Your ride today....

[rugby bloke]

Bit of a late write up.

Been a bit down about my cycling of late, so decided to go out for a longish ride on Saturday morning and just enjoy myself with no particular plan. Since riding the Rutland Sportive and then taking part in all day rugby session 3 days later I seemed to have lost all power in my legs - a bit of a worry with 5 weeks to go to RideLondon.

Changed my route to go through Castle Ashby and managed to take a wrong turn - this in a village consisting of 2 houses and a horse. My excuse was that I was checking the route I plan to take on Sunday with my daughter. Out through Bozeat and Wollaston and was soon blowing up the climb to the top of Doddington hill. I started to notice something strange - I was actually feeling good and making reasonable progress. After Mears Ashby I turned right to Little Harrowden - what a great road, smooth, quick, why had I never ridden it before ? After this it was off into terra incognito for me. Discovered some great new roads on a loop through Harrington, Old and Scaldwell. Shared the road with a fellow cyclist for a couple of miles, after putting the world of cycling to rights we went our separate ways in Holcott. After this it was time for coffee so headed to Moulton and my favorite new stop:

http://www.jgallery.org.uk/index.asp

A coffee shop in a small art gallery. Very friendly staff, excellent coffee and cakes.

Suitably refreshed I pointed my bike east to go through Overstone and Sywell before swinging south to Ecton and down the hill before the highlight of the ride - 1 mile drag past the local refuse disposal site ... nice. This whole section was a bit rubbish to be honest as I then had a section along a typically poor stretch of cycle path along the side of the A45. It was soon time to find some more hills and countryside so I went up the climb out the back of Brackmills to Hardingstone and Hackleton. A final blast past Area 51 and I was on the home straight.

62 miles ridden, but more importantly I felt really good all the way round. Maybe this cycling lark is good fun after all !

 

[Donger]

......... Changed my route to go through Castle Ashby and managed to take a wrong turn - this in a village consisting of 2 houses and a horse. My excuse was that I was checking the route I plan to take on Sunday with my daughter.........

.... or it may simply be that the horse had moved since you last saw him. (They do, you know).

 

[Spartak]

Pete, my son Robert and I set off on the Avon Cycleway 130 on Saturday.

On very familiar South Glos roads for the first bit to Littleton on Severn having made the acquaintance of @Heltor Chasca with whom I found I View attachment 359016 have much in common.

We bombed down Long Cross to then climb the Avonmouth bridge before hitting Caswell Lane to Clevedon for lunch at Scarlett's Café, very popular with cyclists.

Then a steady flat ride to let lunch digest before hitting Brockley Combe, with some motorists more patient than others as the pack climbed up towards Bristol Airport.

Dropping into the Chew Valley was lovely but there seemed to be endless hills between the lake and Saltford where the Bird in Hand on the B2B path provided an excellent beer stop/control. The final 10k back to Mangotsfield along the B2B passed quickly.

Robert, 16, made sure of hitting the Imperial ton by doing an extra circuit around Ram Hill and riding up and down our street twice. Only his second long ride and he did very well indeed. Hopefully many more to come.

Great to meet Blair and see @the_mikey amongst the fifty five riders or so.

Nice ride & report .... rode it 5 or 6 years ago, the last time it was run.
The start is only a mile from home for me but sadly I had to work last Saturday. Glad it was a success on its reincarnation :-)

Kudos to your son on his imperial ton.

 

[mjr]

How many others get to ride past one of these regularly?

Probably not exactly the same, but I ride past this on my way into Norfolk's County Hall every few months:

 

[Simontm]

I completely forgot to put Monday's ride up. Extended the old Southall route. So Hampton, Hounslow, Southall, Hayes, back down to scoot along the north side of Heathrow, Colnebrook...

Then a turn before Slough and an absolutely superb bit of cycle tarmac off the side of Major's Farm Road and the M4. Through Datchet, Wraysbury, Staines, Thorpe, Chertsey, Weybridge and down by the river where I took theses pics on the Vandals' bridge...
One looking down river to Walton


and one up river towards Weybridge and the Wey Navigation...

Then a simple hop through Walton, Molesey and home.

41 miles in 2:36

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I had to drag my butt out to get this one in. Just on a bit of a flat after the GV Tour de Basque. So eventually I got in the groove and pleased I got this one done. Not much to report on this tho' other than the super new surface by the white rabbit. The toughest bit was the butt dragging at the start. 35 smiles

 

[booze and cake]

It looked like the heavens were going to open all day here in London, but despite grey skies all day no downpours materialised, and I managed 35 miles around town after work in shorts, short sleeves and no jacket as back up, basically challenging the rain gods to drench me, but they failed

Some more street discoveries this afternoon. This striding rat is off just off Chapel Market, Angel

This astronaut is on nearby Gaskin Rd

This Italian scene is on the side of a pizza place in Queensway

These two are next to each other on the corner of Shillingford St/Cross St, Islington

...here's Donald Trump and Theresa May

And finally I was over in west London weaving in and out of the back streets as usual, and suddenly this came into view, Grenfell Tower.

