Ride Reports

itboffin

95 mile Magnificat recce today, i can confirm that pretty much all the potholes have been repaired and most of the roads completely resurfaced but sadly with that awful loose stones gravel tyres crap :evil:

that was much much harder than last years actual ride, I can only think its down to the strong south headwind for the first 35 miles and the crap road surface, yes that'll be what it was :?

Pass the blanket i'm done!
http://app.strava.com/activities/151056191

rolf_f

Etape de Yorkshire today. Forecast was heavy showers. It remained mostly sunny until about 20 minutes after we arrived in Harrogate when it lashed it down with high winds sending all the discarded paper plates from the food flying.

Great ride except they messed with the route too much and byepassed Ripon. That would have been fine if they'd routed along the Ripon byepass. All in a slightly drab end to the ride as the road from Ripon to Harrogate is a bit busy but it's OK. Instead, they diverted us to the West of Ripon. Anyone who knows the terrain West of Ripon knows it is harsh - lots of ups and downs instead of a fantastic flowing route direct from Masham which is what I expected. So, the last 20 miles were far harder than what the pros will have to put up with. But then again, tomorrow I just have a 20 mile commute. Not another 100 very hilly miles to Sheffield.......

itboffin

Anyone thinking of using the A30 as part of a route through the west country.

Just don't, between the highways agency and the bleeding Romans its a nightmare.

asprilla

Was a mate's 37th birthday today so we set off to pootle 37 miles in West Sussex with the intention of staring a tradition. We did a circular route from Balcombe taking in Ditchling Beacon.

Ditchling Beacon is my bitch now. I'd forgotten my bidon so I stopped at the icecream van at the top for a 99 and a bottle of water. We stopped at a nice pub for a half later and then kinda got a bit lost so we ended up at 44 miles.

My mate looks closer to 44 than 37 so that's ok.

Kieran_Burns

Notts Sportive no.3

Sub-titled "did someone leave the oven door open?"

In complete contrast to last year which had me shivering in the freezing rain, this year had the temperature bouncing off 30C. I got the food right, I actually got the bloodyblastedflaming food right! Unfortunately I completely screwed up the fluid intake and got several attacks of the cramps at some seriously inopportune moments. I had to stop by the side of the road several times frantically drinking as much as I was able... the worst attack hit both calves and my left thigh, all of which completely locked up. Trying to unclip with your left foot when your left leg is basically a solid block of concrete? Not so easy.

It was very frustrating as I had bags of energy left at the end, I was spinning along quite merrily but could not go into a higher gear or stand up on the pedals as my legs started trembling with the cramps as soon as I tried.

So damn hot.

Still, several highlights of note: descending down this long hill hitting 40mph when I realised I was heading straight into a patch of gravel on a bend. That was another occasion when I didn't need my hands to hold on to the bike.

Mr spintastic here using his stupidly low gears so he could CV up the hills while all around were burning the midnight lactic. Although there was this one utter cockwomble who was in a stupidly high gear and crawling up a hill by wandering so far across the road that no one could safely pass him. Utterly ridiculous and there was a traffic jam of over a dozen people sat behind while he was eating his front wheel and staggering back and forth. Dick.

There were a few others who were trying for the award of "knobbiest knob of knobville": one guy who deliberately blocked the other carriageway to stop a Sainsburys van from passing despite there being loads of room and time, or the guy who ignored my repeated calls of "CAR!" and pulled out of a junction directly in front of a BMW. All in all though: a well behaved and very considerate bunch.

I rode along with a guy called Lee for about 20 miles or so and at one point I looked back to see over 20 riders (I kid you not) sat behind us in this great peloton. We weren't going that quick (maybe 17-17.5mph) so why they sat there, God knows. Eventually a group of 4 club riders came past and the pace upped to 20mph ish and the whole group just tooled along picking up strays and misfits as we went. By the time we got to the feed stop there was something like 40 riders in a single group.

The most surreal moment was being overtaken by a guy who was raising money for Testicular Cancer research, a noble aim... except he had decorated his helmet to look like a testicle, a big pink testicle, complete with pubes.

So basically I got overtaken by a cancerous bollock.

A great day riding again - a well organised sportive; if I hadn't completely misjudged the temperature and Endomondo not messed up the auto pause I would've recorded about 6 hours for the complete 100 miles.

anonymousblackfg

After sorting the sat nav out from thinking I was in Southampton with a long show cast ahead of me on the road I set off westwards towards Kingston. A cracking cool, still, sunny morning as slowly other cyclists started emerging from side roads or stood about waiting for mates to head off rinding as my legs gained some warmth and I started hovering just above 30kph. A quick complement to a burd on a White Canyon Aeroroad as I went past Bushey Park then left onto the quieter roads through Sunbury.

