Your ride today....

[PeteXXX]

I’m writing this as sleet falls, and a promised weekend of biking in the snow has failed to materialize So I’ve spent the morning going through some GoPro footage from last weekend: Liz and I went up to Druridge Bay, and I took the chance to reccie the ride up the beach, planning for a springtime ride from Tynemouth to Berwick.

Plenty of people out walking on the beach, and pretty much straight after setting off a nice section of sandstone slabs to negotiate.

I’m going to enjoy riding this in full. If we’re not going to get a winter, bring on spring!



View attachment 337247 View attachment 337248 View attachment 337249

Love that video!

 

[cosmicbike]

Out for a 'proper' ride this morning. Weather has cheered up a little, in so much as no sleety snow stuff falling, but wet roads so out with the trusty Trek 1.2 with guards on. For once I actually had a route in mind, so headed out to Chobham via Chertsey/Stonehills route. Wrong turn in Chobham put me up a little hill I could have done without, before finding my route out to Sunninghill and home via Virginia Water.
A nice , for this time of year, 26.6 miles. Temperature never went above zero degrees for the duration, so chilly feet and warm hands.

 

[Gareth C]

Love that video!

Thanks - I was just expecting sand, but that bit was good fun. Looking forward to a warm spring weekend with a bivvie on the beach after a pub dinner. All we have today is more sleet :-(

 

[Jon George]

A delayed start to today's ride due to me being a lazy sod who enjoys a lie-in. As I also plan to visit a pub this afternoon, I decided to cut the time and only did a 16 miler out to Grundisburgh via Tuddenham St Mary. Worth it, I think, for the photos:-

Who might emerge from this, next year? Susan Calman would love to.

And this, overlooking the brook/river down to Grundisburgh. I believe it sums up the weather here.

 

[midlife]

I’m writing this as sleet falls, and a promised weekend of biking in the snow has failed to materialize So I’ve spent the morning going through some GoPro footage from last weekend: Liz and I went up to Druridge Bay, and I took the chance to reccie the ride up the beach, planning for a springtime ride from Tynemouth to Berwick.

Plenty of people out walking on the beach, and pretty much straight after setting off a nice section of sandstone slabs to negotiate.

I’m going to enjoy riding this in full. If we’re not going to get a winter, bring on spring!



View attachment 337247 View attachment 337248 View attachment 337249

Just out of curiosity are those tank traps from ww 2?

Shaun

 

[colly]

My ride today consisted of getting out of bed looking at the sleet passing almost horizontal....and getting back in bed.


Sod that for a game of skittles

 

[EltonFrog]

I’m writing this as sleet falls, and a promised weekend of biking in the snow has failed to materialize So I’ve spent the morning going through some GoPro footage from last weekend: Liz and I went up to Druridge Bay, and I took the chance to reccie the ride up the beach, planning for a springtime ride from Tynemouth to Berwick.

Plenty of people out walking on the beach, and pretty much straight after setting off a nice section of sandstone slabs to negotiate.

I’m going to enjoy riding this in full. If we’re not going to get a winter, bring on spring!



View attachment 337247 View attachment 337248 View attachment 337249

That looked fun.

 

[Reynard]

If the cats don't want to go out, then I take their advice. Currently sat in my onesie with a brew and watching the rugby.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Grey, damp and cold with a chill wind too today. Margaret P-R and I headed down through familiar lanes to cross Longdon Marsh. I wasn't paying much attention to the scenery as we chatted continually. A pair of riders came past and then another pair. They didn't really get much time on us as we looped through Bushley for the Mythe. We lost them there as we turned North. Margaret fancied a coffee but Brown's was fully booked with Sunday lunchers in cars. No worries. We continued round by Twyning and on to Upton where we said our goodbyes. I returned by my usual route having enjoyed a nice wee outing in good company. 35 smiles

 

[13 rider]

@13 rider, the curse of the 100mi weeks has struck you too then? I always feel a week isn't complete without 100 miles on the bike.

If you're not feeling good then don't go out, realistically it's only a target and one that there's a good reason for not meeting.

Thanks for the sound sensible advice which obviously was completely ignored . Got up this morning with a sore throat and just feeling a bit meh not really ill but not right . So hung around the house looking at the weather bored . I knew I needed 14 miles for another 100 mile week . So come 1400 it's just about stopped raining so out with the bike . Did my commuting route to Quorn via ,Cropston ,Rothley and Mountsorrel and took a loop back via Woodhouse and Swithland and home .18 miles in the bag in damp and drizzely condition and still properly cold . Home now with feet up and a coffee and not feeling too bad saw 2 other nutters out on bikes . This weekend has confirmed I am a cycling addict and completely bonkers

 

[cosmicbike]

2nd ride out for me today. Popped to Halfords to collect some new brake pads for the CX with son in tow. A request to extend the ride found us looking at various Ferraris in Maranellos which was apparently fun

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I thought I'd have some fun in the snow by going up to Dunford Bridge and Winscar Reservoir.
A few more hardy souls were giving it a go, mainly runners. The weather was turning to sleet and the wind was whipping things about so not the most pleasant of rides, but I was out and flying and seeing what many never will.

