Tell us about your weekend ride

Ooof rainy days but the temp is ok just hope the wind aint to harsh. Good luck mate

Stopped over in Wisbech last night.
A town steeped in Georgian history with architecture that stopped me in my tracks and period houses that I'd give generously, if I could, to preserve. And...here's the rub...nothing else. The place stagnates. Once the capital of a thriving Fenland economy. Now a town surrounded by intensive agriculture and kept alive by new immigrant residents and serving new immigrant residents. Or are they just passing through? Seasonal. It's a strange vibe. You know when a town is dominated by eastern Europeans when there's no Indian restaurant. What happened to our British traditions?!?! 😀 There's one pub holding out. Premiership shirts nailed to the ceiling. Cribbage night. Very friendly English customers and staff. Cheap beer. Local tensions. Free sausages.

Ps. I passed a lot of dog grooming places. More than is required. Or are the Fenland folk very particular about canine appearance?

Think this a recurring story for a lot if rural towns a lot have been forgotten with councils struggling and lack of investment in the towns, strangely the rural town I grew up near has now become a commuter town for london and has poshed up a bit.

Hope your not getting to wet out there today and you get a tail wind!

A mixed day....I was soaked right thru this morning despite Goretex, dried off in the warm breeze, then ran into round 2 of Storm Grimsby about an hour ago. Abandoned for the day 10 miles short of target. Had an off too on a slippery ridge at the edge of the road. It was covered in water. Best part of the day? Ice cream in Skegness!

1 Attachment

Yes, a lot of poor economic choices (reduction of economic diversity, undue enhancement of larger centres, a general drive towards 'efficiency' and 'productivity', etc.) have done this to a lot of small towns. We say 'small towns', but they are anything but small, of course. One big culprit is hypermobility, so that most people now just drive to either a larger place or to somewhere out of town, instead of walking or cycling locally, and hypermobility has also been a major factor in economic structures becoming far less sustainable, all of which is felt in places like Wisbech.

It's not quite hippy bivvying under a car halfway up a Romanian mountain in a thunderstorm, but not half bad as attempts at the Great British Holiday go. :)

A bus shelter moment. Not how I imagined it.

1 Attachment

Continue ur updates, they are really good AND 1'geared

Thinking of doing the same maybe next month. Would be interested to see your route if you don't mind sharing?

Yep happy to share but I'm not using any tech so it's a list! Updated each morning with a target of 100 miles a day, as close to the coast as practical and the least amount of climbing. So far so good. Worth it just for this.....

1 Attachment

'kin 'ell. Followed a scruffy 'food served' sign and landed here...I'm surprised they let me in. I'm encrusted with road shite. The rain is no more but the North wind doth blow. Next stop Hull via Humber Bridge then on to Scarborough

1 Attachment

Awesome updates, MM, keep them coming. :)

This

Cool tower S of Filey in a place called Hornsea. I'm int' north!

1 Attachment

Excellent. Keep going!

Yeah! And the sun is shining too but that bloody north wind dammit....not much fun tbh.

1 Attachment

Great, thanks. Really enjoying your updates. What's your mileage now?

I'm not clocking it exactly but around 280 including wrong turnings! I really struggled to get to the Humber Bridge today. Rain. Wind. Rubbish planning. I always thought, ignorantly that Grimsby is on one side and Hull on the other and now there's a bridge. Got a bit of a shock when I got to Grimsby and checked to find its 22 miles to the bridge! See the pic. Must concentrate more on my posture! Tomorrow's river crossing fun will happen at Middlesborough's Transporter Bridge.

1 Attachment

Awesome, good luck with the rest of the journey :)

Rush hour....10 miles from Whitby

1 Attachment

Animals on the cycle path. Typical commute then?

Yesterday. This man completed his 5-year project of cycling through all (388) of the Dutch municipalities, photographing the landscape in all of them. I joined him on a couple of rides over these years, and grew to admire his work and perseverance. The result will be a photo book with 1,000 visions of the Dutch landscape - you can preview it at http://www.bicycle-landscape.com

1 Attachment

And another cool structure. Hartlepool.

1 Attachment

Good picture.

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/ground-breaking-hartlepool-rig-arrival-hailed-a-triumph-1-8524423

I wonder how many of these oil rigs they'll dismantle there. I imagine other cities must be vying for the work, too.

So yesterday I left Scarborough for Houghton-le-Spring via Whitby, Guisborough, Middlesborough and Hartlepool. The cinder track out of Scarborough, the old Railway line to Whitby via Ravenscar, revealed the first surprise if the day, Robin Hoods Bay. Epic views around the cliffs over the N Sea in the bright morning sun. I fropped into Whitby for breakfast at Wetherspoons on the quayside and the set off for the climb onto the N Yorkshire moors. Tbh I got 2/3 of the way up and was knackered: surely my tyre pressures had dropped? So on a grassy corner of a junction I lay the bike down, then I lay down, and the next thing I know I'm woken from slumber by a voice shouting 'are you alright, excuse me!!!'. To the lady standing at her front door in her dressing gown I suppose I did look like an accident victim. I crossed the road to speak, we laughed, I filled my water bottle and set off again with a wave from the dressing gown lady at her front door. Odd scene! The moors were beautiful. I guess the combination of the previous day's relentless northerly headwind, ss, a huge breakfast and frankly a looooong incline did for me.

1 Attachment