Your ride today....

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Mireystock

SIip-slidin' down Big Pig...
The Arran report reminded me of one of my most satisfying rides ever, over 20 years ago now. This sort of thing happens quite frequently, and I'd like to talk about it, but I never feel it's right to pollute this wonderful thread with stuff that is very much not about today.

Does anyone like the idea of a similar "Your ride yesterday...." thread?

Go for it !
 

biggs682

Touch it up and ride it
Location
Northamptonshire
Took the CDF out last night for a spin , ended up doing a 25 mile spin

Cross country to Old then back homeward via Holcot , Sywell ,Mears Ashby and Wilby ,

bike was going well first time on this one when its not been raining so nice to able to press on a bit more although roads were still damp underfoot , loads of other cyclist's out on the lanes which is nice to see .
 
Nothing terribly exciting, I bought a Garmin yesterday and I have been itching to try it out. Unfortunately yesterday the weather was persistent to say the least !

So today I strapped it to the fixie and rattled off for a sedate 10 miler.

From using a Cateye Strada to using this is like the difference between night and day

Anyway, todays pootle....

https://www.relive.cc/view/783396981
 

burndust

Parts unknown...baby
Hurricane Angus was battering the southern parts of the UK, whereas here in west/central Scotland, we were officially having No Weather. Looking at the BBC forecast yesterday, there were absolutely no weather symbols over my part of the world. More detailed inspection said that it would be cold, dry, cold, calm and cold.

So I booked a day off work and set myself up for one of those challenges I’ve been meaning to do all year, but never quite got round to - Arran.

The ferry terminal is about 3 miles from my house - I left just after 9, plenty of time to get a ticket and catch the 9.45 sailing.

View attachment 152045

Usually in the summer, there’s a whole peloton of cyclists getting on and off the ferry - sometimes maybe 50?. There’s even a separate “marshalling yard" for bikes, and lots of signs saying that at busy times, the number of cycles may be restricted.

Today, the ferry was busy with cars, and lorries, but I was the only bike.


Calm crossing.

View attachment 152046

That’s where I’m going

View attachment 152047

And that’s where I’ve come from. Cold, calm and misty morning - the mist was almost like steam rising from the sea.

The crossing takes about an hour, and as we approached Arran, the views were quite spectacular.

View attachment 152049

View attachment 152048


The road round Arran is about 55 miles long. The ferry port is at Brodick, about half way along the east coast of the island. The road to the south is lumpy, with 3 or 4 climbs of around 400 feet. Once you get round to the west coast of the island, the road hugs the coast, and is pretty flat for around 20 miles, before you hit the final hill - the 650ft climb up out of Lochranza through Glen Sannox, across the top of the island, then downhill to the coast and a 10 mile flat run back to the ferry.

Conventional wisdom is that the trip is normally easier clockwise - the prevailing wind tends to be from the south or west, so that means you have a tailwind on the more exposed west coast.

So I came off the boat, out of the harbour and turned left. Checked my watch - it was 11.00. I had to be back here at 4.30 if I was to catch the 4.45 ferry home. Five and a half hours should be plenty....

Immediately, I hit the first climb - 400 feet over a couple of miles, and I was struggling. My thighs were screaming - was this trip a daft idea? It was very cold, and I guess I just hadn’t warmed up properly. Was having all sorts of thoughts - I’ll push on to the next village, stop there, and decide what to do.

And then suddenly I was over the top, freewheeling down to Lamlash at 30mph.

Through Lamlash, and up the next hill, just as steep, on the road to Whiting Bay. Felt good. Easily passed a couple of other cyclists who were spinning up the hill, and couldn’t believe I was doing 18mph on the flatter uphill section at the top. Something’s not right, or maybe it’s just the Arran magic...

On through Whiting Bay, another couple of climbs up to about 500ft and along the south coast.

I’m now in unfamiliar territory. I think of myself as a regular visitor to the island, but usually on foot, and don’t stray more than a few miles from the ferry terminal. The last time I was on the south coast was when I was camping as a teenager, well over 30 years ago.

View attachment 152054

The lighthouse at Pladda.


By this time, it was well after 12, and I was starting to get hungry. Let’s find a cafe for some soup, a coffee, maybe some cake....
Unfortunately, it’s winter, and the south of Arran appears to be shut! Every village I came to seemed to have a cafe, hotel, pub or tearoom - that was closed!

By the time I descended down to Blackwaterfoot, on the west coast about 25 miles into the ride, I was quite cold and hungry. The hotel was open, so I had some soup, bread and a coffee. Very nice, but tourist prices!

Back on the road, and heading north along the west coast. Some really spectacular views here across the Kilbrannan sound to Kintyre, but my hopes for the tailwind were of course overly optimistic - the wind wasn’t strong, but was from the north - in my face, and bitterly cold.

