LostSheep Ramblings - rides, pootles and bleatings....

I've moved!

2010-01-17T15:08:00.002Z

Hi all

Please note that I have now moved over to wordpress.

Please do still follow me over there - subscribe to posts, comments etc and remember to change the RSS feed to that of the new blog.

Find my new home here: - www.lostsheepramblings.wordpress.com

The Snow Things

2010-01-07T14:57:00.005Z

As requested by Phill following on from Tuesday's triumphant walk and construction exercise, here are my projects - the snowman and igloo/snow dome thing were built on Tuesday after my play day. The polar bear was then built by my brother on Wednesday morning - he's actually lay looking in through the living room window!

Enjoy!

Simply stunning

2010-01-06T13:41:00.014Z

After the snow we've had over the past few weeks, and the subsequent thaws, Monday night proved to be the best for dumping lovely stuff all over - I woke up to the loveliest winter wonderland I've seen in years. The downside? I was due to be in Ashton for an appointment and then in to work where I was training staff before getting some management training for myself.

Getting dressed I shoved on my walking boots again - they've been worn for weeks on end now - and wrapped up warm, plodded downstairs, opened the door to find lovely deep powdery snow. Stepping out of my door I sunk to my knees in it and knew it'd be a great day regardless of what happens. As there's a severe lack of grit in my borough (Tameside) only the really important main roads were gritted - I live on one such road and there was not an ounce of salt, grit or any other substance on the roads except for the snow. Cars were stupidly trying to drive through it, lorries were just abouts coping with the depth but not with the braking capabilities required. I knew no buses would be running as First always suspend services early, an Arriva driver who was walking home told me his fleet had been suspended, so I knew it was only a matter of time before Stagecoach did the same. I checked the travel info on my phone and it was saying expect severe delays and disruption - blatantly obvious given the conditions. By the time I walked across the road to the bus stop, this had changed to all bus services calling in any fleet that had managed to get out of the depot.

Mere moments later a colleague rang to say don't bother coming into work as the boss was snowed in (she lives halfway up a steep hill in Oldham) and other staff couldn't get in. One down, one to go. Phoned regarding my appointment and, again, was told to not bother.

Play day for me then!

After getting changed I set off on a mission. Armed with my camera and prepared for deep, deep snow I retraced my footsteps from New years Eve knowing that it'd be hard going due to the snow frequently covering my knees (I'm over 6ft tall, with long legs, so it gives you an idea of how deep it was).

I made my down to Berry Brow (a valley with one very steep side and one slightly less steep side) and found car, after abandoned car on the road side. Further down the hill and men in flouro jackets with tractors and vans were towing cars, vans and even people up the hill in the direction I came from. A couple of buses were stuck in the valley bottom awaiting their own tow trucks with a line of haphazardly dumped vehicles smeared all over the hillside ahead of them.

I plodded on relishing the effort I was putting in to get where I wanted to be, knowing it to be an amazing workout. Arriving at the fishing pond where I'd been on NYE, I was grinning from ear to ear to see it totally snow covered and every tree looking like it should be on a Christmas card. Simply stunning!

The little green sign in the photo is usually standing proud about 2 maybe 3ft above the water line, as you can see it's almost covered.

Wading through the magical scenery, drinking in the breathtaking views I arrived at the field by Medlock Vale farm. The proud trees in the centre of the field looked awesome and the lane to the side was just so inviting. Walking down it I crossed the river and saw that my island had disappeared under the snow and the river was frozen over in many places - it's not a particularly slow flowing river either, so proof that it was very cold and we'd have an extreme amount of snow.

The valleys were amazing to walk through, with me working ever harder to get through the snow, steps were invisible so it's lucky I know the area and where they are. Upon reaching the Oldham Way at the top of the valley I was finally seeing other people - although only a few of them. They'd made their way to the golf course to sledge the hills and slide on the frozen river, with some stupidly deciding to sledge down the sheer drop to my side.

I made my way to Daisy Nook to find the cafe only just opening up after the owner had taken forever to get there - he'd been told a road was closed when it wasn't. I carried on past the cafe and scrambled up past the old lock flights to reach Sammy's Basin which I knew would be frozen over and then further over to Crime Lake (which doesn't always freeze over). Past the Basin and I heard ducks having a bit of a strop. Not really surprising considering their habitat had totally frozen over leaving only a patch of water 12ft across for them all to swim in and feed. All too soon I saw some huge webbed footprints in the snow on the ice-covered water, followed them and found a very handsome huge swan having the biggest paddy I've ever seen a creature have and dishing out dirty looks to everyone he saw. He was really slamming his feet down hard and giving the odd honk. Poor thing.

Over at Crime Lake the scene was just something we rarely get here with deep snow smothering everything, leaving trees looking like they've cotton wool draped all over them and the snow on the water easily reaching 3 or 4 foot deep.

The only colour in this white and brown world was that of Crime Farm on the far bank perched on the hillside, surveying it's surroundings.

Heading back from the lake I noticed the swan had changed direction, followed his footprints and found him bullying a mallard to get out of the 'bird bath' so he could get in. The mallard didn't give much resistance - can't blame him really - and he plodded off to his harem of females.

My journey home was done by road as by now the trails I'd come along were swarming with kids and big kids alike all wanting to take advantage of the freak snow and play.

Arriving home to the seriously deep stuff I decided I wasn't yet tired enough, so set about building a snowman (instead of a penguin like I did before Christmas). After building him, I made him an igloo/snow dome type thing.

Before I knew it I'd clocked up a stonking 8 hrs of playing in the snow. I hadn't really thought I'd been out in the snow that long. Looking at my camera it's a different story though as I have over 200 photos to mull over. All depicting the best snowy day I've had in years!

Stats:

Miles - approximately 20

Year Review

2010-01-06T13:19:00.002Z

Wow, another year has passed. It flew by so quickly that it feels like only a few months ago that I was beginning my first whole year on here.

The year started amazingly well. It began with a cycling challenge that I completed quicker than anticipated and celebrated with a 'victory' ride of around 80 miles. Then came the snowy rides. Only a few of these happened as at the start of February was my big incident resulting with the fractured pelvis. I thought my year was ruined, as did my consultant - it was anticipated to take 6 months for the pelvis to be healed sufficiently for me to sit on a bike, with many more months graduating to actually riding it. It also meant a war between myself and NHS Direct as they fucked up big time (I had to haul my own ass into hospital) and after 3 months of fighting I won the battle with a a written apology from the NHS ombudsman and a review of how they deal with incidents.

As a result of the injury I hadn't planned any other challenges for the year as I knew it was going to be along haul back to even being able to sit on a bike never mind ride it. My chances at the Track Championships were in tatters as I'd not be able to ride the track at all for the whole year.
Somehow, and I'm still not sure how, I got the all clear to be discharged from my consultant in May after only 3 months with the advice that I should start riding the bike again as soon as I was able to sit on it, but to obviously take it very, very easy. So that meant Everest was liberated, I was happy and the challenge of getting fit again arose.

May was the easy month with only 138 miles ridden and 4500ft climbed, before the summer got better with the mileage and climbing stats pretty much doubling. This trend continued into Autumn until my knee began to play up again, which is plainly obvious with the lower mileage for November and the complete lack of anything really for December.

All in all. It's been an interesting year. Battles have been won - getting back on the bike and finally racing again just before Christmas, the apology; battles have been lost - mileage has been lower than I'd like and I've left my bike club as a full member. Weight has also been lost without even trying (sorry to all those who are working their butts off).

It's also been a strange year for many, many reasons. But I have my memories to relive, my new friendships and renewed friendships to take with me into 2010. And I have exciting things to build on - more about those another time.

New Years Eve

2010-01-06T12:36:00.005Z

A little late, but here it is ->

Seeing as I had absolutely no intentions of going out and getting ratted in the evening (or any part of the day really) I went for a nice crisp walk on New Years Eve day.

I set off from mine wading through a slushy gloopy mess to get from my door to the road before sploshing my way down to the lovely Bay Horse and the beginnings of the climb up to where the true walk would start.

Once at the start of the off road route I slid my way along the access road (Vale Lane) to the entrance for the fish pond, looking gorgeous in the hazy sunshine and frosty ice on parts of it, before heading properly off road to the muddy pathways where I did my coppicing in November, along those and through a field to bring me out by Medlock Vale Farm and it's gloriously muddy tracks churned up by the frequent manoeuvres of the funky tractor.

These tracks led to a bridge over the Medlock Valley with steep slopes down to the river side, which I slid my way down, and made my way to one of the little islands in the river (the water is only ankle deep to get here).

After a scramble back up the slope my route took me across the undulations in the area, crossing the river again on a rather precarious little bridge (no rails, just the ice for company and the babbling river below) before hauling ass up a steep hillside to get to the Oldham Way at the top of one side of the valley with Brookdale Golf Course on the opposite side, sheer drops to the left of me and a barbed wire fence for the farm close to my right.

Splodging my way along here I was often met with very deep and thick mud patches, too big to jump across and no way around. The only answer was to walk through it. Admittedly it was quite good fun, so I didn't really mind. Over and across a few stiles, then it got even muddier as I had to squelch my way across a field then another stile, then along the Jericho Trail to Stannybrook where I tried not to slide down the hill towards Medlock Hall Farm and scrambled my way back up another hillside along the trail to the start of Riversvale Drive, turned off to head to Sammy's Basin then off again to splodge through the wildflower meadow (it is allowed), past more areas where I hacked down trees, down the hill, through the river to clean my boots a little (it didn't really work for the boots, but it did on the gaiters) and hauled ass up the other side of the valley to the cafe.

After chowing down on a bacon butty and steaming tea I hauled ass home to a very welcome hot bath and to flop on the sofa with a big grin on my face!

Stats -

Miles: approx 8

Lots of fun had.

December Review

2010-01-06T12:23:00.001Z

A little late, but here it is ->

Well, what can I really say about December other than it was a shite month for riding the bike. Thanks to the pain in my knee progressively getting worse throughout October and November I opted to not ride at all in December to allow me to take part in the Middleton CC track championships on the 20th.

So, it was a case of just one little ride totalling approx 10 miles on the track.

Year End Stats

2010-01-05T14:51:00.000Z

2009 Total Miles & Ft Climbed:

Road - 1716.06 (74) 64,566ft
Track - 25.93 (2)
Walks - 67.09 (10) 3799ft

Total 1809.08 miles 69,355ft

2009 Monthly Road Miles & Ft Climbed:

Jan - 366.75 (13) 13,828ft
Feb - 15.29 (1) 518ft
Mar - 0 (0)
Apr - 0 (0)
May - 137.42 (7) 4550ft
Jun - 226.83 (10) 7974ft
Jul - 209 (9) 7185ft
Aug - 214.08 (7) 9117ft
Sep - 215.28 (9) 6884ft
Oct - 210.35 (11) 7428ft
Nov - 123.11 (8) 5072ft
Dec - (0) pitiful!

Ice skating anyone?

2009-12-26T12:11:00.002Z

This ice rink is right outside my door! Although I live on a main rd my front door opens onto a side road with 2 businesses at the bottom end and businesses either side of my place. Given that the businesses are automotive operating 24hr pick-up trucks you'd think it'd get gritted. Nope. During the snow it's fine. During the snow in February it was also fine and didn't ice up much. Now? It's solid ice. Undulating ice, so not even easy to slide across. If you do get to slide, it's straight into the busy main rd and not across as it's on a slope too! I just about managed to slip-slide my way to the road holding onto the wall before walking the rest of the way to my moms on the road. Sod the cars, it was still safer to walk the road than the pavements given the fragility of my knee and pelvis right now. Oh, and the snow penguin? His flipper has fallen off and he's on a diet now!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T14:25:00.003Z

Well, waddaya know?! It's Christmas again!

Have a great time over the holidays, get out biking and no doubt I'll be joining y'all for a ride soon.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!

Building work

2009-12-21T15:09:00.005Z

This is my contribution to the snowman world. Meet Pecky the penguin. He has a beak and flippers, though his right flipper keeps falling off. After playing with toys at work (you gotta make sure they work, haven't you) I came home and built Pecky.

I saw some very cute snowmen on my travels to and from work today, but the following 2 are probably the cutest ones I've seen to date.

Track racing

2009-12-20T15:48:00.002Z

Middleton CC's final track championship session got underway this afternoon with some of us arriving late (myself and Paul) due to the unnatural snow levels in Manchester. Paul had to try to get through a few valleys to get his bike from storage, then come over to get me. Anyway, we arrived, warmed up and got underway. I was the only female riding, which didn't really make much difference with me not being a member anymore, so I was riding as a guest. I set off 3rd in the sprint and did worse than anticipated with a time of 17.9 seconds: 2 seconds off my PB. I did, however, reach and maintain 28.6mph for the sprint which is one good thing. All was going well on the 'getting up to speed' laps and I set off as anticipated, if a little slow. Halfway round and my knee screamed at me, literally bringing a tear to my eye. Despite the pain I continued as I wanted to get a time to build on.

So, stats -

200 metre sprint

17.9 seconds

28.6mph average

¤ sent from mobile device ¤

Wintry welcome

2009-12-18T08:55:00.002Z

I'm gutted - we didn't get anymore snow last night. I was, however, greeted with the snow still being on the floor from the afternoon snow. My walk to work this morning was a gorgeous, if freezing, one with the odd flurry, a brisk bone-chilling wind and the creamy yellow snow clouds whizzing across the sky on a mission to find a bit of land it missed before.

SNOW!

2009-12-17T16:46:00.002Z

After all the weather reports saying that we would get snow, we wouldn't get snow. It finally arrived with a flourish this afternoon. Sadly, being on the lower slopes of the pennines means it's not a thick thick blanket, but it's enough for the snowball fight I've had with my mother. It's settled everywhere and doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon. Hope it snows some more tonight and I wake up to a nice thick blanket of the lovely white stuff!

The weekend

2009-12-06T13:40:00.003Z

The weekend has been at interesting one, and a relatively good one too.

Saturday began with me not having to work for once (worked 3 saturdays in the past month), so it began very lazily with umpteen teacakes eaten for breakfast with a huge mug of coffee before heading over to the parent's place where more coffee and the newspapers waited for me to devour.

The afternoon was spent with Mom and Bro shipping (window shopping in my case, as I'm so skint) and having a hoot with them both. Popped into the shop I work in, and we all had a go on the tombola - myself and mom not winning everything, bro winning 3 times. he was very nice and gave me one of the prizes which I'm happy about as it's a lovely fragrance, and one which I'd never normally think about. But there you go!

The evening was spent over at the Manchester Velodrome watching Revolution 26 - a night of cycling including elite and future stars riders all competing in their own sectors for placings in the series.
Unlike in November's event where the future stars had several crashes, it was the turn of the elite riders with 2 crashes in the same race. Both riders got up and carried on racing later in the night once their bikes had been fixed.
Bradley Wiggins put on a storm of cycling and former skier Alain Baxter put in an appearance for his first cycle race of his career and gave an amazing performance as he stomped through the sprint with a sub 12 second ride in the flying 200m sprint. Excellent!

Today was meant to have involved some cycling. All was fine until I woke up with bad knee pain (again). I was talking with Mom yesterday anyway about strapping it up or putting a knee brace on it at some point. I did a google search this morning on the subject and matched my symptoms with those of PCL sprain - pain on hyper-extension of the knee and most certainly made worse by straightening it out - all the pain is in the right area and fits in so well with what I read. However, I cannot physically do anything in terms of strapping/bracing etc until I have seen the physio which will be after xmas now. So in the meantime it's back with the anti-inflammatories when really needed and trying to take it easy when I can

I will not, however, let the pain stop me from riding in MCC track champs on 20th December.

Club run

2009-12-02T12:24:00.004Z

Sunday was Middleton CC club run day - with me as a guest rider seeing as I haven't renewed my membership with them. It proved to be a day like no other.

I'd arranged to meet the guys at Droylsden Academy as it's close to my place and on the pre-planned route to Uppermill, so at a few minutes to 9:40 I hoicked Everest downstairs and out into the crisp chilled (make that frozen) air, locked up and shoved my hands into my cheats winter gloves - 'normal' non-cycle full finger gloves with mitts over the top (I find these better than winter cycle gloves), pulled my buff up (yep, it was cold enough for my buff) and set off to find the one-way streets have changed direction, back to how they used to be, so I found myself heading the wrong way along a short section (on the pavement too, how naughty am I?!) rather than trying to fight my way through the stupid contraflow and literally riding in circles to get to where I needed to be.

After a very chilly 5 minutes wait I saw 2 flouro people pootling in my direction - Paul and Joe were the only other club members brave enough to ride on the day that winter hit.

We set off through roadworks and round a fiveway roundabout to head to Moorside St and through to Daisy Nook where the rain began to fall from the carpet of cloud that had formed. After stopping to put on rain jackets and my phone into Paul's camelback, we pootled on through Daisy Nook and up to the climb on Vicarage Rd. After staying behind the others on the route so far and seeing them crawl up Newmarket Rd I decided that Vicarage Rd would be a much faster affair for myself; I sat behind them to the base of the climb and it's first bend biding my time. The second bend came up and I chose my moment and launched an attack that they failed to respond to. I did my usual mountain-goat impression I do on some ridiculously short steep climbs and hauled ass to the top in double quick time while they crawled up in a gentlemanly fashion. Still, it gave me time to schlurp some of my energy-powered vimto - neutral High-5 tabs in vimto - while waiting for them.

Along to Mossley Rd, between Stamford Park and it's boating lake and to the Stamford/Ridge Hill lights where a left turn took us to Wakefield Rd where the spitting rain turned into rain, then into sleety rainy crap. Climbing round past the top of Cockerhill Rd and the shit got heavier still. And colder. Much colder.

By the time we got to Heyrod and under the railway line the shit couldn't make it's mind up if it was gonna be rain, sleet or snow and the roads were collecting standing water. A fellow cyclist passed us at this point as he headed Ashton direction and seemed surprised to see us in the weather - and we, him. Soon another cyclist was passing us looking rather soggy and grumbling about the weather.

Cycling a section of road where the railway is on one side and the River Tame is on the other, it was hard to work out which was louder - the trains passing or the gushing of the very swollen river as it crashed over a weir and carried on smashing it's way through the valley. That wasn't the only river though as the standing water on the roads was getting deeper (around 1cm deep so far) and had begun to flow quite happily along the road. By this point we were all getting very wet with the rain seeping through clothes (4 layers in my case) as the rain got heavier and the spray got worse.

We were originally going to head to Uppermill, but seeing as we were nearing Mossley we decided to see if any cafes were open (they weren't). We stopped at Mossley Station to discuss what to do. Seeing as there was water pouring down Stamford Rd instead of going into the drains, and I was beginning to get very cold due to now being rather wet we chose to head back home.

Turning round in a pond and getting back onto Manchester Rd was easier than anticipated and we set off home the same way we headed out. By now we all had ponds in our shoes despite wearing neoprene overshoes (the rest of us was soggy anyway so why not pool in the shoes) meaning every pedal stroke squeezed out socks to some extent and every pull on the brakes produced visible water run-off from the squeezing out of gloves.

Reaching Ridge Hill Rd lights where we turn right to climb up to Mossley Rd and I was forced into taking evasive action - we were at the front of the lane and the lights turned to the green filter for my lane to turn right; as I was making my turn a car from the opposite side of the lights decided that as soon as his lights changed to green he was gonna mow down anything in its way. My evasive action meant I had to tighten my turn and resulted in going the wrong side of an island, luckily there weren't any cars there or I'd have ended up laying on their bonnets or perfecting my superman impressions.

Back home I couldn't make my mind up which was wetter - myself or the lake that was forming outside my front door! Once indoors I dropped my clothes where I stood and made for a hot bath before heading to my parent's place.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=27408

Many fellow polar bears and penguins met along the way.

Temp - 3c with real feel of 0c

Miles: 17.13

Average speed: 11mph (slow, but with slicks in the rain/sleet/snow it can't be helped)

Climbed: 520ft

November review

2009-12-01T13:37:00.000Z

It has been a 'half' kinda month with my mileage and elevation somewhat halving what it was last month:

Distance covered: 105.98 miles
Elevation gained: 4552ft
Days ridden: 7
Night rides: 1
Middleton CC: yep - to Mossley
Cycling events: 0
Other events: 1 - coppicing.

As with October, I'm still not doing any hill reps. My monthly elevation total was averaging out quite nicely but has now halved (so have the miles ridden), so I guess it still is kinda average. As predicted, the inclement weather has now hit and I did have a lot less riding time due to either training staff or purely because the weather is crap.

I also had enforced leave off the bike due to knee problems. Hopefully I can get back on the bike for more rides this month.

Coppicing

2009-11-25T13:50:00.002Z

Daisy Nook have varying events on through the year for both volunteers and the average Joe to come along and take part in. Sunday's event was coppicing - making pathways safe, felling trees, clearing shrubbery and making wildlife habitats out in the country park and alongside wildflower meadows.

The day started out very grim with huge dark threatening clouds in the sky and the wind blowing a gale, however by the time Paul and I got to the park the weather had calmed down massively.

After meeting the other people involved - several Duke of Edinburgh Award lads, few volunteers and 3 rangers, and receiving instruction from the chief ranger that day - Jane - we all picked up our tools and headed off into the glorious muddiness that resembled the park that day.

The DoE lads stayed in the wildflower meadow clearing there, while the vols carried on with Jane to a steep hillside which drastically needed clearing. Paul was the only male in our group with myself, Joanne, Derve and Hazel and we split into 2 groups - Paul, Derve and Joanne as one, myself and Hazel as the other. When Jane said that trees needed to be felled myself and Hazel leapt at the chance to do it.Bow saws in hand we were led to 3 Sycamore trees that were too leggy and causing a few problems. Learning the correct way to fell a tree was real interesting and before long we'd both felled a tree each before both taking down the third. Jane was mightily impressed that we'd managed it so easily. To be honest the thrill of felling something so big was exhilarating. Added to the fact that the logs were being used as dead hedges on the riverside and as critter homes elsewhere, it felt really good to be helping conservation. Pretty soon, the area had been dealt with leaving the path clear and safe (tis a very steep sided tree lined valley) and homes/hedges built.

After lunch at the centre we headed off to the second location of the day - Medlock Vale where loads needed to be done. In the seventies the council overcompensated for the lack of trees in the area etc and planted too many trees too close to each other so they grew to be pretty much poker straight 30ft tall logs with a sprout of greenery on the very tops. Not very attractive as trees really.

Again we split into our groups. Myself and Hazel attacking the sycamores, Paul and Derve attacking beech, Joanne clearing shrubbery and the DoE boys off elsewhere struggling with their trees. After being assaulted by all the brambles myself and Hazel got our trees down creating nice homes for hedgehogs and foxes and soon we'd moved on round to another area to free the path of overhanging trees and overgrown straggly brambles that were threatening to eat us up. This time there were no areas nearby where we could toss the logs, so after felling them we had to haul them up the hill and toss them into the valley we'd chosen as a good spot for the wildlife habitats. Several trees later and the coats were coming off as we'd worked up a sweat.

Pretty soon we were called to help the DoE boys as they couldn't fell a tree. Myself and Hazel stalked over bow saw in hand and attacked the bugger. Once it was down trying to cut it down into smaller sections was proving hard as it decided to bounce about. Shouting out for some assistance in holding it down proved fruitless. Looking around the DoE boys had buggered off leaving us girlies to carry on. Did they get miffed that girls could bring the tree down they were struggling with? I don't know. But I do know that it isn't part of the award to just admit defeat and leave. Oh well.

Way too soon it was time to head home as it was getting dark and the rain had begun to fall. I loved every minute of it. The best mental and physical exercise I've had in a very long time. My knee coped brilliantly. Best of all I didn't even ache the day after!

I might just become a volunteer ranger for the place.

Dr Pain

2009-11-20T21:05:00.002Z

This morning's visit to the doctors passed by relatively well. Doc is rather amazed that Surgeon advised I lead a very sedentary life. So was I when originally told, hence why I ignored him and only gave up the racquet sports and football, while carrying on cycling. Doc wants me to see my physio to ensure all ligaments, muscles etc are working properly before we turn to any drastic measures. He's adamant he wants me to keep cycling and also suggested I maybe take up rowing as not only will that keep my knee active it'd also help my repairing shoulder. So, I need to speak to my local gym to see about getting an induction. I certainly won't be rowing on a river! By the time I've finished having physio on my knee, I'll have been under their care for almost a year! ¤sent from my mobile device¤

Windy walk

2009-11-19T12:30:00.008Z

Seeing as I'm going out of my tree with not riding this week I opted for a walk today regardless of the gales and the threat of torrential rain.

I chose a portion of a walk I've done frequently that I knew wouldn't be too hilly or too muddy in the current crap climatic conditions.

I set off from mine with a beanie on as despite it being mild out the gales were supposed to make it much colder. What the weather forecasters failed to note was that the wind was actually rather warm, so before long the beanie was off and replaced with my baseball cap to shelter my eyes from airborne crud. By the time I'd passed Millstream Animal Shelter my waterproof jacket was getting unzipped as I was already beginning to get a sweat on.

Before long I'd reached the steepest point of my walk with a brief 14-20% section to enter Woodhouses. Directly opposite some gorgeous cottages is a road that for several years I thought just led to some expensive looking houses off the main road. It wasn't until a year or so ago that I actually paid attention whilst walking past and saw the weathered finger post sign letting the world know that it led to Medlock Vale and was part of the Oldham Way.

I headed down this road which led past some stunning houses before reaching an old cobbled section (maybe a century old?) that led steeply down to a gorgeous farm in the valley with a stunning vista of woodland all around it. Once past the farm and along a muddy track (with some deep tractor ruts in it) and I was at my desired location of the bridge over the Medlock itself. My aim of coming here was to see exactly how much the river had risen with the influx of rain we've had recently. Further downstream I'd seen the river so deep that there wasn't much of the archway left to be seen in the road bridge - pretty sure the river had risen at least 4 or 5ft. Up here the river was lapping over the banks and had breached them at one point. Luckily the banks of the river here are actually 10ft or so below the pathways - kind of a valley in a valley. However there didn't seem any imminent danger of it breaching fully.

Once I'd had a rest I set off back through the muddy tracks to the waymarked entrance of a field and tramped my way through until I reached Vale Lane again which brought me alongside fishing ponds and back out onto the main road, where I pootled back down the hill to get onto Edge Lane again.

From here I climbed back up the hill in another direction to the level crossing and the start of the Clayton Vale circular route (a portion of the Vale I'd not walked along for many many years) alongside the train tracks until the Culcheth Lane entrance and the trail led down into the valley here where again the river was so swollen and fast flowing that even the ducks had huge problems. Crossing the old bridge and climbing back out of the valley I startled a bunny - my startle saved it's little fuzzy life though as soon a Sparrowhawk came swooping about looking for lunch and he'd have been the meal if he hadn't have hopped away into the undergrowth.

Now I'm at my mom's place and my knee is swollen internally (horrid squishy feeling) and kinda dead, so I'm glad it was only a short walk and it's something more I can tell Doc when I see him.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=26362

Temp: 11C with a real feel of 11C. Winds 29mph S.

Miles: 4.2

Climbed: 296ft

Enforced leave

2009-11-16T13:32:00.003Z

Humph! I'm not happy! At all! I'm forcing myself to have a week off the bike.

I've been having loads of problems with my knee ever since the tibial plateau was fractured in 2004 leaving a perma-buggered knee, a non-removable 'step' in the rear of the patella and stage 2 arthritis. Problems such as constant niggles, dull aches most of the time, creaking (much more than is normal in healthy knees and also more than is anticipated with my genetic joint condition) etc.

In recent months this has progressed into having approximately half the week with sharp pain when bending the knee and/or the occasional searing pain.

Within the past week this has progressed even more into extreme sickening searing pains both at the old fracture site and deep within my knee and both while awake and during the night (keeping me awake at night and/or making me snooze with a bucket by the side of the bed.

Things came to a head last night while using my pc and having both the searing pain and a dead feeling in the same joint, often at the same time. After chatting to my mom bout it, she suggested going to A&E which I knew would be pointless, as the last time I went with my knee problem I was bounced from pillar to post before getting to see my consultant again months later.
So, I'll be trying to get in to see my GP and ask for a referral to Mr Samarji. The last time I saw Mr Samarji he was talking more surgery if things don't really stay the same or improve. Maybe now is the time for that to happen.

It's kind of a Catch-22 situation: I want rid of the pain as it's horrid and often makes my leg just give way completely so having more surgery would be great in that respect. But, I was told at the time of the injury that further injury (of which there has been 2 instances) will more than likely result in a total knee replacement, which at my age isn't great as the hardware would need replacing more frequently. Hmm, constant vomit-inducing pain or frequent surgery? Choices, choices.

First things first - get in to see Doc Dean and no other doc, cos I don't want to be dismissed again like I was a few months ago.

The ouchy ride

2009-11-16T13:08:00.003Z

After watching the Revolution series at the Manchester Velodrome on Saturday night, spending most of the time stood up, I possibly foolishly decided on riding Sunday morning. What was meant to be a nice easy flat ride became a slow paced ride with some climbing to do. A ride that became slower as it went on due to the pain in my knee getting progressively worse.

A portion of the Floop was ridden to Debdale before a jaunt on Hyde Rd/Manchester Rd through Denton Roundabout and into Hyde, then the climb up to Roe Cross via Victoria St and Matley. This was followed by the descent into Stalybridge then the climb back out to Ashton and up over to Park Bridge for the great descent there (rather busy this time round). Followed, naturally by my off-road jaunts that added mud to the road crud covering Everest and myself already. Over the M60 and climbing up a muddy, leafy slope on slicks brought me back out on the roads without having to get up the stupidly steep portion of road that would have finished me off as my perma-buggered knee was really whining now. Luckily I was close enough to home to really slow down without the fear of night descending before I got there.

Stats -
Temp: 11C with a real feel of 11C, wind 12mph WSW
Miles: 18.74
Average speed: 12.1mph
Climbed: 1002ft

Lest we not forget them

2009-11-11T13:31:00.002Z

On the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month.

At the going down of the sun

and in the morning

we shall remember them.

Remembrance Ride

2009-11-11T13:21:00.003Z

I set off in the morning for a nice ride, hoping to stop off at a memorial for the 2 minute silence. Just in case I couldn't get to a memorial, as with last year I wore my red kit to emulate a poppy in case I was too far away come 11am and needed to stop anywhere to remember the fallen.

As it was I made good time on the ride and rode to the war memorial in Hurst Cemetery to pay my respects again - I'd stopped to watch the Remembrance Day parade on Sunday, and rode to Ladysmith Barracks late last night and attached a poppy to the gate. Unlike Sunday, where I started blubbing (not sure why as I haven't personally lost anyone in a war), I held it together but felt very goosebumpy and cold despite sweating buckets.

I like to think the souls of the fallen came to thank me for remembering them.

After the silence, I made very easy headway home to watch the Remembrance Service on the BBC.

Stats -
Temp: 7C with a real feel of 5C, wind 9mph SW
Miles: 17.66
Average speed: 14.1mph
Climbed: 732ft

Winter wonderland

2009-11-09T12:45:00.005Z

I woke up to a bright crisp, chilly morning and I just had to get out and ride. I opted for a real easy route (one I use all the time) and loved it.

After clambering into my winter gear - Giordana winter tights, compression base layer, MCC jersey, Gore arm warmers, Endura overshoes and my cheats winter gloves (normal gloves with mitts over the top) - I threw my Discovery Channel windproof jacket on and hauled ass downstairs and into the pure air of a stunning winter morning.

Due to the roadworks that have now bred all over the place on my road (main Manchester to Ashton route) and will remain there for the next 3yrs or until they actually finish, whenever that may be; and given how I've already gone through 2 pairs of tyres this year because of the roadworks; I decided to try and avoid all of the diversions and contraflows so spent a fair while doubling back on myself via back streets to get through to Fairfield and then onto my usual route to Park Bridge. After coming out at Bardsley I took the road route to the John Hayworth Centre for a bacon butty (I know, I'm undoing all the good work I've just put in), a steaming mug of tea and a chat with Lesley and the countryside centre warden.

Once I'd winterproofed myself again I set off on the muddy but fun way back to Bardsley and along the roads through Ashton and along to the Snipe. Here I had a heart stopping nearly squished moment.

The road is 3 laned at this point leading up to the one way system: left hand lane is for straight on or left turn only, middle is for following the one way system to the right and then to the left, while the right hand lane is for following the one way system all the way to the right (right, then right again). Coming up to the Snipe I was ahead of a HGV who was being real good and staying far behind me and letting me rule the road. Coming up to the 2nd set of lights, I moved into the middle lane as that will take me home, but I sit to the left of this lane to allow traffic to still pass me on the right. The HGV was still real good and was slowly trundling in the left hand lane by now and was slowly passing me taking as much care as he could. I checked behind me, saw there was nothing there nor in the right hand lane, so I pulled over a little more to give the HGV more room to pass. HOONNNNNNNNNKKKKKKK!!!!! From nowhere a black cab had jumped on my ass, honked and scared the shit out of me so much that I nearly jumped into the side of the HGV. I purposely slowed down so that the cabbie was on my side, pointed to myself, then the HGV, then slid my finger across my throat, all while yelling at the tosser that he very nearly murdered me by being a tosspot. As in the life of the Spraggster, the cabbie just looked at me blankly shrugged his shoulders and then proceeded to undertake me and go into the left hand lane before putting his foot down. He was obviously way too lazy to just simply wait behind the HGV passing a vulnerable cyclist with extreme care.

The rest of the way home was filled with trepidation each time a vehicle got too close behind me (on slick roads too) half expecting to be splattered and scraped up into a jam jar.

Ah well, there's always another day to ride :oD

Stats -
Temp: 3C with real feel of 0C, wind 7mph wsw.
Miles: 15.73
Average speed: 13.6mph
Climbed: 470ft

Pike and Remembrance

2009-11-08T12:31:00.002Z

Before heading over to the cenotaph close by my place to pay my respects, I set off for a ride to the Pike - a lung busting, leg crunching ride that took me through Audenshaw, Dukinfield and Stalybridge to get to the Pike the hard way up Broadcarr Lane, a short but steep (13%) climb.

After sucking in the chill air a fab descent brought me out at the Abbey Hills Rd junction where I aimed to get back over to Park Bridge via the steepest way down into the valley. I managed it fine this time with only a little bit of a scare when I underturned a corner and nearly rode into trees. Whoops!

After the jolty cobbled section of road between Park Bridge and the Medlock I took it easy for a while before descending Crime Lane and climbing back out of the valley and up into Ashton. Excellent sprinting along Robert Sheldon Way has boosted my hopes for a decent time in Decembers Track Champs.

Back near Droylsden and I had a rest while veterans and cadets were led on a parade by a marvellous marching band through the streets to the cenotaph near where I live. I hadn't realised I'd been out so long and had to sprint back to my place for a quick bath and change of clothes before heading over to Cemetery Rd and the Remembrance Day service.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=25501
Miles: 19.6
Average speed: 16.7mph
Climbed: 1218ft

Who did that?!

2009-11-04T14:04:00.002Z

Seeing as the weather was pretty good - dryish and with a breeze, not the howling gales we had recently - I set off for another easy pootle. Was hoping to replicate Monday nights ride. The reality, however, was it was not to be.

The weather was chilly, but I was wrapped up nice and warm.

Up towards Ashton with no problems. By the Wild Bean Cafe/BP garage, I turned off to avoid the one way section. While turning I got a heart stopping moment as my rear wheel began to slide out from under me. SHIIIIIIIT! I'm not sure how, but I managed to stop it sliding completely out from under me as I didn't want a repeat of the pelvis injury I got in February when I got splatted. My poor pelvis has been in a state of shock since February and is really susceptible to injury for a few years yet.

Phew!

Passing Ikea my lungs were beginning to scream at me. My chest felt like it was caving in, and I was having problems breathing due to the extreme pain around my sternum. With each breath it felt like I was sucking on dry ice and the waves of pain were rather nauseating. I knew that this ride would be pathetically short. The situation was evident: the icy cold air was freezing my broncheoles and alveoli (sections of lung to those not medically-minded) and causing my asthma (which was thought to have long gone) to return with a huge boom. This has happened before* and docs are wary of giving me steroids again to deal with it as other than these vary odd episodes, I'm pretty much ok. I knew how to deal with it without medical help, so just got on with it while receiving very odd looks due to what I was doing.

When the pain had subsided to an acceptable level I carried on towards Daisy Nook where a welcome sweet hot tea calmed me down and the warm indoor air melted the icebergs in my chest.

I decided there and then to just head home and not go any further to reduce after effects (I'm now wheezy). The warm air back at home has helped massively.

* The sudden change in air temperature is the usual suspect for these episodes as my lungs don't have the gradual decline in warmth to get used to. Think of how you get goose bumps going from a warm car into the snowy outdoors. My brochioles and alveoli sort of react like that but constrict at the same time.

Stats -
Miles: 8.46
Average speed: 14.6mph
Climbed: 181ft

Night ride

2009-11-04T13:47:00.004Z

My night ride was changed to Monday night as I was meeting a friend on Tuesday evening after work. I was kind of glad to have a change of day for the ride to be honest.

Given that my shoulder was still sore after physio on Friday (hence why I didn't ride the 50 Mile Madness with Joby and Chris on Sunday) I took it real easy and tweaked the route so it was more of a pootle than an ordeal.

I set off along my usual evening route to Ashton, then up Cranbourne, along Ladbrooke to Whiteacre, across Queens Rd and up Palace Rd to Rose Hill Rd and up to Gorsey Lane before the awesome descent into Ashton again, through Guide Bridge, sneaking my way into the middle lane once back on Manchester Rd by the Snipe and hurtled along back home.

Despite the descent and the hurtling home, I took the rest of the route quite easily due to the rain slick roads and the showers I had to endure while out. Luckily I wore my Endura waterproof jacket so I remained dry, but I did have the ubiquitous skunk tail effect (I don't own any mudguards for Everest yet).

Even better is that my Endura jacket is so-called Tangerine coloured - in reality it is high viz. I also have the rear of my bike looking a little like a christmas tree with my cat-eye and 2 knog frogs blinking away. It's still more than a little disconcerting that a few drivers still came within a whisker of taking me out on corners. One bus driver, whose company shall remain nameless (Stagecoach. Oops, did I tell everyone?? Lol), very nearly squished me on a sprint as he meandered lazily into my lane.

Still, he didn't. I'm, alive (I think) and all ready to play out again another day!

Stats -
Miles: 12.14
Average speed: 14.3mph
Climbed: 431ft

October review

2009-11-01T12:32:00.003Z

Again, it has been a fairly good month:

Distance covered: 210.35 miles
Elevation gained: 7428ft
Days ridden: 11 (some night rides in amongst that)
Middleton CC: yep - to Ramsbottom
Events: 0

Still not doing any hill reps as most of my longer rides now seem to incorporate hillier routes and I feel stronger on the climbs. My monthly elevation total is averaging out quite nicely now too.

Granted, due to the inclement weather that has now hit us very hard today, the next few months may well have a lot less riding in them. But, I will try to get out there and do what I can.

Bloody roadworks!

2009-10-29T13:21:00.002Z

Despite my shoulder still being pretty sore from previous rides I still got out for a pootle as I really didn't want to stay indoors on such a nice day.

I wanted to get to my cafe via an alternative route that I haven't ridden for a while - one that pretty much goes in the opposite direction for quite a while before coming back on itself. It'd be a nice easy, recovery ride type thing. Or so I thought.

As I know don't head into Manchester City Centre for anything other than meeting friends every now and then, I have no idea exactly where the metrolink roadworks are int hat direction. However, within the space of 0.69 miles I had ridden at speed through 3 YES 3 traffic-lighted contraflows. Mmm, so much for an easy start to the ride.

Out alongside Philips Park, through Newton Heath and into Failsworth was a nice easy pootle with only minimal climbing to do, with the worst bit of it being the climb over the M60 on Cutler Hill Rd. I turned off onto Coal Pit Lane (no sprinting along it this time) and headed up it to the Ashton Rd junction. As I neared White Bank Rd in Limeside I spotted roadworks signs saying the road was closed. As I was seeing traffic still coming down it, I pootled on around the bend by the golf course and found the roadworks were right at the far end at the Ashton Rd junction.

About turn and I found myself in unknown territory as I followed the diversion notices through Limeside and the climb up Hollins Rd to the Park cakes junction on Hathershaw Rd. Here, I got stuck at the lights for several changes as way too many hgvs tried to get in or out of the bakery, blocking the junction and preventing people from turning right (like I was trying to).
Eventually I got round and loved the descent through Bardsley and through to Daisy Nook.

In the cafe, chatting away to Lesley I got a phone call from work asking me if I could work the afternoon as the new epos till was going live and they needed someone to help with a stock take and cover the old till until it was all sorted with the epos. As I was close to home I agreed to go in at 1pm. Nothing would stop me from chowing down on my bacon butty I'd ordered!

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=24708
Miles: 13.68
Average speed: 14.2mph
Climbed: 478ft

Tepid Tuesday

2009-10-27T21:05:00.000Z

Wow! This is so not October weather! What is going on with it; it's way too warm to be nearing November. So warm in fact, that I wore a summery top for work!

This meant that my night ride was not a winter clothed one. The arm warmers still went on, but the leg warmers stayed off. As it was, I was still too hot, but that is way better than being cold.

I set off along my usual route through Daisy Nook up to Ashton Rd, down to Cranbourne, up Smallshaw and onto Lees Rd in Hurst. Snuck over a bollarded section onto Kenworthy Ave and King's Rd to climb up Gorsey Lane to the Ashbourne junction. I took a photo on my mobile of how dark it was here, but sadly it just looked like a big black thing so not posting it on here!

Fabulous descent to Mossley Rd and then down to the Queen's Rd junction where I, again, sat in the middle of the road waiting for the traffic to pass and let me turn right. Had to wait until the lights were changing to red before I could turn. Back up through Hurst and another great descent down Broadoak and swooping round the roundabout and along Wilshaw before heading into Ashton town centre and a section of Park Parade and on towards home.

Excellent ride with perfect night weather.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=24711
Miles: 13.93
Average speed: 14.7mph
Climbed: 458ft

Mad and muddy

2009-10-26T23:24:00.000Z

After Sunday's chaotic ride, I wanted to get a bit of order in and do some hill climbing and some sprints if I could manage both on the same day. My shoulder was still sore too, so I wasn't holding out much hope on the hills.
As it was, I needn't have worried as the weather made my decision for me.

Thanks to the metrolink roadworks I couldn't take the immediate left once I'd left my crummy road so I had to tweak it a little to get onto Edge Lane and round through Fairfield, Daisy Nook and onto to Lees New Rd by Lily Lanes.
On the way up St Alban's the weather got a bit crap with drizzle and by the time I'd got to the top I couldn't see Hartshead Pike anymore due to mist and storm clouds. That was my mind made up; I wouldn't be going up that climb, so I focused on sprint training instead.

I carried on until I reached Alt Lane and swooped round by Alexandra Park to Hathershaw, around/through Limeside and to the start of Coal Pit Lane where I was going to practise my sprinting. Having no turbo yet and unable to afford the track sessions, this is the next best thing for me in preparation for the next club track championship in December.
The road is just over 1.03 miles long, little traffic and with approx 70ft of climbing along it's length. My LBS owner uses this road too for his sprinting, so I knew it'd be a good road to get top whack on.

I was, however, completely blown away by what I did mange to achieve.
I rode up it 4 times, each time sprinting as hard as I could for as long as I could. Granted, I know that the track sprint is only 200metres, but with the 1k TT and the 2k pursuit also ahead of me, I wanted to push myself.
The stats for the sprint are included in the usual stats below.

After nigh on wiping myself out to the point of nearly falling off the bike by the end of the sprinting (must've been doing it right then!), I carried on to Bardsley for my lovely off road route to the cafe where, due to the rain, I arrived very, very muddy, rather wet and knackered!

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=24706
Miles: 18.34
Average speed: 26mph (thanks to the sprinting)
Maximum speed: 37mph (top whack! PB for max speed too)
Climbed: 619ft

Sheep's Arse!

2009-10-26T13:28:00.002Z

Sunday was the day of Middleton CC's October club ride.

I wasn't looking forward to this ride too much due to the amount of climbing I thought would be involved. I set off towards the meeting point at Heaton Park and met up with my bro Paul along the way. We travelled through Philip's Park and onto Alan Turing Way and Queen's Rd before heading through Cheetham Hill to the meet point at the bus stop by Victoria Ave.

Joe, Crimmy and Mike were already at the meet point with Pantani Pete arriving not long after myself and Paul did. While waiting for John W to arrive the rest of the boys looked at the map to decipher the route while Mike and I discussed the Manchester 100 that we'd ridden (not seen or spoken to him since then) in September.

After John W arrived we set off up towards Bowlee and its steep climb towards Birch where we turned off to take in a section of the MCC Jean Keith Award route before heading left round the roundabout at junction 2 of the M66 and then right to take us to the A56 Walmersley Rd - a nice drag of a climb.

Several times the ride leader Joe was at the rear of the group and didn't shout out directions. The two impromptu leaders then took it upon themselves to squabble about the directions to take. Usually we'd end up at lights while they squabbled and more than once we were then told to turn right (while in the left hand lane of a 2 or 3 laned road). Weaving in and out of traffic isn't my ideal ride to do. All this messing about ended up leaving me less than amused and in some considerable pain due to the impromptu leaders choosing hillier roads - my pelvis was throbbing a fair bit, knee was beginning to hurt and my shoulder was killing me. At one point I couldn't really hold on with my left arm.

The climb was rewarded right at the top with amazing views then the best descent yet: a 12% drop into Ramsbottom across the level crossing and left to a mobile catering unit.

After noshing on bananas Crimmy and Pantani took in the Rake, a notoriously steep, evil git of a climb approximately 20% gradient. They came back full of enthusiasm for it, saying it wasn't that bad. Erm...that'd be hell for me!

We split into 2 groups for the route back - Mike, Crimmy and Pantani heading back a hillier way and myself, Paul, John and Joe heading back a slightly flatter route.
I had bike problems immediately after leaving the car park with my chain dropping off the front chainrings. I put it back on and thought nothing of it. However I had to put up with problems all the way back home as the chain kept jumping and skipping gears regardless of whether I was on the inner or outer chainring at the front. Mmmm. Not good as I either had to really twiddle my way up hills or grind my way up them. It refused point blank to get into the gear I needed or stay there when it did go in. At times I was having to slam the brakes on or ended up jerking the bike around as Joe kept weaving about in front of me (not intentional I don't think). Around this time I discovered that Joe hadn't been wearing his hearing aid either, so no doubt couldn't hear me behind him. Rather dangerous though as it also meant he couldn't hear the traffic either.

The route back through Greenmount, Bury and Whitefield wasn't easy with the gears arsing about, but I made it back to near Heaton Park where Joe and John W headed off in their respective directions to get home. Myself and Paul carried on to get back home the way we came out to the Park.

On Bury Old Rd at a huge junction with traffic lights I sat behind a black Merc with a First bus behind me. As the lights turned green for us we all set off. As soon as I'd clipped in the Merc slammed his brakes on, forcing myself and the bus into emergency stops on rain slick tarmac (so close to being squished with the bus up my arse). Black Merc let a car cut in front of him to turn left then proceeded to turn left himself without indication. I have to admit to a huge amount of road rage at that point. That incident on top of everything else that'd happened just meant that sadly I didn't enjoy the ride much.

When I got home I took Everest straight round to my LBS where Neil took the rear derailleur apart, put it back together again and she's now all fine. Thanks Neil!

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=24442
Miles: 33.29
Average speed: 12.9mph
Max speed: 27mph
Climbed: 1428ft

Tour de Tameside

2009-10-24T12:50:00.008+01:00

I arranged to meet Gaz at 8am for a nice easy ride of the Floop and then my Park Bridge route. Last night he asked if we could drop the Floop and concentrate on Park Bridge. Not a problem!

Bang on 8am as I stepped outside Gaz had just pulled up on his sexy Ribble, we discussed saddlebags for a little while (I put on the Topeak wedge to show him, usually have my Scicon on Everest) and we set off.

Out through Fairfield past a heritage area (Moravian Settlement) and out to Littlemoss/Daisy Nook and the first 'climb' of the day to Oldham Rd. i could have carried straight over the crossroads but as gaz wasn't feeling 100% I opted for the easier and flatter route to save killing him. So, up Smallshaw past the evil Vicarage, then onto another longish gradual climb to Alt Hill Lane and the start of the ace descent through Park Bridge. I'd forewarned Gaz that the going would be treacherous round here due to the rain slick tarmac, extreme leaf litter, cow shit (several farms along here) and the field run-off. Boy, was it lethal! We took it real slow which took the edge of the greatness of the descent, but it did mean we got to live another day!

I pointed out one of my hill rep hills to whimpers from Gaz and a huge sigh of relief from him once I'd said we weren't going up it. Onto Daisy Nook where the sexy Ribble got dirty (poor Gaz) and round to the cafe. After being there for a few minutes an MTBer on a sweet full sus Trek arrived and after asking us where we'd been, he proceeded to regale us with tales of his rides and his mates steeds (even telling us that his bike was nearly 2k and on one ride there were 20-20k worth of bikes). At this point gaz disappeared into his own world (don't blame you!) and I just abouts managed to keep up with the chat. Bit strange though that an MTBer would just blather on at 2 roadies like that. We than got bearated by him for taking the roadies along the singletrack/canal path. Why? the beasts are more than capable of handling them!

Anyway. Up Joby's 'mountain' which Gaz seemed to make it look like hard work (soz Gaz), while I pootled up it. Back up to Oldham Rd and down through Ashton town centre to the huge (and often lethal) Lidl roundabout where we went our separate ways: Gaz straight on to climb up through Dukinfield; myself turning right to Park Parade and sprint training alongside a police car.

After beating the cop car from a standing start to the stupid one way system I swooped and swooped some more before another sprinty bit to another stupid one way system. More swooping followed by sprinting meant that I was getting in some good training for the track champs in December (can't afford to get on the track at the moment to train).

Final mile to home was taken as a sprint for me; tucked up swooping through the contraflows was a little scary at times, but I made it safe and sound.
Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=24235
Miles: 13.92
Average speed: 13.2mph
Max speed: 185.9mph (apparantly!)
Sprinting max: 23.8mph (thanks to the pc balls up I had to keep looking at the pc. It was most likely more than stated above.)
Climbed: 459ft

Team 100k ride again

2009-10-19T12:50:00.003+01:00

After imbibing alcohol at L&J's reception on Saturday night an early morning ride on Sunday was very welcome to clear out the cobwebs and wake me up.

Joby and Emma (2 other members of Team 100k) met me at mine to ride the Floop and were easily persuaded to add on one my loops to the mix. After Joby arrived really early on the club ride he rode on, and after Gaz and Emma were bang on time for our pootle t'other week, I expected them early so waited outside for them. 9 o'clock came and no sign of them (was beginning to think they may've chickened out cos it was bloody freezing outside!), a text confirmed that they were running a little late. Rather than disappearing back upstairs to my flat I began to hop about on the spot to keep myself warm and no doubt made the passers by chuckle. I even endured a 'Hoy! Race ya!' from 2 scallies.
No sooner had Joby and Emma arrived and Joby was already making demands(!) - he needed a top up of his water bottle already. Either that or he wanted to try the borderland water.

I promised that the route would be easy and a nice slowish pace seeing as Joby was recovering from Swine Flu and Emma had ridden the night before.

After refreshing Joby (ooer) we set off towards the start of the Floop and I was greeted by a grumble from Joby about the gravel beginnings. Pretty soon, he was appeased by the remainder of the route which he'd ridden before as part of the return of the last MCC ride. Emma hadn't ridden all of this portion so it was fairly new to her. Pretty soon we were all on new turf as we crossed Wilmslow Rd to get onto the other portion of the Floop to head to Chorlton where the route ended by Corkland. We headed back the way we came as far as Abbey Hey before getting back onto the roads for my add-on.

Entering Ashton Old Rd opposite a beautiful church, the route headed through Fairfield and Audenshaw before passing the Snipe and entering Ashton town centre. Sadly, here, Emma headed off to go be with her chap leaving myself and Joby to ride the rest of the route.

Up Cranbourne and Smallshaw and soon I was pointing out Hartshead Pike on the right perched on top of the hill with the sun shining on it. Joby begged me to tell him that we weren't riding up to it this time. I could have been evil and said we were, but I thought I'd be nice, told him the truth and we swung off into Alt Hill Lane where the fabulous descent lay ahead of us: swoopy, stunning vista, narrow lanes. It's over way too soon sadly.

At the bottom Joby was again begging me to tell him that we weren't going back up the hill. As we were beginning to freeze our feet I told him we weren't and that we'd soon be able to warm up in the cafe in Daisy Nook. Strangely Daisy Nook seemed to be full to the rafters with hounds and owners. I'm thinking that there may have been a dog class on and we encountered them on their way out. Either way we got to the cafe where tea/coffee and hot radiators warmed us up.

I promised Joby that we wouldn't be going back via any huge hills, but failed to tell him that to get to the main road from the car park involved a very short but rather steep climb before the gradual climb of Newmarket. As I reached the top of this climb I heard the bellow behind me 'You said there'd be no hills, that was a bloody MOUNTAIN!' - it wasn't that bad, just ridiculously steep for it's length (it's about 13 or 14% and about 20ft of road). He didn't complain about the rest of the climb!

Just past Ikea we both went our separate ways - to opposite ends of Tameside. I decided to book Everest into my brand spanking new (and opened by Jamie Staff) ridiculously close local bike shop for a service. I ended up staying in the shop talking to the owner and his mate for close to an hour and half before walking around the corner and up the stairs to home. I get Everest back on Thursday,s o I'll have to find something else to do until then.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=23827
Miles: 28.09
Average speed: 11.2mph (nice and easy pace)
Climbed: 656ft

Weddings 'r' us

2009-10-17T23:57:00.002+01:00

Tonight I was at the wedding reception of my dear friend Andy's brother and sister-in-law John and Liz. I know Liz from a previous job of mine at JD Williams, so I knew she'd be inviting people from there. I was amazed at the amount of people I knew who were there (I left there in 2007). It was good to see them all again. As you can see from the photo Liz had a blast tonight. This is the 2nd wedding bash: they actually got married in Cyprus, but obviously couldn't invite us all over, hence this reception party. A good time was had by all. Liz looked gorgeous, John was handsome, the best man (and my dear chum) Andy looked dapper and a great time was had by all. They're probably all still partying the night away right now.

Welcoming?

2009-10-16T12:37:00.004+01:00

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.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=23486

Miles: 19.7

Average speed: 13.4mph

Climbed: 1073ft

Evening ride

2009-10-14T13:01:00.003+01:00

Seeing as Tuesday day passed without me feeling any worse I decided that I would get out for my evening ride. So, while watching Hollyoaks (I know, at my age it's sad) I clamboured into my kit (bizarrely the kit of a club to which I am no longer a member!), mounted my lights onto Everest and hoicked her downstairs. Dodged a muppet van driver as soon as I got out the door - there're 2 working garages on my crappy street and one of them works quite late; the morons who drive the cars back into the compound think they're rally drivers (my road is gravel and railway sleepers), doing handbrake turns and wheel spins. All without any of the lights on the vehicles. if it wasn't for my bins being either side of my front door, the vehicles would literally be on my doorstep.

I digress, apologies.

As the metrolink works have now reached my junction and have added several more contraflows to the mix I had to immediately alter the route out to Ashton and set off through Openshaw and Fairfield to get to where I wanted to be (a nice sprinty section of road leading to the Snipe and on through into Ashton. Past the splatter zone and onto Cranbourne before Kings and Gorsey Lane. Then came the great descent back towards Ashton, only diverting off at the rubbish five-way junction where I sat in the middle of the road waiting to turn right as there seemed to be an endless line of cars heading up towards Mossley. Personally I think there should be a filter at these lights, but there isn't and most likely never will be.
Back through Hurst, Daisy Nook and Littlemoss, whizzing round a mini roundabout at yet another five-way junction and the final sprint to home.

Given that my left knee was really aching in work I was expecting some problems. However, none occurred and all went well without real incident or accident.

Stats -
Miles: 13.69
Average speed: 14.6mph
Climbed: 500ft

No oink!

2009-10-14T12:49:00.002+01:00

Well, after Monday's querying with Joby, Gaz, the NHS and other peeps I've come to the conclusion that I may just have a very mild form of oink. Several people agree with me. As I'm not sneezing or coughing then I'm certainly not infectious so I carried on with life as normal.

Tuesday began with a nice walk to work in the clear crisp air and a shop that looked like it'd been hit by gremlins. The new till refuses to go into training mode so nobody knows how to use the system and the media shelves have huge empty spaces in them. I knew I was going to be very busy sorting them out.

Maybe not as busy as originally thought as I got stock out and onto the shelves in double quick time, interspersed with stints helping the customers and chatting away with the boss. It was quite funny when I told her bout my chats with the nhs on Monday night, and she agreed with me and went on to say that if I infect her it doesn't matter as she has next week off work anyway!

On to my appointment with JC and despite them running late everything went according to plan and I came away relatively happy and with some thoughts on potential. Back to work and the rest of the day passed by real quick as it usually does.

Oink?

2009-10-12T21:42:00.002+01:00

Three friends of mine have been diagnosed with swine flu. Three people I've been in contact with recently. After 2 of them were diagnosed today, I took a look at the symptoms and compared them with how I've felt recently. Now, the symptom list says ANY 2 or more symptoms and you've probably got the illness. Running nose? Yep. Diarrhoea/vomiting? Yep. Any aches or pains? Yep. Headaches? Yep. Ok, so that's 4 symptoms. At risk category such as asthma, diabetes, pregnancy etc? Yep. So, that adds a risk to the symptoms. I phoned the NHS. First question: do you have a fever? I answered truthfully that I don't. I rarely get a high temperature with any illness and never had one when I actually had flu several years ago. Due to the lack of the apparantly compulsory fever I supposedly cannot therefore have swine flu. These are the same authority who said I hadn't fractured my pelvis...yet several hrs later I was diagnosed with a fracture that was due to take 6 months to heal. My faith in the NHS is waning rapidly. I'll take their advice, go into work tomorrow, go to my appointment with JC. If I infect you world, I apologise, but the NHS told me I'm not ill at all. Must be all psychological then. Can psychologists diagnose swine flu.....? ¤ sent from my mobile device ¤

All present and correct

2009-10-12T14:19:00.003+01:00

I think! Finally got all my elevation stats correct. I was using mapmyride for the maps/elevation etc, but found that it lied massively after completing the mcr 100 and it stated I'd only done about 700ft of climbing. I knew that this wasn't correct as it felt more and also Joby's Garmin was saying otherwise. Since the mcr100 I've been using bikehike which is much more realistic, and I have been spending some time converting the elevation stats from one to the other.

It is now complete. Finally. I can't quite believe that I have done quite so much climbing, especially that in January, but I have. All this from a hill-hating, non-climbing whiner like me!!

Can it be...

2009-10-12T10:58:00.002+01:00

That I am truly made of lead? The reason I ask is simple. The photo shows Hartshead Pike on top of its hill. This was my intended destination for a ride today. The reality? I didn't even get as far as the place the photo was taken from (photo taken a few months ago). I'd eaten some readybrek before I left the house, travelled roads I'd done many times before, even took a gel with me which I don't normally do on rides as short as this would be. I knew my legs would take a while to get used to the chill air so took it easy up the first portion of not-quite-flat road and took a hump bridge as normal. At the top of the road by a roundabout I knew I wouldn't make it the way I'd intended as my average was way down on what it normally is and I hadn't even headed skywards yet. I slurped my gel and was heading towards the longer albeit less steep route, my legs feeling no better. I couldn't even manage to get above 19mph on a sprinty bit. I had to face facts: the bug I caught on saturday (and which I presumed had passed through my system as I felt 100% yesterday) is obviously still lurking somewhere deep within. My ride home felt like Everest and I were made of lead. I managed a very paltry 7 miles and am now rather grumpy about it. Humph! ¤ sent from my mobile device ¤

Yikes!

