Good ride 'home' last night, half of the ride with a mate.
https://www.strava.com/activities/648868904
Did a long pull on the front into headwinds and up the first hill. Eased up and let him past for a bit, he was going to turn back but felt good
so we headed on a bit of a route he could loop back (and I could go the other way). With the headwinds and extended route I tried 2 'shortcuts' to avoid 2 long big main road climbs. The
first was a classic shortcut - rough roads and bits of gravel so had to take it very easy. I won't use it again as the
main road isn't too bad!
The second real 'longcut' was a
backroad from Presteigne to my destination which I've been meaning to explore, a single track road with sheep and 3 gates closed on it. I had to take
the steepest part of it very easy as the road was rough and covered in sheep muck! The messy fleecey wanderers had obviously been sleeping on the tarmac at night as it retains heat from the days sun... The
segmented climb on this road has a gate on it, would be nice to hit it with the gates open! Apart from that, good climbs but slow going.
The main road again would be quicker...
Ride home took 2 hours, rather than the 1.5 I was allowed (so I was kinda in the dog house & lucky my dinner wasn't in the dog...)!
The 2000+ ft of climbing (over 30 miles) and the recent increase in hilly riding has really helped me, I can tell already that my climbing is more paced, my 'attitude to altitude' is different and I'm enjoying it more (probably as I can feel the progress).
Then bam, massive blow out. Checked and had obviously hit a rock as the sidewall had ripped. Didn't have any gels or anything on me to cover the rip. <snip>
Rubbish luck but result with the generous support van! Always nice to see/hear about good deeds between cyclists - we need more of it! Worth grabbing them from Strava FlyBy and sending some good wishes their way!
That's why you should also take some old fashioned puncture repair patches and a mini pump! Get a combo mini pump/co2 inflator like the lezyne cfh or the bontrager thingumabob and you're sorted.
I picked up the
Park Tool TB2 'Emergency Tire Boot' for a couple of quid in the NFTO shop clearance. No idea if I'll ever use them but they're plenty small enough to fit one into the saddlebag (think thickness of a plaster). Then again Paul, if you're not carrying an emergency gel/bag of Haribo then I doubt you'd carry tire boots?!
Which utility or plugin/extension is that? It looks a little more calming than the TrainingPeaks PMC...