As I approached the northwest corner of the island, I wanted to have another stop, to get a warm drink and a “comfort break” in preparation for the last big climb - but just like the south, everywhere appeared to be closed.

Past Lochranza, and started the climb up Glen Sannox.
View attachment 152057

That was the steepest climb of the day - 600ft over maybe a couple of miles.

View attachment 152059

Looking back down.

At that point, I heard an ominous noise from my pocket - the phone battery was flat, so the Strava tracking stopped, and no more photos. So I have no evidence of the speed I got to coming down the other side of that hill. But it’s the fastest I’ve ever done on a bike,

By this time, it’s starting to get dark, and the sunset was incredible - bright pink and orange - but no camera to record it. A ten mile cruise along the coast road back to Brodick, with just enough time for a quick beer before getting on the ferry at 4.30.


A great day, 62 miles in total, my longest trip so far!
But next time, I’ll probably choose a warmer day.
i've never heard of anyone cycling round arran in november tbh, but looks like you got a good day for it, good effort
 

Old jon

Guru
Location
Leeds
Another long gap between rides. A while back, my sister had asked me to photograph a performance by the Nidderdale Messiah Singers, last Saturday until yesterday was spent dealing with that. I do like to take photographs. And thank you the Singers, ‘twas wonderful. I also had other plans for today, but they were altered and YIPPEEEE!!! I could go for a ride.

After all the build up, it should have been something tremendous, but you all know how brass monkey cold it is, and I decided on one of my well worn trundles, around the flatter bits of country outside Leeds. Might be flat but Garmin tells me it was a thousand feet of up, 319 metres and 28.3 miles. And it ought to be a similar amount of down as well or I finished on the roof. For a start, I visited Holbeck. The river is up and strangely so is the Beck of Hol. Once on the road to Cinder Bridge through Hunslet the wind sort of intruded a bit. Seemed to be from an odd direction. Through John o’ Gaunts and Woodlesford, and especially after crossing the waterways and riding up through Swillington the wind seemed somewhere between north and north east. OK that makes the final eight miles a tailwind then. Garforth, ride round the north of the town, over the M 1, along a bit towards Lotherton Gates and under the M 1 and A 1M. Resisted the first left to Aberford and at Lotherton took that left. Which made the rest of the ride through Barwick, Scholes, a bit of A64 and turn right onto Thorner Lane. Which runs pretty close to due north. Straight into the teeth of the wind. Pedal away time. Skeltons Lane and Red Hall Lane gave a little shelter and the left turn onto the A 58 gave a helping shove down Boot Hill.



Even with the wind assistance, I only managed 32 and a bit MPH down there.


This map may have been ridden before. Many times

23112016.jpg
 

twentysix by twentyfive

Clinging on tightly
Location
Over the Hill
Mrs 26 started out with me and Pete M. Her plan was to ride so far but return early. So out to Alfrick Pound saw us warming up quite well on one or two little hillocks. Mrs 26 swung away at Longley Green to ride a lumpy but shorter route while Pete and I headed down the western side of the hills for Coddington and Peg's Farm. The ride over Munsley was next and the cafe loomed large on our radar soon after.

After some lovely comestibles our return took us along the eastern side of the Marcles with the Malverns, Wellington Heath and a few other lumps and bumps showing well to our left. We swung back eastwards for Broom's Green and the run north through the Castlemorton lanes. I decided to take Pete back through Madresfield to Newland where he had parked his car. That last bit had us dealing with school mums on the school run:rolleyes:. Nevertheless it added another 6 to my total.

A nice enjoyable outing today for sure. It was a tad grey and chilly but pedalling kept us warm and the leaf colour on the trees is still quite varied and cheery. 56 smiles today
 

Donger

Convoi Exceptionnel
Location
Quedgeley, Glos.
Coming down with a chest infection, so thought I'd get a handful of miles in before I'm laid up. Did a gentle ten mile bimble around the muddy country lanes South of Gloucester..... just enough to bring up 2,908 miles for the year. The significance? That's my biggest ever total for a calendar year, with over a month left to go. Overall it has been a good year so far. Three Welsh mountains and three French Alpine cols climbed, and closing in on my first 3,000 mile year. There's now just the matter of getting my December Metric Century Challenge ride in as soon as my chest clears up and before the winter weather makes it too much of an ordeal.
Cheers, Donger.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
I got a very good deal on a Fizik Arione saddle from @Andrew_P, and the saddle arrived yesterday. I fitted it to my Cannondale CAAD5 and went out today to test it.

I had to stop less than half a mile after setting off. The saddle was slightly too high and I needed to tilt its nose down ever so slightly. I am very sensitive to having saddle noses thrust up my undercarriage! I can go numb within 2 or 3 miles if I ignore the warning signs, so I DON'T! :okay:

It was a nice sunny afternoon but I had left it fairly late setting off. I didn't want to be riding after dark and meet the evening rush hour traffic so I decided to just do my 21 mile Cragg Vale loop.

