Your ride today....

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Arjimlad

Tights of Cydonia
Location
South Glos
I'm told my niece is stuck at home but likes a few of my cycling videos (the pleasure riding ones) so yesterday I popped out at dusk to visit a small collection of Wallace and Gromits round the back of Thornbury. It was a very enjoyable ride. The video isn't that great but she might like it.




This evening I'll ride out to the Severn Bridge for a look-see.

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I ran out of Broccoli, so I had to ride about a bit to try and find some. I didn’t find any, I think fresh fruit and veg are the new bog roll. Idiots seem to want to panic buy these things now. I did get a load of beer and wine in my backpack though, so that’s okay.
 

Rickshaw Phil

Overconfidentii Vulgaris
Moderator
Today looks like being the last bright, fairly warm spring day for a little bit so I made the most of my allowed ride by heading onto some quiet roads over Lyth Hill to Oaks, Pulverbatch, Wilderley, Smethcott, Dudgeley, Hollyhurst, Acton Burnell, Cantlop, Condover and back.

There were a few people out but in general it's quiet round the village. At Lyth Hill there were about the same amount of cars parked up as I'd usually expect at that time on a Friday. Carrying on along the track over the hill though I had it to myself as all the walkers were in the field.

The trip was pretty uneventful which is as I like it. I got through the lumpy bit as far as Dudgeley having seen only two cyclists and five walkers (not counting the various people at work in their gardens or maintaining their houses). There hadn't been many vehicles either and about half of the ones I did see were farm vehicles.

Getting onto the flatter bit through Hollyhurst I found the northerly wind a bit harder to work against than I'd anticipated. Meeting three cars along the old roman road was unusual this time (this is one where it's pretty quiet at any time) and when a worker at the next farm addressed me I wondered if he was going to say something about being out, but actually it was a warning to watch out for the tractor driver; "he could do with L plates".:laugh:

From here through Acton Burnell to Cantlop and Condover I genuinely saw more cyclists than motor vehicles (7 of the cyclists and 3 cars) and it wasn't until Condover that I saw more people out walking again.

The main road was as quiet as it usually is late in the evening.

29.3 miles at 11.9 mph average. Very easy to keep my distance from people this time.

I was keeping stops to a minimum so these are all the snaps I took:

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On the climb up to Oaks.

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Near Smethcott.

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Hazy over Caer Caradoc, as seen from Dudgeley.
 
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Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
A variation on Wednesdays ride today and clad additionally with thinnest leg warmers and full length gloves; properly right as the ride differed from nicely warm to being blitzed by a cold wind and although warmer clothing might have done for the latter it would have been too much at other times. When I got to Nidd I headed south through the village, the road is set slightly lower than surrounding land for a fair length and was still slightly aquatic in places just showing how much rain there has been this year. I then did the Brearton loop in an anti-clockwise direction for the first time; odd how different the gradients seem when you do them in the opposite direction, I was expecting the long decent to start off with but the climbs back to Nidd seemed steeper than the descents implied going the other way. Some of todays daffodils;
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Back towards the A61 from Nidd I subsequently discovered the Strava segment has the pretty weird name of “the city needs a car like a fish needs a bicycle” :wacko: Seen here crossing the bridge over the former Harrogate-Ripon railway line which today looked like a muddy canal.
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More sensibly the immediate following segment on the A61 is Pedal for your life; not really needed today although normally there is a tail back from the roundabout.
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Traffic was generally pretty quite although their did seem to more lorries about today. The hybrid largely behaved itself today with the rear derailler less problematic but nevertheless a Shimano replacement in the post. 13.25 miles @ 11.6mph avg, 666ft climbed.
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colly

Re member eR
Location
Leeds
Not off until a quarter to eleven.

So I had long enough but couldn't be too long because I was down to take Mrs Colly into Leeds to give blood later in the day.

I set off north on the Wetherby Road and a mile after the start Wellington Hill has to be bettered. It's not massively steep at an average 4.2% but it's a mile and a half from lowest to highest and sections of 8% so it certainly gets the lungs and heart working. I cut off the A58 Wetherby Road and passed the tail end of Shadwell, through Wike and turned right on the A61 Harrogate Road along by the edge of the Harewood Estate then down Harewood Bank to the bridge:
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Apologies for the pic. I can't see a thing on the phone screen when it's sunny so the shots are just a bit of a guess.
I've been over Harewood Bridge by car and bike hundreds of times and today is the first time I noticed these marker plates on the wall.:huh:
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Looking downstream to the east and in the direction of Linton and Wetherby:
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So on from there and a swift left to Dunkeswick and Weeton. Two small places that, it seems tome have never been on the way to anywhere else. Always quiet, always sleepy. Even so Weeton seems to have avoided Beeching's cutting axe back in the 1950's . It still has a station, a rare thing in rural villages now.
And despite being small and sleepy it has quite a church:
weeton church.JPG

