Friday Afternoon Coffee Ride

18th March

Catching up on blog posts whilst I have a minute. So this will be brief.

I got a call from my friend Jon to see if I fancied a short ride after work. We met up at the bike shop in Ashton and set off down Carrington Lane towards Partington. It's always a quick pace for me when out riding with Jon. Probably something to do with him riding for the British Cycling Team.

Not much time for pictures as you can imagine.

A quick, two man danger panda

 We were soon in Lymm and sought out some coffee and cake at The Terrace.

Coffee and cake consumed we headed back to Sale.

 21.27 miles

Mad March in the Peaks

12th March 2011

My tardy attitude to updating this blog is starting to grate. I have been riding a little more but am now failing to update this page which is kind of defeating the point.

Anyhoo. On the 12th of March four intrepid cyclists got up early to get a few dryish miles in around Ladybower. With an unusual vigour we had managed to get up, load up bikes and drive to Chorlton to pick up Bod by 7.50am! This was setting a dangerous precident as I tend to run a 'little' late for these things (I think my record is 2 1/2 hours late). We cracked on to Glossop to pick up Steve. 14 miles of winding, undulating road later and we were at the Sheffield end of the Snake Pass and parking up at Ladybower reservoir.

I had borrowed Adam's new Navara pickup to get 4 bikes and 4 bodies upto the Peaks. It made things soooo much easier than playing bike/person tetris. The 28.6mpg was less than desirable though.

Navara - Fully Loaded

Bikes unpacked and fettled, a quick toilet break for Mark and we set off. Straight out of the car park, over the reservoir and onto the first bridleway. A fairly brisk start to warm up the legs before the first road climb up to Thornhill. We wanted to head up to Win Hill for the view and the great descent down the roman road. This neccessitated a slightly cheeky use of a footpath. It's a good techy climb though. It's got a brilliant combination of sticky, slippery mud, grass, loose stones and water bars and the gradient is steep enough to be testing but not too much so that you have to walk. After much puffing and panting we were at the first gate. A quick stop for a drink and to let Bod catch up after falling off. His excuse that it was his first time using spds was met with the utmost sympathy ;-).

The next part is a steep rocky push followed by a hike-a-bike to the summit.

Bod, Steve & Mark, mid Hike-a-Bike

On a clear day the view from Win Hill is excellent and this time was no exception. It's wonderfully peaceful even with a few walkers up there.

Steve casually shouldering his Ti Bride

We stopped to refuel on fizzy cola bottles and jellybeans and went to touch the trig point. I have a weird obsession about touching them. It's perfectly normal, honest!

Mark went for the hidey....peep look for this photo

It was getting touch chilly up there so we hooned off down the roman road. Actually some of us hooned. Bod minced. Again blaming the spds.

At the cross roads we decided to try 'Potato Alley' as opposed to the usual descent, intimidatingly named 'The Beast'. It seemed like a safer option considering Bods unusual descending reticence.

Bottom of Potato Alley

As it turns out it wasn't that safe after all. Steve had an over the handlebars crash and Mark and his bike parted company part of the way down too. It really is a fantastic descent though and I look forward to riding it again. I would say that though as I didn't fall off!

Steve's war wounds. It was worse than it looks

A smooth road descent back to the Snake Pass and a nice farmers track climb over to the plantation helped us forget the collective cuts and bruises. The last big descent of the day beckoned. It's a good 'un as well. It's starts with a fast hardpack trail and soon steepens off with technical bits and a few gullys to navigate. Covered in mud we hit the road with smiles on our faces and headed to the visitor centre cafe.

Time was getting the better of us now so a quick coffee and we headed back round the reservoir and back to the car. Three of us had a date with Tapas and Belgian beer back in Altrincham.

About 15 miles in total I think.

Going Boldly Where...

...about 70,000 visitors per year also go.

Today I rode out to Jodrell Bank Observatory. The visitors centre was closed to the public in October 2010 and has since been demolished. Fear ye not, as the new visitor centre will open this summer.

It was a bright, crisp Sunday morning and I met Bod at Paul's house in Didsbury. After the consummate amount of pre-ride fettling, we set off in the direction of Cheadle. It was around this point we realised that we had one inner tube between the three of us and no pump! Ah well, I never puncture anyway. Something ran through my mind about 'famous last words'.  Winding out through the suburbs and into the green belt of Wilmslow, the miles fell away. We were specifically avoiding climbs today as Bod had ridden up Snowdon on the Friday and his legs were a little heavy. This ruled out the vertiginous ascent upto the Edge and instead we ploughed our furrow on the gentle incline up towards Nether Alderley Mill.

