John's Cycling Diary

Got in from work, got changed and headed out on the Genesis, complete with rear panniers…

The reason for the Genesis ride with panniers was two fold.

1. Since fitting the new cassette and chain I have not used the bike, it would be a bit embarrassing being dumped far from home this weekend and finding the bike was fecked!

2. I needed to pick up some stuff from Paul and it would have been to big/cumbersome without panniers.

So I set off into a reasonably strong and cold headwind to Paul’s with the intention of picking the bits and bobs up and continuing with a shortish ride, I ended up stopping for a tea and a chat, so ran out of time and had to high-tail it back home for my evening meal!

The Garmin had the ride as

Distance:	7.07 mi
Time:	32:33
Avg Speed:	13.0 mph

Route here…

Worked from home today….

I took Poppy for a walk along the river at lunch time…

Or should I say the river bank….

I did have to take a photo of a few cows enjoying the river

After work I met up with Paul and we did the reverse chain gang route, at a nice sensible leisurely pace

The Garmin had the ride as 40.12 miles in 2 hours 23 minutes with an average speed of  16.8 mph, route here…

Got in from work, got changed and headed straight out on the bike, the sun was shining, it was relatively warm and the wind was a light Northerly

Date	Time	Weather	Temp		Wind					Vis		Pressure / trend
					Dir	Speed		Gust
Tue 21 May	1900		15.2	°C	NNW	9	mph				N/A	1017 hPa, Falling
	2000		13.3	°C	N	9	mph				N/A	1018 hPa, Falling

I set off like a rocket, and was a little disappointed to be averaging just under 20 mph at the 10 mile point, but I was disadvantaged by the light headwind!

The return journey made up for it..and some!

The Garmin had the ride as 21.14 miles in 1 hour 1 minute with an average speed of 20.6 mph, route here…, it would have been faster but I was held up by cars through Chippenham town centre ;-(

If I may be controversial and say…bloody cars hogging the roads and getting in the way

Night off, played computer games

I woke up to the sound of our bedroom phone chirping – it had lost connection to the base station, on further investigation all electric things showed a severe lack of being powered, I ambled downstairs to the circuit box and found the power had tripped, I reset it and it stayed on

But I was now awake, so I got showered and change and prepared myself to visit family at Chichester.

I guess normal people would drive, I opted to cycle, wifey set off from home after lunch and met me at Chichester.

I had plotted an almost entirely rural lanes route, touching and crossing major roads only when I had to.

I set off at 8:20 and almost immediately started climbing (Old Derry Hill), then descended into Headington before climbing out of Blacklands.

Then I descended into All Cannings, this was the theme of today’s ride, climb followed by descent, at least to start off with there was a bit of flat in between!

I was holding quite a nice pace for the first 40 miles, I think it was mainly due to familiar territory and the lumps were a nice shallow gradient

After Amesbury it was a different story, the lumps were steeper and there was no flat for me to get into a nice quick rhythm

After each sharp climb came the sharp descent unfortunately they were never quite long enough to recover, so the next 40 miles was very fatiguing,  I actually found myself enjoying the longer climbs, at least I could get into some sort of rhythm!

To give you some sort of idea of what the terrain was like this Strava segment is nearly 7 miles long and is called Nearly Rollercoaster!

In the main the scenery made the ‘interesting’ lumpiness worth while, I would rather have the hills than the main roads

As you may know I am not a good short climber and I really don’t do very steep gradients quickly.

When I reached Clanfield the roller-coaster stopped and thankfully it was a long descent into Chichester.

The Garmin had the ride as 95.8 miles in 6 hours 6 minutes with an average speed of 15.7 mph, route here...

The ride was certainly harder than the 6,000 ft of climb shows, it is very reminiscent of the short sharp kicks of Devon/Cornwall.

Got up early and drove to West Woods to take Poppy for a walk with wifey, and of course take lots of photos of Blue Bells

When we got back from the woods, I cooked lunch and we dined in the garden, the sun was out and it was lovely and warm

I had intended to do a 55 mile hellishly hilly ride, it is around 5000 ft of climb and takes in some of Bath’s most ‘interesting’ elevations! however after a quick conversation with wifey she spoke common sense to me…I am doing a reasonably hilly ride tomorrow! so I changed plans and plotted a very scenic Cyclo-cross ride, taking in some of my favourite Wiltshire scenes

So the Merida was dragged out, chain lube refreshed, tyres pumped up and generally checked over.

I set off down the Chippenham – Calne cycleway…

After a very short stretch of road through Calne, I continued on Cycle Route 403 along Low Lane…

When the path rejoined civilisation, I cycled down another short stretch of country lane before turning right onto a short but steep Bridleway (So much better than staying on route 403 through Cherhill)

The top of the bridleway gives the best view bar none of the  Cherhill White Horse and the Landsdown Monument 

Although cycling uphill on grass is reasonably energy sapping.

