Have you been out today?

[Canardly]

Quick local circuit with a friend 16 miles. It's hot.

[cycleman]

Just to the bank and bank, twice 

[John Stonebridge]

Out yesterday for a 10km debut ride for my newest bike - a never used Giant TCR purchased 2nd hand from a colleague.   

My first tubeless bike (if you ignore the rider   ).  Very sprightly and the geometry very much to my liking - I need a position that's a bit punchy given that I'm proportionately less upper body and more legs than yer average cyclist.  Flipped the seat clamp to the forward setting and switched the regular stem for a 60cm 30 degree arrangement and it feels lovely.

Out today au tandem after work for a sunny 30km - road closed signs up at the top end of Ratho were ignored as was the fence across the road as we walked around it - a bit jaggy but passable.  This was one of our favourite tandem rides during the pandemic but two things were really noticeable today - new houses everywhere we looked and appalling road surfaces.  We'll have to try and find a better ride, but thank goodness that the big machine splits in two so that every ride doesn't have to start from home - getting out the city means some urban jinking (narrow gaps with bollards and tight turns) which the tandem doesn't like. 

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/47274012

[Snakehips]

Second time out this year with shorts, Yowzah!

[cycleman]

Rode to Langley college to see apollo singing in his all ability choir performance  .
His singing is definitely better than mine

[The Family Cyclist]

Another hot sunny day, considering a run then mate texts and reminds me we had arranged a ride. Definitely fast bike weather so headed out once family responsibilities dealt with. Had a moment of confusion when my riding buddy told me the road I was about to go up was shut to build a roundabout. This surprised me but he insisted was shut, told me near what and then I explained that road was the opposite direction. Then continued out lovely little ride mostly down very quiet lanes which were dry and clear ish apart from gravel.

However think I over did it in the sun, did have a cap under helmet but only took one bottle, because I need to buy more bottles so don't think drunk enough and sun was strong felt a little run down since got back after being out for around 2 hours

[T42]

Yesterday: Set out for Mutzig, 75k to south, but got screaming hot liquid squitters just after Woerth so had 1st coffee stop in Morsbronn, 18k. Quite weak thereafter & guts far from sure but plugged on to Mommenheim. Still didn't feel great after coffee #2 and the promise of storms in the plain was dissuasive, so turned west along the canal for the umpteenth time this year.  Utterly fed up after 25k of it so stopped for leisurely lunch in Saverne, which was choked with folk come to rubberneck the Olympic Crotch Torch. Fortunately that had buggered off by the time I got there, just leaving the public-address-system muzak (Odour of Joy ad nauseam), the hordes of peelers and even the army, both of whom were taking advantage of the occasion to recruit.  Some of the peelers were carrying more kit on the fronts of their stab vests than the bargain counter at Gamages. The roadblocks were still in place when I left but the blokes on duty just waved me through.

Uneventful 76k to get home; however, the air was very humid and the temperature hit 30° after lunch.  I was sweating buckets and since I can only carry one bottle on the electrified Trek and that was full of Isostar which got progressively more repulsive the farther I went, I got dehydrated and ended up with hamstring tendinitis on the last 20k.  Conjured it (mostly) with aforesaid Isostar but bleh.

Ended up with 137k instead of the 180 I'd planned

HRM packed up after lunch, strap eroded to hell. Ordered new one.

Great ride, FSVO great.

[rogerzilla]

Malmesbury today, 40 miles.  Felt lucky so decided to do M4 J16 and the A3102 to Wootton Bastard.  Mate lost his water bottle when he hit a pothole on the A3102, not happy.  Turns out it's a carbon bottle cage which doesn't grip the bottle at all.  He bought a new one from C H Whites in Malmesbury. 

[ElyDave]

Nice 50km yesterday pre getting home to watch that ultimately exciting stage finish. Today's plan is a 70-80 km effort from about 8:30 or so

[perpetual dan]

97km of mostly nice lanes, wooded tracks and sensible cycle route, with a bit of South Downs to finish. Up to East Grinstead, across to Crawley, and tracking the A23 to Hurstpierpoint is the outline, though it was much more fun than “ride to Crawley” sounds.