The distance ticked away swiftly as I stuck to decent roads heading west through Ascot and the workers piled into the racecourse, soon I was skirting Bracknell, passing the Swinley forest car park 1:22 mins in (not sure I could get there that fast on my MTB with nobblies on) as I almost got clipped by some d*ck in a Jag.

Crossing the A321 the roads suddenly become quieter and more ‘lane’ like, I bumbled around my first detour where the satnav wanted to cut a corner through a field. Back on track, the kilometres clicked on by, suddenly at 70k my mind switched to where was Newbury and counting down till my tea stop in Hungerford. A brief chat with guys in a Juke setting up a ‘3 lions’ or similar sportive ride but it gave me a bit of motivation to press on. It took a ride up and down the High St in Hungerford to find the Tutti Pole tea shop, but after having some douche woman at the mini roundabout decide it was time to overtake me even if I was going all the way around I finally got back to the cafe.

A good cafe, very friendly though I sat near the front, keeping an eye on the bike but I really should have ate more than just a fruit scone.

Next, Hungerford to Marlborough ticked by, then a steady climb which seemed a bit bleak soon revealed itself to drop me down past a white horse to my right. Devizes soon came up, then Melksham, from that point the route became a few too many main roads with draggy surfaces before I hit Bradford Upon Avon where the my route tried to short cut things leaving me stopping and starting around numerous steep backstreets, killing all momentum.

Finally I hit the edge of Bath where I spotted what looked like a new bike path and plenty of signs about parking and cycling, thus I thought it was the start of the two tunnels. Sadly not, after much faff, a jolly through a school, stopping to ask two sets of cyclists, breaking my sun glasses when hitting a stick while staring at my garmin, eventually I found it. Very Chilly as you pass through the damp tunnels but then a happy tired pootle up the Bristol/Bath cycle track before getting smart in Bristol and taking a ‘short cut’ which in reality took me further!

In short:

222 k
71.6k max
1432m of climbing
27.9k average
Moving time of 7:57

warreng

Here's something I wrote for the company blog for the Fred Whitton

Over Christmas 2013 we went up to Liverpool for a long weekend, mainly just to bore the kids about our college years, but also get away from London for a while. We were doing the usual thing of posting a couple of photos on Facebook when an old friend saw we were in town and we arranged to meet up for lunch the next day. We hadn't seen each other for over a decade and in the intervening years we'd both become vaguely obsessed by cycling. Both of us had done a couple of Sportives and longer type rides. He'd heard of a ride called the Fred Whitton in the Lakes so we vaguely agreed to do it and with that we bid our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I didn't really expect anything to come of it until about 3-4 weeks later I got a call asking whether I still wanted to do it as it looked a bit challenging. I must have been in one of my more bullish moods as I confidently accepted the challenge and with that I forgot all about it
I think it was about mid-Feb when he started e-mailing me saying the ballot was soon and that's when I started looking into it more closely. Fuck me, it looked mental - 112 miles and 4,000m of climbing??!! In the Lakes in Spring??!! And with that a email plopped into my Inbox saying that my starter number was 1105 and I was in. Just to be clear - I'd done 3 rides of over 100 miles before - all of them in the South East where Box Hill is, apparently, like Alpe D'Huez. And as for 4,000m - really? Is that feasible? That's half an Everest. I started visiting cycling fora to pick people's brains and asking "proper" cyclists what they knew of this thing I'd mistakenly entered and by the end of February I'd realised I'd done a bit of a silly.
So other than the usual commutes and the odd fortnightly 50-miler I'd essentially done no proper training and there was two and a bit months before the off. Obviously at that point I should have done the correct thing and called my old mate and said "Sorry, I was a bit drunk, didn't realise what you were suggesting. I'll stick to pootling around Surrey and pretending I know what I'm on about" but I didn't and upped my commute miles to about 120 a week and increased the Sunday rides. And that constituted my training. There was not much in the way of eating properly or cutting out alcohol. There was no heart monitor, indoor training sessions or anything normal - I was doing this old school.
The race ("It's not a race! It's a sportive") was on the 11th May and we wanted to start as close to 6am as possible to give us a fighting chance of making the cut-off times and get back to the finish by the time electronic timing was shut at 6.30pm so I drove up to Ambleside, collecting the bastard who suggested this thing at Skelmersdale and arrived at the Lakes at about 4pm on the 10th May. As the day approached I had started to get a little bit anxious about finishing - my main concern was the logistics of getting back to my car in the event of mental, physical or equipment breakdown - I'd talked myself into failing before I started. My wife was telling me that once I got there I'd be fine and that my riding partner would reassure me and we'd have a laugh. There were also 2 other poor sods that had been co-opted into the ride by my friend so I thought at least there'd be 3 others suffering with me. After registration the 4 of us checked into the Youth Hostel (I'm 44 - I don't normally stay in these places. I'm more of a Spa and mini-bar type of guest) and then decided to go for a meal (a vegetarian meal - I don't normally eat in veggie restaurants. I'm more of a steak and a bottle of red type of eater) and we obviously got to talking about THE FRED WHITTON. As it transpired they'd all trained properly. Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks.
A good night's sleep was not had as I soon discovered that 4 sweaty, farting males who were not overly familiar with each other being crammed into a tiny room on crappy bunk beds means that a deep sleep is hard to find. The alarms went off at 4.30 and we dashed about putting each other bib shorts on and generally looking like the amateurs we were.
We arrived at Grasmere at 5.15 and got our stuff ready. Parked next to us was a younger Mancunian lad who was quite jolly, looked very fit, and preceded to tell me that it was his 2nd attempt as he failed last year due to hypothermia and that he'd spent this year doing repeats of Whitedown Lane (my local bete noir) in preparation. This year he'd fail due to strangulation if he didn't shut up.
So we rolled out of Grasmere at 6.15, full of bananas, malt loaf, mild panic, electrolites, fear and porridge. 2 of the lads sped off and disappeared into the distance straight away. Never mind, I'm taking this easy - I'm pacing myself. There are 8 advertised climbs on the Fred - all of them more severe than anything I've done before and the first one was Kirkstone (Mancunian Boy said it was easy). We turned left away from the Lake and the road reared up and I was into the lowest gear straight away. This was worse than I thought. At the top I turned to a lad next me and said "That wasn't so bad. 7 to go" his reply recalibrated my optimism "That wasn't Kirkstone mate - that one isn't even one of the 8" "Oh dear" I cheefully replied.
As it turned out I got up Kirkstone and Matterdale End without any trauma and felt good - I'd warmed up and we were 20 miles in and I started to relax - the first seeds of optimism were sown. Mistakenly. Honister Pass was next - I'd read about this - the 3rd most difficult on the route and the most beautiful. It's beauty was not appreciated by me as 25% gradients were making progress difficult. I put my foot down briefly after the first section and waited for my heart to return to it's proper position in my chest and carried on. I was encouraged by other people struggling - it wasn't just me after all. A lot of people were finding this tough. After what seemed to be an eternity I reached the summit. 5 to go. One thing I hadn't really focussed on was the descents. I'd read that they were treacherous and there were always casualties each year but I'm a cautious rider so I was not overly concerned. As it turns out they were my main memory of the day - I have never, NEVER seen anything like it - I was slower downhill than up. My brakes were fully on and my hands were cramping due to the exertion. Any movement in my fingers to relieve pain meant the bike accelerated due to gravity to speeds reminiscent of those scenes in Star Wars when the Millennium Falcon goes into hyperdrive. People would slowly edge passed me, move their fingers, then shoot off like a rocket and then keel over.
We got to the first feed station at 50 miles and wolfed down a few sandwiches, topped up the bidons and carried on. Newlands Pass was next and I went through without too much trauma and the descent was a long, swoopy affair and I could pretend to be a proper cyclist and assume the most aerodynamic position my aged skeleton will allow and hit 65km/h - the next 30 miles taking in Whinlatter Pass (I like!! This one was ok!!) and then Cold Fell flew by and I started to feel optimistic - in fact, I started to feel positively hysterical. We sat at the second and final feed station and had a quick cup of tea (and, bizarrely, a jam and cheese sandwich). I was going to finish this thing. 30 miles to go and I was feeling ok. Tired but ok. Only Hardknott and Wrynose left and then 10 miles of pottering downhill and quick pint and home. The key words in the preceding sentence are "Hardknott" and "Wrynose".
Approaching Hardknott there were gaggles of riders by the side of the road stuffing energy gels in their mouthes like mental squirrels and there was fear in people's eyes. Lots of giggling as well, "off you go mate, it's only a hill" etc. In Southern sportives there are motivational US-style signs like "You Can Do It!" or "Don't worry, it's only gravity!" but there was one simple arrow pointing up with the word "Hell" on it. Northern humour. We crossed a little humpback bridge and turned left over a cattle grid and I looked up at the most famous climb on this ride, and indeed, any other UK sportive. I'm not ashamed to say I didn't clear Hardknott - I was nowhere near. I had to walk the last 500m - no-one else was riding either. The scenes were like the aftermath of some medieval battle where the war wounded were dragging their broken bodies away from the battlefield - absolute carnage. Again the descent was brutal - I was genuinely scared for my safety as I slid down the single track road - fortunately at the bottom there was about 400m of flat before Wrynose. Again the scenes were repeated - I tried my best but I didn't have the gears or legs. Hardknott had ruined me and I limped to the top and started the 10 mile descent into Grasmere. I had nothing left at all and pedalling on the flat was taking effort - the marshalls were numerous now and were congratulating each and every rider. I'd made a point of saying "Thank you" for the first 100 miles to each one but I was too tired to talk. I'd spent the previous 9 hours envisaging crossing the finishing line but when it happened it was just relief. We rolled the bikes to the car, got changed into dry clothes and grabbed the free warm meal. Not much was said, just sat there staring at a cup of tea for about 15 minutes. What a day - never again until next time. And I beat Mancunian Boy.