2009-10-11T15:25:00.002+01:00

Well it may not sound much to some of you mad cyclists out there, but in the 6ish months of this year that I've been able to ride (and since updating my stats after calculating elevation on bikehike instead of mapmyride (for only half my rides at the moment)) I have now climbed more than twice the height of Mt McKinley in Alaska and am well on my way to twice the height of Everest. Not bad going considering most of the climbing has been done AFTER my pelvic fracture and while still in pain from it!

I wonder what I could do if totally free from the pain the fracture has left me in.......

Devil's Hill

2009-10-07T14:26:00.004+01:00

Early this bright, clear, cold morning I set off to enjoy the roads as I took Everest out for a ride along the Fallowfield Loop and beyond.

I set off towards the Floop entrance on Falmer Close and decided by the time I got to Debdale that I wanted to ride Hyde Rd (not sure why) and then over and up Devil's Hill. Getting off the Floop by McD's a woman with suitcase decided she'd walk right into the road as I was flying towards the junction, silly woman. She was obviously too distracted trying to do multiple things at once - on her moby and hauling a mammoth suitcase behind her. Still we didn't collide and I carried on my merry way to Hyde Rd.

Once on there, I tucked down and sprinted along past the golf course and to the gorgeously deadly Denton Roundabout. Now at this point most people (with sense) would probably get off the road and go over the footbridge. Now, as that involved trying to get to the other side of the road, which by this point was 6 lanes wide, then hauling ass up and over the bridge then trying to get back onto the right side of the road, I just decided to ride the thing seeing as it was miles easier to do.
Riding in the draft of a car with a motorcycle at the side of me I made it round the enormous roundabout with ease and without a hint of the danger that Joby and Gaz seems to encounter every day.

Down the one way system on Manchester Rd (it's a strange road with the M67 slap bang in the centre of it and the normal road either side) and to the lights on the bus/cycle lane. Now Gaz and myself find that these lights are never on red. Except now. And for a stupidly long time. So long in fact that I ignored them after a while and joined the main lanes. There was sod all coming in any direction yet these stupid lights were still saying 'stay put you cyclist you'. Maybe if I'd pretended to be a bus and go 'Beep Beep!' they may have changed. I shall never know.

Anyway, after hurtling down the road and over the Tame and it was time to meet the Devil; although he didn't seem very mean to me as I practically flew up the hill. Maybe he'd not woken up yet? Into Hyde, round into Dukinfield and they're putting up the Christmas lights. Already. It's only October!!!

After greeting another roundabout and encountering calf cramp halfway round it (so not necessary) I was on the lookout for a safe stopping point, found a fence and threw myself at it to stretch the cramp away. Five minutes later and the smile was back on my face as I headed up and round to Daisy Nook for the obligatory bacon butty and to make friends with some spaniels before the sprinty route home.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22500
Miles: 13.8
Average speed: 13.9mph (slow but still happy with it)
Max speed (?): 71.3mph (!!!!!!) that was up devil's Hill too!
Climbed: not much 340ft

Dunham desires

2009-10-07T13:30:00.013+01:00

On Monday morning myself and bro Paul got in the Fabia and drove to Dunham to spend the day taking photos of the autumn gorgeousness and hopefully many shots of the deer before rutting.

The day proved warmer than anticipated and both of us were rather warm as we'd overdressed, but we couldn't be bothered removing various articles as we'd no room in our bags what with our camera kit and picnic in them. Oh and Paul's tripod that looked like it was trying to strangle him when he carried it!

First port of call was the sawmill and the stunning reflections of the barn and clock tower in the moat. Whilst Paul was taking shots of the moat I wandered off to a tree stump and it's lovely collection of fungus where I got to practice macro before returning to the moat for some shots myself.

Onto the main house and for once I managed to get a shot of the listed building without any body, buggy or bloody idiot getting in the way and with the nice sundial central to the building. Paul was also taking multiple shots here and I got mine over his head while he squatted down to take his shots from a lower angle.

After the Hall we wandered over to one of the lakes where last year we saw a massive orange Koi Carp. He'd gone from the lake now, hopefully he's been moved into the larger lake. There weren't many swans, coots, or moorhens here either so the wildlife shots were thin on the ground, but I did get some gorgeous shots of the lake and the trees reflected in it. Again while Paul was taking shots I wandered over to a fallen tree to take some 'arty' shots (I like quite bizarre architectural type shots). While here I heard a cricket 'singing' looked round and found him on one of the fallen trees where he seemed happy to have his picture taken and slowly wandered over to his mate who, again, seemed happy to just stand still while I took multiple shots of them. Paul cursed himself when he saw what he was taking as he'd left his macro lens at home and couldn't do any close-ups. Tsk. Still, all better for me as I need the macro practice.

Wandering about and over to another lake, Paul began taking glorious shots of the lilies and swans while I set off looking at the ground in search of more macro possibilities, and came across a good few things. And a stunning view across another lake with beautiful skies and colours in the grasses.

We finally found a stag (in the whole day we only saw 4 deer (2 stags and 2 females - pretty sure they were the same stag/female on both occasions!) and I managed to get a good picture of him lay down in the grass. Not as good as I'd have liked though as my camera is only a compact and therefore the zoom isn't as great as Paul's SLR, but still, it is one of the best pictures of deer that I've taken.

After the stag got bored and wandered off we set off in the opposite direction and came across the old slaughter house in the woods, where I found my nice architectural/arty things to shoot and yet more macro!

Last port of call was back to a lake and the woods behind it where we watched several squirrels frolicking in the sun and leaves, while one was busy burying his findings for a possible harsh winters lunch,and while we got bombarded with beech nut cups as it seemed that every tree had multiple squirrels in the canopy stuffing his tummy and little cheeks and dropping what he didn't want onto the floor. After we both got hit several times we decided to head off back to the car as we'd managed to spend about 6hrs wandering around!

These and more photos are on my photo blog avixpics

Floop

2009-10-04T16:30:00.006+01:00

Myself, Gaz and Emma decided on Saturday night that we'd ride the Fallowfield Loop this morning. Partially as they'd not ridden it before, but also because Joby and Gaz have been looking for somewhere to do their 100 miles of nowhere ride. that, and seeing as they didn't have a clue where it was or how to get there, I'd come in very useful. I'd planned to ride anyway and decided to meet them and then ride my own loop afterwards.

At 8:30ish Gaz and Emma hurtled into my street and we all set off with Gaz doing a few wheel spins on the 'interesting' road surface before getting onto the roadwork area that has now appeared right at the end of my street.
We set off towards Wright Robinson College and got onto the Floop at its gravelly first quarter/fifth and set a good pace along the cycleway passing a fellow cyclist with extreme ease: well, he was on a full sus mtb that squeaked like an overgrown mouse, so the passing was done with ease.

As we neared the Kingsway bridge Gaz got a text from his misses saying his daughter was ill and could he come home. We turned tail and set off back towards Debdale Park and the Hyde Rd exit. Once on Hyde Rd I promptly adopted the tuck position and pelted along until I drew alongside Denton Golf Club near the fantastically lethal Denton roundabout. No RLJers as there was very little traffic thankfully: it's not the best of roundabouts to ride round, but ride it we did.

Into Denton Crown Point and while Emma and Gaz headed up to Devils Hill and Mottram Rd, I turned off to begin my own loop of madness. Up Shepley, through into Dukinfield, then Stalybridge, Ashton/Mossley and up Wilshaw to Lees Rd and the gradual climb up to Park Bridge.
Coming down the descent into the valley I got stuck behind a Jeep behind a horse rider who was in the middle of the road. Once the Jeep was passing her safely she acknowledged the driver, but when i said 'morning' to her I got a bit of a sour look from her and what sounded like a grunted reply. Hmm, so much for being friendly to other road users who are just as vulnerable.

Back in Bardsley and along through Daisy Nook and I was avoiding branches that'd been blown off the trees with last nights gales. Luckily the visitor centre was open (that early on a Sunday, I was surprised) and the warden was told about the branches while I waited for my bacon butty. Making friends with a beagle pup, very cute, I began to feel the cold despite being wrapped up warm, so pretty soon I was on the move again descending and climbing various parts of Oldham and Failsworth before heading back through Ashton towards home.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22172
Cold, crisp gorgeous day
Miles: 32.89
Average speed: 12.4mph (fairly slow, but happy with it anyway)
Climbed: 1217ft

September review

2009-09-30T23:10:00.000+01:00

Been a fairly good month:

Distance covered: 215.28
Days ridden: 9
Middleton CC: yep - to Tatton Park
Events: Manchester 100 in 4:14:07

Again I've not done any hill reps, but have exceeded most months on the climbing scale bar that of January. A few evening rides have been added to the 'rota' so that'll guarantee around 30 miles each week depending on the weather of course!

I need a new route!

2009-09-29T20:33:00.001+01:00

I went on my usual after work ride to keep up the miles. By the time I was kitted up it was so dark I needed my lights on before I even left my street. By the time I got to my destination it was black black and my poor lights couldn't break the blackness, so I sadly returned the same way I went out, completely bypassing Park Bridge. I need to sort out another route bout 10-15 miles long, nice and quiet, where I'm not riding blind. Might hunt one out tomorrow. Anyhoo, I completed tonights 13.08 miles with an average of 15.2mph. ¤ Sent from my mobile phone ¤

Drizzling Daisy Nook

2009-09-28T10:35:00.001+01:00

On a damp and drizzling Monday morning I decided that a 'recovery' ride was due. It was a simple ride to Park Bridge and Daisy Nook and back home. Not sure how much recovering was done seeing as I'd completed the 15.05 mile loop at an average of 15.1mph. But hey ho!

Ooer missus!

2009-09-27T18:04:00.002+01:00

Just done a google search and it turns out that I've done more climbing than is needed to climb Everest! I've done approx 10,000ft more climbing than it takes to get up that huge mammoth of a mountain.

It may be even more seeing as mapmyride isn't too great on the elevation front. I shall, over time of course, plot all my routes onto bikehike and adjust the elevation stats on the sidebar accordingly.

September club run

2009-09-27T16:51:00.016+01:00

Septembers MCC club run had a good following including 2 guest (potential new members?) riders - myself, Paul, Simon (crimmy),and Joe being the members and Joby and Chris being the guests. Gaz came along for a smidge of the ride, but had to head to a family thing so couldn't complete the ride sadly.I was leading this ride, but had managed to leave my dongle with the route map on it at my parents so relied on memory except for the added bits that I'd either not ridden before or had only ridden once therefore my memory wasn't overly clear on the route. Joby and Chris had kindly put the route onto their Garmin units.After everyone met up at the Velo and Joby's monkey had his picture taken at the entrance (it was his daughter Lily's request that the monkey come out with us) we set off out across Ashton Old Rd, Hyde Rd and Stockport Rd to head past the Bike Docs and out through Rusholme and Didsbury and on to Wythenshawe Park where the route followed that of the Manchester 100 that myself, Joby and Chris had done at the beginning of this month (Chris being the braver of us as he did the 100 mile route): alongside the park, onto Shaftsbury Ave and then through Hale before turning off at Ashley to get onto the lovely long drag of Ashley Rd to the entrance of Tatton Park where we had lunch.

After stuffing our faces and refilling bottles we set off back to the Rostherne entrance of the park turning left to head into Knutsford. At this point my memory was a blank and the boys' Garmins had also gone rather wrong as they'd directed us the wrong way down a one way street! A bit of hike-a-bike was called for before mounting again and setting off on our merry way along Mobberley Rd, where I was surprised to find the lay-by void of the snack van that is normally tucked away there.

Joby tried to send us the wrong way but we managed to find the right turning and headed along Broad Oak Lane and another Mobberley Rd back into Ashley. The route diverted off again onto a bit I haven't ridden before and, again, the boys' Garmins gave up the ghost as they claimed we'd gone way off course. We hadn't though as myself and Chris were discussing whether to come this route or not due to a sharp hill out this way.The road swooped around between fields before a sign actually warned us of the descent that we knew we had to go down before getting the same gradient back up the other side - a lovely 11%er. Fab! I took the lead down the descent before Joby came tear-arsing alongside me and he got the head start up the hill. I was on his tail and Chris was on mine. I told Chris to go round me as I was quite happy to just pootle my way up this one - I didn't want to risk hurting the pelvis so chose not to really attack it. Soon a dark blur and a hum passed by as Simon just shot by. He really does make climbs look so bloody easy. No prizes for guessing who'll be winning the club hill climb this year then!

Once over the top we waited for Paul and Joe to catch us up before going for the death-defying right turn onto Wilsmlow Rd and under Ringway runways (sadly no planes were taking off as we did so - the sight of then travelling across the road is awesome. They're so bloody massive!!). Joby had the time of his life in the tunnels; he really has no life by the sound of it! Myself and Simon were bombing it through there, tucked up and ripping the road to shreds.

Then came the first of a few off-road jaunts, complete with groans and moans from the boys (except Paul as he knew what was coming) as we got onto the Orbital Cycleway: a path alongside the runway fencing that is made up of gravel varying in size from dust to big chunks of rock. The boys were whining, but myself and Paul ripped away from the group as we'd had the advantage of riding on this stuff before and had the handling skills to cope with our speed.

Onto Styal Rd and once through the traffic lights at Ringway Rd, I opened up the gears, tucked up and blasted away from the group. Simon caught up and tried to be my pacer (or tried out-gunning me), but as he was gaining speed, so was I and ended up overlapping his wheel a little, so his pacing for me went a little wrong. Soon I was overtaking him and was his pacer, but I think I was leaving him behind a little. We eased up and a breathless Joby caught us up stating defiantly that he needs to get into training for the club track champs in December. I think he wasn't expecting the burst of speed from myself and Simon, nor expecting us to maintain it for so long. That and he absolutely hates people going faster than him!! Chris left us at this point as he lived nearby.

Back in Northenden and we cut through the back lanes to get to Chorlton Water Park for a loo stop and to ease any tired legs a little before getting back onto Wilsmlow Rd and onto the Fallowfield Loop in Fallowfield (funnily enough). As the boys hadn't been on here before I added this part to the ride to give them a taste of something different - and they loved it. Well, Joby and Simon did, dunno bout the others. After coming to the aid of 2 damsels in distress who needed a bike pump (mine came to the rescue), Joby's monkey came out again for a photo shoot (the girls looking rather embarrassed about it, but took it all in good humour), we continued on until we reached the end of the trail; well, as far as we were going on it anyhow.

A quick jaunt through Abbey Hey and Openshaw and Joby was leaving us to get the extra mile sin to make it officially the longest ride he's ever done, and myself, Paul, Simon and Joe were turning off to go our separate ways too: Joe and Simon had the fun of Berry Brow to climb, but seeing as Simon had been out on the bike since stupid o'clock another hill wasn't exactly gonna stop him!

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=21324
Lovely day, cloudy and a little chilly but not too bad.
Miles: 48.7
Average speed: 14.3mph
Average speed for the sprinting: 28/29mph
Climbed: 1091ft

Playtime!

2009-09-25T14:32:00.007+01:00

Usually I work on a Friday, but I did a shift swap so I worked yesterday instead meaning I could go out to play today.

After obtaining some Gore arm warmers from Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative on Wednesday morning with the money raided from my piggy(literally) bank, I thought I'd give them a try out on a chilly morning ride.

Twas meant to be a 10 mile loop that I never got to finish on Tuesday night, but it ended up being a ride to the Pike instead.

I set off along the most direct route to Ashton (direct bar the contraflows of course) and braved the street of pain to get to Cranbourne and St Albans for a nice climb before heading to Grotton and Mossley (more climbing). For some inane reason I decided to get to the Pike the harder way - up the steep side of Mossley Cross and up Broadcarr rather than the slightly easier but more drawn out 6%er of the other way!
Down into Lees, across Abbey Hills Rd and back up the Brow and I was flying through Park Bridge through the chicane at the bottom of the hill and across to Daisy Nook where Everest had a rest and a swan looked like it was recuperating in one of the ponds before shooting back home to a pint of milk to guzzle.
Stats - view route
Miles: 18.58
Average speed: 15.2mph (not sure how I managed that considering)
Climbed: 1044ft

Things that go bump in the night

2009-09-25T14:02:00.004+01:00

On Monday I decided to borrow a phone (clumpier than mine) from my bro so I could go for a ride after work on Tuesday. It was a rather basic phone, so wasn't really worth my telling anybody about.

Work was nicely busy on Tuesday and I was looking forward to the evening ride. Mmmmm, oh how I wish I'd stayed at home!

The ride was going really well with an average speed of 16.7mph as I travelled into Ashton to do a loop through Park Bridge. Heading along one of the main one-way streets to get to Ikea I was in the outside lane seeing as that one was going in the direction I wanted. I passed a couple of side streets then as I was coming to another side street, a car had paused with it's indicator on for turning right. I though nothing of it as it had many lanes to turn into; as the whole of the rest of the road was clear I assumed it'd be turning into the nearside lane, then make it's way into whatever lane it wanted.

The reality was so much different from the thought. Instead of turning into the nearest lane, the driver drove straight at me (despite indicating for a turning) and sent me flying and only turned once I was sprawled on the floor with my bike sticking out of the windscreen.

As has happened so many times in the past, whenever I've had an incident of any variety (usually being cut up) the police were on hand to sort the situation out. Turns out they were right behind the knob and saw it all happen. They, like me, couldn't believe it. The driver claimed he didn't see me.

This all happened at 7pm. It was still light so no street lamps were on, I had my lights on my nice pale blue and silver beastie, I wore tights with nice little reflective bits on, ditto my shoes and gloves, my jersey was my club jersey (white base with one blue and one red sleeve and red and blue flashes across it), my helmet is a Lampre team edition so is blue, white and bright pink. Erm, which bit of me didn't he see? My ass? My boobs? Did he want to see my teeth? Or maybe he was a throat doctor and wanted to see my tonsils as I screamed at him with a trail of choice expletives?

Both myself and the officers were amazed that the arse couldn't see me - they could and they were looking through another car!

After picking my bike out of the car and checking it over (perfectly fine she is - one tough beastie, my Everest), I got a lift to the local A&E where xrays were taken of my wrist: base of thumb may or may not be cracked, the docs can't be sure if the line on the xray is recent or from when it broke in November. Makes no difference to me as it's not too sore and I refused to have any form of splint on it (I refused a splint in November too). Other than that I've pulled (maybe torn) muscles between my shoulder blades, but have happily been carrying on as normal.

No doubt the arse will get a slapped wrist and told not drive for a month, or something else stupid. I'm convinced he couldn't drive in the first place, so that's hardly going to stop him is it?!

I've been out to play since then with no ill effects so all is good. Hurrah! I'm thinking that maybe I've been Joby-jinxed?????

Mobile misery

2009-09-18T15:21:00.002+01:00

I'm not happy. Not a happy bunny at all. In any way, shape or form. My one and only phone (as I don't have a land-line) has died a horrid death (well, is still dying if I'm totally honest).

As of 10:32pm yesterday, despite being fully charged up and being in an area with an excellent network coverage, the phone decided to not allow me to make any calls, send text messages, access the net or access my contact list. Software that was installed on it by the manufacturers has gone walkies thus meaning that half the stuff is missing. Stuff has also deleted itself - like my whole calender list of appointments, anniversaries, birthdays etc.
Only had the thing for exactly 2 months (to the date).

After a stupidly long time to wait before speaking to an advisor, after they'd done their technical questioning and data info, they initially thought the battery had gone faulty which would explain some but not all of the problems. After more thorough questioning they realised it was terminal and are replacing my phone for me. Biggest downside is that I'll be phoneless until Wednesday night. AAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!! Not good. I won't ride without a phone for safety reasons, work can no longer contact me about anything until I'm in on Tuesday, the UKBA cannot contact me to say if I've a job with them or not.....cringe.

It'll be hell...........

Rerun of dusk desires

2009-09-16T13:16:00.003+01:00

After finishing at the shop yesterday evening I set off for a ride using the majority of the route as that on Dusk Desires.

I had a headwind that was strengthening which made it a little hard going and standing up all day at work didn't make matters any easier on the legs, so I was expecting to struggle big time and was pleasantly surprised when I got home to find I was actually quicker than last time.

