Your ride today....

[Old jon]

A whole day late posting! I blame the world, but anyway. After Wednesday’s washout, it was good to be riding again. Take the geared bike out and ride thirty seven and a quarter miles on a pretty fine Yorkshire day is what happened, though the distance was one of those things that just occurred. Mostly by mistake.

I do like to have some vague plan of a route in mind before I pedal away from home, but not this time. Deep into Holbeck, the bike took me in the direction of Crown Point Bridge and with the festival beginning at Bramhope I had to stir the grey cell into life, just to avoid that area. OK, the clock at Oakwood and turn left there to pass the real gates at Roundhay Park and turn right a little after Canal Gardens to cross the other West Park Ring Road and climb up, serious up, to Slaid Hill. This gives that really wonderful ride along Wike Ridge and the drop into East Keswick. Heave through the village and turn right once the A 659 is reached to whizz through Collingham with the idea that Linton Bridge might be open. The signs said no, so on to the A 58 and to Wetherby. And the first wrong turn. OK, not wrong, just not the intended turn. I crossed the Wharfe and turned left, my thoughts had been straight on and Kirk Deighton followed by North Deighton. Maybe, nope, no excuses, I just did it on autopilot, thought about a right turn later and decided to just ride on. Spofforth here I come. And the third river crossing of the ride. I have always known it as Crimple Beck, but the OS map also calls it the River Crimple and who am I to disagree? The next right is the road to North Deighton.

The road numbers become complicated here, turn right on the B 6164 for Kirk Deighton, a nice piece of road again which eventually leads to Wetherby and the detour to miss the repairs to the embankment that collapsed all those months ago. Before I reached the detour I almost missed seeing a mini roundabout. My front brake works well . . .

The miles were racking up quite well, or so it seemed, which made a return along the A 58 as a reasonable option. Riding through Collingham again things were slightly busier than usual, back to average by the time Bardsey was passed and the climb up through Scarcroft, well, I could see little except the road in front. It is still a hefty pedal up that bit. Mostly downhill from there although the legs were tiring a bit the ride down between Monkswood and Beechwood Farm was the usual grin, which did not diminish all the way across Leeds and to my home. The Garmin later told me that I had a moving average of 14.2 mph, quickest since I started riding again. The grin widened.

A quick map

 

[Aravis]

I was far too knackered to compose an account last night, so here is yesterday's ride.

The target was Earlswood Lakes, south of Birmingham, because they belong within the Trent river system. I started at about half past eight; an early reward with a fine view of the Malverns rising out of the earlyish morning mist:

The route look me through Pershore, a few unfamiliar roads on the way to Alcester and along the Alne valley. Then broadly following the Stratford-upon-Avon canal, over the M42 near Solihull when I couldn't resist snapping this:

No obstructions where I was going. I paused for a moment at Earlswood, where a large fish was jumping nearby, sadly not captured in any of my snaps:

A long meander back roughly parallelling my outward route, almost exclusively on narrow lanes. No major hills but always up and down. Getting encouagingly close to home I passed through the very attractive Croome park, south of Worcester, and stopped at this fine five-bar gate:

Just after this I returned to familiar roads for the rest of the ride, so no more disheartening surprises around the next corner. An essential rewatering stop on 99½ miles at my favourite roadside tap in Upton upon Severn. There was a massive festival of some sort taking place on the watermeadows, so Upton wasn't somewhere I wanted to linger yesterday.

No dramas on the final section, just very tired legs. Final distance 121.38 miles.

I'm glad to see that the profile looks a little bit bit testing, because that's how it felt. Don't look to hard at the maximum height.

 

[delb0y]

Just a gentle 30 for me this morning. Nothing to report of note. I did upgrade the Garmin Touring software to the latest release and, touch wood, it seemed to be better than it has been. It didn't go to sleep at all (although, normally that happens around the 40 mile mark). It did miss a few turns and then caught up with itself a few metres later and later on it got confused when I was on the same stretch going home as I was when I left home - it tried to get me to turn around and start the ride again. But nevertheless, 7/10 instead of the recent 3/10.

Some pictures of our glorious countryside...

A gate in a field:

Hartpury Mill:

Some mountain bike tyres:

And some sad eyes and ribs:

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

A like for the ride but this:

And some sad eyes and ribs:
View attachment 370055

makes me .

 

[delb0y]

Me, too. I've reported it to the RSPCA, but I suspect so have many other people. There are three horses alongside the cycle track / foot path and a lot of people use the route.

 

[Reynard]

Poor horse

 

[Dave 123]

Another weekend escape for us to a campsite near Southwold. The other campers appear to be attempting to break the world record for unnecessary noise!

From Wrentham we crossed the A12 and poked our nose into Southwold itself. Not too many people about, but Jo managed to quiz some hut dwellers on prices

About £50k apparently! I'll stick to my cheap tandem!

Then we went along the creek, down to the harbour. Not an ideal surface though!

