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Thirty seven miles on the (wife's) crosser in incessant to driving rain and at times bonkers headwinds. The temperature hovered around 3 degrees. The kind of conditions where you throw all the best clothes you have at them and find they come up short, ten miles in.
Mercifully the mud was the variety that decided not to stick.
Massive rep for Tonyme who was kind enough to give me a lift out and back.
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Saturday: 40 mile road ride with Cycliste to just north of Newmarket and back. We got within 8 miles of home before it started raining. Then, on the last stretch into the wind, we got caught in a hailstorm and had to stop to shelter behind the only building in sight. The wind was sufficiently vigorous then when I stopped the bike got blown out of my hands. It then binned it down for the rest of the ride, which was at least with the wind behind us. Squelchy.
Sunday: Did round 3 of the Thetford Forest MTB winter series. Went for the 2 hour race, rather than the 4 hour option, and did 3 laps in 2hr25min. It rained for almost the entire time. When I got home not only did I have to hose down my bike, but also my SPD boots, Camelbak, shorts and jersey. Also squelchy.
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Took some people to Brighton. Classic forum ride (with 30+ people). 8/10 would bang.
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Decided at the pub on friday night that it would be fun to ride to the sea on saturday. Left in the morning without planning a route and reached Felixstowe in 52 miles. Weather was pleasant until turning south at Woodbridge meant the last 10 miles were directly into the wind. Missed the train back by 3 minutes and my friend didnt fancy the 12 miles back to Ipswich so we sat on the platform and froze. Monsoon struck as we got in to Ipswich and i was very glad to be sheltering in a train. Look forward to doing a similar route as soon as the weather warms up and i can have ice cream at the end.
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Went out for a pacey ride today, got split up from the group after getting that wierd thing where your calf muscle locks up and it hurts like a fucker till you stretch it the wrong way for a bit
decided to head back a different way, ended up on a dirt path in pitch black, that got muddier and muddier and the puddles got bigger and bigger, till i got to a section that went under the motorway (around stretford, manchester) that was completely flooded
waded my way through the bushes by the side of the motorway for 3/4 of a mile till i got to a normal road
the final 3 miles back to mine from trafford were absolutely awful, I bonked out from lack of food, and the wind was making me freezing
safe to say it wasn't quite what I planned but it was fun as fuck and my bikes filthy
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Needed to complete the Strava Gran Fondo 1 challenge, so I set off this morning in the pouring rain. It didn't let up at all the entire way, and I had a bit of a crisis that involved my fingers getting so cold I literally couldn't brake or shift. I had to go into a convenience store and buy some nylon liner gloves, which saved me.
http://app.strava.com/activities/109908570
But, beautiful views...
And a good excuse to eat cake and drink very gay cocoa with sprinkles. You can get away with that, because of Rule 9: sprinkles don't make you any less of a badass.
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The picture of the mountain ain't too bad either
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Grand Fondo 2 done.
Not the hardest of routes, but extremely pleasant!
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76 miles round loch lomond, loch long & gare loch in the flying snow & rain. couldn't feel my fingers at the cafe stop and felt very close to whiteying
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I did a Kentury. My first in a very long time, as I spent all my spare time in 2013 going to Homebase and complaining about the weather. It wasn't hugely interesting, but seeing as it's such an unusual occurrence I thought I'd do a ride report.
I've tried to go riding a couple of times this year but keep bailing on mileage due to being slow and fat and finding it difficult - plan to do 60 and I'll do 40, plan to do 80 and I'll do 65 - so this time I thought I'd plan to do 130 and see what happened.
I set off towards Kent via Chislehurst, where I was overtaken by a bunch of slevless who I believe refer to themselves as the Greenwich Tritons (told you I was slow and fat). I sabotaged their ride by telling the last one in the pack their brake QR was undone (it was, so it was only slightly malicious) and skipped off to play on the A224, thinking I'd seen the last of them.
Not so! I saw them again riding away from a massive flood at the top of Polhill, advising me to turn around as it was impassable. "We'll see about that!" I thought to myself, and plunged in. It wasn't impassable, but it was fairly unpleasant.
By Sevenoaks my feet were starting to hurt (I hadn't brought overshoes because I am an idiot) so I naively went to a bike shop, bought another pair of socks and made a spectacle of myself changing into them while prospective bike buyers looked on in alarm. Obviously this was an utterly ridiculous idea because by the time I'd got down Tonbridge way I'd ridden through another three floods, one hub-deep, and had soaked feet again. At Beltring a fellow cyclist advised me not to take the right turn. I thanked him for his advice and ignored it, figuring I was wet anyway so it wouldn't make much difference.
Claygate Lane was entirely underwater; I hopped on the pavement for a bit until a vehicle recovery man who was hauling a stranded Tesco delivery van out of the flood informed me that there was no point in me trying to continue, as everyone else on a bike who'd tried had turned around. I saw that as a challenge, and continued my ride-swim into water above my knees. At some point a man in a pick-up truck asked if I wanted a lift, which I decided it would be foolish to decline, although it was a bit late by that point and I dripped all over his car.
Post Claygate the flooding wasn't so bad and bar a few shallower lakes (one came with a woman in a Volvo who wasn't sure whether she dared attempt it; I told her I'd go first so she could see how deep it was) everything became a bit less eventful and I actually started making some progress. Then it started pouring with rain, followed by hail, followed by me having a minor tantrum, until I saw a rainbow and then remembered that eating usually stops my tantrums, so I stopped at Biddenden for an egg and cress sandwich and a nutritional can of Dr Pepper. The sun came out again after that, so I continued on my merry way to Tenderden, where the rain got so bad I had another tantrum and turned around. The next 25 miles were rain soaked and miserable, until I stopped off at a petrol station for a Boost and some map consultancy to try and find a route which avoided the worst of the floods.
Nothing else really happened, to be honest; the floods were probably the most exciting part of the ride. All in all though it was brutally difficult and I fell asleep in the bath after I got home. Still, longest ride (bar touring) in a year or so (110 miles), so it'll do. I do hope it gets easier, though.
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I just go for it, though I probably would've been a bit nervier if the first one hadn't been Polhill which I knew had a pretty good surface at that point.
I've been doing it off-road a bit recently, I quite enjoy the sensation in a weird way.
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I went to the South Downs today and there was plenty of flooding en route - had to take quite a few detours to avoid it.
Otherwise a decent day out. Nice to get the Strava Gran Fondo ticked off early this month!
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Went ice skating. Missed the sound of cracking ice which I had not thought about for decades.
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Tell us about your weekend ride
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Little group ride to Cambridge yesterday, managing to arrive seconds before the skies opened and the high street got turned into a torrent of rain and A-frame signs getting blown around.
On our travels we had to stop twice as two separate herds of deer decided to bolt across the road a few metres in front of us, then stopped to look at what we thought was the biggest dog in the world but was actually a wild pig roaming around. Finished off with massive coffees, massive jacket potatoes and Bakewell tarts in Tatties.
http://www.strava.com/activities/108880452