I followed the same route out with a slightly different return leg involving coming back through Ashton itself and a fair bit of dual carriageway to ride on before the delightful fight to get into lane on a 3 laned one-way system.

Stats - view route
Miles: 11.9
Av speed: 14.7mph
Climbed: 369ft

Rockingham

2009-09-13T23:33:00.001+01:00

N.B There will be more photos added to this post at a later date, once I've filtered out the bad ones!

I set off with my bro Paul and the Droylsden Photographic Society to watch Robin Hood's Pageant at Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire.

After a 3hr coach journey we arrived in Rockingham and wondered where the castle was as we couldn't see it at all. I was amazed at this seeing as from its locale it's possible to see 5 counties on a clear day, so I presumed that'd mean the castle could also be seen from the road. But no! All the trees on the roadside had created a screen that was impenetrable to the naked eye.

We decamped from the coach to be met by a guide who told us a little about the history of the place: built almost 1000yrs ago and has been in the same family for 450yrs now, with a couple and their young children being the current occupiers. The castle itself was open to visitors (although lots of places were out of bounds seeing as there're family areas), the grounds were wholly open and there was the pageant going on in the grounds. After that we were left to our own devices and just had to be back on the coach at a certain time.

As the show wasn't about to start for a few hours Paul and I made our way through the grounds and gardens stopping to take lots of photos (I took almost 200 here and Paul took many more as he had a new memory card to fill up) before we entered the castle itself. Naturally, cameras weren't allowed to be used within the castle nor were mobile phones. The place was stunning. Dark wooden panelled rooms with huge fires, exquisite pieces of art and furniture. Simply gorgeous. This is the first castle I have been in that wasn't a ruin and I was blown away by how amazingly beautiful it is.

There was one area where cameras were allowed and that was an area called 'The Street' - a gorgeous view seen below -

Both Paul and I braved the narrow steep spiral staircase (which seemed to go on forever) to the top of Salvin's Tower where the views of the counties could be seen along with the Roman Rd leading away from the area. After scrambling back down the stairs (Paul dropping stuff down them and I had a fight on my hands with a rope hand-hold and a tripod) we set off for the pageant itself. Sadly, there weren't as many people watching as I expected. Maybe I was expecting similar crowds to that of when I recreated the Battle of Naseby with over 1000 other re-enactors and twice as many crowds watching in May 2008. Either way, the crowds got involved, the enactors were great and you could see that they were loving every minute of it, and so were the horses involved.

We didn't get to see Robin marry Marion as we had to be back on the coach for the second stop of the day - the Arts festival at Market Harborough. At this point I'd drained my camera battery so the photos I took here were all done on my phone (apologies if they're a bit rubbish).

There were many street artists performing including Ant Orkezdra, The Hole Job, Slinkie Love, Gordon the Cycling Panda, Sleepwalkers, Big Rory and Ochie, Inside Out and The Gorillas.

Market Harborough itself is a lovely market town with beautiful architecture and a stunning market hall situated right next to the gorgeous St Dionyus Church.

All in all it was a great day with many, many photos taken that I know have to trawl through to seek out the bad from the good and great. There will be more photos to be posted on this post and also on my other site avixpics, so please view them. It may take a while to get them up so expect them to be there after the weekend.

Dusk desires

2009-09-12T12:35:00.009+01:00

At ride o'clock I decided that as the weather had been fab all day I'd get out for a ride that'd take me through dusk into night and hopefully see an amazing sunset. I wasn't to be disappointed.

After shovelling chowder down my throat for fuel I set off along my main road into Ashton setting a good pace due to the lack of traffic. Even making it through the rapidly breeding contraflows without a sniff of a problem (although from now on I probably will have problems!).

After making my way through Ashton town centre and the side of Ikea I suddenly decided that I wanted to head over to Park Bridge and the farmland over there as it'd be quiet and isolated, which is what I wanted seeing as I was in a contemplative mood. So off up Wilshaw with it's evil hump to get over and past Ashton golf course to get to Alt Hill Lane turning opposite Twirl Hill Lane.

I stopped to admire the view (what a view!) and spotted a bird of prey silhouette in the glowing skies as it hovered over it's next meal before rapidly swooping and gliding off victorious. Sadly my camera phone hasn't got a powerful enough zoom to capture its beauty, grace and effortlessness.

Climbing and descending through Alt Village was a dream. So much different than when I ride through here in the daylight. Although I had my lights on I was relying on memory for the road conditions and turns too and it made it more of a fun ride for me. That and the sheer isolation I got once I was in the valley bottom.

Once back into reality (sadly) I built some speed up as I shot along to Waterloo and made my turn-off onto a great twisting descent with stunning listed cottages abutting the road. Once past farmland I decided to go all guns blazing and got onto the outer ring (for some reason I very rarely use the front big ring, I always stay on the inner one) and put my foot down for some pacy flat riding.

Pretty soon I was turning off at Droylsden FC and winging round Fiveways before my lovely jaunt the wrong way up one-way systems - it's great when the roadworks mean you can do this! Especially when you see the faces of people who don't quite realise that this has happened.

Then home and a lovely radox bath before rubbish tv into the early hours.

Stats -
Amazing. Lovely and warm still.
Miles: 11.95
Average speed: 14.5mph
Climbed: 374ft

Shepley shuttle

2009-09-10T13:45:00.008+01:00

How gorgeous does that view look??? That is where today's ride headed to.

Having woke up to a gorgeously clear, crisp bright day I just had to jump on Everest and free her from the constraints of being a clothes horse. A crap journey through umpteen contraflows - I swear they're breeding round here - and I managed to swerve off into a side road that'd take me to a rapid descent before over the hump that crosses the M60, round a rather desolate empty mini roundabout and onto another rapid descent down to the Tame Valley before I decided to do some hill reps on the climb back out of the valley. It's not a huge climb: a mere 0.22 mile of 6% average and 8% max gradient, but it's a hill of sorts. After looking like a numpty going up and down this bit several times and turning at the little roundabout at the top I finally left the climb and carried on through Globe Lane industrial estate before the descent through Dukinfield and the climb up to one of the huge roundabouts in Ashton. Oh, there's nothing like a hgv up the ass to get you sprinting up climbs.

Whoever decided to plonk a roundabout at the top of a 19% section needs shooting as, more often than not, I'm caught out behind traffic and stuck on the ascent trying not to roll backwards into whatever is behind me!

Anyway, following this lovely bit of engineering is an excellent sprinty section; only 0.22 mile but you can build up good speed on it until you slam the brakes on cos the set of lights is always against you at the end of it. I maxed out at 27mph on it - think I was a bit slow leaving the roundabout.

After a stint on Ashton's finest one-way systems and narrowing roads I took Everest off-road through Daisy Nook where we made friends with a Scotty dog and got lovely and muddy and all shook up on the trails before getting back onto the main road and mountain goating up the 20% section that other cyclists seem to really struggle on. This really is the only 'climb' where I can consistently pass cyclists without even trying. Hey-ho!

More of Tameside's greatest one-way systems followed with nice sprinty bits.

After a game of chicken trying to get into the middle of 3 lanes to get round another one-way bit, I was passing by the best factory in the world - the biscuit factory. I tell you, I wanna live in one of the houses next to it cos the smells emanating from it? They're out of this world! Just very mmmmmmmm!!

All the while since leaving Ashton centre I had a bus behind me that kept trying to pass, but finding I was going too quick or the road got crummy so couldn't. He finally got the upper hand as we passed over the M60 again by the Snipe; he had a little more horse power than I do. i could see him chuckling in the wing mirror as he passed me by, only for me to have the last laugh as the hgv in front of me decided he wanted to go in front of the bus. So as the hgv started to cross lanes I swung around his ass and floored it to the sound of 'what?!?!'. I don't think the bus driver thought cyclists could go quicker than motors. Mwa-hah-ha!

Sadly I think Joby has jinxed me. Going through yet another one-way system, as another hgv passed closely on my right shoulder something in the road got sucked up in his draft and thudded into my shin. I now have an egg-sized lump right on the shin bone that started to go a lovely shade of puce as soon as it got hit.

I haven't a clue what hit me as I had no time to react really, what with a line of traffic behind me and going at warp speed myself. I guess I'm just lucky I was so close to the hgv or the thing may've hit me in the head or smashed through a windscreen behind me.

Anyway although my leg hurt like bloody hell, I still managed to sprint the rest of the way home: a good mile and half and managed to max out at 31mph. So I'm happy.

Even happier that I managed to stay above 10mph on the reps at Shepley.

I'm thinking that something is definitely going right. Maybe not as quickly as I'd like, but you know we can't have it all our own way all the time. Unless you're Joby of course, lol.

Stats - view route

Simply devine for September, warm, clear.

Miles: 15.31 (including 6 hill reps)

Average speed: 14.2mph

Climbed: 448ft (including hill reps)

Manchester 100 report

2009-09-07T13:03:00.013+01:00

After a rude awakening at 6am by my alarm clock I jumped out of bed and immediately checked the weather (it was supposed to be raining today as it always does for the mcr 100) and found it to be cloudy but looking promising.

After getting all my bits near the bike to grab when Rafe arrived to pick me up I got a text from him asking if I was ready(?). Ready???? Eh, what's he doing here so early? Oh crap, I must've been faffing about too much as it was 6:45 and I wasn't even fully dressed yet. After racing about to finish dressing and making sure I grabbed everything I needed, I hauled ass downstairs and outside to the car.

Upon arriving at Wythenshawe Park and trying not to laugh too hard at the numpties driving cars with fully laden roof racks through (and I mean through) the trees myself and Rafe met up with Gaz, Joby and Emma and made our way to the start where Gaz had to enter and myself, Rafe and Emma went on a hunt for some toilets as we knew it'd be another 15 miles before the first feed station.

Then we were off following the same route I use on rides to Tatton Park and beyond, so I could easily warn of any hazards, climbs etc that were coming up such as the nice little 9% section near Hale and the long drag of Ashley Rd alongside Tatton.

Once out of Tatton we were heading through more familiar territory as we passed through Tabley, Bate Heath and into Great Budworth with a nice little steep hill to get up straight after a junction so no run up to it. Then on to Anderton and the canal for a rest stop for me and Joby while waiting for the others to catch up. It seems myself and Joby were so so deep into conversation and pootling along as we would normally that we kind of left the others behind. But we did all vow to stop at each feed station to catch each other up and so that we were still riding it as a team of sorts.

After Anderton Joby seemed to just shoot off and left myself, Rafe and Gaz behind. Emma shot past the rest stop anyway so she was ahead of us at this point. By this time we'd already done 20 miles and were all feeling good. Good that is until a steep hill loomed up at us. The very same hill where Joby had to catch a car. I led on up the hill with Gaz and Rafe following behind. About a third of the way up as it was getting steeper I began to hurt; not in my legs as expected but the darned pelvis again. I carried on and just dropped the pace a little to ease off the pressure and pootled up to 3 quarters of the way up when it began pinging. When the pelvis pings that's when I know it's gonna have a strop, and boy did it strop! I had to stop riding, got off, looked around and saw that Gaz had done the same: his hip was giving him problems too. It seems that this blasted hill had broken myself and Gaz.

Rafe kindly waited at the top for us and after a rest we were on our way again, headed for Winsford before turning back northwards for the return leg. At this point I think Gaz's hip got a bit too painful for him to keep the pace and sadly he dropped back from myself and Rafe. Somewhere we passed Emma but didn't realize it as we got to Middlewich and Joby was waiting alone for us. After some communications, we found that they were about 2 miles behind us. Not bad really considering the pain Gaz was in.

After finding the St John's guys for Joby and his scarily swollen eyes we had a very welcome rest for recuperation, food and drink before the last leg of the route. Bizarrely, there were no other feed stations for the next 25 or so miles so it was a case of carry what you can if you needed anymore sustenance.

From here on until reaching Manchester again it was, again familiar territory for me so I knew what was coming up as we passed through Peover and Ollerton into Knoll's Green and Mobberley. The route had changed a little from what I though it would round this section and included a couple of steep hills that caught quite a few people out including one poor guy who had a car stop suddenly in front of him causing him to come off his bike. I suggested he walk the rest of the hill for his own safety seeing as there was a lot of vehicular traffic on there as well as a lot of cyclists.

Soon I was on Styal Rd which is an excellent descent and I topped out at 36.4mph along here until I had to stop behind a car as it couldn't pass cyclists who apparently couldn't hear it behind them and were hogging the whole road pretty much. After yelling at them to get into single file and let it pass (it crawled behind them for ages) we managed to pass and I carried on quite happily until I saw Rafe and Joby again and waited for Gaz and Emma to appear, so that we could ride the last mile properly as a team. At this point I looked at my pc to see what time I'd done so far and found that I was close to beating my time for Mcr-Bpl (had a couple of minutes to get to the finish line to beat it). We all set off in high spirits that we'd almost done it without too many problems. And then hit traffic. It seemed that the world and it's wife were driving to the park and we made a paltry 2 minutes for less than a mile. At the last set of lights I looked again at the pc and found I had 40 seconds to get to the finish line if I was to beat the Mcr-Bpl time. Once the lights turned green we shot off again, overtaking the slow traffic and in the entrance to the Park (Joby overshot it at first), then we got out of the saddle and stomped on the pedals to sprint to the line.

DAMN IT! 40 seconds slower than mcr-bpl. but a hell of a good time considering I rode 40 miles or so in some considerable pain and the route was a hell of a lot hillier than that of the bpl run.

Mcr 100k Stats -

Cloudy, varying between warm and cold. Headwind on last few miles.

Miles: 61.07

Average speed: 14.5mph

Climbed: 1989ft

Time taken: 4:14:07

After noshing on a burger I set off for the ride home: 9.64 slightly uphill miles.

Total stats -

Miles: 70.71

Climbed: 2192ft

My only gripes for the event: the sabotage that happened near Peover (drawing pins in the road) and the foolish cyclists who ride with earphones in and can't hear the motorists behind them, thus causing huge tailbacks.

August review

2009-08-31T16:06:00.002+01:00

Is it that time again? Well ok then -

Distance covered: 214.08 miles
Days ridden: 7
Middleton CC: yup to Rivington on 30/8
Joby's loop: sure did on 31/8
Chorlton Wanderers: nope as I was doing summat else but can't remember what!
Hill climb/reps: nope, but have done a hell of a lot of climbing regardless!

August was a funny month for me as I began voluntary work therefore reducing my hours on the bike, yet I maintained a good monthly mileage I think. The amount of climbing has leapt up the scale; nearly on par with that of January but in much less miles.
Although I'm still crap on the climbs I'm getting up them, albeit it extremely slowly, so something is still going right somewhere.

September has another event to ride and a club run, so that'll automatically bring the miles to 100, maybe 130 before I've even started on anything else.

Phew!

2009-08-31T14:23:00.004+01:00

It's been a busy old week for me what with working and then trying to fit in some riding and walking. But I managed it and here it is in glorious technicolour for you: (apologies for the long post too):

Wednesday 26th
I decided to go for a walk over at Dovestone reservoir and head off by bus to get to Chew Valley Rd before starting the walk at the end of a new housing estate and going along a dirt track until I reached Bank Lane. Walking along Chew Rd i made the decision to head up the valley to Chew and maybe over to Laddow Rocks, so I set off along the dirt track that takes you pretty much vertically up the side of Indian's Head until you reach the old tram line path which I continued on until I got to the bridge which then takes you over Chew Brook to Chew Rd itself.
After getting onto the main works access road I plodded on up the hill until i reached a little inlet and pond pretty much 95% up the steep valley. At this point the clouds rolled in and threatened rain, so rather than getting soaked with no shelter, I headed back down to the 3 reservoirs in the base of the valley.

Once back at the sailing club I made the decision to walk around all 3 reservoirs. Off I set round the Isle of Skye end of Dovestone, past Yeoman Hey dam wall and along it's side with an access brook on my left, fir trees on either side of me and onto Greenfield dam wall, across it and thus began the fun.

The opposite side of Yeoman Hey isn't a solid path, it's a narrow dirt path that first climbs then falls again, is very squelchy and unstable underfoot and has some big steps down to do from boulders. Bear in mind I'm scared of heights and this had a sheer drop to my right just yards from the path and you can see why I was holding onto the grass each time the path dropped a little. Not that grass can help me if I did fall!
After a while I was back onto terra firma and the gravel path on the far side of Dovestone again, passing Ashway Gap and coming into the car park.

After a brew and a rest I plodded on along Bradley Lane past the back-to-back cottages (very sweet) and began the descent back to the bus stop.

Stats - view route
Cool, windy, cloudy.
Miles: 9.8
Climbed: 968 ft

Sunday 30th
The Middleton CC club ride ride involved me riding over to Heaton Park to meet up with the other riders: Joe, Steve C and Mike. After leaving the flat late I sprinted my way over the 6 miles to the park and found I was early by about 10 minutes! All too soon the others arrived and we set off to meet John W at the Sheepfoot/Bury Rd junction and again were early. Once John arrived we set off (myself with expectations of hilliness that I'd not be able to ride).

We set off and had the fun of going through Agecroft and the valley it sits in (steep sided at that!) before heading over to the A6 for the straight run pretty much to the destination. The route out was pretty boring really as the A6 is a busy(ish) but pretty non-descript road with roundabouts to keep you awake and not much else going for it until you get to the Bolton end of it. Myself and Mike were busy gabbing away a lot of the time anyway and quite often left the others behind, so kept stopping to let them catch up.
Once on Chorley Rd and heading towards Blackrod the roads got a little bit crap. Very rumbly and huge vibrations were making my pelvis (injured bit) and hands (eczema ravaged and nerve damaged)hurt. At this point I asked Joe what he'd done with all the hills as I felt like I'd not even gone uphill at any point of the ride bar Agecroft. He forewarned me that they'd be coming up soon. As I'd ridden near Adlington with Amy and Vikki I'd sussed out that it's be hilly there, but I thought it'd be more hilly on the way there.

Turning up Railway Rd in Adlington and I was soon rewarded with climbs up Babylon Lane and Horrobin Lane to the Great Barn where we all got tortured by wasps!

The return leg was good through the forest and out onto Chorley New Rd for a stint to the Reebok Stadium. At this point I left everybody behind without even realising or trying (maybe my riding has gotten better?) but they caught up at the junction for De Havilland Way and it's joyous roundabouts to get us back onto the A6 again where Joe and John were forever telling us we'd be back at Pendlebury Hospital and our turning. Myself and Mike were convinced we'd missed the turning but were proven wrong as it loomed ahead of us.
Joe had terrible timing along this road as he waited until Mike had passed and I was passing our next turning; so u-turns were in order.

Coming back through Agecroft and we all realised that we had the worst bit to come as the climb back out to Scholes Lane was long and steep (much longer and steeper than the other end). To make matters worse my chain slipped twice while climbing this hill and I very nearly came off at a mini-roundabout plonked halfway up it, but I got to the top and continued on our merry way.

Nearing Heaton Park I mentioned to Mike that my bike sounded a bit like a steam train, to which he agreed, and we both thought it was my rear brake catching the tyre each revolution. When I got to the Park and Joe, John, Steve and Mike had all gone their routes home, i looked closer at Everest and found (to my horror) that my rear wheel had slipped a little and was actually rubbing on the frame. To think I'd ridden all that way and climbed the hills with my wheel like that; I certainly didn't feel like it was causing any problems and it didn't feel that the climbing was harder than I'd normally find it.

After correcting and tightening things up I plodded off to a welcome pint of milk and huge tea at moms before putting more miles in by heading out through Daisy Nook and Ashton, Audenshaw and Openshaw before collapsing on the sofa at home.

Stats - view route
Warm heading out and cold heading home!
Miles: 62.59
Average speed: 12.8
Climbed: 1161ft

Monday 31st
I'd planned to ride with Joby and do one of his routes that he tweaked after I sent him a copy of one of mine. After chatting with Mike yesterday he asked if he could come along too.
So, after meeting him at Ryecroft Hall (after we'd gone to differing places to meet! Whoops!) we set off to meet Joby at the Morrisons in Hyde/Mottram. We thought we'd be 30 minutes so Joby had a pootle around while we rode there. As it was we got there early and had to wait for Joby (sorry for messing you about).