I took the precaution of checking the wind forecast before setting off. The loop involves a climb to about 1,300 ft and wind is normally a factor up there. The prevailing wind usually favours the anti-clockwise loop, to give wind assistance on the climb up to Blackstone Edge from Littleborough. Today, however, was one of those rare days with a more northerly wind, which favoured a clockwise loop, with a climb from Mytholmroyd up through Cragg Vale, as featured in the 2014 Tour de France stage which passed this way.

I arrived in Mytholmroyd and was about to begin the climb when I noticed that the diversion signs had been removed from the bottom of Scout Rd. Scout Rd is an alternative climb out of Mytholmroyd and is one of my favourites. Unfortunately, when devastating floods hit this area on Boxing Day last year part of the hillside above Scout Rd broke loose and came down onto the road, blocking it. That would probably have been cleared up fairly quickly, but the hillside also needed to be stabilised. The big GOTCHA is that somebody in their wisdom had decided to use a landfill tip on that hillside as the place in which to bury asbestos waste from Acre Mill (a local asbestos mill which caused many hundreds of deaths) and the landslip was starting to uncover that waste!

As a result of this, the road has been closed for over 10 months and locals (including me!) have been waiting patiently for it to reopen. The road sign at the bottom of the road still says 'No Through Road' but the diversion signs had gone, so I thought I would divert from my original route and go up to take a look ...

This was Scout Road in January:

Scout Rd landslip closure.jpg


(That's my blue Basso leaning on the fence.)

This was the same scene today;

Scout Rd reopened.jpg


You can see that the road is now open, but you can also see that the work to patch up the hillside is ongoing.

You can catch a glimpse of the new saddle on my Cannondale on the left of the picture. Here is a better picture of the bike:

CAAD5 with new Arione saddle.jpg


That bungalow behind the wall is STILL unoccupied. At the time of the floods, I thought it had escaped damage, but clearly not because it is empty and restoration work is going on inside.

I decided that it would make a change to continue up that road because I have not been able to do it for nearly a year and it is a very pleasant route. Some of the climbing is pretty steep, but I must be getting fitter because I didn't notice it. (I was distracted thinking about other things and suddenly found myself above the steep stuff, which was nice!)

I rejoined the main road above Cragg Vale and continued to Blackstone Edge. As planned, I benefited from a favourable wind helping me towards the summit.

I'd got pretty warm on the climb, but the 40+ mph descent to Littleborough introduced enough windchill to dispel thoughts I'd had of extending my route. I did have lights on the bike but it gets cold pretty quickly after sunset. I'd added 2 miles to my loop - that would do.

It didn't take me long to get back to Todmorden, where I called in at a bike shop to get some bar plugs for my singlespeed bike project.

I got home just before sunset.

The new saddle will take some getting used to. It is much firmer than the old design and is also flatter both from side to side, and from end to end. It was fine for 23 hilly miles but I do sometimes do hilly rides of 100+ miles, and they are a much sterner test. Hopefully it will be good for the longer rides too. Normally I would just swap it to another bike if it were only good for shorter rides but that Cannondale is the only bike I own which matches its red and white colour scheme! :laugh:
 
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cosmicbike

Perhaps This One.....
Moderator
Location
Egham
On nights tonight, so took the opportunity for a quick spin out to Walton Bridge and back this morning. Was quick for me too, averaged 16.9mph until my last mile cool down, even then it was still 16.3 so good for me. Really nice calm morning.
Unlike my commute tonight, the headwind from Staines to Heathrow was nasty up between the reservoirs, no idea if @Tin Pot was in front or behind me on the adventure to the Airport. Looking forward to a fast run home with the wind behind me:smile:
 
On nights tonight, so took the opportunity for a quick spin out to Walton Bridge and back this morning. Was quick for me too, averaged 16.9mph until my last mile cool down, even then it was still 16.3 so good for me. Really nice calm morning.
Unlike my commute tonight, the headwind from Staines to Heathrow was nasty up between the reservoirs, no idea if @Tin Pot was in front or behind me on the adventure to the Airport. Looking forward to a fast run home with the wind behind me:smile:
YEs your route was very familiar roads to me. Makes me itch to get out again. Very good speed @cosmicbike
I am still recovering and waiting to get back on the road. The New Year is most likely I think
 
Nice a10 commute this morning with a nice Northerly blowing me along;got to that Cambridge a bit early so did a little loop through Cherry Hinton and up Cherry Hinton Rd to Hills Rd and then to the station and the usual run down Mill Rd to work.

https://www.strava.com/activities/784044369

Forgot yesterday's ride;just a normal run down the Twenty Pence although it was livened up by some roadworks so the first bit was spent carefully negotiating the dug up road and avoiding the now raised man-hole covers.
Otherwise a standard ride in.

https://www.strava.com/activities/783174255
 
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