Dunford Bridge car park with the wall of the reservoir running across the centre-right.

Winscar reservoir looking towards the sailing club.

All the geese and duck thingies were coming out to eat grass from the bank to the right. Kept my eyes on em in case they got carnivorous!
Tyre tracks are from some muppet that was trying to do donuts in his faux wheel drive (and failing) as I rode up.

 

[Dark46]

Wow! What a fantastic ride today. Powered only by the mighty oat, I set off out with my long-distance cycling buddy, @jembullo to do a ride out into Herefordshire and back. This was to be my qualifying ride for the Metric Century a Month Challenge, and it was immediately obvious that it was going to be a tough one and it was already snowing when we set off from my house. It snowed for the first 20 miles, and it never seemed to get above a solitary, balmy degree all day. There were hills, too. Many hills. Steep son-of-a bitch-hills, tricky little hills, long gentle drag hills, irritating tougher-than-they-look hills. The lot. Over 1,200 metres of climbing. Even so, it was an absolute joy. The roads were spookily quiet, with hardly a car around, and there was great rolling countryside scenery everywhere.
View attachment 337213
Fortunately none of the snow was settling on the road, and there was only the occasional little dusting of it in the verges .... notably on the slopes of May Hill near Glasshouse and in some of the higher Herefordshire hills above about 600 feet. After a rest stop in a coffee shop/bakery (and a visit to a LBS to carry out minor running repairs) in Ross on Wye, we headed out through Hole-in-the-Wall and alongside the River Wye. Came across the peculiar sight of a pedestrian suspension bridge to nowhere. I once rode across it and ended up trudging through a muddy field for half a mile, taking 10 minutes to scrape off enough mud with a stick to be able to carry on my ride. Jem looked like he was going to rob a bank:
View attachment 337215 From there the route just got better and better. What a fantastic quiet little road alongside the Wye:
View attachment 337219
The next time we saw the river we were a few hundred feet above it, and this was a really hilly section of the route. We did a little detour for a few hundred yards when I caught sight of Brockhampton Church. My brother took me there once to show me around, and it really is a curiosity. Not only is it rare in being a thatched church, but it was also only built as recently as 1902, apparently in the arts and crafts style. If you go anywhere near the place in the summer you will be swamped by coaches full of Japanese tourists. They go mad for the place. Apparently English style weddings are de rigueur in Japan right now, and the most popular venue is a three quarter size reproduction of Brockhampton Church, constructed on the 21st floor of a tower block in Osaka! They flood over here to see the real thing:
View attachment 337224 Stopped off for a second break in a pub in Much Marcle, where a hot soup and a black coffee picked me up just when I needed it. Eventually got home very tired but happy ... after cutting the intended route short and making a beeline for Gloucester via Kempley and Newent when we left Much Marcle. This was the original 69 mile route:
View attachment 337227
I had to go past my own estate and nip down to the banks of the Severn at Stonebench to add one final mile to hit the metric century.
62.3 miles ridden today. Notably, after seeing a couple of commuter cyclists in the first few hundred metres, we never saw a single cyclist for the next hundred kilometres. This either means there are a whole lot of fairweather cyclists in Gloucester, or else I really am that stupid. Judging by some of the posts above, I fear it may be the latter. It was cold, and it had been snowing, but I always find you can wrap up warm and generate your own heat. This ride really was a gem, and I for one am really glad I did it.
Cheers, Donger.

You must go through a fair amount of maps in a year? Do you buy a new one for every audax and highlight the routes? When everything goes digital you may be in trouble lol.

 

[Dave 123]

The plan today was a tandem ride to pick up the guided busway at Histon and ride into Cambridge science park to see if the waxwings were still about.
I was bloody freezing before we started, 2 miles in my fingers were stinging inside my warmest gloves.

Then it began to rain!

In Dry Drayon there was a change of plan on the route! Through Madingley and straight home. Not even 7 miles.

We then went to the Elm Tree pub in Cambridge to see a friend do a gig. She was great, the pub was warm and I drank 2 pints. Unusual behaviour for me on a Sunday afternoon, but bollocks to it! This weather is doing my head in.

https://www.strava.com/activities/863771715

 

[Donger]

You must go through a fair amount of maps in a year? Do you buy a new one for every audax and highlight the routes? When everything goes digital you may be in trouble lol.

I may be something of a Luddite, but I've discovered a new-fangled contraption called a photocopier that is most useful on occasions. It's the future.