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Apocalyptic ride for me, but some valuable lessons learnt. Set off for Bristol from Cheltenham again, this time following route 41 of the cycle network, which meant avoiding the dull A38 and instead following the Severn, which was longer but a lot more picturesque. I was looking forward tpo Bristol, some good pub food and some drinks with friends from work, conditions were decent (headbreeze rather than wind, intermittent sun) and the legs felt good.
So to the first lesson; national cycle networks don't always take you down routes suitable for all bike types. I was aware that one bit of it wasn't on a road, but I had visions of a tarmaced cycle path. instead it was the very stoney, rough towpath of the Gloucester to Sharpness canal.
second lesson when you're riding on a surface and are thinking to yourself 'I'm going to get a puncture on crap like this' you get off the bike and push. No exceptions. The inevitable happened around the corner, hit something big in the path, very rapid loss of pressure.
Third lesson: when you say to yourself to swing by the LBS and pock up a spare tube don't fucking forget. i had everything else but the tube was a frickin' pin cushion. I got the help of a friendly lock keeper who supplied me with a cup oif tea and watering bucket to look for punctures. There were so many I ran out of patches, fortunately he has some. I was there for an hour and a half, had to use 10 patches, more in fact as I had to re-patch a couple.
Anyway felt like a fucking prick. Eventually managed to get the tube into good enough state for me to limp to the nearest train station with a slowly deflating rear, stopping to pump it up every few miles.
Never known a tube is such a bad way, ten punctures, most of them two holes side by side. Pinch flats maybe, or maybe I ran over something very sharp. I don't understand how they were in so many different places around the tube.
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I was 45-50k in, was hoping to break the ton on my fixed for the first time, and I would have got away with it if it wasn't for that pesky fairy.
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Oh and just wanted to say mad props to the lock keeper, kept me in tea, company and patches while i sorted it out. I would have had a long walk without his help. now i've done that route and failed i'm itching to have another go, and sing by and give him some replacement patches and a couple of beers as thank you.
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Did the Flat Out in the Fens long route today. The route passes within a couple of miles of my house, so it seemed rude not to since I had no other plans for today.
The good news is I have (make that briefly had) a new Strava KOM, although given that the segment in question is 3 miles long, has an elevation gain of 0ft and an elevation difference of 9ft, the title King of the Mountains seems highly inappropriate.
The bad news is I appear to have fucked up my right knee in the process, but I'm hoping that ibuprofen, a good bottle of claret and A Good Night's Sleep will cure it.
Having ridden home from Peterborough last weekend I can confirm that it is very flat but also extremely windy. Good work with the average speed over that distance, especially given today's conditions.
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Did anyone else do Chase the Sun on Saturday? 205 miles into a headwind, 3000m climbing, and all the rain was ... interesting. Think I enjoyed it, but made a few stupid mistakes (1. Don't fiddle with cleat position the week before a long ride. 2. Don't remove a carbon seat post unless you have a torque wrench. Luckily I didn't kill it, but 40 miles with it slipped an inch too low was not much fun)
Edit: 208 miles, and 5400m climbing instead ha!
http://app.strava.com/activities/62424984
Ouch
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Wasn't going to go out cycling this weekend because the wind / rain forecast but as I've been off the bike for the last couple of weeks with a back injury, I thought I better get out there anyway.
The rain held of and it made it an almost pleasant 60k despite my lack of fitness. I was in a good mood until my brother posted a picture from his weekends ride up the Col de la Madone...
Ha! This is awesome. I hope after getting his pic he said 'Brad, can I have your autograph and why did you shave your sideburns?'
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I set out to do a small 20mile, lets see how the bike is, it's been a year since I've actually done more than commute. My friend was like "Sure, I've hurt my foot, 20's fine"... which became 25, 30, 40, finally toping out at 46. While it's not much compared to what most of you lot do (and it was slow), I'm pretty please with it, and my legs hurt.
Besides the fact it was raining, it's a damn nice place to cycle here.
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Contemplative short ride out into Kent on Saturday morning.
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Those full kit wankers aren't fast enough to keep up with us, I'm not surprised they're not on here.
I went out for a 60 mile spin around Surrey. 2 laps of Box Hill, came home via Epsom, Chessington, Tolworth, Surbiton and Richmond, imagining that this would be a nice middle class route with scenery and ting, innit. Who knew Tolworth, with its chocolate-box traditional English name, was such an irredeemable shithole? Also everybody out there today is even grumpier than me, which is quite a fucking feat.
Don't diss Tolworth, it has a tower.
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Gaining hight must be a bitch where you guys live.....i ride like 20-30km and i climbed 1.500m :)
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Another delightful sortie in the Malibu Cols...Decker Canyon (steep) and Piuma Road (long) separated by a few rolling hills. Still not managing to beat 63k...but I'm only allowed out for 3hrs or so at a time.
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2744595
Brommers
Jimmy_Fingers
bothwell
tricitybendix
lynx
branwen
Fox
Kirth
hms
JB
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upstart-
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Tell us about your weekend ride
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That's an incredible route, in terms of elevation gain vs distance ridden.