Cycling 2024

[Slim]

Rain due over at about 1400, but I thought I could get 35 miles or so in before then. Set off at about 1015. With the wind coming from the east, the idea was to do 17 or 18 miles of the eastbound then come back.

I went east the "old" way through Rempstone. At the crossroads there I noticed, as I waited for a green light, a metallic grey Range Rover (or similar) in my mirror. He isn't going to try to overtake me going up the hill is he? I wondered. There wouldn't be a lot of space given the oncoming traffic.

He did overtake me. I was relieved as he passed though, he wasn't too close. However a split second later I discovered that he was towing a caravan, and that missed me by about seven inches. I shouted WANKER at the top of my voice. Not sure if the driver heard me or not. Bloody annoying.

By the time I got to Wymeswold, I'd decided to join up with the newer route. But when I got there I thought I'd keep going east for a bit first. I wasn't wholly sure I was on Narrow Lane, my intended way to the "new" route (although actually, I was). So since I'd done 18 miles by this time and I was half expecting to get rained on, I turned back. But I came back via Hoton and Cotes, to do the "new" route at least as far as Zouch. After crossing the A6 I extended the ride a bit by detouring through Long Whatton and Diseworth, then I came home down Top Brand.



I didn't get rained on. Actually as I type it still hasn't rained today, meaning that I could have done a fondo in very nice weather. It's sunnier now than it was this morning. Irritating.

Listened to another few hours of Pete Townshend's autobiography. Fascinating. Back on 40.46 miles.  559 this month now so I should get that to 600 before June.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11494131464

[Nickslikk2112]

Hmmm, what I thought was a cold might well be COVID. Mrs S has been feeling off it the last couple of days and she took a COVID test today and it turned out positive.

Well, I don't feel that bad and I always think a bit of exercise will do you good, get out in the fresh air and get the old cardio-vascular system going, but not going too hard of course.

My intention was just to go out and ride up to Linacre reservoir and back a few times, but I found out a stretch of road has just been surface dresses so there's a lot of loose gravel around, so I decided just to push on right to the top. Probably the best idea as even though it was hard work I only came back through the gravelly section once and I came close to sliding out even at reduced speed.

Still, good to get another 30 miles in, takes me to 437 for May, can I manage 63 more in the 3 available May days I have left?

https://www.strava.com/activities/11495916453

[Slim]

The forecast was for rain (again) in the afternoon, but I hoped to get 41 miles or a little bit less in to bring the May mileage total to 600. I set off at 1005 to do a moderately long bypasser.

Cool and windy as I pedalled away from the garage door. Sunny, but a few ominously dark grey clouds lurked the skies.

I did the whole length of Fenn Lanes right along to Sutton Cheney. Hadn't done that for a while. Very nice with a tailwind. Stopped at Sutton to backpack my tights and relax on one of the sofa-sized wooden benches there. The temperature climbed a bit after 1130.



Listened to 5 Live until they decided they'd cover Keir Starmer's speech in its entirety, which wasn't quite to my taste. Then I listened to another couple of chapters of Pete Townshend's autobiography. Fascinating man.

I did get rained on, but only lightly and only for about 20 seconds. There was a downpour about 40 minutes after I got back.

The Bypasser route generally takes me over a road that passes Twycross Zoo, at a crossroads. Today the road I was crossing was choked with traffic. Bank holiday zoo enthusiasts, possibly.

40.88 miles, so I judged the route nicely to bring the May total to 600.19 miles. 2450 done this year now so 5000 seems like an eminently achievable target for 2024.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11508927646

[Slim]

The wind was coming pretty much square on from the north yesterday afternoon, so I thought I'd try a route that I devised a few weeks ago. This would take me up to Castle Donington the usual way, then up to Borrowash - then up to Ockbrook, which is a small village a few miles out of Derby that I frequented occasionally in the early '90s. I hadn't been there for about 20 years. I set off at 1510.

