Your ride today....

[Dave 123]

We escaped from the hood tonight and drove over to West Wratting, where we used to live.
We left from the rec on our road bikes and headed off toward Haverhill, but we turned for Carlton. The sun was out and it was reminiscent of Burgundy in France

There were a few slopes tonight and my little legs felt leaden. I need a holiday!

The sun was sinking down as we Made our way back to Wratting.

In Grange Road there was wall to wall Scabious in the verges

15 miles, I wanted more... Somebody else didn't want the hill that would have brung us home!

https://www.strava.com/activities/649909544

 

[Glow worm]

A day off and a nice easy, slow 16 miler here in the flatlands

One of my busy routes across the fen. This is near Wicken Fen.

Harrison's Drove, with the new cattle bridge. No one about at all today. Even had the new bird hide to myself for an hour or so. From the hide I watched marsh harriers and a barn owl as highlights. I'd just seen a bullfinch too, a vanishingly rare bird hereabouts.

Further along, on Split Drove, there were several crows, rooks and the like. As I approached, they all flew off save this poor fellow above. He seemed trapped somehow and was hanging upside down flapping wildly. He was 12 foot or so up apparently stuck to an elder branch.

Luckily my on- board pen knife has a saw, and I cut through the 3 inch bough to bring the crow to the ground to assess. His leg turned out to be wrapped tight in some fishing line and attached to the branch. So I wrapped him In a coat I carry, to calm him and set about releasing his leg from the wire / branch. It took a while to cut through the wire safely but eventually I managed to let the poor fellow fly off safely if a little wobbly!

A pleasant if eventful ride on around the fens here today.

 

[Smithbat]

It was such a lovely night I decided to challenge myself a bit by riding to my parents. It is a climb virtually all the way there so it took me 51 minutes to do the 7.4 miles BUT that means it is downhill most of the way home so only 35 minutes on the return. Also it was my first time wearing yellow lenses which made a huge difference.

View: https://www.strava.com/activities/649907544/embed/70848a1f896ca054644e1d71f0237ce61cb1362f

 

[raleighnut]

A day off and a nice easy, slow 16 miler here in the flatlands

View attachment 135776

One of my busy routes across the fen. This is near Wicken Fen.

View attachment 135777

Harrison's Drove, with the new cattle bridge. No one about at all today. Even had the new bird hide to myself for an hour or so. From the hide I watched marsh harriers and a barn owl as highlights. I'd just seen a bullfinch too, a vanishingly rare bird hereabouts.

View attachment 135778

Further along, on Split Drove, there were several crows, rooks and the like. As I approached, they all flew off save this poor fellow above. He seemed trapped somehow and was hanging upside down flapping wildly. He was 12 foot or so up apparently stuck to an elder branch.

Luckily my on- board pen knife has a saw, and I cut through the 3 inch bough to bring the crow to the ground to asses. His leg turned out to be wrapped tight in some fishing line and attached to the branch. So I wrapped him In a coat I carry, to calm him and set about releasing his leg from the wire / branch. It took a while to cut through the wire safely but eventually I managed to let the poor fellow fly off safely if a little wobbly!

A pleasant if eventful ride on around the fens here today.

for freeing the little blighter

 

[Big Andy]

Busy and stressful day in the office today so it was nice to get out on such a lovely evening for a 50k.
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/649912011/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-GB&v=1469218268

 

[Mrs M]

A day off and a nice easy, slow 16 miler here in the flatlands

View attachment 135776

One of my busy routes across the fen. This is near Wicken Fen.

View attachment 135777

Harrison's Drove, with the new cattle bridge. No one about at all today. Even had the new bird hide to myself for an hour or so. From the hide I watched marsh harriers and a barn owl as highlights. I'd just seen a bullfinch too, a vanishingly rare bird hereabouts.

View attachment 135778

Further along, on Split Drove, there were several crows, rooks and the like. As I approached, they all flew off save this poor fellow above. He seemed trapped somehow and was hanging upside down flapping wildly. He was 12 foot or so up apparently stuck to an elder branch.

Luckily my on- board pen knife has a saw, and I cut through the 3 inch bough to bring the crow to the ground to asses. His leg turned out to be wrapped tight in some fishing line and attached to the branch. So I wrapped him In a coat I carry, to calm him and set about releasing his leg from the wire / branch. It took a while to cut through the wire safely but eventually I managed to let the poor fellow fly off safely if a little wobbly!

A pleasant if eventful ride on around the fens here today.

Well done for saving the crow

 

[bozmandb9]

Got my first (genuine) top 5 Strava segment! Pretty chuffed considering my son shared this achievement with me, and he's only 13. Plus we're only a second off the KOM (and I think we can find that second pretty easily). I think he did pull a muscle doing that sprint though, so suffered for the following 35 miles (as you can see from the link).

Nice ride anyway though! Training for our ride to Paris commencing 2nd August.

https://www.strava.com/activities/649701119

P.s. what I mean by genuine, I had a Garmin Forerunner 225, which used to mis-categorise cycling as running, so I got some fairly silly KOM's for running, I had to go through manually and change them all to cycling, hope I got them all in the end!

 

[Glow worm]

Well done for saving the crow

I'm not sure the farmer will thank me, but I could'nt leave the poor thing there. They're intelligent birds crows, and it seemed to me as if the bird relaxed at one stage as if it knew I wasn't a threat. He was quite keen to bugger off once freed though!

