Enough moaning! Sun is out! Weather forecast changed so probably heading out again with the club tomorrow. Gospel pass has been mentioned - would be good to cross it off in summer kit for the first time this year!
Anyone else got big plans for the BH weekend? We're heading down to London for the day on Monday, 5:10am train so a full day out. Think National History has been mentioned but we didn't manage to get tickets for anything else due to BH (Merlin passes), so just some shopping I guess. Anything else going on down there and worth a trip with a 7 year old? Walk in/easy/cheap tickets?
Had a good ride on Saturday,
Gospel pass as expected (but not for me!). As when leaving the house was told I had to be back to go to the cinema with the family leaving home at 1pm (Lilo & Stitch - great fun!). Told myself that was 12:30 so would have to be in Hay (bottom of descent after Gospel) by 11:45, which meant being on the main climb at 11 latest... After dropping down to the bottom of the valley before (Llanvihangel Crucomy) it was pretty obvious we weren't going to make it,
I put a solo effort in to see if I could get to Llantony before 11.15 so could then continue all the way up - nope!
Left my clubmates to it, turned around and headed to the A465 - figuring main road home. Turning north realised it would be a block headwind all the way back on a fairly busy & open main road... That likely meant meeting the family in town - which would mean locking my bike inside the car on the street. No an ideal scenario...!
Mission on then to get home 'across country' the most direct and least hilly and fastest route I could. Focused a lot on holding speed, a solid tempo & endurance session even if the power numbers don't really show how hard I worked for it!
Looking at power numbers on a 'pre-climb' I did to Wern Ddu to see how I was going (trying to figure out if I did the right thing). Did 8 mins 2s for 232W. My other times there are 8:01, 8:02 and a 7:56 (and a 12:30 stuck in a high gear with flat Di2 last year). You could call me mr consistent, especially as 2 of those times are set in 2016 & 2 in 2024! Consistently average and I've not improved over the last 8-9 years
Yesterdays trip to London, heard at 10:15pm Sunday night our train was cancelled. No options to move it, so we're going next weekend instead. Thankfully National History Museum is free tickets, but also the couple of things we couldn't book due to BH we now can!
funny thing about seeing isnt the eyes though as if your occupied and sit in a car its easy to miss if you didnt look where the biker is (looked for cars).
Im on a ebike due to I cant pedal a normal bike so im just expecting drivers to be dangerous for me
still waiting for the sun here though.
been cold 3c and raining but this afternoon there be a trip as sun comes out
Sheeesh where are you if it's still that cold?! Although 14 degrees and between rain showers here this morning, it feels much colder! But we have been spoilt for what seems like a long time...
Totally agree we're small on the road so can be 'easy to miss' - but that's also why we ride in primary positions to make ourselves more visible and/or wear bright colours/running daytime lights. We're all constantly trying to make ourselves be seen aren't we! But the real battle is drivers looking. We're quite limited what we can do about that, but punishing those who don't and are caught on camera alongside those who drive poorly/aggressively/selfishly hopefully is about the only way we can control and contribute to. Drivers should be afraid of being punished when they don't obey the rules - they're very quick to point out to us when we don't aren't they!
A mate has started a Elves custom self build and has got me really interested now. I was thinking about just getting a new wheelset for my bike at the end of the season/start of the next but for the price, a self build has really caught my attention.
I had a last minute decision to try for a KOM this morning. I got a joint 5th and a 1 minute power PB. Could do with knowing the correct start and end times of the segment better as I started way too early and finished too early too.
Read an article on CW about Handsling that sounds similar. You can get quite a neat & unique setup/build/look for really no extra money these days.
Good call with the KOM, sometimes just riding how you feel and then hitting something hard is enough. But to really target it you need the exact start & end points so you can nail the entry speed and then explode at the finish...
First ride on my road bike since September. So nice to ride out on it rather than my commuter. Turns out the Lake District is quite hilly
Great work & well done!
Are you a Strava subscriber with a Garmin head unit? If you star the segment it will auto prompt as you are getting close and give you a countdown.
Wahoo does this too.
I decided to let this one go. I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose as I could see he was looking very intently to the right and not at all to the traffic in my lane. Probably unsure about what side of the road he should enter. I find it hard to penalise someone for genuine errors when no harm is done, very much less so when they do it on purpose, like close passes.
Similar opinion to you, he'd committed when he shouldn't of, but even if he had seen you, had given you time to react. But also agree with fez - the flip side is a 'professional driver' basically bullying a more vulnerable road user, or such a poor driving standard they're going to seriously hurt (or worse) someone.
ready for its first outing in about 7 years. Man that's going to be painful.
Welcome back! Yeah, that's going to hurt... But at least you're aware and laughing about it (now)
