Tell us about your weekend ride

Nasty.
Maybe you need one of those little clear plastic discs...!

Pie plate*? Nah, this has happened once in a billion miles and is still better than being seen using one of them :)

*tester has already made fat joke about that

riding around fixed 75" more again, its dry,
loving the way small hills become less effort as you do them more often

Couldn't make it out over the weekend, but had the day off today. First time riding this year without arm and leg warmers... Still well outta shape.

http://www.strava.com/activities/523677394

35 kph for most of the time doesn't really strike me as that bad, is your shape normally 'pro'? nice bike btw!

Finally, a longer ride again. headed for a 'cobble special' with 12 youngsters (well most of them 20 years younger than me anyway). Bloody windy, but feeling better than expected so I found myself doing most of the front work. Got a pinch flat within the first 50 meters of the first (and not even worst) cobble 'secteur', (and stopped pedaling 5 seconds too soon to get the KOM on the worst of them, ha) fortunately I was the only one that flatted and that was the only time. All good fun, bit of a crazy twist & turn route though. The old rusty Gazelle with Campagnolo 10-speed did very well too. Feeling pretty knackered now but I have a Westmalle tripel close at hand to ease off the pain a bit, and I'm already looking forward to seeing a stormy Gent-Wevelgem tomorrow with my feet up!

http://www.strava.com/activities/527253318

Cheers, feeling that Gazelle too.

I was more surprised by some of the monster times recorded. I'm pretty nifty going up hill, but first time riding in that sort of way. Didn't feel as fucked as I could have when I finished, so thinking I could have put a bit more into it.

Just got back from cycling with a mate from Midhurst up to Fresham Great Pond. Almost got blown off my bike a couple times on the descents. Good fun tho despite the shitty weather.

Did one of my usual training rides yesterday. A 45km ride to the base of the local ski mountains. Over the top. refuel at the town on the otherside. Back over the top, and home.

Except that is for the fact that a previous puncture I havent been arsed to fix meant taking the fancey crabon wheels. The 88/60 mm combo together with 15 m/s mountain winds was horrendous.

Did 20mins of over/unders on the way up. Emptied myself. Then had to fight across the top. Pushing 36:25 on a couple percent of climb. Barely moving.

Seemed to have gusting sidwinds on both descents. Nearly being blown off the road at 60kph on several occasions (its normally a 80kph descent).

2/10

Three Weatherspoons one McDonalds and a cable tied rear derailleur from Scunthorpe to York.

10/10

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Did London to Paris, ferrying between Newhaven and Dieppe. Started at 2pm on Friday, ended at 5pm on Saturday.

Nice and sunny solo ride to Newhaven, 2.5 hours of sleep and then of to Paris at 4am. Good teamwork against headwinds with a fellow cyclist for a bit more than half, then rode with friends coming from Paris to meet me. Rythm became admittedly a bit more erratic from there on (had to divert to decathlon to fetch rimtape for one of them...) but who cares :)

Riding at night and experiencing daybreak is still awesome.

All in all I guess over 300 km (phone was glitchy and missed a chunk on each day).

Day one: https://www.strava.com/activities/526652076
Day two: https://www.strava.com/activities/527393937

10/10 would ride again.

Raced a 10, then 5 hrs
Went out yesterday for audax but turned around after 1.5hr and will do it properly tomorrow.
Drag racing today at Santa Pod, rained off a lot of events but still cool.

Went out on the Cotswold Easter Monday sportive. Was alright, could only do the 100km route, one of the others struggled so much the rest of us missed the cutoff for the 160.

Not ridden all weekend: knee sore - back to physio next week.

Did a solo London to Norwich to work off the easter eggs.
https://www.strava.com/activities/529049353
I've ridden it in the other direction before but happy to report it's much easier with a tailwind. Rain to Cambridge then fined up marvellously!
Legs are feeling it now.
8/10

Got a tonne of uni work to do so will have to make do with Sunday's short club run. 40 miles on the front into 20mph headwinds (for half of it), managed to keep the group at 18mph average (normally around 16.5ish), and got a couple of top 10s on Strava.

Reality now setting in about how much work I need to do this week...

Windy much?

http://www.strava.com/activities/529431162

Spent the Easter weekend in Northern France.

Me, Mrs Jangle and the Janglettes braved the slings and the arrows of hurricane Katie in the tiny village of Boubers sur Canche in the Pas de Calais.

Notwithstanding the dubious weather, and the lack of a decent broadband connection, this is a lovely part of the world for an Easter break. The countryside is gentle rolling downland, much like Kent, but without the twats and fly-tippers.

Thursday started breezy but dry, so I decided to chance a bit of a ride. The village is in a valley, and I started out heading north, uphill to the hamlet of Flers which sports a fine Chateau perched on the top of the hill:

There are a lot of Chateaux around here, and every village seems to have a massive church, much larger than the local population would appear to require. The next village down the road was Croisette, which sports a suitably ancient and venerable church:

After Croisette, it was on to Beauvois which sits on the 'crossroads' with the D99:

These days, Beauvois languishes in the midst of the road to nowhere, but that building I rested my bike against used to be a bar, and I reckon in simpler times it must have been a great place to while away an hour or two over lunch.

