Something a bit different for me today. @Rickshaw Phil was embarking on his century ride for the month and so his brother, sister and I decided to take our bikes up to Lake Vyrnwy, in Wales, to meet him and do some riding with him. We're nowhere near being able to ride 100 miles with him!!
Doug and Jen collected me at 9:30 and we loaded bikes onto the car, before heading off on the 1 hour 15 min journey to Vyrnwy.
We arrived at 11:00, with sunshine and light winds
and whilst getting the bikes off the roof, Doug stood on the running board, on his car, to reach the bikes and it proceeded to shear off at the back joint!!! 
We climbed up the steep bank from the car park, which wasn't too bad for me, but for Doug and Jen, who hadn't been out on bikes for 6 and 9 months respectively, it wasn't ideal!
We stopped at the junction for the Dam and waited for Phil, who had thought he would be arriving about now, and he appeared almost straight away, having already done one 11 mile circuit because he'd arrived early!
We decided to take the clockwise route around the lake and it was lovely riding along the flat lanes, with loads of cyclists about and nice weather.
Nothing really to write about, other than Jen leaving us standing with her speed at times! For someone who doesn't cycle a lot it was very impressive.
We arrived back at the dam, and had to avoid errant pedestrians and cyclists on the wrong side of the road as we rode across it!
We decided to go back to the car and have our dinner sat in the sunshine in the Sculpture Park
Jen and Doug had had enough by now, but I was keen to do another lap of the lake and @Rickshaw Phil was up for it, so we headed back out and did the circuit in an anti-clockwise direction this time, going at a slightly quicker pace than the 1st lap. It seemed a bit more uphill in that direction, but nothing major and my Strava recording of over 2300 ft of climbing must be WAY out!!
We arrived back and found Phil's Mum and Dad returning from a walk. They had brought the dog up with them and Doug and Jen appeared back at the car, just after I had waved Phil off on his journey back home. The dog came back in the car with us which was entertaining. He seemed keen on joining Doug in the drivers seat
!
23.1 miles at 11.4mph avg and lots of fun
Doug and Jen collected me at 9:30 and we loaded bikes onto the car, before heading off on the 1 hour 15 min journey to Vyrnwy.
We arrived at 11:00, with sunshine and light winds
and whilst getting the bikes off the roof, Doug stood on the running board, on his car, to reach the bikes and it proceeded to shear off at the back joint!!! We climbed up the steep bank from the car park, which wasn't too bad for me, but for Doug and Jen, who hadn't been out on bikes for 6 and 9 months respectively, it wasn't ideal!
We stopped at the junction for the Dam and waited for Phil, who had thought he would be arriving about now, and he appeared almost straight away, having already done one 11 mile circuit because he'd arrived early!
We decided to take the clockwise route around the lake and it was lovely riding along the flat lanes, with loads of cyclists about and nice weather.
Nothing really to write about, other than Jen leaving us standing with her speed at times! For someone who doesn't cycle a lot it was very impressive.
We arrived back at the dam, and had to avoid errant pedestrians and cyclists on the wrong side of the road as we rode across it!
We decided to go back to the car and have our dinner sat in the sunshine in the Sculpture Park
Jen and Doug had had enough by now, but I was keen to do another lap of the lake and @Rickshaw Phil was up for it, so we headed back out and did the circuit in an anti-clockwise direction this time, going at a slightly quicker pace than the 1st lap. It seemed a bit more uphill in that direction, but nothing major and my Strava recording of over 2300 ft of climbing must be WAY out!!
We arrived back and found Phil's Mum and Dad returning from a walk. They had brought the dog up with them and Doug and Jen appeared back at the car, just after I had waved Phil off on his journey back home. The dog came back in the car with us which was entertaining. He seemed keen on joining Doug in the drivers seat
!23.1 miles at 11.4mph avg and lots of fun
but there was something I had failed to take into account... out of the end of our lane, you have 2 options. Up or Up... the first up is a much longer up and what most cyclists around here use as hill climbing practice because it is all we have. the other up just goes to the main road and in to our local town 6 miles away, so I didn't really want that. So up the ridge and along it it was to be. Let's just say I was that slow, my OH actually got bored of talking to the cows at the top of the climb and came back to find me! One great feature of the trike is it doesn't matter how slow I am going provided I still go forwards... I can't fall off... yehhhhhh... this was helpful early on, because unlike all the other cyclists, I haven't had chance to warm up, this is my warm up. OK, I know, I am just slow. But on the bright side, I didn't run out of gear with the triple front derailleur now fully functional and the Rohloff hub.... so 3 * 14 gears to play with on a 30/42/50 front and 19T rear... yep - plenty of low gears on that you would think. 
Progress with every trip. Brilliant!