When he arrived, quick introductions were made and we set off with the fun of Mottram Rd ahead of us. I'd forewarned Joby that both Mike and I had ridden many miles the day before with over 1000ft of climbing so we were pretty shattered already; I also forewarned Joby that I'm absolutely crap on hills so to expect to drop me and have to wait at the top of them for me. My predictions were correct as they left me behind and seemed to shoot off up the hill, but were happily (?) waiting for me at the roundabout. Once round there and we shot off down the hill to Mottram Moor and hurtled past cars at warp speed, sadly not breaking the 35mph zone on our pcs.

Once onto the A57 and around a mini-roundabout we had to turn right at the next mini one and I was forewarned that the hills would be coming thick and fast. Primrose Lane is a bit of a climb in itself with 1 mile of 4% but nothing would prepare any of us (except Joby cos he'd ridden all of it before) for the hell that was to be Chunal!
An average of 10% for 2 miles is not an easy thing to deal with, least of all for crappy non-hill climbing me. It's suffice to say that I suffered. I suffered big time. It'd be tough riding it on fresh legs, never mind knackered ones with a pinging pelvis. We all decreed that we'd be walking some of it.

I rode 98% of the bugger and walked the most evil bit. Whether they did or not, i dunno. Maybe they were saying that to ease my mind? Either way, I did my best and tamed the beast. But only with several rest (or is that dying) stops along the way.

After all that up must come a down and boy did it. An amazing descent into Hayfield more than made up for the pain of getting to the top of Chunal. Once at Hayfield we pootled along the slightly lumpy Hayfield Rd into New Mills, where we made the decision to make it a little easier on the legs and head along the A6 through Disley and into Hazel Grove.

At this point myself and Joby decided we'd try to out sprint each other coming along here and were frequently triggering the 'slow down, 30' signs and passing each other at warp speed: Joby maxed out at 37mph and I at 38.4mph. Boy, we were flying!

Up the lumpy Torkington and Otterspool Rds (I'm usually coming the other way down them) and soon we saying our goodbyes as Joby headed off to meet Gaz for a ride and Mike and I set off home.

At Bredbury we turned off along Ashton Rd (again I usually come the other way along it) and flew down the descent before facing the climb back out again into Denton. Shooting through Crown Point we turned off to head back to the Fairfield/Droylsden border where every little hump in the road made us feel we were climbing Mt Everest. Dunno about Mike, but my legs were so devoid of energy that they felt like they were falling off, so I didn't really want to go up Ashton Hill Rd - it's only a little humped bridge but it can feel like hell when you're whacked!
We got up and over that ok and pootled on through Droylsden centre and along until we reached the Haddon hall on Lewis Rd where we said our goodbyes: Mike had the fun of climbing up Berry Brow to get home and I set off again to my parents before heading home to my place.

Once home I looked at the speedo to check my maximum speed coming from Bredbury and down the descent by Castle Hill Rd: I'd managed to hit 48.2mph! Jeeeeeeez!!!!!!!

It was an awesome ride, with leg-busting climbs and great company. Thanks again guys for waiting for me at the top of every climb!

Stats - view route
Warm and humid but with a bastard of a headwind all the way round.
Miles: 36.99
Average speed: 12.5
Climbed: 1273ft

Nine at 9

2009-08-26T13:15:00.003+01:00

After a mega busy day in work I decided that I'd have a night-time ride for a change. I waited until 9pm as I wanted to just chill out a little beforehand and to allow my tea to go down.

At 9pm I kitted up with the long-sleeved Middleton jersey going on and got Everest ready with her lights (knog frogs and cateye (both of which were on front and rear)) and set off down through Openshaw to Delamere Park and up towards the Lumb Lane one-way system, past the Snipe and into Ashton. A little climb towards Bardsley and I was then heading down the twisty descent of Newmarket and Stannybrook Rds through Daisy Nook and the kick upwards at the Stannybrook turning got me out of the saddle for a sprint up the little hill, then through Littlemoss and into Droylsden centre, turning right at the football club to overtake a line of coaches before the hump of a bridge and the fiveways roundabout where I just flew across thanks to no traffic at all.

Then it was a case of riding the wrong way up a one-way system near my place (all above board as, thanks to roadworks, the one-way system has now changed direction for a while!). Humping Everest up the stairs to my flat and flop out on the sofa to chomp more food!

Stats -
Cool and cloudy.
Miles: 8.39
Average speed: 16.8mph
Climbed: 102ft

A bike has gone

2009-08-26T13:05:00.003+01:00

Well, despite being given a bike back in June that I have ridden a few times, the rides haven't really been worth a write-up. Now I am back to being a 2-bike household as I have sold the Concept.
Main problem was with it being a women's framed bike, therefore it was too cramped on it. Given my height (6'1") a woman's bike is always going to have issues for me in terms of reach. For mountain bikes, the frame height is going to be fine for me (as it was despite only being a 17" frame), but I was too cramped and folded up.

I sold it to a chap who was buying his niece a mountain bike for the first time, therefore my bike and price were perfect for him. He collected the same day it sold and we're all happy.

I have been looking for a replacement mtb for some time now, but they're all way out of my price range given that I'm not in paid work, so I've come to the conclusion that I'll buy some wheels and cyclocross type tyres instead and just whack them on Everest whenever I want to go off road. Everest is a tough steel beast and has handled all the hard stuff better than me, so she'll cope no problem.

Now to find those wheels......

BTW...

2009-08-23T14:53:00.002+01:00

...the next Middleton CC club ride is taking place on Sunday 30th August. The start time is 9:30 outside Heaton Park on Middleton Rd (at the bus stop opposite Victoria Ave).
The destination is currently Rivington although this may change if numbers are down (like if it's just me and Paul).
It's approx 40ish miles from Heaton Park-Rivington and back again and there'll be a fair amount of climbing too, obviously.

All are welcome to come and ride with us. If you are coming, please email me (details are on my profile page) so we know to wait for people if they're running a little late.

Windyville

2009-08-23T14:18:00.003+01:00

After my enforced break from riding due to having to order in tyres and needing to find the money for them first, they finally arrived on Saturday morning. Hurrah! I was beginning to think that I'd have to miss the MCC Club Ride to Rivington on August 30th, but it's looking like I can ride it after all.

So this morning I set off for a ride to test out the new tyres - and to see how she'd cope after being pimped over the past month. One thing I didn't count on today though was the awful wind that evilly became a headwind no matter where I went. So much for seeing if the rolling resistance of the Luganos would be worse or better than the gp 4 seasons, with the wind I was struggling just to stay upright on the climbs.

So, here goes: after heading to Daisy Nook, dropping down Stannybrook I began the climb up Crime Lane (evil hill) to Bardsley and got onto Park Bridge Rd for a nice meander before the cobbled road took me to another short, sharp kick in the ass with the climb past the visitor centre and Dingle Terrace to continue climbing up Mill Brow until I reached Abbey Hills Rd and had a descent to the five-way junction on the Mossley/Ashton border where I began climbing up past Hartshead Pike and dropped down from Upper to Lower Mossley before climbing back up to Mossley Cross via the steepest little bastard of a hill (210ft of climbing in 0.48 mile averaging 14%), then descending back past the Pike to Gorsey Lane where I chose to ride down it for a change and headed to Daisy Nook for breakfast.

While at Daisy Nook visitor centre I had the funniest experience I've had for a while. Due to my height and short hair most people assume I'm a bloke when riding (despite the snug fitting kit), so when I rode to a table and saw a couple of mtbers already there I though nothing of it. Ditto neither did they. However when they realised I'm female, oh they changed their tune! All of a sudden they were showing off, flirting, mucking about near me. Every time I stood up they began whistling and suddenly turning it into a tune when I caught their eyes. Hilarious to watch them. They became like a pack of dogs!

Anyway, I digress. Back to the ride. After climbing back out of the valley, I descended down the fast, steep and narrow Medlock Rd before hitting my hill rep hill (where I couldn't be arsed doing any reps) although I did overtake a couple of cyclists - which is a miracle for me on that hill! And I dropped them too: click of the gears as I passed and bye-bye cyclists. I think it was just a fluke that I managed it that time as I'm usually rather pants at hills. of any variety.

Then it was home, pint of milk down the throat and off to moms.

Stats - view route
Lovely and warm but, oh so windy!
Miles: 20.68
Average speed: 15.4mph
Climbed: 732ft

Spot the difference

2009-08-23T14:13:00.004+01:00

Can you spot the difference with Everest in the before and after pics?

Help needed!

2009-08-15T18:02:00.003+01:00

I've been hunting high and low for a place where I can obtain a co2 canister holder that attaches to the bottle cage bosses, such as the one below:

I've had a few orders cancelled on me as the shop has them online but after placing the order they suddenly can't get them anymore.

I'm happy to buy from the US or Oz, provided they can post to the UK (I had one order with velogear in oz that got cancelled after 3wks cos they took that long to read that I live in the UK and they don't mail over here!)!

If anyone knows of anywhere that does actually stock them and will mail over here, please, please let me know asap. Thanks.

Easy ride

2009-08-12T14:39:00.002+01:00

As I'd been mega busy over the weekend and working at the Red Cross Shop yesterday, I just had an easy spin out today on a route I do a lot, but chose to ride it twice for a bit more fun.

The first lap round was good, real easy without a hitch. The second lap seemed fraught with danger, despite having ridden only minutes before: rear wheel slipped out from under me when descending, whacked my sore knee real hard and finally an f**kwit of a driver cut me up badly on a fast section. As is always the way with me, whenever there's trouble brewing there just happens to be a jam butty up my arse. This was true to form today and as I began to give the numpty a mouthful, out they leapt and gave him a good lecture, fingers wagging and much talking over the radio.
neither they nor myself could figure out how the hell he couldn't see me, as he was trying to claim. I ride a blue bike, was dressed in bright blue Quickstep gear and have a team issue Lampre helmet which is bright pink at the front, blue along the sides and white at the rear. Precisely which bit of me couldn't he see??????
Anyway, after 15 minutes I was told I could leave the scene and set off home only to find, while at a set of lights a few miles up the road, a jam butty pull up and who should be in the back?! I stifled a chuckle and thought 'Ha!'.

All was good the rest of the way home. One contraflow has gone (hurrah), another was clearer; but the roadworks are moving closer to home, now being at a road a couple of blocks away from me and there they will stay for a minimum of 15 weeks before moving onto my junction for god knows how long.
I really can't see the tramway opening in 2012 as they state it will. There's so much work to be done: all consumer goods/pipelines need to be moved well away from where the lines will be put, the lines themselves need to be laid and stops need to be built. All that's been done so far is some pipes have been moved in 2 places!

Nearing home as I pulled into my crappy unadopted road-thing who should I see but someone I haven't seen for years, and he looked mighty fine! There was me all hot and sweaty. Not the best way to meet guys really; I don't look too bad in the bike gear, but to come face to face with him while looking like that?? I scarpered into my place as quick as I could!

Stats -
Warm with a cool breeze, damp and drizzly
Miles: 18.08
Average speed: 14.9mph
Climbed: 486ft

My Friends Wedding

2009-08-10T14:22:00.007+01:00

Sunday was spent over in Bolton at the wedding of my very good friend Adam to his partner of many years Phil.

The wedding was held at the Holiday Inn on Bridge St in their Cloisters venue hall - a stunning chapel with gorgeous wooden arched ceilings, stone pillars and stained glass windows. A perfect wedding venue.

I arrived at the hotel at 3pm looking a little lost as I didn't recognise anyone already there, so just hung back by the reception until another guest arrived looking lost and alone. So we leeched up to each other for the night. It turned out that we were to be on the same table anyway, so we got an advance on getting to know each other.

After a while we spotted a couple of empty chairs in reception, sat down and instantly recognised Gorfy from meeting him a few times in previous years; we introduced ourselves to Amy who looked fab in a gorgeous corset and skirt combo with a very cute top hat fascinator in her hair. Another guest, Catharine, who was also on our table came along looking like she belonged in an Austin film as her overall look was stunning and elegantly classic.

After a while Adam came into the reception greeting all his guests and looking very dapper and gorgeous in his morning suit with a cream waistcoat embroidered with golf thread and a gold cravat. Phil wore the same outfit too.

The ceremony itself was beautiful and brought a tear to many an eye in the room. The room was adorned with stunning flowers and glorious feather table decorations with candelabras dotted about the place. Tables had tea lights stood on mirrors and were named after various musicals - Cabaret, Cats, We Will Rock You..to name but a few.

After Adam's father, Adam and Phil gave speeches, and the wedding buffet devoured, the evening was turned into a masquerade ball with (those who remembered) wearing masks to match their outfit and a glamorous drag queen DJ/entertainer.

Sadly, I had to leave early to ensure I caught the last train (from Bolton) & bus (from Manchester) home, but it was most definitely a night I won't forget. After all it's not every day that amazing friends get married in an elaborate, stunning ceremony/venue that is them down to a 'T'!

Middleton CC Track Session 2

2009-08-10T12:54:00.011+01:00

On Saturday 8th August, Middleton CC held their 2nd track championship session of the year with only 5 members riding and 6 guest riders.
The night turned out to be a great one with the prize for most competitive members going to Pantani Pete and Simon B as they tried to outdo each other on all the events.

Events took a familiar route as we began with the flying 200m sprint, followed by the 1k TT and then t he 2k pursuit. With no women riding - Janet was ill and unable to, I'm still not riding competitively as I want to ensure my pelvis is fully healed first, and Ali was presumably riding elsewhere with Amy, it was purely a testosterone filled environment.

There was a good selection of non-riding members and partners watching: Lyndsey and her mum, Mrs Robinson, Hilda, Jack and Tristan (Cliff's Grandson and the club's youngest member), so support and morale was high. Alan V took part in the warm-up and helped to push off during the 1K and the pursuit. Whilst the majority of riders rode the Velodrome's hire bikes (black & white Dolans) others rode their own - Alan V rode his vibrant yellow Dolan, Cliff his minimalist skinny-tubed white machine, Chris a glossy black beauty and Paul rode my lovely sleek Pista (she's not been ridden since January and wanted an outing; plus Paul wanted to try out my gearing).

Results (bold type denotes club riders) -

200m flying sprint:

Chris Barton 14.19 seconds

Simon Brierley 14.65

Paul O'Neill 15.40

Pete Robinson 15.56

T Welshaw 15.72

Cliff Rowe 15.87

P Barlow 16.10

Frank Boucher 16.25

M Kay 16.30

Steve Crossley 17.60

Stu 17.80

1K TT:

Chris Barton 1;28.10

Pete Robinson 1:30.50

Simon Brierley 1:31.03

T Welshaw 1:31.75

Paul O'Neill 1:34.90

M Kay 1:35.80

Cliff Rowe 1:36.60

P Barlow 1:37.19

Steve Crossley 1:38.65

Stu 1:40.50

Frank Boucher 1:41.81

2k individual pursuit:

Simon Brierley 3:00.96

Pete Robinson 3:04.44

Cliff Rowe 3:15.03

Paul O'Neill 3:16.10

M Kay 3:25.45

Frank Boucher 3:27.79

Stu 3:34.05

P Barlow 3:36.68

Chris Barton 3:41.00

T Welshaw 3:43.53

Steve Crossley DNS

All in all it was a great evening of racing with some excellent results. With only 3 members having ridden in the first session in March, there were only a few previous times to beat:

Paul beat all of his previous times for the year over all events; Pete also beat his previous times in the events and Steve had mixed fortunes beating his previous 1k time, but was faster in the March session for the sprint. Paul currently has the larger margin for beating previous times.

Something went wrong somewhere...

2009-08-06T14:35:00.005+01:00

It was supposed to be a nice, easy, flat ride and ended up a hard, hilly and fast ride. Instead of heading south-west I headed south-east and ended up climbing Joby's Devils Hill and Chunal Hill - both buggers - this is before (and after) riding up Mottram Rd, Mottram Moor and Roe Cross to name but a few! So much for an easy ride a few days before a good friend's wedding!

I set off towards the Denton/Audenshaw border and climbed up Shepley Rd, turning left at the mini-roundabout to take me back down a little of the hill, so I could then climb up Kings Rd and back round to Shepley Rd again for the ascent up the other end of it (I must be mad). Following a left turn at the lights I headed into Denton centre where a left turn took me to Devil's Hill - a favourite of mine, Joby and Gaz; a 6% climb with traffic lights right at the top which invariably are on red when you get there.

I left all the heavy traffic behind and snuck off onto Mottram Rd for the long climb to the huge Broadbottom roundabout and continued climbing past it for a little while before descending to Mottram-in-Longdendale. Once through the lights a super swift descent took me flying past cars, lorries, buses....all going slower than my 49mph (49mph!!!!!!!!). I have to admit although I was loving it, I was a little scared too!

After descending to a right hand turn and still descending afterwards I turned off at a roundabout to head through Hadfield and then Padfield and it's vicious ascent to the Woodhead Rd just south of the Devil's Elbow. Once back at the centre of Glossop, after another awesome descent, I set off towards the Snake (with absolutely no intention to ride it, just so I could go to Hurst Reservoir for a nice little breather).

Along the Derbyshire Level (whose name belies it's hilly terrain) and I came out at Joby's favourite place: Chunal. I came out right at a nice 12% section so had another great descent to contend with before stopping at the Glossop Cafe for refreshments and odd looks from the pub next door.

After leaving the cafe I set off back home, but first had to contend with Woolley Lane, Mottram Moor and Roe Cross to climb back up, and boy are they evil when all piled together one after the other (6-10%, 8% and 8-14% climbs respectively) with absolutely no respite. The good thing about all that climbing is the excellent descent into Stalyvegas (Stalybridge to give it it's proper name). Well, it usually is a great descent. Only the surface layer has been scraped off leaving a rutted cruddy compound stuff to drive/ride on, the manholes are all raised up (and there's a lot of them on this road). Oh, and there's a traffic-lighted single laned section halfway down that wrecks your hands giving you cramp cos you need to have your brakes on all the while!! Bloody roadworks!

On a brighter note, the roadworks I've ridden through a couple of times at the Staly/Wakefield junction have gone and the lights are up and running properly now, so no more playing chicken. This allowed me to get out of Staly a lot easier than the past few times and soon I was on Stamford St heading towards Park Parade and the first of the two huge roundabouts I needed to play with - the first was an easy one as I could stay in the outside lane to go straight across, the second wasn't quite so easy as I needed to get in the middle lane to get straight across. Easier said than done when there's lots of traffic hurtling along here; but I managed to get there OK, and I managed to follow an HGV out and across so I didn't even need to pause for breath.

The first roundabout was the start of the fast-paced section for me as it's a place I use a lot for sprint training; being a dual carriageway (cycles are allowed) it's perfect for speed. I maintained a good pace through the next set of lights too as I wove my way into the middle lane again as the road split to head in two directions. I wanted to stay on the main Ashton-Manchester Rd and swooped my way around the first tight right hand bend with a car wing mirror getting a little too close for comfort to my ass, before swooping left and upping the pace to the next set of lights. For some odd reason all the lights were with me this time, so I manged to keep the speed up to the Lumb lane one-way system where, yet again, I had to smoosh my way into the middle lane and straight through these lights; again a swift right hand bend followed by a left hand bend and MASH down on the pedals before getting stuck in the tailbacks at the contraflow. Damn those roadworks. I'd set a good pace of 26mph before having to slow down to a crawl. Usually I won't undertake vehicles at all, however there was a metre between the traffic and the parked cars with no side roads, so I snuck along until I could go no further and a lovely chap let me in front of his car and held the rest of the traffic back a little for me so they weren't up my ass through the mangle mess that is the Manchester Rd/Market St junction.

Back into the aero position and I was flying along as far as Buxton Lane when the lights turned red and I stopped for a welcome breather before turning off just before the next set of lights.

That turned out to be quite a tough ride - the combination of the heat and the climbs wasn't good. Every rider I saw out today was suffering with it. For once I wasn't passed by a cyclist on Mottram Moor - so disheartening when that happens as it is a very hard climb for me to do. Still, I've managed it the last 2 times I've headed out that way.

Stats - view route

Gorgeously hot and sunny with a little breeze

Miles: 31.97

Average speed: 12.4mph (this is getting a little familiar!)

