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@O'Shane
Finally did something I'd been meaning to do for months - move the brake levers on my road bike as they were too far down the bars, annoyingly I couldn't find the new bartape I'd put to one side for the job. After doing that I thought it would be nice to go out for a ride on it. I planned out a ride that I could cut short (via a mountain) if I felt so inclined. As I despise the heat I waited until 9:30pm to go out which was only partially a good thing. It was much cooler but even at the coldest times nowhere near cool enough to put a thin longsleeve on. The flies and moths were terrible, I had to ride with my mouth shut for about an hour and had to shake flies out of my helmet every 5min. Another downside of riding at that time of day is the type of person you generally find outside in Valley towns, the majority of what I got was puzzled looks so it wasn't too bad.
When I got to the point of decision I doubted that I'd last the full 90miles initially planned as the furthest I've ridden in one go for the past 9/10months has been my 18mi commute. So I turned and went up over the Rhigos mountain dropping down into Treherbert. It was extremely warm going up the mountain, most of the heat seemed to be radiating from the road. Occasionally I'd get a blast of cool air coming across from the fields. Halfway up the drag of the hill I got a phone call, did't feel like stopping so carried on going while trying to my friend what and why I was doing. Got to the top without going near the bottom gear which I was pleased about.
Stopped at the top to take this awful picture - http://distilleryimage5.ak.instagram.com/0375aa6aec7e11e2901022000a9e13ab_7.jpg
Carried on down the mountain trying to remember the road ahead and hoping that all the sheep stay in the fields and don't run out (as they did many years ago). Only one sketchy moment was the bottom corner as there's no warning signs on it. Managed it safely so all was good.
Got down to Pontypridd and was called out by a group of drunks for blowing through a red light. Coming out of Ponty I could feel my legs tightening , without a computer on the bike I struggled to judge my speed vs. effort. Going up the hill in Nantgarw felt ok though, so tempting to stop at one of the 24hr garages and buy something but I know all I'd get would be chocolate which wouldn't do me any good. Dropping down through Caerphilli and I decided to go over a steep hill which would drop me down only a couple of miles from home instead of heading up the valley and retracing my steps as it was about pub kickout time by then. The road over the hill is a singletrack unlit job but to my surprise I met a couple on their way home as I crested the railway bridge. Got a few cheers and then as I was riding off heard "you best not get off and walk or you're in trouble" which was nice incentive to push all the way up. Having not ridden the road in over a year I was unsure of the condition but I was expecting a few potholes near the top. It was worse than expected and the last 50m of the climb was a battle to keep the weight in the right place to keep from wheelspinning on fine gravel but still climb out of the saddle - I was in the bottom gear by this point and it was really hurting. Going down was a little worrying, Id forgotten how much brake cables stretch when you're really grabbing them.
The last few miles were fairly flat and so acted as a fairly nice warm down.
http://app.strava.com/activities/66884309