Noticed a few planes taking off from the airport in the distance as I approached Donington. Thought I might be fortunate enough to see one taking off as I passed. I did see a DHL A300 taxiing so I stopped at the roundabout for a few minutes to watch it take off, but it didn't.

I passed a number of ROAD CLOSED signs on the way through Donington, hoping I'd be able to squeeze past whatever obstruction had closed the road to traffic. But the road wasn't actually closed, in fact there was a temporary traffic light system in place to allow vehicles to pass the roadworks that had (presumably) prompted the signs, in both directions. I suppose it's a useful deterrent to keep the traffic down.

Over Cavendish Bridge, through Shardlow, up past Elvaston Castle. Then I crossed Nottingham Road and negotiated a steep climb into Ockbrook. Very nostalgic, as I approach the end of my career, to pass two pubs which I used to visit on Friday lunchtimes with work colleagues from my first job. I stopped at a bench at the top of the hill to refuel with crisps and a pork pie that I'd bought. I continued on through Ockbrook then took a right onto Spondon Road. Another old haunt from the '90s lies along there; a pub called the Bartlewood Lodge. I did come this way a few years ago. I passed it, kept going for another couple of minutes then turned back. Just as I did so, the sun came out! It had been a cool, gloomy day until then but I had bright, warm sunshine for the rest of the ride.

I decided not to come back through Ockbrook. Instead I thought I'd visit Spondon. A girlfriend of mine lived there, as I believe she still does, and I used to cycle to her place from my own house in Oakwood, on the outskirts of Derby. So I pedalled into Spondon and repeated my old ride home, past Locko Park. Lovely in the early evening sunshine. I didn't actually visit my old house. I pedalled southward along Morley Road to Nottingham Road. Normally from there I'd head toward Borrowash but on this time, since I was indulging my nostalgia, I decided to risk Raynesway, so I could ride past my old place of work between 1989 and 1994. I was pleased to see that the building where I worked on the Rolls-Royce site is still there. I think it's due to be demolished soon.

Raynesway is a lot scarier for the hapless cyclist than it used to be. It's a very busy, multi-lane road. I did resort to the cycle lane eventually, somewhat reluctantly. Since I worked along there a bypass has been built which connects to it and unfortunately, I found my way onto that rather than into Alvaston, where I intended to join Shardlow Road.

Ah well. I propelled myself along the cycle lane alongside the bypass for two miles then joined Shardlow Road a bit further to the south than I intended. I came home through Aston, Weston, over Swarkestone Bridge then Melbourne and Coleorton as I have many times before.

Near Weston, a young man driving a fast hatchback of some sort pulled alongside briefly as he overtook, pointing his finger in an agitated manner. I only caught a couple of the words he shouted through the passenger window, these being "left side". I think he was intimating that I was, in his view, not riding close enough to the gutter. But I was considerably closer to it than the broken white line in the middle of the road. Still - he wasn't aggressive or threatening, just irritating.

Not far from Coleorton I stopped to make a phone call and as I checked the road behind me before remounting the bike, I saw two very young deer strolling across.

I was passed by a few riders with yellow squares pinned to their backs bearing a numeral and the text "JUST BIKES ASHBY". I wasn't familiar with Just Bikes but Ashby is only four miles from Chez Moi so I did a google search on my return and found their website. Oddly it just features the text "SHOP NOW CLOSED" and "Thank you for your custom".

I listened to 5 Live and more of Pete Townshend's autobiography, one of the most fascinating audiobooks I've ever downloaded.

Back on 48.88 miles which took my May total to 649, and my 2024 total, slighly irritatingly, to 2499. Would have been nice to hit the halfway point to 5000 miles before June. Not quite.

Really a nice sentimental ride out past old haunts. And the evening sunshine was glorious.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11542728393

[Slim]

Just spent a recreational twenty minutes composing a spreadsheet function to list my monthly totals. It is:

=SUM(filter(All!distlist,month(All!datelist)=ROW()-24,year(All!datelist)=COLUMN()+2007))

And when pasted around appropriately, it gives:



So at a glance, I can see that my total for this last month is my highest score since August 2020.