Ok, you can only just about see it from where I was stood but trust me it is quite impressive from close up.
Up some more and then down to the main Bradford / Harrogate road and up again towards Almscliffe Crag. I did take a photo of it but back home I found all I had taken was my mug squinting at the back of thephone. I would not inflict that on anyone and consequently a swift delete was called for.
I pass the Crag and a lovely run down through Stainburn to Leathley where I turned left towards Pool-in Wharfedale at St. Oswalds. Same thing with the photo and my squinty mug.
Back across the river at Pool and then onto Arthington Lane and up Creskeld Lane. At 1.3 miles top to bottom with a small dip just after halfway it's a stiff climb but managable enough with a maximum gardient of about 10%. From there it was Otley Road, King Lane and rather than the usual run around the reservoir I went up to the top of Stairfoot Lane and back home via Alwoodley and past the park.
It was cold when I set out and stayed that way. I was over dressed in the sunshine but bugger going out in short sleeved tops and shorts as some I saw.:thumbsdown:
I was home in plenty of time for Mrs Colly's visit to the blood place. As I sat in the car waiting I took a photo of a back street in Leeds City centre:
lcc.JPG

Usually you can't move here for people and cars.


Altogether 28.8 miles and just under 2300ft of upness.

View: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/46282037
 
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Chromatic

Legendary Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Like @Mike_P above my ride was a variation of my Wednesday outing.
Out of Gloucester on the Tewkesbury Road, turn right into Down Hatherley, on to the end of the road then left onto the Cheltenham Road toward Staverton, left at the lights to take me past the House In The Tree pub. Weirdness alert here, the pub was shut, obviously, but the car park was packed with cars. I turned left at the pub into Withybridge Lane and at the end of that turned left toward Coombe Hill. At the lights at Coombe Hill turned left onto the Tewkesbury Rd towards Gloucester. Headed towards Gloucester down there with a couple of slight detours off the main road on the way.
First, about three quarters of the way to Coombe Hill heading from Gloucester there is a little lane off the main road called Pancake Lane, now I spent the best part of 40 years regularly driving past it going to and from work and often wondered what was down there so today I rode down there and had a look, not a lot is the answer. The Second detour was quick loop through a little place called The Leigh.
After nipping through The Leigh and back onto the main road I carried on toward Gloucester until getting to the Sandhurst turning, turned down there and went to see the church ( see 'Your bike in front of a church' thread in the photos section) then on toward Gloucester and back to my start point.
Didn't look at computer so don't know how far or at what speed but it was an enjoyable ride.

Noticed that while it was far from busy there was noticeably more traffic on the roads today compared to Wednesday.
 

twentysix by twentyfive

Clinging on tightly
Location
Over the Hill
Another sunny day. I headed out for Redmarley for Brand Green where the wood anemones were carpeting the woods. Always a lovely spring show. On around by Murrell's End I climbed to Woolridge to take in a hazy view. The floods have left the Hams at Ashleworth now but there are still some wildfowl about. Pintail, Wigeon, Teal and Shoveler were there amongst others. The wind was a tad hindering as I headed north. At Brotheridge Green Pete M came the other way so we stopped for a chat at distance. The sun was dropping below the outline of the Hills as I rode the last mile. Amazing how many riders and dog walkers are out and about at the moment. It was also nice to ride with a new chain and middle chainring. Just like a new bike! 47 smiles and one distanced social interaction.
 

footloose crow

Über Member
Location
Cornwall. UK
27 March. Cycling through the plague

When we studied the Great Fire (1665) and the Great Plague (1666) at school, there was no mention of people finding it hard to amuse themselves whilst the pestilence raged through the razed ruins of London. No Netflix, no internet, no bikes and I am not at all sure that many people had dogs. We seem to be more complicated in 2020.

But there it is. Bikes now exist and because of that there is a duty to exercise them - bit like dogs. I can hear my bike whining in its shed if it hasn't been out for a while. The moral question I am stuck on is not whether I should ride but for for how long and how far - and how fast? Generally 'fast' is not something that bothers me. Actually lack of 'fast' bothers me a great deal but I have reluctant lungs. I have taken to going down hill faster than I used to though because I worry about wearing my disc pads when all the local bike shops (apart from Halfords which doesn't count) are closed because of the plague. Either cycle faster downhill or be forced to mend my own bike. Tough choices. Both frighten me.