Nether Alderley Mill

My Bike leaning on a post by the mill

 

The mornings' climbing out of the way, we set about enjoying the flat roads of Cheshire. Cycling out here allows you to take in the sights a little more than speeding past in a car. You begin to notice picturesque churches like St John the Evangelists in Chelford, tree lined verges and little village halls. Unfortunately if I stopped to photograph everything, each ride would take about 3 days.

With the Lovell Telescope in sight I went for my virgin two man Danger Panda.

1 and a half men really

Good job I don't look slightly retarded eh?

A brush with science under our collective belts and we headed back to Alderley. Paul decided to peel off and head home at this point, leaving myself and Bod to up the pace and head over to the airport. As we approached the Alderley Road roadabout, disaster struck. I heard a  pop, quickly followed by a hiss, a puncture had reared it's ugly head. Fffffffuuu. It wasn't my tyre but it still left us a problem. Bod looked a little dejected and seemed a little confused by my lack of concern. 'Blessed are the Cheesemakers' as the quotation goes. Obviously not meant to be taken literally as scholars of Python will know. We had suffered our greatest inconvenience outside the venerable Royles bikeshop. The mechanic was gracious enough to lend Bod a pump whilst I set about removing the offending inner tube.

With the wind behind us we set off again. A thankfully uneventful trip put us back in Didsbury. Bod split off back to Chorlton and I went back to Paul's to collect my keys and my car which I'd left at Lou's work the night before.

34.4 miles done and coffee and cake beckoned.

Knock! Knock!

Who's There?

Alpaca.

Alpaca who?

Alpaca the suitcase, you pack-a the car!

There is of course a reason for the terrible Alpaca joke but I'll get to that shortly.

Today I rode from work, just for a change. I work in Handforth so it's a different route out into the Cheshire lanes than usual. I headed out from the office in the general direction of Wilmslow. Heading up through Handforth centre and dropping down into Wilmslow town centre. It was gone 4pm so the traffic was warming up. As I got into Alderley Edge the traffic was at a stand still so I dropped of the main road and onto the smaller and much less busy country roads. Bliss.

I found myself by the Plough & Flail

Now the temptation was upon me to stop and have a pint. It's one of the best pubs in Cheshire for food (in my opinion of course) and the beers' not bad either. I thought I should push on though. I only got a few metres before I came across (dun dun duuun), The Alpaca Farm.

They seem to be a bit like Llamas but hairier and without the bad attitude. Anyway, enough about the alpacas.

Moving on. I wove on through the lanes, the sun was getting lower in the sky and I was getting into a good rhythm. The solitude of road riding is one of the things I love. Your mind wanders and it really helps distance yourself from the days' stresses. As I whisked through the back lanes I came back to Wilmslow. I thought I'd strike a course for the airport as the inner geek loves watching them take off and land.  Diving through a gate, slightly off piste, I came the the little service road by the runway.

After stopping to take a couple of photos' there was nothing doing on the aeroplane front so I rode over to Styal mill. Whilst on the way I took the opportunity to take a Danger Panda. Result below.

Funny face pulled for effect obviously. Fortunately the wind didn't change at this point.

A few more miles flew by and before I knew it I was back at work. A few funny looks from people who haven't seem me in fetish gear lycra before but they'll get used to it.

31.1 miles down and a very happy me.

Absence makes the bike go slower

It's been a month since my last blog post but fear ye not, I've still been cycling. Albeit not as much as I should have.

Apathy and excuses have been the order of the month of February. I've really struggled to MTFU and ride. I've been out a few times in the last month, which is so far below what I set myself it's not funny.

Sunday 6th Feb -  30 miles on the road, crap weather, so made my excuses and went home to play COD.

We went on holiday for a week to try and get some sun whilst the UK is a freezer.

Me, driving. very interesting.

When we got back I mustered just about enough energy to do another 30 road miles. Out into Cheshire for some flat, cold, windy miles.

Saturday 19th was a little better as me and Bod went up to Glossop to meet up with Steve to do a nice MTB route. Led by Goat Boy we spent the next 5 hours and 20 miles climbing up bridleways between Glossop, Marple and Hayfield. Finally coming back over Chunal and dropping back into Glossop tired, cold and very dirty.