Out of curiosity I graphed and seasonally adjusted my monthly totals (smoothed using moving averages over 12 months to remove variations due to time of year) and the trend looks like this:



The dip is 2018/19 when I buggered my knees. The hump after that is 2020 I assume, when I went for 10,000 km. But it's been rising steadily over the last couple of years evidently.

[Nickslikk2112]

Got my first ride in since last Saturday. Probably would have been best if I'd not gone out last Saturday being as I most likely had COVID, but Kill or Kure, that's my motto.

I'd ended May with my lowest monthly total since 2015, just 438 miles, but then if I will take in 5 Riverside gigs, a Yes show and a meal out and get COVID then it's not surprising.

I could have got out yesterday, but even though I felt better than I had done in a long while, I still didn't feel like going out and I prevaricated until half three today until venturing out. I got a 30 miler in, just taking it steadily and started to feel a bit more like a cyclist before I got home. Hopefully June's weather will pick up and I have almost three weeks now until my next little jaunt away.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11549280879

[Nickslikk2112]

Got my second ride of the weekend in today. Having survived 30 miles yesterday, I thought I'd do it again. This time however I would ride up to the tops, albeit by the long-winded roundabout route.

Big mistake, it was into a strong headwind which necessitated putting in more effort than I had intended doing. Of course it made coming back easier, but that's downhill anyway. Today, I didn't feel like a cyclist.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11557743456/

[Fishy]

First run out for a while.. had friends down from Inverness who brought their bikes so did a leisurely. Trip to Troon and back.  Only 20 miles but a great day and good fun.. interestingly lots of newly resurfaced roads around Troon due to the open golf in July.. funny how they seem to find the money..

[Slim]

I want to take another three or four days off before I leave my present employer and with a dry day forecast, I decided at the weekend to take one of them today. A moderate wind was coming from the north-west and I thought I'd do the Upper Westbound route, not having done it for a while. This goes up to Melbourne, over Swarkestone Bridge, west along the Beloved A Road, then, after Sudbury, north toward Ashbourne.

I woke up at about 0500 and briefly pondered getting up there and then to do Wales and back. But the conditions weren't quite right for that today and anyway - quite honestly, I didn't feel like it. I went back to sleep and got up at about 0900.

So - I  went with Plan A and set off at about 1020. Conditions were cloudy and overcast, and a bit windy. But very comfortable. Not too warm, and on a longer ride bright sunshine can be fatiguing.

I intended a fondo but went a bit further than the half-fondo distance. I pressed on toward Ashbourne until I arrived at the top of a steep descent. I didn't fancy coming back up it so I turned back and came home exactly the same way.

Stopped to refuel at the petrol station near Hatton. I was pleased to see that they've now filled in the pothole where the forecourt joins the pavement. Wish they'd done that before I came a cropper at the beginning of December, an event that cost me a rear mech and, for a week or so, the use of my left hand ring finger. The finger is still a little bit stiff and crooked but it doesn't seem to have compromised my ability to play guitar. So I'm not overly bothered.



Took the pic at the bridge over the A38, south-west of Derby. The crash barrier made a surprisingly comfortable bench. I stopped there to eat a packet of crisps and a sandwich. I saved a Fry's Chocolate Cream for the outskirts of Melbourne, to give me a boost up Rotter's Rise.

I had an annoyingly long wait for a gap in the river of traffic on Ashby Road before I was able to cross it to come back into the village, two miles from home. I was standing there for seven minutes.

This was my third or fourth run out on the Roubaix since I applied some grip paste to the seat post and I'm pleased to say it hasn't slipped at all since then.

Listened to more of Pete Townshend's autiobiography, LBC and 5 Live.

Back on 68.45.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11564049194

[Slim]

An indifferent morning gave way to a rather nice afternoon, apart from a stiff wind from the west. I left work early - how many more times will I be able to say that? And set off on a Bypasser.