london-red

Bravo! Great read

marcusjb

http://marcusjb.wordpress.com/2014/06/2 ... pionships/

Rode my first 24 hour time trial this weekend. It really taught me that it is possible to destroy yourself physically and mentally in less than one day.

itboffin

You've all gone bat-shite mad!!

:roll:

the_fuggler

Great stuff Marcus - and I have to agree with Boff...

Kieran_Burns

Good to see the tradition of crapping all over Kieran's reports is still going strong... :shock: :P

itboffin

You wrote a report?

Kieran_Burns

I forgot to mention one funny moment or 10...

You know that scene in "Finding Nemo" with the seagulls?



When approximately 40 riders in a long peloton all hit a junction at the same time and all shout "Clear!" It sounds almost exactly like that scene.

I did actually say it sounded like a bloody mating call....

willy b

Some good reports recently, and good work Marcus!

In a similar 24 hour ride here is my blog from the weekend: http://ridingcircle.blogspot.co.uk/2014 ... ayhem.html

the_fuggler

Nice one Willy - also quite mad!

marcusjb

willy b wrote:

Some good reports recently, and good work Marcus!

In a similar 24 hour ride here is my blog from the weekend: http://ridingcircle.blogspot.co.uk/2014 ... ayhem.html

Straight back at ya!

One thing to do it on the road - but off-road, that really is mental.

willy b

I'm not sure which is harder tbh. Obviously on the road you're doing more miles and going quicker but off road your whole body is getting battered. Either way, both daft.

jzed

Chapeau Marcusjb

Chapeaum Willy B

itboffin

Keep calm everyone the men in white coats will be along shortly.

rolf_f

C2C in a Day. First you have some unexpecteds and end up leaving Seascale at 8am rather than 6:30 - almost last of all. Then there's Hardknott and Wrynose - without walking of course. Just what you need - a nice bit of 1 in 3 to soften you up with 140 miles still to go.... Then a stiff quick link that causes the chain to skip and it's not as though it's flat between Wrynose and Kendal. But the disappointment of an almost empty feedstation is tempered by the adjacent bike shop and a new quick link has the bike in tip top condition again which is just as well as it's after 11 and there's still 110 miles to go across the Dales and NY Moors. At least the big climb out of Kendal is the last really lengthy ascent. But then the group motors relentlessly to Hawes and a much better stocked feedstation with lovely soup but in no time at all we are off heading down Wensleydale. Always lovely but hard to appreciate as we are still only half way there. Tunstall, near Catterick is pleasantly flat but unpleasantly short of food but and the next stretch is pan flat and relentless. Two big engines on the front are driving us hard and I am grateful to reach Ostmotherly and lumpier terrain. A really nice climb and a great descent and we are on the flat again, ploughing on to the last feedstation at Ingleby. Another good one with pork pies and the only two flapjack bites I saw all day! And then the final drag - the tough final 30 miles across the Northern edge of the NY moors. Nothing too sustained but two long drags, steep at the bottom and the final trial of Limber Hill - must be over 20% but short and with a brilliant steep hairpin that just goes straight into flat rather than more climb as you'd expect. From there, nothing more than rolling terrain and a final blast into Whitby, Airedale Olympic arriving in style, 7 abreast!