[Canardly]

20 windy miles to a new cafe venue for me on local country estate. Very nice indeed.

[T42]

Yesterday:  Wind forecast to be light and no rain forecast so set out for Mutzig, 70-odd km south of here so a 150k round trip, with the option of going via Obernai to make it 180k.  Once on the road the wind set SWerly and strong: my bigger battery was 1 bar out of 5 down by 25k and down to 2 bars by 50, my legs were complaining and I'd spent so long on the drops that my neck was asking for a raise and threatening strike action.  Stopped at just 60k for lunch/recharge.  Meal took >2hrs so battery got 4v back and lasted another 60k.

Lunch, yeah.  The resto where I'd stopped en catastrophe was moderately up-market but they had a lunchtime menu at 11,50€ so I ordered that. The main-course fish was already sold out so they offered chicken instead. This turned out to be case-hardened lumps of chicken breast in the left-over sauce from the fish, along with dark brown uncrisp chips.  So much for up-market. Note to self: carry toothpicks in HB bag.

After lunch both Obernai and Mutzig had lost their charm so I chopped the bottom off my loop and presently headed N again with the wind behind. Had a pleasant coffee stop with a slice of apple tart about 35k from home.  While I was eating a trio of kids, aged ~7 to 11, went by across the road on BFO electric bikes. Bloody hell.

Wind seemed to shift NE in late pm, so I had a stroppy headwind again for the last 20k.

Wildlife: as I was leaving the village a red squirrel crossed most of the road ahead of me and stopped bolt upright in my lane, maybe in the hope that if it made itself as tall as possible it could scare me off.  I stopped and talked to it, and after a few seconds it decided not to kill me and went on across.  A bit further on there was a dead badger at the roadside. I've seen quite a few dead but only ever one alive, galumphing across a field ~50 metres away. Shame.  Didn't see any birds of note: see above under neck.

135k in the end; still stiff and sore, and moderately brain-dead (yeah sure, business as usual) today.

ETA: thought so: electric bikes only legal for kids 14 and over. Now wondering if they were e-bike lookalikes, which would be equally bloody hell.

[Tim Hall]

Yesterday 20 km to Horley from my Rural Idyll, train to That London, train (see Div thread) to York. Then 70 km of flat followed by Scenery of the Yorkshire Wolds to Malton. Today 90km of Howardian Hills and edge of the North York Moors to Bedale. Due to reasons, today was fuelled a sossidge sandwich for breakfast, cake at elevenses, then a pint of BEER at about one. Tomorrow a similar distance but more Scenery through the dales ending in Masham.

[Tim Hall]

As mentioned up there, almost 90 km of Scenery through the Yorkshire Dales. Out of Bedale through Catterrick and into Richmond for breakfast. Lunch at Aysgarth , anove the falls, ice cream at Leyburn, BEER at Masham, ehere out hotel is. Over 1200m of climbing.

[Tim Hall]

Final leg of the Tour de Yorkshire, from Masham over into Nidderdale, some "Road Closed" jiggery pokery into Studley Royal , coffee anna cake at Ripley Castle, stop at a microbrewery in Knaresborough then a dash to York station. Pint at the York Tap on platform one. Now whizzing, inna LNER stylee to London Town.

[MikeFromLFE]

I've been trying to get back on my bike once a week (at least) to fight the flab.

So far it's been going well with relatively short rides, and trying avoid busy road sections as much as possible.
This morning was a pootle round the local area without the lumpy bits of the previous rides.
I got back feeling like a wrung out wet rag, and extremely hungry - but it's great to be back in the saddle.

[Jurek]

Final leg of the Tour de Yorkshire, from Masham over into Nidderdale, some "Road Closed" jiggery pokery into Studley Royal , coffee anna cake at Ripley Castle, stop at a microbrewery in Knaresborough then a dash to York station. Pint at the York Tap on platform one. Now whizzing, inna LNER stylee to London Town.