The wind was a bit of a brute as a headwind, but a bit of a joy in tailwind mode. I freewheeled quite a long way along Warton Lane, letting it push me along where usually I'd have to pedal.



I came through Upton and Shenton on the way back up. Lovely along there, so quiet and scenic. Should do it more often.

Listened to 5 Live, which feels a bit like a continuous Labour Party political broadcast at the moment. Then more of Pete Townshend's autobiography which has been a brilliant listen.

Because I have a magnet-based bike computer on the first Boardman I used a GPS logger app on a phone to track the ride. I was surprised to take it out of my pocket and find that it had logged 40 miles, when the bike computer (which I've calibrated fairly accurately) claimed 38.5. And when I uploaded it to Strava, I got 43.67! On closer analysis it turned out that the GPS logger app had gone a bit wappy, tracking a strangely zig-zag, wayward line. So I plotted the same route on a route planner. I got 38.8, and that's what I've put on the official (spreadsheet) record. Perhaps I'll do the same route again soon with a Garmin watch and see what I get.



https://www.strava.com/activities/11582116642

[dom]

Last Saturday was pretty cool for the time of year but perfectly adequate for cycling with little wind. We headed out to Delvin in West Meath. Its real peat bog country which meant it was pretty flat. The most remarkable thing about the trip were the 2 eagles on adjoining telegraph poles near Coolronan bog. After spotting them they both took off flying to the adjacent poles.

Felt pretty tired by the time I arrived back in Navan so made do with 90kms rather than pushing it and completing 2 fondos in 2 weeks.

[Nickslikk2112]

Still not feeling full of beans. Gave yesterday a miss because I just felt drained, turned out to be a good move as it rained.

Today, still didn't feel close to 100%, but, even though it was cool and blowy, the sun was out so out I popped for a couple of hours. Thankfully it was just warm enough for shorts and short sleeves, so could keep working those tanlines.

Just did a ride out to Tibshelf and back, didn't feel too bad actually, kept within myself and felt OK. Apart from a nose which was bubbling away like a snot Kilauea. Don't know whether it's a post COVID thing or a bit of a hayfever thing. All I know is I had a face like slugs had been partying on a cabbage. It got 33 miles in, which was nice.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11579066493

[Nickslikk2112]

Woke up feeling shattered, but once on the bike it felt like there were a few more beans in the tin. The nose didn't suffer a Snot Tsunami either, just a few heavy waves crashing on the beach. So that's better then

Didn't do the route I'd thought of doing as a quick look at the roadworks map and Google revealed a few sets of inconvenient roadworks had popped up, so I just went out with a similar start to yesterday then came round through Staveley and up to Middle Handley before a return home via Whittington and Cutthorpe.

Managed to get up to 35 miles today and for the fourth day in a row the Garmin reckoned I'd still got reserves left in the tank. All down to being a bit sensible and knocking back the speed on the flat and the effort uphill.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11587327410

[dom]

Had an issue with the bike struggling to get into the big cog at the front.


The mobile bike repair guy I use adjusted the cables and all is good again. Something that if I had a bit more confidence with bike maintenance I'm sure I could have managed myself. 

He didn't charge me for his 10 minutes but suggested that my wheels could do with replacing. He talked me into it, and as the wheels are still the originals and the bike is 8 years old I thought it reasonable. He's bringing them over next week. 100euro each for a pair of Mavics that he highly recommends.

[David L]

Had an issue with the bike struggling to get into the big cog at the front.


The mobile bike repair guy I use adjusted the cables and all is good again. Something that if I had a bit more confidence with bike maintenance I'm sure I could have managed myself. 

He didn't charge me for his 10 minutes but suggested that my wheels could do with replacing. He talked me into it, and as the wheels are still the originals and the bike is 8 years old I thought it reasonable. He's bringing them over next week. 100euro each for a pair of Mavics that he highly recommends.

Why did he think bike wheels need replacing after 8 years?