Ten hours of riding, 13 hours start to finish, 153 miles. It's a big ride!

secretsam

Rolf F wrote:

C2C in a Day. First you have some unexpecteds and end up leaving Seascale at 8am rather than 6:30 - almost last of all. Then there's Hardknott and Wrynose - without walking of course. Just what you need - a nice bit of 1 in 3 to soften you up with 140 miles still to go.... Then a stiff quick link that causes the chain to skip and it's not as though it's flat between Wrynose and Kendal. But the disappointment of an almost empty feedstation is tempered by the adjacent bike shop and a new quick link has the bike in tip top condition again which is just as well as it's after 11 and there's still 110 miles to go across the Dales and NY Moors. At least the big climb out of Kendal is the last really lengthy ascent. But then the group motors relentlessly to Hawes and a much better stocked feedstation with lovely soup but in no time at all we are off heading down Wensleydale. Always lovely but hard to appreciate as we are still only half way there. Tunstall, near Catterick is pleasantly flat but unpleasantly short of food but and the next stretch is pan flat and relentless. Two big engines on the front are driving us hard and I am grateful to reach Ostmotherly and lumpier terrain. A really nice climb and a great descent and we are on the flat again, ploughing on to the last feedstation at Ingleby. Another good one with pork pies and the only two flapjack bites I saw all day! And then the final drag - the tough final 30 miles across the Northern edge of the NY moors. Nothing too sustained but two long drags, steep at the bottom and the final trial of Limber Hill - must be over 20% but short and with a brilliant steep hairpin that just goes straight into flat rather than more climb as you'd expect. From there, nothing more than rolling terrain and a final blast into Whitby, Airedale Olympic arriving in style, 7 abreast!

Ten hours of riding, 13 hours start to finish, 153 miles. It's a big ride!

How was the organisation? The food situation isn't good for such a 'big' ride.

rolf_f

Spot on aside from the food. And I think it was fine if you were there earlier so really just a case of not enough. Difficult to balance it - I hate the idea of waste. But this is what you expect from an experienced organiser - it's where they earn the money. Or not as the case may be!

Given that the last rider got in around 1 am, there were a few people who had a very long day on their bike and certainly needed a good feed. I hope they got it!

marcusjb

Good work - an impressive ride. Weather good/bad/indifferent?

rolf_f

Weather suited me - some sunshine early on, a bit grey later but we missed the odd shower that wetted the road here and there. Brightened up towards the end just as it was getting a bit cooler. Only complaint the NE wind which seems harsh on a C2C. Main thing is it wasn't hot which would have made it a lot harder for me. Feeling fine now!

Koncordski

Rode from Dunkirk to Bruges on a whim this weekend. The missus was out and the weather in Kent looked rubbish so googling for some rides around calais through up a route northwards towards Bruges.

Was planning on the 10am ferry to Dunkirk but obviously had one too many pints on friday night after work. Finally caught the 12 sailing, cycling to the Boat with DFDS is surprisingly easy, you get lined up with all the motorbikes who find the site of a lycra clad cyclist turning up at a ferry port quite amusing, aside form some health and safety nonsense to do with walking up the ramp instead of riding bike was on and I was having a hearty brunch in no time.

Off in france and the first thing to say is Dunkirk is a cesspit, the ferry port is south of the town and the only way there is either a dual carriageway/fast A road full of trucks or the back roads through some of France's finest petrochemical facilities. Don't whatever you do follow your garmin which says there is a road along the dyke, there is, but if the bridge is up at the other end you face a 5 mile ride back into town. :roll:

Suitably warmed up I headed off through the factories and got finally clear of the town after covering 20 miles, i was hoping to be in belgium by then but at least the smooth french tarmac was working in my favour. You can follow the canal and then main road up towards Veurne but i took the back roads which were great, not a single car for about 10 miles and at least the little farms and crops broke up the otherwise fairly boring scenery.

From Veurne things pick up as there is the start of the canalside route, this follows wide tarmaced paths alongside the canal all the way to Niewport. Pan flat all the way and if you're heading from france a really great tailwind, ripped though the next bunch of miles feeling great. Stopped at a cafe to refill the water bottles and get a coffee, the smaller places don't always take mastercard/visa so beware. I managed to fumble enough small change from the bottom of my rucksack to cover it.