My bike and clothing needed the better part of an hour and a half of cleaning. To be fair I didn't do it until the day after...

A dip in moral following a tiring week a work followed and I had to be coerced into riding the following weekend by Bod. We headed upto Rivington for a small ride. We only covered around 10 miles but got an absolute ton of climbing in. As everyone knows climbing is good for the soul!

Today, I have found a new lease of life! It must be the weather. Dry. Cool. Bright. Good enough for me. I shot back from work and headed up through Altrincham over toward Tatton. I knocked out 32.1 miles and was still back for 5.30. Woo!

I'm back in the game. The bikes' coming to work with me tomorrow.

Breaking in Bod and Old Route, New Tricks

I've had a coldy thing all week and felt terrible, so cycling was well and truly off the menu. I can't go a whole weekend without being on a bike though so I suggested to Bod that we have a little low intensity spin.


Saturday

Mark (Bod) has never ridden a road bike so it was going to be interesting for him. After sticking some mtb spds' on my winter bike and re-assembling my summer bike we were ready to go.

It was a balmy 0c as we set off , heading towards Hale. The riding position is so different to Mountain Biking that I thought he may struggle but after a small period of adjustment and after channelling the inner cyclist he seemed to be happy enough. We ploughed on through the backroads upto the A538. Although it's a main road, it's slightly downhill and goes under the two runways at the airport. Withing 30 minutes we were on the outskirts of Wilmslow. It was a nice gentle pace but Bod was sweating profusely (to anyone that knows him, this is normal).

We skirted round Wilmslow and headed back towards home. A nice ride at a gentle pace. 22.16 miles covered and I think Bod may be looking to add another bike to his (already burgeoning) collection.

Sunday

After the success of Saturday, Bod suggested that we head up to Rivington and ride out to Healey Nab. It's a minature trail centre complete with graded signposts and groomed trails. Groomed in a good way not in a Paul Gadd way!

After unloading the bikes and the statutory amount of faffing we set off. It was a short route at 10 miles but satisfiing; as we both ride round the Pike pretty frequently but have never been out to 'the nab'.

We made short work of the couple of miles out to Healey Nab. I felt quite strong on the uphills and was further encouraged as Bod was on his 'big bike' so was having to work a little harder than usual.

We dropped into the woods and were soon riding little drops, tight switchbacks and errr bermy berms. As we got to the bottom of the red section there was a little rock chute which, to my shame, I bottled. Mark stopped too, as I'd stopped.

Now, I'm aware that it doesn't look particularly steep but from the top it looks quite nasty, with a little drop off to the left.

Mark got back on his bike and rode it straight away. I had three abortive attempt before deciding that today wasn't the day. I blame being ill during the week. We carried on and it led to a nice climb out of the woods back to the bridleway. A couple of road climbs and some rocky bridleways and we were back at the car. sausage rolls and pie at Tesco and we were on our way back to civilisation.

On the Fiddle

The frequency of my posting suggests that I'm doing no where near as much riding as I should be. Blames lies squarely at the door of...the government. If they didn't put the bloody clocks' back, I'd have far more riding time during the week.

Back to business. My only ride of the week so far was on Saturday. Not the nicest or indeed warmest day of the year so far but needs must!

Jon and I set out from Sale with the intention of heading towards Buxton. It was pretty chilly but you soon warm up and the miles dissappear if you keep moving. We were in Wilmslow within about 30 mins, then on to Alderley Edge. Decision Time...Do we go straight on up to the Chelford crossroads or left up the exceedingly steep climb towards the 'edge'. Left it is then. Just to clarify, I hate this climb and I do mean hate. It catches you out by flattening out mid-way, only to kick back in at a steeper incline just as you think you've recovered. You also have the footballer wankermobiles flashing past you as you are blowing out of your arse too.

Jon had already been at the top a minute or so by the time I got there so we cracked straight on to Macclesfield.

Now in Macclesfield, this was the part I was really not looking forward to. A 30 minute climb up to the infamous Cat & Fiddle Pub. Jon sped off in his now characteristic style leaving me trying to squeeze an energy gel into my mouth and remember to breathe and pedal at the same time. As I climbed it got colder and wetter and then quite a bit misty. As I passed the sign for Rainow I remember how much further it was to the top. I plodded on progressing deeper into the damp mist. Soon enough I could just about make out the Cafe with Jon stood in the car park. I stopped to take a couple of photos' and then rode up to the cafe. He'd been there 7 minutes. Bastard.

51.5 miles done.