With hindsight, maybe deciding to do this in April wasn't the wisest of decisions but with trying to plan it around school holidays and other commitments, we didn't really have much choice. The winter months have been tough and difficult to ride in which was one of the main reasons we both decided to get the Turbo Trainer in an effort to at least maintain some fitness whilst it was too cold, wet or windy or icy to be out on the bikes.
Come December and we ventured out to do this route
As you can see it was a slow ride. Much snow and icy ensured we made slow progress everywhere. Ric is particularly cautious in these conditions and quite rightly so it turned out. We decided that a second stop was in order for a warm and stopped at the Cobbled Corner in Chipping were a certain Mr Wiggins frequents but not today - probably cycling elsewhere in much warmer conditions!. After a coffee we set off back home and came across a bit of a snow/icy patch on a little climb which Ric slipped on, causing me to swerve and then with the lack of traction, down we both went. Anyone watching would have thought we were synchronised fallers in slo-mo!! Laughing we picked ourselves up and continued.
Further along we got a bit of speed up as we descended past a farm. Towards the bottom the road was covered in a thin layer of snow/ice which I just shot over. Something made me look over my shoulder, don't ask me what. There was Ric curled up in the middle of the road. The icy stretch he so much hates had got the better of him. Considering we were probably cycling in excess of 25mph a bruised hip was all he suffered. Lucky. Very lucky.
Come early January we entered a couple of Sportives to help with the training.
The Cheshire Cat in Crewe 24th March, a 100miler with the infamous Mow Cop climb where competitors are given a medal if they can make the top without stopping!
Evans Ride-it, Leeds 24th Feb. 75miles
Before the Leeds event we went from Leyland to Formby to pick up part of the planned LeJog route back to Leyland. Damn it was windy. Just scraping into double figures and puffing hard was tough. It didn't help when on the front at Southport with the wind doing its best to push us back to Leyland, a Granny going in the opposite direction came towards us free wheeling, legs in the air, yelling "Weeeeeeeeee...".
Then came the Leeds event. A cold Sunday morning. This ride, we thought, wouldn't be too bad. Nowhere near the climbing we had previously done, but good enough for what we needed. All I can say is we seemed to have been going up, up and up all day long! Not mega tough climbs like Jubilee Tower or Waddington Fell, just steady ones.
We had a group of faster riders in front of us at one point, all in their team clothing. It was quite interesting watching them. One of the guys was, erm, a big guy. Downhill he powered along but come to the hills he just died. We let them go...
This photo says it all about the day...no need to embarrass Mr. B further!
It didn't help Mr. B that the ride had another 1000 feet of climbing than planned!
Please support us on our 960mile ride from Lands End to John o Groats on 6th April 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment