My legs decided they'd be kind to me today and let me get out for a ride with some climbing involved.
I set off on a deviated route to Droylsden centre avoiding the roadworks and contraflows and headed through Littlemoss where I got stuck behind a very slow moving hgv - I could understand it being cautious on the bends etc, but it was uber slow on the straights too. It decided to pull over before the M60 crossing so the huge line of traffic behind managed to get past before we all had to stop at the temporary traffic lights heralding another single laned section of road (they're breeding rapidly I tell you!). On passing through the narrow section the car in front clipped a roadworks sign (you know the one with the little man opening his umbrella to the ground, lol) and sent it careening into my path. I had two options: stop suddenly getting a car up the ass and maybe falling off, or ride over the thing. I chose to slaughter the sign and rode over it; it was a little noisy and lumpy but it beats a car up the butt any day!
On the gradient up to Oldham Rd the afore-mentioned slow moving hgv now got stuck behind me, although I was going quicker than it was doing on the flat straight road earlier. Somewhere along here it turned off, dunno where but god help those narrower streets with that beast driving down it!
Over and past Hartshead Sports College I made a quick decision to head to Hartshead Pike for a climb I haven't done in a while. Round two sides of Oldham Golf Course and the climbing keeps on coming until I'm at the top where the glare from the hazy sun is a nightmare and the wind has gotten chilly. A rapid descent and I'm in Mossley and ascending Under Lane into Grotten, along Thorley and across Abbey Hills Lane before getting onto Alt Lane.
At the Alt Lane junction I came across this rather sad sight:
Welcoming? Not likely!
Alt Lane began as a normal suburban street with a hump in the midst of it. Once over the hump however things change quickly. It becomes a narrow single laned, twisting, steep (9%ish) effort. Partway down this descent my brakes decided to play up and not actually slow my bike down much. When I did manage to slow down enough, I decided to walk the longest and steepest bit to be on the safe side until I got to a level(ish) section where I could tweak the brakes. When I got them working again I continued down Mill Brow and onto Park Bridge Rd and it's cobbled speed humps and it's final long cobbled section. Juddering about on these cobbles with a painful pelvis and shoulder isn't the best of practices, but I had actually forgotten they're as bad as they are - they're pretty spaced apart with some completely missing in places and with deep ruts between some of them. I came off the other end unscathed if a little tender.
The route home from here wasn't really thrilling as it's a route I do on a regular basis and there was nothing to write home about.
Near home however was a different matter. As I rode along St Andrew's nearing Eastwood a moronic driver in a mushy pea green metro decided to ignore the stop signs, white lines on the road and the fact that a rider was nearing and chose to just swing out into my path, just metres away from me. Come-uppance came when a car did the exact same to him at the next junction. I tried to not laugh, but it was hard not to.
Miles: 19.7
Average speed: 13.4mph
Climbed: 1073ft
That pub certainly doesn't look welcoming.
ReplyDeleteStrangely I never seem to have a problem with busses or lorries getting in my way. I am no where near quick enough!
Nearly forgot, I'm glad you've recovered from the Swine Flu.
ReplyDeleteThis morning the first time I used my brakes on my road they seemed a bit rubbish - ie ineffective - it took me a couple of minutes to realise I hadn't put the quick release back after cleaning, I felt more than a little silly!
ReplyDeleteRed: thanks :oD It may have been alovely pub when it was open, but alas it looked very forlorn and sad.
ReplyDeleteThis hgv was slooooooow. Less than 15mph in a 30 zone. I wasn't impatient with it either which is a little strange for me when it comes to unnecessarily slow moving vehicles. Although admittedly I was glad when I got in front of it!
Trio: yeah, I can imagine that would render you feeling a trifle daft! I'd have understood if that was the problem with mine, but it was back in place and they'd worked fine on the rest of the ride, so I dunno what the problem was.
Everest is in for a service now anyway so my lbs should be able to figure it out for me.