Its really shocking to see, and as I weaved about it kept coming into view from different angles, and it just dominates the horizon, there is no escaping the sheer horror or what happened here, its a haunting monument, my blood ran cold. Cycling around the area is really heart breaking, there are photographs up all around of people still missing, so many wreaths and bouquets of flowers, so so sad. This is one of the many walls in the area where locals and people from all over have penned their condolences and anger at what happened here.

A sombre end to the ride today, but one that has reinforced to me the need to get to the bottom if what happened here, no stone should be left unturned. I like most of the messages up there^ want action. R.I.P.

 

[AnneW]

I managed a little over 20 miles after work this afternoon. A few more street art discoveries over in East London, this one having appeared in the last week
View attachment 359148
I really like this one just off Brick Lane of some boys with catapults trying to take out some military helicopters
View attachment 359149
And this is also new, on Great Eastern St
View attachment 359150
As I'm heading along Old St I notice a blue plaque on the corner of Whitecross St, its not a regular English Heritage one, this blue one claims to be by English Hedonists, and is in honour of Priss Fotheringham who ran a brothel on this site in the 1600's and was apparently ranked 2nd best lady of the night in the City and made more than a fair few shillings from a novelty coin act, 'chucking'.
http://alphahistory.com/pastpeculiar/1661-london-prostitute-novelty-coin-act/
Whitecross St today thankfully has none of that sort of thing on display, but I cycled round the next corner and saw this and immediately laughed, I don't think our base instincts have changed much in the last 400 years.
View attachment 359151
Whitecross St and some of its side streets had another feature I've not noticed anywhere else......painted junction boxes, what a great idea, they are just better, fact. That's a whole lot of potential art real estate opened up across cities everywhere, here are some examples:
View attachment 359152
View attachment 359153
View attachment 359154
I then head to Islington, stopping off in Duncan Terrace Gardens to photograph a Tree of Heaven with loads of bird boxes attached, called Spontaneous City https://www.dezeen.com/2010/09/08/spontaneous-city-in-the-tree-of-heavenby-london-fieldworks/
View attachment 359155
You've probably seem this tree before, but don't recognise it. Viewers of Channel 4/More 4 will have seen it used as one of their idents, which they super imposed post-its or lever arch filofax paper pages on, sorry that's a really rubbish description, scroll down 2/3rds of the way down this link page to see:
https://theident.gallery/more4-2012.php
I then head westwards before heading home, one final pic of this rather spacey character outside the Royal British Society of Sculptors
View attachment 359156
Some interesting Monday afternoon discoveries, who knows what Tuesday will bring

Loving the street art. I live in Manchester and they're appearing everywhere. I'll try and post a few.

 

[AnneW]

I didn't get to ride today as a pot hole has put my bike in hospital. I didn't see it because it was covered by a massive puddle that was several feet long and wide.

It went with a right bump and an instant puncture. Bike at LBS to be checked over.

 

[Old jon]

Oh dear @AnneW Best of outcomes for you and your bike.

 

[Stonechat]

View attachment 359424 View attachment 359423
I didn't get to ride today as a pot hole has put my bike in hospital. I didn't see it because it was covered by a massive puddle that was several feet long and wide.

It went with a right bump and an instant puncture. Bike at LBS to be checked over.

Hope the bike is OK and you were unhurt

 

[rugby bloke]

View attachment 359424 View attachment 359423
I didn't get to ride today as a pot hole has put my bike in hospital. I didn't see it because it was covered by a massive puddle that was several feet long and wide.

It went with a right bump and an instant puncture. Bike at LBS to be checked over.

Unlike - I hope you get you bike fixed ok.

 

[kapelmuur]

View attachment 359424 View attachment 359423
I didn't get to ride today as a pot hole has put my bike in hospital. I didn't see it because it was covered by a massive puddle that was several feet long and wide.

It went with a right bump and an instant puncture. Bike at LBS to be checked over.

View attachment 359424 View attachment 359423
I didn't get to ride today as a pot hole has put my bike in hospital. I didn't see it because it was covered by a massive puddle that was several feet long and wide.

It went with a right bump and an instant puncture. Bike at LBS to be checked over.

I'm wondering whether the yellow lines were painted in the hole or were they already there when the road dropped?

 

[mjr]

I'm wondering whether the yellow lines were painted in the hole or were they already there when the road dropped?

Looks almost certain to have been painted and then the inspection cover surround has collapsed.
1 - try to avoid riding through puddles unless you can see the bottom;
2 - don't ride that close to the kerb;
3 - hope the bike gets well soon!

 

[Gravity Aided]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for You and the bike, @AnneW . Looks to me like the road was surfaced, then that area was removed before painting the line. It appears too uniform for a pothole. Potholes usually appear in rough circular form.