Climbed: 1398ft

One very knackered cyclist collapsed on the sofa when she got home!

Hours and hours....

2009-08-05T15:22:00.002+01:00

of no riding this week. I have landed myself a voluntary job in my local Red Cross shop; just to boost my references as last boss hated me and has given a particularly vicious one, and also to get me back in the working frame of mind as it's been such a long time since I last worked. So for a lot of last week and this week there'll only be a day or 2 free to ride, but I don't mind too much :oD

This week I may be able to ride tomorrow - if I do it'll be an easy ride seeing as the last few have been particularly hilly ones; any upcoming rides will most likely be into Cheshire for flatter efforts, before the club ride on 30th August which, apparently has been changed from Sowerby to Rivington! So nice long uphill drag up the A6, me thinks.

Solo Standedge

2009-08-03T14:57:00.011+01:00

While Gaz took part in the Manchester arm of the Skyride and as the weather promised to be nice on Sunday I decided to have a re-run of the club ride, but all by myself this time. It turned out to be an interesting day!

After dressing in the finest Quickstep livery (bar my Lampre helmet) I had to become a hybrid of teams as the weather when I left home wasn't too warm, so my Discovery Channel windshell went on, but was swiftly removed again after 15 minutes as I'd warmed up quickly and was beginning to overheat and get all clammy. Yuck!

I set off towards Droylsden and promptly got stuck in the tailbacks that'd already built up in the contraflow a mile up the road and sat there for 10 minutes or so before the green light let me turn off towards Littlemoss and the small climb out of Daisy Nook to follow the same route I took last Sunday complete with all its climbs.

Once I got to Uppermill I remembered that the Saddleworth Festival was on so was prepared to have to go elsewhere for lunch on my return leg through the village. Once on the Wool Rd I prepared myself to make Tom Boonen and the rest of the Quickstep team proud as I launched myself up the Col du Standedge. Well, I say launch, but what I really mean is a 7mph crawl. Hmm, I'm not even sure I'm proud of that speed, but I did manage to maintain the speed I had last week up here, so it wasn't too bad.

Once I got about halfway up I spied a pair of cyclists further up the climb. This pair seemed to be getting closer and closer to me. Were they slowing down, I wonder? As I passed them (not sure how that happened!) I looked down at the speedo and I'd somehow picked the pace up - not much but obviously enough for me to overtake. Sadly my glory was short lived as a group of cyclist sped past me up the hill and round the corner out of sight. Damn those superfit people!!

At the junction in Bleak Hey Nook I stopped to watch a helicopter take off, fly around and land again, and repeat this quite a few times. Not long after another cyclist passed me and stopped for a breather round the corner facing the direction I was headed in. He looked whacked!

I mounted Everest and set off in preparation for the rapid swooping descent into Delph. Somewhere along here I lost the other cyclist (at least, he started out following me). I enjoyed the descent so much that I must have looked like the Cheshire cat to anyone who saw me fly down the road.

After a brief section on the flat the road began to kick up again. After a mile of climbing a lovely (not) 10% portion of the road, and not remembering this part of the ride at all, I though it wise to stop at a bus shelter and look at the map on it. Mmmmm, I was enjoying the descent so much that I'd completely missed my turning and was halfway to Scouthead and I didn't particularly want to be heading in that direction. I rode on until the next available turn that'd take me to Diggle and that was when I hit the wall.......Wall Hill Rd that is! I'm so glad that I was descending this road and not trying to get up it as it is evil - signs on it suggest 11% gradient. In places it's 13 or more. Anyway, it's a nightmare junction to get around as it's a very tight left hand turn with the road dropping sharply from the main road. But it made for a good descent despite ending up with 2 hounds barking at my ankles!

Back in Uppermill I stopped at Saints cafe for a bite to eat and had a wander around the festival grounds (in the park behind the cafe), made a few friends and then unlocked Everest from her railing and set off home.

Down through Chew Valley and through Mossley, past where I punctured last week (roadworks have gone now and the road was cleaned) and onto the horrid roadwork section in Stalybridge where the lights are out - it's a large, very busy junction on a hill and with the traffic lights out it proves an interesting junction to turn right at. Thankfully the contraflow further up the road actually stops the traffic moving at anything more than a snails pace; so, provided there're no cars turning right onto my road, it was easy to get out by trailing a car going my way!

Then it was a case of sneaking back up the 20% hill (behind a van that was struggling big time) before getting back onto easier territory towards Mossley's 5 way junction.

Once over there I set off back up a hill I'd already climbed once this ride towards Park Bridge and had the joy of a messed up road - it's steep, twisty, often slick with leaf-litter, single file in most parts, and Tameside Council have decided that it needs to have chicanes, speed humps AND rumble strips too!

After all that fun I stopped off at Daisy Nook for a bacon butty before setting off back up another once-ridden climb to Bardsley before swooping round the one-way systems and getting onto the fast-paced dual carriageway that leads towards home.

A stop at my mom's for her roast pork tea and a welcome rest and soon I was back home with the comforts of a hot bath, a comfy sofa and the Top Gear boys.

Stats - view route
Rather warm, sporadically cloudy and breezy.
Miles: 35.38
Average speed: 12.4mph (smidge quicker than last time)
Climbed: 1207ft

July review

2009-07-31T14:01:00.000+01:00

July, again was a good month for riding for me with getting a new PB in an event and getting some good miles in.

Distance covered: 209 miles
Days ridden: 9
Event: 1 - Manchester to Blackpool 4:13:27 PB
Middleton CC: 26/7 to Bleak Hey Nook
Chorlton Wanderers: no, as I was riding mcr-bpl
Hill climbs/repeats: not as a stand alone thing. A few rides have been very hilly to make up for it.

Although my mileage is down on last month I did get back into Trio's century challenge with the Manchester to Blackpool ride bringing 76.32 (route and to & from the start) miles into play. The 2 most notably hilly rides were both 30 miles long with 1063ft and 994ft of climbing respectively and only a few days apart.

Something, somehow has been going right since my accident. Despite the hill training kind of tailing off I still seem to be getting much better at it than I was at the start of the year. maybe it's something to do with the first stint back on the back was a hill rep; maybe I've mentally matured to the point where no damn hill is going to stop me getting where I want to be. Who knows? All I know is that I seem to be going in the right direction.

August is going to be an interesting month as I'll be using it to try and keep the longer rides up in preparation for the Manchester 100, plus some good rides with my club to Sowerby Bridge and Chorlton Wanderers to Great Budworth. Hopefully I'll be able to get in some good routes that I've found on mapmyride too. Oh, and maybe I'll get over to Staffs and try to ride cat and fiddle and axe edge, just to see if I would be able to take part in the CFT Cat & Fiddle Challenge.

Hardy Souls

2009-07-26T23:00:00.003+01:00

*Amended - just clicked on the route link and it only showed Standedge not the whole route. It should now be fixed. Sorry folks!*

Only 2 hardy souls took part in July's club ride - myself and my brother Paul. Of those in the club who weren't at prior engagements the rest cried off - Simon saying he just couldn't get out at 8am in the storm - some rang to say they weren't coming, others not. As Paul had cycled over to the velodrome to (supposedly) meet the team he text me to ask what I wanted to do. I said we may as well ride seeing as he was already wet and I wanted to get out and ride. So, Paul set off towards my place.

At about 10:10 we set off in the rain (which was forecast days in advance) and we set off towards Droylsden and the dreaded contraflow. A left turn took us to Daisy Nook and the climb over Wilshaw to Hurst with another left turn taking us towards Lees before we got into some climbing territory on Thornley Lane with it's lovely 6 and 9% sections - the 9% being a single laned portion too. The climbing wasn't over at the top of here in Grotton either although it did lessen and maxed out at 4% before an awkward right turn (which doubled back on the road we were coming off) part of the way up a steep hill and we were suddenly hit with 7% then 9% before a long drop into Grasscroft and on through Uppermill to a visitor centre/museum where we discussed where to go next.

Despite being very soggy (the rain hadn't eased off at all) we decided that onwards and upwards was the order of the day and we continued through Uppermill to the Wool Rd junction where a few miles of climbing awaited us. Mapmyride doesn't do Standedge any justice as when the whole climb was plotted it came out at a paltry 6 or 7%, however once you break it down into sections the REAL* Standedge climb comes through. And somehow I made it to our destination on the hill - Bleak Hey Nook and it's extremely evil junction.
After stopping for photos and to cheer another few riders on up the hill, we turned left at the junction and found ourselves on a rapid descent into Delph on a road that actually had a sign warning of the angle of descent - 8%. On through Dobcross and back into Uppermill to give Saddleworth's The Cyclery a conundrum (the same conundrum I have given multiple bike shops in the UK - where to obtain a co2 cartridge holder that attaches to the bottle cage bosses. After a moment of puzzlement I took the guy out to my bike to shop him what I meant and he said what I knew he'd say: "I've never seen one of those in my life!" After searching through all his info in the shop, he came to the conclusion that they can't obtain any from anywhere. No surprise there as I've had multiple orders with multiple places cancelled as they can't get hold of them anymore! I have one on order that so far seems to still be on order; only downside is that it is coming from Australia from an Oz online bike shop!

Anyway, back to the ride. After bacon butties and coffee in a lovely little cafe we set off on the return leg in the dry! Hurrah, the rain had stopped!

After coming down through Chew Valley and Greenfield, then into Lower Mossley, just by another contraflow and roadwork area, the world could hear "PUNCTURE PUNCTURE PUNCTURE!!!!". Yup, I'd got another puncture in another contraflow. This time my rear wheel had gone, but after 10 or so minutes Paul had the tube replaced and had it pumped up with my hand pump - he didn't want me to waste a co2 canister, bless him, so he used brute force to push air into the tube! Hoping it'd hold til I got back we set off again after walking a fair way away from the blasted roadworks before pedalling through Heyrod and a turning that I knew was steep and evil, but didn't realise quite so until I plotted it on mapmyride - it averages 20% and is a little humpy in profile.

Once round here and approaching a big busy junction, with yet more roadworks, we got stuck in the middle of the road for a while (thankfully everyone else was stuck too). After getting onto the temporary road surface and up another lumpy 17% section we came to another contraflow which we opted against given my track record of punctures in them, so we snuck up a side road overtaking a car that was having problems getting up the 20% gradient at the start of it, and soon had a tricky junction to contend with before getting onto familiar territory of Stamford Park and Curzon Rd before descending down Vicarage and through Daisy Nook into Droylsden and the Metrolink roadworks (another contraflow!).

All too soon we were at my Mom's for a roast pork tea and cake (twas my Dad's birthday on Saturday) before I set off back to my place 1 mile up the road.

Standedge - view the whole climb
*The REAL standedge* - The breakdown of the climb:
Wool Rd - 43ft climbed in 0.36 mile. Max gradient 7%. Min 6%. Mostly 7%.
Standedge Wool Rd to Diggle - 253ft climbed in 1 mile. Max gradient 8%. Min 2%. Mostly 8%.
Standedge Diggle to Bleak Hey - 197ft climbed in 0.58 mile. Max gradient 16%. Min 6%. Mostly 16%.
Bleak Hey Nook junction - 16% right on the turning.

Stats - view route
Rainy (very), mild/cool, windy
Average speed: 12.3mph
Miles: 30.34
Climbed: 994ft.

Nutrition:
SIS PSP22 Energy 500ml
Taut Isotonic 500ml

Hills, hills, and maybe more hills

2009-07-24T13:03:00.005+01:00

Yesterday, for some unknown reason, I decided that I would go for a ride and use quite a few of the hilly roads I know. They may not be huge climbs, or long climbs, but to me they're still climbs and climbs are what I need to get better at.

So I incorporated them into a 31.19 mile route I rode. The climbs I've noted here are generally above 5%. Like I say, they're not huge, they're probably something that most of you will think nothing off and ride all the time without even noticing the road rise.

These are in the order I rode them:

Berry Brow - 46ft in 0.12 mile. Max gradient 20%. Average 12%.
Medlock Vale - 85ft in 0.25 mile. Maximum gradient 19%. Average 10%.
Vicarage - 33ft in 0.22 mile. Max gradient 9%. Average 4%.
Gorsey Lane - 52ft in 0.19 mile. Max gradient 13%. Average 6 or 7%.
Mossley Rd - 157ft in 0.88 mile. Max gradient 6%. Average 5%.
Broadcarr - 115ft in 0.47 mile. Max gradient 12%. Average 8%.
Mossley - 164ft in 0.5 mile. Max gradient 17%. Average 10%.
Luzley - 109ft in 0.39 mile. Max gradient 15%. Average 14%.
Rose Hill - 79ft in 0.42 mile. Max gradient 9%. Average 6%.
Mill Brow - 131ft in 0.33 mile. Max gradient 20%. Average 10%.
Bardsley - 72ft in 0.17 mile. Max gradient 20%. Average 19%.
Stannybrook - 46ft in 0.1 mile. Max gradient 20%. Average 14%.

As you can see none of these are over 1 mile in length, merely kicks in the road (albeit sharp kicks) however 6 months ago 10% was my limit for a short sharp climb. So something is going right somewhere!

Stats -
Warm, muggy and eventually wet
Average speed: 13.2mph
Miles: 31.19
Climbed: 1063ft

Riders wanted

2009-07-23T16:48:00.002+01:00

Middleton CC's July Club Run takes place Sunday 26th July and heads out through Littlemoss, Ashton, Mossley and Uppermill before heading up Holmfirth Rd to Marsden.

The most likely route we'll take will be this one. The return leg may be the outward route in reverse or it may come back through Bleak Hey Nook. That will be decided on the day. The start of the main climb is indicated by the 'mountains' logo on the map.

If anyone wants to join in they can. (Joby, Gaz, Emma it'd be good hill practice for anything in the Manchester 100). Anyone can come and ride it with us, even if it's simply so you can ride an alternative route to that you normally do, with somebody else navigating, or so you can ride as part of a group. Whatever you choose.

If you do want to join in, we'll be meeting outside the Mancehster Velodrome at around 9:30am (try to get there a little early if poss) by the stairs to the main entrance (where you'd go in to watch an event). If possible, email me (contact details on my profile page) to let me know you're coming and I will personally meet you at the start point.

See you there!

Pootles

2009-07-21T13:26:00.002+01:00

I thought I'd have a few back to back rides, where I'm riding daily for a few days, so that I can see exactly how my riding is going: am I getting fitter or not yet, am I worse than last year or fitter etc. So here's how Sunday and Monday went -

Sunday
Seeing as the weather wasn't too great during the day I went for a ride in the evening after devouring a roast beef tea at my moms. So, at 8pm I clambered into my gear, made sure Everest was all set and set off out towards the hills. Through the roadworks and to the contraflow pausing at the crossroads for the lights to change. At the amber light I pushed off (still in the contraflow) and crossed the junction speeding up as I had a car right up my ass. When hisssssssss. Of all the places to get a flat, and an instant flat at that, it had to happen in a contraflow and right outside a pub. Mmm, not the best of places to be hanging around outside while in full cycle gear.

I managed to get into a lay by and onto the pavement to a fence to sort out the tyre. As it was an instant flat it proved a little harder than normal to locate it, but when I did it was a double puncture - almost as if I'd ridden over a giant staple - but there was nothing stuck in the tyre/tube, so after I patched it up I continued on my way.

I rode pretty much straight into Ashton and back via Guide Bridge for a pretty much straightforward route. Other than having to stop to sort out the tyre it was a good ride bar the fierce headwind I got on the way back.

Sunday stats -
Still rather warm
Average speed: 15.3mph
Miles: 6.28

Monday
I was all for heading into the hills today, but as the hills were looking very gloomy and I wasn't really in the mood to get rained on in any way, I chose to head out to Gorsey Lane for a little bit of climbing.

I set off out through Littlemoss and alongside Daisy Nook to Cranbourne Rd and over to Hurst where I got onto King's Rd and it's climb up past the war memorial and stopped to admire the view at the top alongside the edge of Ashton Golf Course looking over to Hartshead Pike looming out of the gloom.
Once I'd descended to Mossley Rd and Luzley I enjoyed the superb fast descent back into Ashton, where I trained my neck to get back into the aero position it's been unable to hold since my accident (think it's simply lack of being in that position).

Soon I was climbing back out of Ashton towards Oldham and turning off the road into Daisy Nook proper for a muddy off road jaunt for a bacon butty. I very nearly came off on one of the drops down the side of the lock flight, but somehow held on as the path seemed to slide down the gradient with me! After devouring the sarnie i set off across the steep Stannybrook Rd onto the Jericho Trail crossing the M60, then trying to get up a muddy hill with the rear wheel spinning out every now and then. After the 'n'th time, I gave up and walked up the hill before mounting again for the last section before the car park by the fish farm.

A nice fast-paced ride back to another lot of roadworks and road closures brought me alongside Droylsden FC and all too soon to the roundabout where Paul painfully perfected his superman impression over a bonnet many, many years ago. Thankfully I tweak my rides this way so I leave the roundabout by the nearest exit to that which I'm entering from and soon I hurtled alongside Droylsden High before joining the one-way system and arrived home.

Monday stats -
Warm though cloudy
Average speed: 12.7mph
Miles: 13.97

In respect of riding days back-to-back, I seemed to manage quite well. Monday's average seems about right for the climbs regardless of whether I'd ridden 12hrs earlier or not. The real test for me will be riding the day after a track session (sadly I've not been back on the track since January time).

So maybe my fitness is improving. Maybe I'm just a tad more mentally stronger. Maybe.

*Pictures will follow for Monday's ride soon*

Test run

2009-07-16T12:29:00.003+01:00

After getting my docs advice I decided that today would be a good day to go for a short ride and test out my knee and also the new bibshorts I received yesterday. So I set off on an easy ride to Daisy Nook. Nothing exciting happened really apart from having workmen in a HGV behind me stare at my butt and others working on the tramway works make strange noises as I rode past them!

The knee coped fine with no pain at all and the shorts were snug to the point of not even being able to tell I was wearing any, they fitted like a second skin and were uber comfortable. Hurrah!

Stats -
Patchy cloud, muggy, warm
Average speed: 13.2mph
Miles: 11.96
Climbed: 154ft

Knee news

2009-07-16T12:02:00.002+01:00

After Tuesday's exploits on the moor resulted in my knee really hurting, I decided it'd be good to go see my doc about it - I have to be very careful about this knee now after what had happened in 2004.
After fracturing the tibial plateau in a sustained attack in 2004 I have been left with stage 2 arthritis in my right knee and a 'step' in the rear of my patella, which obviously shouldn't be there. My consultant decided against more surgery on that knee as to remove said step could rupture the kneecap completely. My surgeon also advised that any further injury to the knee would result in my needing a full knee replacement, which at the age of 30 isn't particularly good as I'd need them frequently.

Anyway, I managed to get to see my doc on Wednesday and explained to her what had happened both in 2004 and Tuesday. She examined the knee, doing all the usual torture tactics that docs love to do to knees and said there's no excess fluid in there which is a good sign. I told her about the step on the patella and she agreed with my theory - that the cartilage had caught on the step as I was descending causing the searing pain and once it was released from it's trap (at the bottom of the hill) it was loads easier.

So good news all round really. I was anticipating another trip to my surgeon and another op, maybe something major. Doc advised I keep on as normal and only go to the surgeon if the pain returns. So I carried on normally!

Wessenden Moor Wander

2009-07-15T13:50:00.009+01:00

Tuesday morning began with the threat of rain and seemed to get even worse when I read the forecast for the day - heavy rain, potential thunderstorms and flooding. Not ideal conditions for moorland walk where there'd be river crossings and peat to cross.

Still I went ahead and met with Joe armed with a map and several potential routes to walk. After perusing them for a while and advising him of a few road problems. meaning a couple of the route may be hard to get to, we chose to head up the Isle of Skye road onto the moors between Manchester and Holmfirth. After pulling into the dinky car park on the Wessenden Head Rd and consulting the map we set off.

After reading the sign about the Kirklees Way by the gate and noting that there were endangered birds about we set off alongside Wessenden Head and Pudding Real Moss along the shared Kirklees and Pennine Way path, down a lovely limestone slab/cobble path and across a few bouncy bridges to come alongside Wessenden Reservoir by the Cradles and Great Dike Springs.

