Your ride today....

[AnneW]

Today's ride was another less than glamorous one - Manchester to Bury. I need to get to know the route as work is moving there some time soon and I don't fancy getting on a packed tram every day.

Bury New Rd is busy, passes through Prestwich and Whitefield (watching out for car door openers), has long stretches of bike and or bus lanes and has quite a few sunken grids and pot holes to watch out for. There are some lumps in it too, which I've never noticed in the car, but my e-bike helped with those.

A round trip of around 17 miles, total ride time 1hr 28.

I'll need to get fitter to be able to do it every day.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Just 5 out today. Sara P., Steve E., Mrs 26, Julian H and me. Mrs 26 only came as far as Upton as she has a back injury. We took to the Castlemorton lanes but with variety as we went by Hillend and Rye St. for a change. Then we got in amongst the Malvern Mad Hatter sportive riders for a while. I had a chat with some as we went. We still had them along the flanks of the Marcles before they turned off for a climb to the ridge. We were too close to the cafe for that to be a favourite.

The run back was in beautiful summer weather and the countryside was at its best. Jules headed back on the main road from Cradley while Steve and I dropped Sara off at her lane end before taking to the lumps along the Leigh Brook. Nice one with my pals today. 55 smiles. More please.

 

[gavgav]

My 5th ride of the week, makes such a difference having decent summer weather finally! Something different today as well, met my friends and their 2 kids (10 & 5) at Cannock Chase for a slow pootle around the blue Sherwood Trail.

Drove over with the bike in the boot, parked up and met them at the visitor centre, before we set off on the downhill section, which was good fun, but my hybrid didnt particularly like the deep fresh stones they had laid there and was wallowing around a bit! Paused for lunch about 4 miles in and had some fun by the pool.

There was a small section when I had to walk, due to the depth of the stones, but thankfully it became a much better surface as we approached the half way point, before we began the 5 mile climb back up to the trig point.

There was plenty of stopping for the kids to catch us up, but they both did very well and we finished off with an ice cream each before parting and heading home.

10 slow miles of chatting and fun in lovely warm weather, takes me up to 81 miles for the week, which is much more like it.

 

[Hacienda71]

51 miles for me today in Wales. I met one of my best mates in Betws-y-coed. He had plotted the route and we had ridden most of the first half a couple of years ago. We headed out of Betws-y-coed on the first climb which is not steep and is a good warm up. Then headed through a pass adjacent to Snowdon. There was a brisk headwind which we hoped would translate into a tailwind on the return leg. We pushed on with heads down to arrive at Porthmadog at lunchtime. We found a pub serving food facing the harbour and ate a hearty lunch. At this point I realised my headset was making a clicking when I was riding out of the saddle. I checked it was not loose but to no avail the clicking was still there. I am not sure how a little click can become so annoying but it did.

As we set of I asked my mate if we were going back the same way. No came the reply, I have plotted a loop. Well I have spent a holiday in the area and remember Blaenau Ffestiniog a grey place with a long grinding climb through it. I distinctly remember seeing a cyclist then and thinking that doesn't look fun........it wasn't However it was made up for by the fantastic descent on the A470, the road was silky smooth, wide and there was very little traffic. At least there didn't seem to be much although as I hit 52 mph on the descent that may have minimised the number of cars we saw. That was then followed by a lovely 5 mile run back to the start.
I have to say the roads in Conwy and Gwent are very well maintained. I only remember pointing out holes three times in the whole ride. Now if only Cheshire East could manage to do as well........
Anyway lovely bit of cake, a cheeky coke and a smoothie after we had got back to Betws-y-coed

 

[Racing roadkill]

https://www.strava.com/activities/6...-4EC3-8437-87CCFC0F9AB3?hl=en-GB&v=1469299791

104 miles, on a Skyride Social down to Bournemouth, via Milford on sea.

Me ( in the Skyride social kit )and the posse, and a Zebra.

My bike, and a Zebra.

The posse in Bournemouth.

A lovely day in Bournemouth.

A garden in Bournemouth.

A lovely day, a lovely ride, another imperial ton done, and I got to teach a parrot to swear.

.

 

[Diggs]

So..........despite the Diglets desperately wanting to camp at the rugby club on Friday night, I was determined not to miss the ride today.
So waking early, we* had the tent down, in the car and home by 8:00 for a coffee, toast and a shower

*Mainly I

And what a ride it was, these are the days we wait all year for.
Out to Roxwell, then to Willingale and back.