You should be good for a G&T or two before you need to get your act together to deal with the metropolis.

[T42]

50k coffee/cookie toddle. Dunno why but felt very tired, not to say weak, most of the way & almost drained a battery that I can normally get 100k out of.  Wondering if PPI's affect performance - doc doubled the dose last week.

[Tim Hall]

Final leg of the Tour de Yorkshire, from Masham over into Nidderdale, some "Road Closed" jiggery pokery into Studley Royal , coffee anna cake at Ripley Castle, stop at a microbrewery in Knaresborough then a dash to York station. Pint at the York Tap on platform one. Now whizzing, inna LNER stylee to London Town.

You should be good for a G&T or two before you need to get your act together to deal with the metropolis.

Broken train in front of us at Peterborough with cosequent nearly three hours of Not Moving meant a several of G&T inna can would have made life easier. As it was the catering team got off just after I bought the first one.

[MattH]

Went for a 40k ride to our favourite cafe for lunch, MrsH on her vintage 1998 Saracen for a change, me on the Trice with dog on the back. Notable for having my first in-the-wild random meeting of another recumbent trike rider - he riding a Windcheetah, caught up with us and rode alongside for a while before we stopped for a natter.

[cycleman]

First attempted ride of any distance since the york Rally disaster. From Slough to Windsor then b roads to Twyford where I stopped for food. A jacket potato tuna mayo plus salad and a coffee later and then onwards via ncn4 along the a4  then Wargrave crazies hill cockpole green and down Lemington hill and Henley. Henley was choked with  traffic due to roadworks but I got through without much trouble..a couple of a road miles then back onto the lanes up to Fawley and through Southend (no sign of wowbagger  ) and a fast decent into Turville. On through fingest and frith and then Marlow. Stopped for a sandwich from Sainsbury's then over winter hill and down to Cookham, maidenhead Riverside and back to Slough. I averaged 7.1 moving over 51.23 miles and 554 meters of climbing..
I enjoyed the ride but my are very painful this evening. I see  ibuprofen and paracetamol in my future 

[jsabine]

Very pleasant Low Countries bimble - we're at a coastal Center Parcs place with my wife's brother and family, so trundled 20km south through the dunes to meet up with my SiL's sister and her kids at another beach resort.

*Very* impressed with my six year old nephew, who completed the 40k in fine fettle, and switched into racing mode as we finished up, objecting any time he thought I was about to overtake him. (I wasn't - I was just trying to keep up!)

[Jaded]

Was a few days ago, Saturday, but did 35k which was the furthest on a non-turbot bike for nearly 10 years. On the single speed too.

Fun!

[T42]

Yesterday: 80k coffee run, 30k of it mostly without the motor. Legs muttonsville (dead as) this morning, turning head sounds like twisting a bundle of uncooked spaghetti to destruction and neck hurts like hell at the same time - had a bit of a headwind and did a lot on the drops. Inflammation of the arthur, quoth the GP.

At one point I spotted a trio of hedge-hopping military helicopters, away across the fields to the left and heading my way in line astern.  The first two crossed the road a hundred-odd metres ahead and they were loud enough; but the third went over right above me and the racket reverberated in my chest and had me gripping the bars tightly. Had a wee chuckle at myself after.

Re hedge-hopping, there were trees off to the right and they had to climb to clear them, apart from one that just tilted over a bit and went between the tops.

Musing this morning on the fact that 9 years ago I was knocking off 300k/day on PBP and just 2 years ago I was doing 100k rides with a plain honest bike.  Dunno if it's anno domini or simply that when you have a motor you take advantage of it and your legs go to hell.  Either way I am not happy: I'm thinking of setting out on shorter coffee runs without a battery on the bike but taking one along for the return, or whenever else I give up. Might grow some decent muscles again.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

A quick 34km dash first on the cycle track to Riccall - it was deserted- then on to Cawood and back to York on the road.