Today Madame Crow said she would like to come with me on my proposed ride but it would need to be "shorter and less hilly" and ended up not being my proposed ride at all. The new aim was to get to Perranporth, look at the sea and then go home a different way. I had planned to go....well it doesn't matter. Another day.

Madame has an e-bike. A very nice one, better wheels, frame and chainset than mine. In theory she should be ahead of me but I still end up waiting at junctions because of my new desire to save my disc pads. She overtakes me on hills which is quite irritating, but has no qualms about smoking her pads all the way down. Cycling with someone else, even a special someone, is at times quite hard. The internal conversation I normally have with myself, just stops. We converse at junctions and intermittently on hills. I stop noticing things like flowers in the hedgerows or the opening views across spring green fields, the new catkins on willows and birches, the budding oaks because I am either chasing the retreating figure of my wife, just a red dot in the distance or just terrifying myself going downhill. Not especially fast if what I read about others descending speeds is true - but enough to make me stop daydreaming.

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The lanes are dry. The hedges are thickening with green. The cows have been allowed out onto the spring grass. The sky is a cold blue and the air is fresh enough to nip at exposed flesh. I have found a way to Perranporth that involves twelve miles of continuous either up or down but misses any major roads, or minor roads, and passes isolated farms, granite walled houses in solitary splendour and the odd short terrace of three whitewashed cottages stuck in a hollow and half hidden with trees.

Perranporth is deserted. The beach car park empty. There is a surfer walking home, board tucked under his arm. Surfing has been stopped unless you can walk to the beach. It hasn't gone down well with surfers and there have been some ugly confrontations. But not here today - all is calm, shops and cafes closed, pubs shuttered. There are more people walking than I have ever seen before and I have greeted a number of cyclists but as so many have noticed, hardly any traffic.

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Even the seagulls are avoiding humans at the moment.

We carry on up through Perrancombe, a gradually rising lane between woods and large detached houses, that should take us to St Agnes but before we reach the village, it is time to turn off and head for home. I need to be careful, still just three weeks from major surgery and my legs are already complaining. It turns out that the left turn was the wrong left turn. We descend steeply down to the old mining village of Mithian and then steeply uphill, the Wahoo says 22% at one point, until I reach the top and a simultaneous realisation that this is not the right way. Madame says we should just go back down the hill, back up the other side and carry on to the right turning but she has electrons and no concerns about disc brake pad thickness. A lifetime of obedience - I do as suggested.

The right route is familiar, well worn into the the neural pathways of my mind. I stop watching the scenery. I focus on the end. The road falls and rises and we exchange positions depending on the direction of the slope.

Truro is almost empty. Madame wants to buy aloe vera (for home made hand gel) in Superdrug and I hang around outside, holding my breath when people pass, hands dug deeply into my pockets, head pushed down as far into my shoulders as I can get it because this feels like I may avoid the clouds of active virus around me.

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I am tired when we get home.More tired than I expected. The news about the plague has not improved since we went out and I stop reading it. We don't have a TV. Well we do, but no aerial or satellite dish, so effectively no TV. This gives us in our isolated house stuck a mile outside town and surrounded by fresh planted barley fields, an air of unreality. Madame is reading from the internet and gives me snippets of bad news but I ignore her. Spring is proceeding. The birds still fill the afternoon air with vibrant songs, the magpies and crows watch me sadly, the pheasants scurry under hedgerows as we pass them.

I wonder what future children will learn about the Great Plague of 2020.

Screenshot 2020-03-27 at 20.37.07.png
 

Donger

Convoi Exceptionnel
Location
Quedgeley, Glos.
I had been averaging 38 miles per ride by the time the government's coronavirus lockdown instructions came out. Whilst I have been doing the Metric Century-a-Month Challenge for over 5 years now (63 months in fact), I have taken the decision to limit my rides to a couple of local loop routes that never take me far from home, and to limit ride durations to an hour or just over that. My last two rides have been of about 16 miles each. I do not see things changing much by the end of April, so my 63 month run will just have to come to an end. Today I spotted this excellent article, which struck a chord with my own thinking. Enjoy your exercise rides, everyone, but let us all cycle responsibly and in a way that doesn't get this privilege removed for all of us.

Stay safe everyone, and take a look at this:

https://road.cc/content/news/daily-...sfXtq3qBdOErkaj1RGjndG2RWZLKscma3NEn0QE2iHXf0

Cheers, Donger.
 
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