So many cyclists out today we actually ran into a bit of two wheeled traffic. What a glorious day

 

[DCLane]

My attempt to get fit again continued with a ride to Filey and back - 167.5 miles: https://www.strava.com/activities/651095158

In addition my 12 year-old rode the outbound leg with me and hit his longest distance yet of 85 miles: https://www.strava.com/activities/651096709

 

[biggs682]

Just 30 miles this morning was hoping for more but hey ho there is always another day .
Route was Irthlingborough ,Addington ,Thrapston ,Woodford ,Cranford ,Barton Seagrave ,Burton Latimer , Isham ,Orlingbury and home .

 

[Alex H]

Another day, so a tandem ride to / from Chabanais.

There was an art exhibition in the salle de fetes, close to the picture above, with some people painting outside the hall. Including one guy in an electric wheelchair. He had no arms and was painting a scene of the riverside trees, with the brush in his mouth.

The sunflower season is here again.

The roundabout at Rochechouart has been decorated for the local music festival, the Labrynthe de la Voix

Route

35km in 1:50:00 with 519m of climb

 

[Diggs]

Just a leisurely hour round the reservoir this morning, just to turn the legs round and get back to watch La Course

 

[cyberknight]

I got told off for posting in the 100 k a month challenge for not following the "rules " so i will just post in here

Club run this morning , nice 63 miler
View: https://www.strava.com/activities/651774977/embed/8517553c2412ab3a80886f7fe32fbaa5eb624812

 

[Starchivore]

Heaved back a large rucksack from lidl, full of tins and whatnot. Glad the ride home wasn't more than 3 miles.
Amd going to go have a saunter up Cragg Vale with my old man

 

[Firestorm]

Just a leisurely hour round the reservoir this morning, just to turn the legs round and get back to watch La Course
View attachment 135975

I was up that way this morning...
Didn't ground round the reservoir as, tbh, that would have been too far, the turn round point at 26 miles was a at the end of the straight bit at the top of the ressie .
It's a bit lumpy round those parts (for essex) isn't it
Overall 50.6 miles at 13.8 with 1000 ft of bumps

 

[mark st1]

Solo ride for moi today not been out all week so missed out on some good weather. Had a rough idea of where I wanted to go but not completely. Headed out towards Reading through Twyford into Cemetry Junction via the A4 it was nice and quiet going over the ring road and came off to rejoin the A4 heading for Tilehurst past the new IKEA and over the M4 through Theale heading for Newbury. Quite a fast road actually got down to Lower Padworth and went left on the A340 towards Aldermatston past AWE they like razor wire there ! Then down through Tadley heading for Basingstoke stopped for a quick pic at the windy garage...

Got down into Basingstoke and joined the A339 which was an experience ! Fast dual carriageway but only a couple of miles long before I got down to the A30 and it was getting a bit drizzly by then. Left on the A30 through Old Basing, Hook, Hartley Wintney and a quick stop off at Blackbushe Airport busy little place that..

Back onto the A30 into Camberley, Bagshot, Sunningdale down to Egham then left through Runneymede and Old Windsor Datchet Eton and Dorney stopping off at the Olympic Rowing Lake to fight the most hideous headwind on the return up the lake ! Back onto the A4 over Maidenhead bridge through the town and upto Knowl Hill where I stopped for some well earned refreshments..

Then down one of my favourite roads to White Waltham and back to home. A lot of drizzle about nothing major and it was actually quite refreshing.
86.6 miles with 1983 ft of climbing in 4 hours 40 mins with a 18.5 mph avg

https://www.strava.com/activities/651642830/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-GB&v=1469359089

Cheers
Mark.

 

[Bazzer]

Second weekend in succession on the same route, as preparation for The Fridays Manchester to Morcambe run on 5 August. More accurate readings though this time after a Garmin battery failure last time, wholly attributable to my miscalculation about how long a 20% battery reading can actually last/

Depressing architecture in Rochdale

The outskirts of Todmorden town centre, before going under the viaduct and beginning the climb towards Bacup.

The view from the top and time for a banana, before taking the road which in the photo disappears, down to Bacup.

Then to Haslingden and Bolton, before heading more directly homewards.
A couple of light showers, which were welcome as it felt very humid.. Not helped by third gear persistently jumping, whatever cog the chainset was on, so couldn't be trusted.

72 miles. 1,100 meters of climbng provided a couple of "Wheee"(!) hills.