The bridleway rejoined route 403 at the top of the climb at the old site of RAF Yatesbury, where I had another short stretch of country lane before returning to grass and gravel

The route passed through the middle of Avebury stone circle before ascending off-road along the chalk and gravel path onto the Ridgeway.

I took a photo looking back along the ascent.

I also took a nice Bike and Gate photo

I carried on along 403 towards the Fyfield Downs, again it was uphill over grass, darn hard work!

But the views are worth it

The Gorse bushes were soaking up the warm sun and releasing their lovely sweet aroma

After a nice swift descent I had no choice but to cycle along country lanes for a mile or two.

I passed this field that was full of yellow Dandelions

My next port of call was the gravel trail through West Wood, it seemed the right thing to do to stop and take a bike and Blue Bells picture

I rejoined the world of asphalt, and started the long draggy climb and then the nice quick drop into Alton Barnes.

I stopped at the Honeystreet Cafe for tea and cake where I sat in the Garden and watched the world slowly go by along the canal.

As I set off again I took a photo of the White Horse on the side of Milk Hill (The hill I had just descended)

From Honeystreet I joined the Kennet and Avon Canal and followed it all the way to Devizes

I left the Canal at Roundway, where I started climbing over the hill (yet another white horse hill)

I knew there was a way to get from Roundway to Headington, but I was not quite sure of the exact route, but I found it

The route is nice and quiet (avoiding any main roads) and encompasses a nice little by-way

After descending into Headington I followed the main road home through Sandy Lane and Derry Hill.

The Garmin had the ride as 46.73 miles in 3 hours 42 minutes with an average speed of 12.6 mph, route here…

I REALLY enjoyed the ride today, it is great to get off the beaten track and avoid civilisation completely the route is almost a perfect cyclo-cross route, all I need to do is remove the last bit of main road and it will be perfect! (shame the route from Lacock to Chippenham is closed).

I will edit the video I took today and upload it later…

And here is the edited video…46 miles of varied terrain spliced together seamlessly

Worked from home today, I didn’t have time to get out at lunchtime again today

At 5:30 I packed in work, got changed and headed out on the bike, I didn’t fancy plodding around the same old routes again so I improvised

I started out down Stanley lane and turned right towards Studley…

I battled into a headwind through Headington, Stockley and Compton Bassett before turning right and ascending Clyffe Pypard hill.

The descent through Broad Town and the flattish ride home was hastened by a helpful tailwind

The Garmin had the ride as 42.03 miles in 2 hours 31 minutes with an average speed of 16.6 mph, route here…

 

Worked from home today, I had quite a busy day and didn’t make it out for a ride at lunchtime or after work ;-(

The weather forecast was for a wet evening so I didn’t think I would make it out at all, but after tea the sun was shining so I got changed and headed out on the Surly.

As I was heading out to Dauntsey the sky looked like it was full of rain, and it was intent on dumping it on me!

Thankfully it didn’t! I was quite enjoying the ride so at Startley I continued on the Chain Gang route to Stanton St Quentin, I then followed a route parallel to the M4 emerging near Grittelton.

The ride to Yatton Keynell and home was much helped by a tailwind

The Garmin had the ride as 31 miles in 1 hour 39 minutes with an average speed of 18.6 mph, route here…

It was great to get out for a ride when I didn’t think I would be able to, although the sun was out it was still darn cold (Perhaps I should have worn long legs and arms)!

Got in from work, got changed and headed straight out on the bike…

The weather has been changeable all day, but I risked shorts and short sleeve top, I got cold!

The sun was out when I set off…

I was hoping to get a tailwind at some point on the ride….but it never seemed to happen, I was always fighting a darn cold wind!

The biggest problem was the gnat flies, I kept cycling through waves of them.

The Garmin had the ride as 21.08 miles in 1 hour 12 minutes with an average speed of 17.5 mph, route here…

Had to go to Milton Keynes today for a few meetings, I had arranged to go out for a cycle ride during the lunch hour..

Checking the weather forecast indicated the weather was not going to be kind, so I packed long arm/leg winter kit and the Peugeot winter bike!

Jim, Peter and myself all exited the meeting en mass at 12pm, looking out of the windows showed a windy scene with a few splashes of rain running down the windows ;-( but we got changed and set off anyway, fortunately the shower stopped before we got outside and we had a dry ride

As it was a lunch hour ride we were limited in distance, the local terrain was reasonably flat, but there was quite a stiff wind blowing.

As is usually the case with me I was taking the lead!

The outbound ride was nice and easy, helped by a healthy tailwind, the return journey was made harder work by the equally unhelpful head wind!

The Garmin had the ride as 16.35 miles in 58 minutes with an average speed of 16.8 mph, route here…