After Beauvois, it was on to the unpronounceable Humeroeuille, which had another impressive Chateau:

Then onwards through Blagny sur Ternoise, among the many attractions of which is the level crossing on the way out of town:

My destination for the day was Azincourt, where Henry V and a handful of his mates decimated the pride of the French aristocracy in 1415. Just south of Azincourt is the village of Maisoncelle, which is where Henry's forces lined up before the battle. The locals have gone crazy and erected an impressive monument to mark their place in history:

After that, it was a short roll down Henry V Street into Azincourt itself. It was lunchtime, and the town centre was buzzing:

I'd actually had a lovely morning, tooling around in some really pretty villages and countryside, but I needed to get back and it was starting to rain, so I headed cross country toward the D928, which is the most direct route back toward Boubers.

Around the village of Bucamps, which is really in the middle of nowhere, I was intrigued to pass a house with an old GPO 'phone box installed in the garden:

After Bucamps, the 'road' turned into a dirt track for a mile or so, and I began to regret bringing my best bike out for what was turning out to be a solo 'cross ride. Eventually, I picked up the main road just after the village of Rumenville - a place so non-descript, the local tree is actually named on the map. I kid you not, here is L'Arbre de Rumenville:

As main roads go, the D928 isn't too bad for cycling. French motorists, even the lorry drivers tend to give you plenty of room, and the D928 descends through the Forest of Hesdin in a broad, gentle sweep.

At the foot of the hill is the village of Huby St Leu, where, as in far too many of the villages 'round here, there is a Commonwealth War Grave:

After Huby St Leu, I rolled into the local town, Hesdin, which sits at the confluence of the Canche and Authie rivers. Like so many of the towns in this area, Hesdin seems to be dying on its arse, with most of the shops and cafes closed, and lots of the houses either derelict or up for sale, which is a great shame, because it really is a lovely part of the world, steeped in hisory:

While having a pleasant coffee in Hesdin, the beautiful Mrs jangle called and told me to get my hairy arse back, pronto - which is exactly what I did.

A very pleasant morning pottering about Northern France.

Nice one, @santino and I did that last year (and the return as well in 48hr total, both directions at 24hr each way with a night's rest in Paris). It was boiling hot - the best parts were overnight and in the evening and early morning when the July sun wasn't imposing. That Newhaven/Dieppe ferry is okay, I didn't manage any sleep though. Rimtape?!

Dumping this here because I'm not sure if there's a 'midweek ride' thread.

Finally fitted a new chain to the Fullpro this morning, so went out to the countryside. It involves "Royal" Wootton Bassett, and a couple villages, but mostly A and B roads. It's one of my main stretches for training, with a few hard hills depending on route, and easy to add on distance in 5 mile increments.

I certainly rolled through at least one red light in Bassett, and had to filter on both the inside and outside of a lane, probably to the dismay of the cars that had passed me moments earlier, as they then hit an odd bit of traffic. Then it's over the bridge that's being raised for electrification, and yet again I cycled over, with all the huge signs saying "Cyclists Dismount". The construction guys even politely moved a little out my way so I could carry on unobstructed.

All in all I tried my best to stop at lights, especially the bits of road/gas works on the narrower country lanes. Police cars on the Marlborough road passed surprisingly close. Mostly, it was a no-dick-move ride, with the occasional naughty bit to avoid unclipping or stopping fully.

After tailing a learner most of the last 3 miles, and having a van stuck behind me, I pulled in home. As I had a quick stretch on the driveway, the white van driver had done a u-turn, parked at the end of the drive and was walking toward me.

Bizarrely he says, "Don't worry, it's not road rage, I just wanted to comment on your cycling, it's good to see someone who knows how to handle their machine; thanks a lot for making those clear signals so I knew exactly what you were going to do next." And I thanked him and we both wished each other a nice day.

Overall tired legs since the Cotswold sportive, sporadic rain shower, insane strong headwinds, and only one section of tailwind, 1,789ft elevation gain, 42.46 miles, average moving 17.1mph, max 36.5mph (just before a pothole-ridden section downhill) in 02:33:45. Felt slow, but quite okay.

Bizarrely he says, "Don't worry, it's not road rage, I just wanted to comment on your cycling, it's good to see someone who knows how to handle their machine; thanks a lot for making those clear signals so I knew exactly what you were going to do next." And I thanked him and we both wished each other a nice day.

Pictures, or no way did that happen!

@Jingle_Jangle lovely rides although I can't decide if your bike frame is awesome or weird. Probably awesome.
@pdlouche Yes, I saw them coming from a round-about overseeing the middle-of-nowhere surroundings and one of was clearly walking his bike. After spending half an hour taking off the tyre (Miche Pistard + Pro4 is absolute horror) we saw that the rimtape was about half the width it should be; and that's how you find yourself doing an return trip to the nearby Decathlon, adding 20km and a solid 100m of elevation to your Dieppe-Paris ride. And spend another half an hour putting everything back on after that.

We know this round-about very well now.

April 1st...

Actually, he was a few days early for that. I realise in retrospect that nobody will believe me...but country folk aren't the same as Londoners.

@cgg urghhhhhh not cool. Every hill on that journey is laughing at you, I'd hate to have to do more than necessary .................(actually Garmin fucked up and we did about 20 or 30km extra + hills because it didn't take us direct, so I know your pain)

Tank, Castle and Cove.

I swapped Lundun for Lulworth on the Dorset Coast for a week. 'Changeable' weather down there this week, I got out on my/the only (?!) SS a nice little loop. Never had a proper tank pull up behind me before whilst in a queue waiting for the level crossing barrier to rise. I'm guessing it must've come from the tank Museum at Bovington.

Hilly for me, had to stop twice to prevent my heart killing me in the face due to hills and no gears but I didn't give up. Hurrah!

Nice to be out riding again after scary health issues.