here.

Blackbird feeding the kids when I got home.

 

[Old jon]

Hmm, I did a similar ride to this nine or ten days ago. But the weather was different. So, Holbeck to Office Lock, towpath to Viaduct Road and that climb up Cardigan Road to Headingley. Keep on to Lawnswood Ring Road, cross that and bear left on Otley Old Road, and keep on climbing to the water tower at Cookridge. A welcome descent to the junction for Otley, but I took the road for Bramhope, the drop to the A 660 is a short sharp thrill . . .

A 660 into Otley, cross the river and climb Billam’s Hill, turn left for Weston, climbing that wicked little hill on the way. Stop for grub, local café is only open Thursday to Sunday, so I carried sandwiches. Return to Otley by the road just used, enjoying the wicked little hill a lot more, find the road to Pool ( road works and blocked roads, even here ) and then another attempt to climb Pool Bank. One stop this time. Turn left on the A 660 at the Dyneley Arms and ride all the way to Headingley, past the rugby ground to Kirkstall and the towpath to Office Lock round it all off nicely. Thirty three and one third miles approximately, a little colder than the video would suggest.

@NorthernDave , there is a café in Wetherby on the Kirk Deighton road, LHS as you approach the mini roundabout before the York turnoff, bikes there on Saturday. Also bikes at the café in Boston Spa, where the road from the bridge meets Main Street.

 

[mybike]

With the weather still good and no ride last week I suggested we went out this morning. Mrs MY didn't feel up to it so I went out on my own. Having decided to put away the winter gear I wore a summer jersey and while I was not uncomfortable I was aware that it wasn't that warm.

I've mentioned before that I have a hill that I can get halfway up that I've chosen to make my bete noir, or rather challenge to be overcome. It has an average gradient of 5.4% over 0.79 mile but there is bit in the middle where the gradient steepens. That was my route today and Garmin connect tells me I'm 79th.

I thought I'd take a photo at the same point as a previous one, this was taken two months ago:

This was taken today, both the weeds and the crop have grown and my bike is much dirtier.

The canal, looking back along one of the wider stretches of towpath that is used for access to a cottage between the canal and the railway on the right.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the towpath was flooded under a bridge, it was flooded again today. I suppose it is to be expected that the reservoirs at Tring would be full but this probably has more to do with water flow in the Bulbourne, the river the canal follows. Some might ride through this bridge, I'm afraid I scoot with one foot.

I managed to get up to about the 494' mark this time, approximately where I'd managed with my son's old Tesco special. Clearly climbing hills has more to do with fitness than the bike! Heart rate went up to 162bpm but I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

10.3 miles max 19 avg 7.5 mph. Year to date, 185.6 miles, Target 400 miles.

Oh, and if any of you is the cyclist I shouted "show off" at as he swept past me, sorry.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

It reads as though you had a wonderful day, & on roads that I know fairly well too!!

From there the single track road out to the A162 and the climb up to Towton, where I picked up some sort of cycling event and unfortunately some examples of the worst type of cyclist behaviour. A pair of herberts, one in replica FPK and the other in club kit, guzzling gels and tossing the wrappers onto the verges and in the road.

You interacted with the Prince of Wales Hospice Cyclothon, riders are told upon entering not to drop litter/gel-packets, etc....

Lots of my club generally ride it, & usually head off as a group, almost chain-ganging (as far as I understand?)
I've only ridden it a couple of times, I do know that a few of my running club also rode this year (some also dabble in Triathlon)
https://www.pwh.org.uk/events/cyclothon

After that it was along the ridge and down into Saxton, through the village and then a brief stop at the bench for a drink and some Haribo Tangfastic.
I was passed by a few more event riders here, before setting off down to Copley Lane, where the event directions were sending them off towards Sherburn, but I turned left towards Lotherton Hall and Aberford.
Through there and the climb up Cattle Lane, before the descent down to Cock Beck and the climb back up to Barwick. From there on to Scholes, then down Leeds Road and local roads up to home

The Greyhound in Saxton, is a renown pub, mainly for the reason that, until into the late 80's, it didn't have cellars (some have been dug) & served straight from barrels behind the bar

One thing I have noticed from most of my rides is that compared to virtually everyone else on here, there seem to be very few café stop opportunities. In fact, apart from the hideously expensive café at Lotherton Hall, I'm struggling to think of anywhere bike friendly to stop on this route.
Not to worry though, as Mrs ND greeted me at home with a bacon butty

Why not try 'Squires' instead, at Newthorpe?
It's a regular call for me, if I'm out that way
http://www.squires-cafe.co.uk/

Out with a few members of Wakefield Triathlon Club this morning
Thankfully only for the ride (some of them had open water swam, at Pugneys, before hand)

I took a couple of photos, whilst riding along (with the camera strap firmly round my wrist!)

Stoney Lane
Hall Green
Heading up to the climb of Bolton Wife Hill



Doncaster Road
Ackworth
Heading towards Brackenhill, & 'Wragby Roundabout'

 

[BSRU]

Had a very good 106km ride this morning with 980m of going up.
Slightly chilly to start with but soon warmed up and with a light breeze it was perfect weather for cycling.

A minor inconvenience of a puncture(first one on these tyres after 5000km) with 46km to go. At least it happened in a nice village so had a pleasant sit by a duck pond as I changed the inner tube. Wish I'd taken a packed lunch.

Lots of rapeseed about, always a good time to keep my mouth shut.

A country lane I was meant to use was closed so took a detour and saw something very unusual.

Recovery started with some home made honey sponge cake, not sure what it is but it tastes nice.

 

[Firestorm]

Having a bit of a break in Belgium.
Didn't get out for the planned ride first thing, so the pootle round the countryside with Mrs FS was my ride today.
Ali has not been cycling long and isn't confident on the racetracks that pass for roads in our neck of the woods, so the empty roads , most with cycle tracks, in Belgium are ideal.
A 13 mile bimble was great, and she is talking about tomorrows ride already.
Here is Ali about to attack some of Flanders formidable cobbles

 

[Katherine]

DId you go up/down in it? (we did it, back in 2009, during a weekend over near Chester)
It's an experience

View attachment 128638 View attachment 128639 View attachment 128640

The maze is constructed from the old counterweights

No, but I did see a boat in it last summer, when I went there on a Sky ride. It's impressive.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Time to let the summer bike off the leash after its winter layoff. First I had to sort out the computer and a few other minor checks before I gave it its head. Crikey I had to hang on as some pent up enthusiasm coursed through its tubes. I had time to spot 4 bullfinches (unusual for this time of year around here) and acknowledge some other riders too. But the main story is the pace (16.8 mph over 34 miles). Where did that come from?

 

[NorthernDave]

@NorthernDave , there is a café in Wetherby on the Kirk Deighton road, LHS as you approach the mini roundabout before the York turnoff, bikes there on Saturday. Also bikes at the café in Boston Spa, where the road from the bridge meets Main Street.

It reads as though you had a wonderful day, & on roads that I know fairly well too!!


Why not try 'Squires' instead, at Newthorpe?
It's a regular call for me, if I'm out that way
http://www.squires-cafe.co.uk/

Thanks for the heads up on the cafés - funnily enough I was talking with a mate about the same thing earlier today and he suggested Squires as well. I knew it was popular with motorcyclists, but didn't realise us proper cyclists were allowed in as well!