From Niewport you head up towards Ostend before the canal intersects with the main one to Bruges, hop on this and you can pretty much turn off the Satnav, it'll take you to the centre. The canal is widely used by cyclists, a lot of belgians in club kit, solo riders and also people going to and from the shops. The surface is smooth flat and wide with a bridge every couple of miles, these are usually manned and have a bar/restaurant next to them. I found myself stopping little as the pace was so consistently good and i'd lost so much time getting lost in Dunkirk.

Finally rolled into Bruges at about 20:30 and found the hotel (martins Brugge) with secure underground parking. Bike was flawless the whole way although I may charge my saddle back to the charge spoon, it's not pro but it's by far the comfiest i've ridden. No punctures, the rubino pro slicks seemed to shrug off the occasional bit of grit and glass at junctions.

Take less stuff in my backpack, i took way too much kit to cater for changing weather and the lock was unnecessary as the hotel was happy to let me keep the bike in the room if need be. My shoulders got rubbed by the weight of the bag which come the ride home was beginning to be a problem. If you're going to do it then a pair would be so much better for the return leg. The tailwind pushing you there is a headwind all the way back to the ferry and bar the odd club rider that let me tuck in on the way out of Bruges i was fighting it all the way. My average speed on the return leg was around 17mph as opposed to 21 on the way there. I'd consider a longer route from Calais next time as Dunkirk is just so horrible to ride through. Was back by early Sunday evening, tired but happy. Bruges is awesome, i recommend a bar called De Republiek which the receptionist put me on to, great load of beers and food, perfect for refueling tired legs. Recharging the garmin and will post the track later but i reckon about 150miles all in.

itboffin

Nice work peeps

This weekend I did fect all not even 1 mile I drank beer lots of beer and ate great food in great company, watched an outdoor classical concert at highclere castle with a full calavery reenactment and a spitfire display.

It was awesome ...I may have gain quite some weight ;-)

meanredspider

It's good to see all these commuting types doing stupid stuff (even if these 24hour events are softie summer events ) - we were made for Rule 5 8)

Kieran_Burns

Posting this before all the London 100 reports start (ahem) flooding in...

99.94 miles yesterday... .06 off the ton. Hey Ho

My mate wanted to try out his new Boardman CX so we did the (what was meant to be) 92 mile loop up to Parsley Hay and Middleton Top

It didn't start well, with this pain in the bum headwind as we headed out West and when we turned North it just cut across and was still no fun. I also discovered just how bad I am at climbing hills.... me struggling up in a 39/28 while watching my mate still in the big ring powering up and away. Bastard.

Still: topped 40mph down the dip into Ashbourne and made good use of the discs on the long descent down the shared path, with him showing his off off-road skillz on the high speed twisty bit.

Slightly less skillz while trying to shut the gate and doing only his second clipless moment.. (cough)

The slog up to Parsley Hay was just that: the wind just hurt and I was struggling to keep any kind of speed again but we got there... Sausage cob and coffee to rejuvenate and off along the High Peak trail:



This bit was just great (not just for the Scenery but we had the wind behind us and just cruised along).

Not so happy with the two elderly idiots who did not get out of our way (spread across the trail) while we descended the 1 in 14 at Hopton



You can hit 30 without pedalling... I had to shout at him to get out of the way, which he finally did. I may have expressed an opinion as I went past.

Descent into Wirksworth was as exciting / scary as usual and the run down to Duffield just great (B5023 is a good road to cycle on, especially heading South)

I decided to try my hand at a climb I'd avoided previously and massively exposed my complete lack of climbing ability again - I had to stop twice as I simply ran out of breath... I do think now I may have picked too low a gear and should've gone for the lactic build up and not tried the low gear spinny CV stuff. Still, I made it up and we then shot down Inn Lane (Quarndon) only to meet a hay bailing tractor right here:



We were doing over 30 again and frankly if the tractor driver hadn't got completely off the road I'm not sure how bad things would've been. That was another moment I didn't need my hands to hold onto my bike! I swear it took WAY more effort to get off the saddle after that.

Pretty routine ride back after that... tailwind all the way home really helped and kept the speed up. I did take a slight diversion to try and get the 100 miles and look how close that came...

It was a good day, Rob my mate is a far better cyclist than me and pushed me along without realising it. I need to find some more off road routes in the area now.

Final stats:
Distance: 99.94 mi
Time: 6:54:43
Avg Speed: 14.5 mph
Elevation Gain: 2,787 ft
Calories: 6,629 C
Avg Temperature: 66.3 °F

(edit) With the ride profile added:

itboffin

Nice report but 2700ft in 100 miles .....tiz very flat non!?!

Just saying