Inland through various villages until we reached Beccles, I had an altercation with some one who nearly reversed into us despite his wife telling him to stop 5 seconds before.

We stopped at the quayside for a bit of food

The best church of the day was in Uggeshall. It was a right old mish mash of materials and thatch

40 miles with a few spits and spots of rain.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1152879793

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

A short ride out on my own today. I used the Hawk and out of curiousity went to attempt a fast lap on my Acton Burnell route. I have some new wraparound shades with prescription inserts which I wanted to try out as well so this was the first outing for those.

Being the bank holiday weekend there was loads of traffic on the main road so I had to queue for a while to get out of the village but it wasn't too bad once I'd found a gap in the traffic and I was soon onto quieter roads anyway. In fact, once past Condover the only vehicle I saw until Longnor was another cyclist.

I think I picked out the wrong wraparound lens in my sunglasses (one of the lightest tints in the set which gave everything a rather drab blue-grey cast) and the inserts make the road surface seem very close compared to my normal glasses. I got used to it but it felt weird.

I got baulked by someone making heavy weather of manouvring at Acton Burnell but made up for that with a good run to Pitchford. The climb up to Cantlop was a bit of an effort, then I was riding against what little wind there was for the next three or four miles to the A49 where I had another long wait for a gap in the traffic.

Just over 17 miles this trip at a new personal best on this bike of 16.3 mph average. (previous best with same bike on same route was 15.2mph). Not bad on an 18kg lump.

No photos today due to concentrating on the ride.

 

[13 rider]

Up out and early this morning at 0615 . Wanted to ride through Leicester to bag some veloviewer squares while the traffic was quiet . So Anstey skirtng around Leicester . Braunstone ,Enderby ,Aylestone ,Knighton and out into the countryside around Stoughton ,Great Stretton across the A47 and back home via Scraptoft ,Barkby ,Syston ,Cossington . Slightly extended route home to pass 50 miles .Back home for 2nd breakfast at 0930 and all town squares bagged

 

[NorthernDave]

to whizz through Collingham with the idea that Linton Bridge might be open. The signs said no, so on to the A 58 and to Wetherby.

Next Saturday, 2nd September, @Old jon - if the YEP is to be believed. There was much back-slapping at the Civic Hall that it's only taken them 20 months to fix apparently...

 

[gavgav]

A lovely warm afternoon for a ride over to Dad's. I did a clockwise route, which is the opposite to what I normally do.

Out through the estate and then onto the heaving A458, which for the RH turn I decided to pull into the entrance to the lorry yard and cross from there. Good decision as I had to wait 4 minutes for a gap in the stream of traffic.

I was then on the road to Betton Abbots and came the closest I have been to being knocked off my bike. A car came up behind me and gave me what would have been a close pass anyway, but they were towing a Caravan and that passed me with about 3 inches of clearance, when to top it off they cut across me before the Caravan had passed me. I swerved into the ditch to avoid being knocked off . I was absolutely fuming, gave them a loud shout of something not complimentary and the 2 fingered salute. I half wanted them to stop so that I could give them what for, but for their and my sake it was probably a good idea that they didn't.

Thankfully the rest of the ride was incident free.

I continued on to Cantlop, Pitchford, Acton Burnell, Frodesley and Longnor, before turning North and out of the fairly light wind, to Ryton. I then headed to Dorrington and braved a section on the A49, which was actually quiet and it's a nice fast downhill section towards Stapleton anyway.

Arrived at dad's and listened to the Shrews match on the radio (still unbeaten ) and caught up with my Nephew who had been to buy some new Football Boots, ready for when he starts Secondary School in 2 weeks (Can't believe he's that old!!).

Back onto the road to Annscroft, Hook a Gate and Meole Brace, where on Roman Rd I met some steam vehicles heading to the Salop County Steam Rally, with the lovely smell of a Steam Engine lingering as I finished the ride home.

21.9 miles at 14.2 mph avg.

 

[NorthernDave]

Out just after 8am into glorious sunshine, which made me feel a touch over-dressed with arm and knee warmers on as well as the bibshorts and top, but by the time I'd got onto Coal Road the sun had gone in and I was glad I'd worn them.

I'd got a pass to be out "for as long as I wanted" today, so had thoughts about pushing on for an imperial half to round the month out challenge wise.
So, from Coal Road it was the usual combination of roads into Shadwell and beyond to Slaid Hill lights. I rode to Otley the other week, so decided to nip down Wike Ridge Lane and onto Tarn Lane and head back eastwards, first through Scarcroft, then up the hill to the fringes of Thorner where it looks like the village is under lockdown due to the Leeds Festival at Bramham Park. First time I've seen roads into the village actually closed with security guards stopping traffic...
Anyway, I wasn't going that way so headed up Milner Lane and then swung right and headed for Bramham - passing another checkpoint where the roads merge at the top of the dip into Wothersome, but heading straight on, crossing the A1(M), dropping down into the village and tackling the Col de Town Hill for the first time in an age. While it's been mainly dry for a couple of days, we had near biblical rain on Wednesday and there was still run off seeping onto the roads, along with lots of flinty gravel washed onto the tarmac in places, which was interesting at times...