 

[Stonechat]

Another ride yesterday. After it totally occupied with family issues so forgot to post here

Looped around a lot through Thorpe, Virginia Water, Chobham Common, Windlesham, Lightwater, Chobham etc

Gave intervals a miss.

Weather was pleasant, warmed up and had just one bottle which was not enough so got a sports drink at Chobham Co-op.

Kept up a reasonable speed for the most part.
As awlways managed to chop off a bit from the ride 4.2 miles

So total was 44 miles @ 17.0 mph. Strava showed 1 mph less for some reason.

1204 feet climbed
https://www.strava.com/activities/649497558

 

[biggs682]

Up and out just after 5am this morning set off heading towards Mears Ashby where the sun was doing its best to burn through the mist .

It was here that I decided which way my route would be and headed for earls Barton ,Grendon,Eadton Maudit, Bozeat,Harrold ,Carlton.

That's just for @Spokesman. Then climbed up out of Carlton then turned right towards Stevington ,Oakley,Pavenham .

Felmersham was next once I wound my way up and out of Pavenham . A quick stop at Odell then I retraced my earlier route back to the end of the Bozeat straight where I headed for Hinwick ,Irchester and back up in to the borough and home.

Total of 39.4 miles covered on the Ian May which is it's longest ride to date.

 

[welsh dragon]

After motivating a friend to get out for a ride, I just had to go out myself. Another ride down some lanes I didn't know existed until this morning. Some gorgeous wooded areas, a stream,which is compulsory in Wales and a beautiful day, not too hot.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

100km this morning, out the door at 05:30, was very warm and stupidly misty in places.

It was that bad I couldn't keep my glasses clear at some points. Any it eventually burnt away to leave a very hot and sunny morning.

Lots of cyclists out, vast majority being girls, maybe they were all tackling the Strava challenge?

Home by 9:30, bathed and now watching the TDF. Perfect day so far.

 

[Dave 123]

Me & her were out by the crack of 8.40am. As there was minimal wind Jo selected road bikes. It was sunny and warm from the start. Down through Knapwell there was the scent of roses and honeysuckle in the air. There weren't many cars about, but plenty of cyclists.
Through Elsworth and up the hill toward Papworth. At the top we stopped as Mrs Dave wanted the angle of her handlebars moving.
Down the hill and along the smooth road to Hilton.

Beyond Hilton we had to stop again, there is still a bloody reflector thing on her bars that I'd had to move to adjust the bars, and it was now rattling. That reflector went in my jersey pocket.

Here she is at the top of the Graveley hill

We'd passed a group in Hilton coming the other way in Hilton, and we passed them again in Croxton. Soon enough we were having tea and sharing a cake in Waresley garden centre.

Home via the Gransdens and Bourn. 32 miles at an average of 14mph. She'll be signing for Wiggle Honda soon!


https://www.strava.com/activities/650389301

 

[Old jon]

Another warm wander around some small villages, starting with Holbeck, it certainly was a village once, but long ago indeed. Cross the river on Crown Point Bridge, Regent Street and Roseville Road leading to Roundhay Road and the Oakwood Clock. The resurfacing on Boot Hill has subsided well, the cycle lanes seem to have been extended further up the hill also. Today’s crop of debris from the nearside included a pair of very high heeled shoes, about fifty yards apart. One wonders.

Cross the Ring Road and over the crest of the hill, turn left behind the pub and follow the road to Shadwell. Turn left along Main Street and continue to Slaid Hill, to turn right onto Wike Ridge and pedal all the way to East Keswick.

The usual climb of Potts Hill and the drop to the A 659, turn right for Collingham. Once there, turn left and then right onto Jewitt Lane, I am sure that what is now an Italian restaurant was once the Barleycorn pub, but that doesn’t make the hill any less steep. Once on the ridge top, it is a great bit of road, all the way to Thorner, especially that short sharp drop just north of the village. From there, Sandhills, Skeltons and Red Hall Lanes and the old faithful meander across the city I call home. A mere 29.3 miles today but they were fun.

The map, still an impressive bit of kit, that Garmin,

 

[Goonerobes]

I'm thinking about moving house so I though I'd tie in some house hunting in todays ride as some of the properties I'm interested in just happened to be on one of my cycle routes!

The ride didn't get off to the best of starts as it appeared my indexing didn't like the new tyre I fitted yesterday so after a quick tweek I was off into the forest but on the first little hill the indexing was still out, thankfully a tweek the other way sorted it & it was on into Wiltshire on quiet, well trodden country lanes.

30 miles in & Sixpenny Handley was the first place I'd identified & a slow perusal gave me a good idea of how the land lies before heading up a nice gentle 2.5 mile hill where lunch was duly taken at the top.

The 12% descent was its usual scary self & it was then onto the Chalke Valley roads around Bowerchalke which are very pleasant at this time of the year but are more than a little mucky in the winter months which puts me off living there a little. (although I did find a novel church come shop to refill the water bottles there)

Heading back east & then south, Downton was the next place identified as it sits nicely on the edge of the New Forest & also gives options to ride north, west & east into the Test Valley.

65.1 warm but pleasant miles done & more than a little food for thought on the house front.

https://www.strava.com/activities/650572809/