Anyway, away from Bramham and then another right and heading across the A64 and down the hill towards Stutton, taking the diversion to plunge down a very busy Fanny Lane and through the village and across Cock Beck for the first time today, before scaling the hill up the A162 and enjoying a MGIF pass immediately prior to the turn onto Raw Lane

Along there, gently downhill for much of it and then the climb over the railway bridge and left through the village, taking the road to Ozendyke and Ryther before passing Mrs B's Lakehouse café where I nearly stopped for a brew, but they were setting up for something and it looked a bit busy so I carried on into Cawood.
I was undecided approaching the traffic lights - left over the bridge towards York, or right onto new (to me) roads towards Sherburn. As I arrived at the lights there was a sign saying the bridge was shut - so right it was!

Through the village and by heck it's flat out here - even flatter than what had gone before. Unfortunately it was also into the wind now so I was having to put a bit more effort in. With the dykes at the roadside and flat terrain it seemed much like riding in Holland, except on the proper side of the road of course! Eventually I crossed over the East Coat Main Line and took the right turn towards Biggin, soon arriving in the village and passing a very picturesque but sadly closed down pub. Onwards again, wishing I had stopped at Mrs B's now, but riding more new roads until I eventually arrived in Church Fenton.

Through there and on to Barkston Ash, where I made full use of a municipal bench for a breather and an energy bar.

Back on the bike and still unsure about Powerbars in Bella Italia flavour, to the A162 where I turned left and headed for Sherburn-in-Elmet, where I soon arrived and climbed the hill past the garden centre and dropping down to the traffic lights where it was left onto Kirkgate and then right again onto Sir John's Lane, becoming Coldhill Lane which is full of ups and downs and eventually brings you to Lotherton Gates, where I headed towards Garforth, stopping just before the A1(M) bridge at Hook Moor Windfarm for some Haribo and a photo:

Sugar-rush underway, I got back on the bike and continued Garforth-bound, crossing the M1 and then dropping down the hill - sadly the road has been 'surface dressed' during the week and is a bit rubbish at the moment but I couldn't think of a diversion that wouldn't involve going round the houses, so carried on.
Over the railway bridge and down the hill to the lights, staying on the road as they were green for a change and taking a right towards Barwick.
Under the railway bridge and over the M1 bridge, round the S-bend and climbing the hill up Long Lane, getting a ridiculously close pass from a Dick in a Disco, who then got even closer to the lad on the MTB about 50 yards in front of me.
Anyway, I soon caught the intrepid MTB-er and passed him myself but with significantly more room - as a Yob in a Yaris decided he just couldn't wait and overtook me...

Into Barwick with the temporary traffic lights still there, up the hill and onto Leeds Road, with one beady eye on the mileage as I was in danger of coming up a bit short for that imperial half. Climbing, climbing, climbing, then rewarded with the drop into Scholes, past the Coronation Tree and then the drop down the hill, into the wind, and then left into Manston to add a long loop through the back streets and then a run past the former tnk factory and out into the countryside to bag those extra few miles. Sadly construction work is now well under way so what was a semi-rural ride on a near deserted lane is no more and this will soon become a busy intersection serving a retail and office park that no-one apart from the council and the developer seem to want...
I stopped where the tarmac runs out (the route continues as a bridleway and before turning around stopped to recreate my avatar photo:

Its a year and a week since I picked up the Pro Carbon - how time flies... (If you look closely you'll see that the Garmin is now at a much less jaunty angle)

Anyway, time to retrace my outbound route, up through Pendas Fields and a long loop, over Cock Beck for the fourth and final time today and local roads up to home!

50.34 miles (81.01km) in 3h 42m at an average of 13.6mph and with 1,850ft climbed.

Hard work at times, not helped by far too many numpty drivers today but glad to get an imperial half in and maybe, just maybe, some fitness is finally starting to return. And next time, I will stop for a bacon butty and a brew when the chance arises!

And to end, a map:

 

[Reynard]

Nothing special today, just what has become the usual eight mile bimble to Littleport that resulted in a backpack full of YS tomatoes.

It wasn't a ride I'd intended to make, but I wasn't feeling too chipper and thought that getting outside and on the bike in the sunshine was far better than moping around in the house feeling rather sorry for myself.

I'll be making tomato chutney after the bank holiday. Almost had a "tomatina" moment on the way home after a rather close pass from a motorhome and trailer. Thank goodness I managed to save the wobble, otherwise the resulting mess would have been rather hard to explain...

 

[pjd57]

Another trip to the football.

No rush today so a mainly traffic free wander.

Time to stop for a few pictures on the Forth and Clyde canal

Along the Clyde


Slightly shorter route home , and missed all the rain

 

[cosmicbike]

Only commuting miles for me so far this week. I don't normally stop to take photo's, but the sky was nice this morning