After reading another sign about the area - over 5000 acres belong to the Marsden Moor Estate and tended to by only a few farms - we chose to follow the Kirklees Way across the dam wall and up Long Grain. As the path climb higher and higher, the path got narrower and narrower and squelchy underfoot. Then we saw a sign saying there'd been a bit of subsidence and could clearly see a little of the path had disappeared down into the valley, although the rest of it was fine.

We carried on this path and came to a lovely waterfall and the first of our river crossing points. Luckily the brook wasn't too wide and the water wasn't too deep and there were plenty of big rocks to clamber over before getting to the other side. Once over the other side we had to scramble over rocks almost hip height before we could get back on the path, which became more squelchy underfoot. At this point we were trying to find little grassy hillocks to stand on as the path seemed to be made of peat too and any attempt to stand on it resulted in a boot sucking experience. Joe went first and found some areas were OK to bear weight. I followed on and found that said areas wouldn't bear my weight, so opted for the hillock stepping places. After getting onto one big lump of grass and working out where to step next I managed to find a nice big hole to stick my other foot in - a hole that wasn't seen by anyone! Thankfully it wasn't full of peaty water and was only squelchy to the ankle of my boot.

After lots of chuckling from me and more squelching we made our way to another meeting point of the two trails, by a solar panel for the Lodge. Just past the solar panel we saw the back of a sign, so went round to read it - "Warning, path dangerous. Please use the Pennine Way" Mmm, seems Joe and I had just traversed a highly dangerous path that had no danger signs at the end we came from! We plodded on, thankful that the path hadn't given way on us; around Grouse Butts and to the second river crossing, this time involving a bit more scrambling down a steep valley to get to the bank and across the other side to a set of limestone steps bordered by lots of bracken. Those steps seemed to go on forever. Once at the top, we plodded on for a little while alongside Blakely Clough between Black Moss and Great Butterly Hill before stopping for some lunch.

After teacakes and coffee we continued on our merry way and followed the limestone slab path that'd replaced the well worn path through the moss, heather, cotton grass and bracken to reach Black Moss and Swellands reservoirs, where the rain decided it was going to put in an appearance.

We decided that it'd be best to head back as we were quite far from the car on a peat moor with nowhere to shelter from the rain, with the prospect of the place becoming extremely dangerous. So, after a rest stop, we set off back to the solar panel and the warning sign.

Deciding to play it safe we took the Pennine Way to the left of the panel....down a very steep sided valley (probably talking about 45% gradient to get down and back up on the other side). As I was descending, my knee decided to play up with searing pain through it. Not the best of places to get severe knee pain really. I put it down to the way I was descending, as I seemed to hover on that leg for quite some time before putting my left foot down anywhere, so I presumed I was putting undue stress on it. I managed to get down OK without too much pain, crossing the brook and back up the other side. By the finger post at the top of the climb, we had another rest which gave me time to assess my knee to make sure I hadn't really buggered it up.

This was where we made friends with an adorable ram. He walked past us initially following his missus, then decided to turn round and come have a look and a sniff. Perfect picture moment as he looked at us with a little bit of disdain.

Then Joe put some biscuit on the floor and the ram quite happily came, ate it and stayed put, so Joe put more bits out. The ram got so close that I ended up holding onto the signpost with one hand, kinda slightly hanging over the edge, just so I could fit the whole ram in the frame for another shot!

After the ram had decided he's posed long enough he ran off to find his ewe, leaving us to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and head back to the car.

Stats - view route
Miles: 7.31
Climbed: 814ft

Manchester to Blackpool

2009-07-13T13:26:00.014+01:00

****NEW PB - 4:13:27****

At 6:00am a very weary me woke up to dull grey skies with the threat of rain on the morning of Sunday 12th July for my 2nd Manchester to Blackpool ride. After a night of rain (some heavy) my heart sank a little at the prospect of 60+ soggy miles. However my worries were unfounded as not a drop of rain fell until we were back at base waiting for the bikes to arrive back.

I had aimed to leave my place at around 6:30 for the 7ish mile ride out to Old Trafford to start the ride with Simon who had the same start time as I did; however I ended up leaving my place late, but used the ride out as a very good warm up with a few sprints in there to test the legs out.

Arriving at OT at 7:15 I was pleasantly surprised when I heard Bananaman say that they're letting people off early due to the sheer number of participants (over 8500 people), so I set off at 7:25.

Bananaman also had a warning (already) that there'd been quite a few accidents (already) pretty much 5 minutes outside of the ground (already!), due to the rail lines that crisscross the roads (slow moving freight trains use(d) them for the warehouses). Hmm, that's not sounding good. As it was we only had to cross the lines once and they were easy provided you attack them in the right way - I cross lines quite often on some of my rides so I know how to do it without slipping.

Out past Trafford Ecology Park and round to pass the Imperial War Museum looking very brooding under the cloudy skies, and soon we hit the first 'climb' of the day that got quite a lot of people panicking and slowing down or stopping and walking. Mmm, it got me last year, but I wasn't going to let it get me this time round. The organisers are great at shoving a climb (this one was an average of 11% with a max of 20%) right near the start of the thing. I happily twiddled my way up it passing all sorts of riders of differing abilities.

We got onto the A572 through Boothstown and on through Leigh to Hindley Green and Hindley for another 5% climb to Aspull and on to Haigh Hall. An interesting cobbled section (they didn't warn us about that!) led to a 7% speed-humped descent into the grounds and the Higher Plantation. Still descending we entered the Lower Plantation for what can only be described as a bit of a silly route - steep, twisty, leaf-littered, slick road with chicanes added to ensure we didn't fly down it. As it was, I overshot a corner and nearly fell into a valley, with only a tree stopping me. Almost everyone I passed or who passed me at this point were all saying this bit wasn't ideal for a road bike due to the conditions. Not only was this bit bad, but we had to climb back out of it at the other side in the same conditions, only shorter and much steeper.

After leaving the grounds I noticed a chap riding alongside me and decided to natter to him for a bit. This was his ninth or tenth time of riding the event, but the first on his nice shiny new bike he got off his mate (alloy, carbon forks/seatpost, Italian wheelset). We were both a good pacer for each other as we shot along at 17mph chatting, neither letting the other get away

Once back out of the grounds, the route took us through Standish, past Charnock Richard Golf Course and up to Euxton where the route left the A49 and joined on to some very odd sounding roads: Schleswig Way and Flensburg Way. Soon we were at Preston Marina and the right side of the Ribble for Blackpool.
Up to this point, the route really wasn't overly scenic, but now above Preston it was, with lovely little villages to ride through. I found Treales to be the prettiest. I also knew of it's secret: last year I stopped for a breather here and got chatting to a villager who asked what was going on, after telling him of the event and asking him how much further Blackpool is, he let me in on the secret - there is a very evil hill that catches everyone unaware not too soon around the corner - this hill leads right up to a junction where we have to turn right and there is no flat bit at the top, so the possibility of rolling backwards is quite high.

Last year this hill was a bitch to me. I wasn't going to let her take a bite out of me again. I forewarned my riding chum and advised he take it real easy as his leg was beginning to hurt and I knew that this hill would make him really hurt. He rode part of it, then got off to walk the rest. I wasn't going to let the hill get off that easily. It starts of as quite an unassuming 2 or 3%, but soon kicks upwards to an average 5%, then to 7, 9, 10% until right at the very top it's 13%. Last year I got halfway before having to walk. This year I tamed the beast! I was amazed to see quite a few club riders struggling despite their super light carbon bikes.

Now, we were heading south towards Freckleton and the coast road where I knew it was going to get hard. The winds were pretty bad last year, but this year? My God! I don't think they could get any worse than they were. They must have hit us at 20mph!

As soon as we turned right onto the coast road it became a struggle for a lot of people. I only slowed down 1mph, others were really slowing down to crawl. My riding chum was suffering big time with the wind despite drafting me. By the time I'd got to Lytham Lighthouse he'd dropped right back and urged me to go on as I was coming close to my time for last years ride.

On I plodded, riding through the piles of sand that'd drifted onto the road, even eating some as the wind whipped it up in the air. On past struggling riders, most of whom were drafting people or being drafted. On past the line of cars parked by the dunes. By the time I neared Blackpool Airport I had passed 30, 40 people who were struggling like they were riding through glue. Yet I was still maintaining a bloody good average; although I could feel the wind whipping sand across my body, it was like I barely noticed it.

As I approached the last marshall he shouted to everyone "Only 1 mile to go". One mile?? Am I really that close? From somewhere I found the strength to push even harder, flying past people who just seemed to be going backwards. Cheers and the sound of clapping pushing me on. 22, 25, 28mph. Bikers trying to catch me up and draft me, but getting left behind. A group in the distance with an mtb on the front of it. I wasn't letting that bugger beat me. Pushing, pushing, harder, faster, a blur of grey as I passed him mashing down on the pedals as I hit 30mph with 100 metres to go.

FINISHED!!!! Suddenly, there're girls shouting at us to slow down. Wondering why, I looked round to see they were handing out the welcome bags on the finish line, actually on the line. Bit of an odd place to hand them out seeing as people were riding to the finish so fast. We're not pro riders passing a feed station after all!

Sadly, I never saw my riding chum finish, so I don't know if he did or not.

Once through the hordes of well wishers and into the Solaris Centre gardens, I checked my PC to see a time of 4hrs 13mins and 27 seconds. I'd beaten last years time by 1min 33 seconds. Hurrah! After gulping in lots of fresh sea air and downing the bottled water in the welcome pack I headed for the barbecue area for an amazingly tasty burger to wolf down.
I didn't want to stay in Blackpool for too long as I knew it'd take a while to get home by coach and even longer for the truck carrying our bikes to get back, so I set of in search of the ticket tent, handed over my ticket (I had good sense to book it in advance) and was advised I can get the next bus which was boarding half an hour from now. After fighting my way through the crowds, never easy with a bike in tow, I got out onto the prom and joined the queue for the TNT truck which was to be home for the bikes for the journey back to OT. Clambering onto the first coach I was surprised to find it was an executive coach with lovely plush, comfy seats and tvs.

As the coach was leaving I noticed how the truck was still being loaded and not following on behind us like last year. Hmm, perplexing. Last year there was one truck per coach, this year we weren't sure what was happening. Not to worry, I thought, the truck will be leaving Blackpool soon, right? Wrong! We arrived back at OT and piled off the coach into one of many car parks. People I was talking to were asking where the bikes were. I advised that they'll be with us shortly, but to expect a wait of up to half an hour, as that's what happened last year. Half an hour later, no sign of any trucks. 40 minutes later and even I'm wondering if the driver has nicked off with all the bikes. An hour later the second coach pulls in without a truck in tow. 10 minutes later the truck finally appears, only for the driver to look like he's going to get mobbed.

The shutter of the tuck opened and sudden intake of air was audible, swiftly followed by "that better not be my bike!". Peering round a tall guys head I saw a couple of bikes lay on the floor, and thought "oh dear". The driver, sensing he might get decked in a bit luckily had paperwork to say that if he takes on too many bikes to be secured in an upright position, he must lie the others on the floor and tether them to the floor. Disaster averted!

Once Everest had been pulled away from her chat with umpteen bikes, a quick check over her revealed she'd survived the journey. On I jumped and off I set (surprisingly quickly) to head to my moms in search of a roast dinner!

Stats - view route
Cloudy, pleasantly warm, mega windy.
Maximum speed: 42.5mph
Average speed: 14.2mph
Miles: 62 (actual mcr to bpl) 76.32 (total)
Climbed: 948ft

Nutrition -
3 litres SIS GO electrolyte drink
2 SIS GO isotonic gels
2 mule bars
1 'recovery' burger
0.5 litres water

All set

2009-07-11T12:44:00.002+01:00

It's the Manchester to Blackpool ride tomorrow. I've got my bike set up and ready, my kit is all set up and ready with my rider number pinned to my jersey. All I have to do now is try to find my blasted debit card as I need to have money to take with me for food at the end int he Solaris Centre and the bloody thing has gone walkies. Grr!

The weather is looking pretty good with a little rain, lots of cloud though, so it'll either just keep raining or it'll be muggy. Either way, myself and the 5500+ other riders will have a blast, although I am hoping that people don't fall onto me like last year at a huge roundabout on the A6 heading to Preston!

Gee whizz!

2009-07-05T14:19:00.002+01:00

I've totted up the number of jobs I've applied for in June and it's 31! July is going along the same lines too as I've already applied for 10. All the Job Centre want me to do is a minimum of 2 each week. Mmmm. Not surprised they don't know what to do with me anymore!

On a brighter note, one of the apps is for Cycle Surgery on Princess Rd in Didsbury. I haven't worked in a shop for years but I enjoyed it when I did, and where better to expand my knowledge of all things bike related than in a cycle shop?

So, fingers crossed all round, me thinks.

Am I mad?

2009-07-03T15:12:00.003+01:00

I think I may have lost my mind. I'm contemplating entering the CF Trust's Cat and Fiddle 55 mile challenge with Mr Sean Kelly and about 1500 others.

The event takes place October 4th and starts at Brian Rourke's and goes through Staffs, Cheshire, Derbyshire and the Peak District including the infamous 7 mile long climb.

Anyone who knows me (or knows of me through this blog) knows exactly how pants I am on hills and how I'm more likely to run away from them rather than dance up them. But you know, maybe, just maybe this is what i need to get better at them?

I've asked for info to be sent to me anyway and I'll decide once I've got that and once Manchester to Blackpool is out of the way.

Rainy fun

2009-07-03T12:20:00.003+01:00

I was too tired this morning to get a very early run out like I did yesterday, so I left my place after the rush hour had ended and set off on my regular 10 mile route with a little tweak that took me through Fairfield to avoid some of the Metro roadworks, before getting back onto the route at Villemomble Square.

As I passed Medlock Leisure Centre the scratching noise I'd been hearing started to get a little bit louder, but when I looked down at the components while riding everything looked in order, so I though maybe the car that had been tailing me was the culprit of the noise. So I carried on regardless and turned into Daisy Nook as I passed so I could give Everest a proper check over again (she had a look over before I left the house). As I looked straight down at the chain it looked like it was too far to the left on the front mech, which would cause it to grate. After having a feel around and a look from a different angle, it dawned on me that the front mech hadn't reverted back to its proper position after the stint on the big ring, although it felt like it had clicked into place as I'd changed down. But, hey ho! After a play about with the gearing it sorted itself out without a problem, so all's good.

As I left to carry on my route it began to spit a little (it was forecast) and kept dying out, starting again etc. By the time I got to Guide Bridge it was heavy rain. By the time I got a further 2 minutes down the road it had turned into a monsoon, albeit a very, very welcome monsoon as it really cooled me down. Seconds later I was drenched, feet waterlogged, hands killing me (my eczema reacts badly to water), but I was grinning like a nutter at everyone who looked at me as though a cyclist shouldn't be out in the rain.

One thing that the rain did for me other than chill me out and turn me crazy, was that it made me faster. Probably a little stupid to be going faster on slick, greasy roads, but it did. And I was still super cautious turning left due to the paranoia that another car will side-swipe me while turning!

C'est la vie!

Stats -
Muggy, sticky and bloody hot already (21C at 9:30am)!
Average speed: 14.9mph
Miles: 9.62

Early morning ride

2009-07-02T15:30:00.002+01:00

Seeing as it's still so hot outside, and I wasn't particularly in the mood for a morning or afternoon ride, when I woke up at 6am unable to sleep any longer I got out on Everest and took her for a trip to Hartshead Pike....the hillier way.

Usually I'd head up Lees Rd and past Oldham Golf Club for a short climbing experience with a few 11% sections. This time I head out the way I would normally come back - climbing Mossley Rd, passing Ashton Golf Course and turning off at the brow of the hill up Broadcarr Lane. I did this on purpose knowing full well that I'd have a 2 mile climb with an average of 5% followed by a short sharp 11% section that rears straight up from Mossley Rd with no let up - for me that is fairly evil as I can do short and sharp, I can just about do long climbs, but to combine the two was evil; but it had to be done seeing as I can't avoid hills all my life!

Anyway, after getting to the Pike, savouring the breeze up there, I knew I'd have to leave again pretty sharpish if I wanted to avoid the rush hour traffic as they headed out to work.
I came back down via Lees Head Rd, Lees New Rd and Abbey Hills Rd (with its 20% section) to Alt Lane and a lovely descent through Park Bridge to Bardsley and more descending until an 11% climb brought me back out of the valley to a flat section through Failsworth and Newton Heath before reaching my hill repeat hill.
Sadly (or gladly, not sure which yet) there are lots of roadworks on this hill now and it's been narrowed down to a single lane while the work is going on, so I couldn't really do my hill climb on it as stopping halfway up a hill for traffic lights would really bugger up my times - I felt slower getting up it anyway, so numbers wouldn't really tell me much different!

Stats - view route
Already 20 degrees and sticky
Average speed: 12.4mph
Miles: 17.3
Climbed: 646ft

June review

2009-06-30T21:00:00.000+01:00

June turned out to be quite a good month for cycling; especially seeing as it's only my 2nd month after getting the all clear to ride again.

Distance covered: 226.83 miles
Days ridden: 10
Areas covered: High Peak, Oldham, Ashton, edge of Yorkshire.
Middleton CC: yeah, 28/6
Chorlton Wanderers: nope
Hill climbs/repeats: 1 specific, others were as part of hilly routes.

I'm happy with the progress so far: if you think that I managed 137.42 miles in May, I've gained another 89ish miles over the extra few days.

July will bring me back into play in Trio's century rides as it's Manchester to Blackpool on the 12th and that's a minimum of 65 miles for me. Hopefully I'll up the miles too to try and bring it nearer to 300 for the month.

Yippee!

2009-06-30T14:19:00.002+01:00

While writing up about Tank (or Evo, still not made my mind up about her name yet) I received an email from a place I'd applied for a job at.

The UK Border Agency based at Manchester Airport have decided that I meet their minimum requirements and have asked that I attend an 'Information Day'; basically a further assessment type thing, similar to that which I attended for my GMP application.

So, I've booked myself in for 9th July at midday for the 2hr assessment. Finger's crossed that I pass this assessment and move onto an interview.....unless they spring it on me at the end of the assessment!

Free bike

2009-06-30T12:40:00.007+01:00

After yesterdays wondering about whether Bike man would be giving me a free frame or a complete bike I found out as, bang on 7pm as I crossed over the main road I live on I heard toot-toot, looked around and saw him waving at me from the other side of the road.

As I crossed back to his side I saw it - a complete bike. She's not my first choice of frame as it's the old style femme frame, she's purple (really don't like purple on bikes), but you know what, she's free so I'm not complaining!

She's a Concept Evolution, with Shimano SIS gearing. The twist-type gears are something that may take a while to get used to as I've never had a bike with that type of gearing. The seatpost, stem, headset, handlebars, cranks, pedals and saddle are all non-branded and non-descript, so they'll be the things I'll change on her other than a respray at some point.
I won't be riding her til she has a service at Gerry Shields although I haven't found any rust or anything wrong with her.

Did I mention that she's steel? I shall call her Tank or maybe Evo.

She'll do until I find work and can afford the rather nice Pinnacle I've seen at Evans.

June club run

2009-06-28T23:00:00.000+01:00

At 10am on a scarily hot, muggy Sunday I met up with Joe, Paul, Pantani (Pete), Simon & Arthur to head off for this months club run which was heading out towards Littleborough and Blackstone Edge.

After leaving the Gardeners Arms in Moston we immediately had a large and annoying roundabout to contend with to head up over the motorway and alongside British Aerospace to the JW Lees brewery (reputedly haunted) in Middleton and up along Kenyon Lane to Oldham Rd before turning off up Hilton Fold Lane to Rochdale Rd where, after a right turn, we met John W (Welly).

After quick greetings, we all set off up round Slattocks' evil roundabout (huge, very scary when lots of traffic on it) and up Manchester Rd, under the M62 and bore right by Castleton Station to take us up Queensway and Kingsway to Albert Royds St with a right turn at the roundabout bringing us out on to Halifax Rd and the long climb up towards Littleborough Station. At this point I was contemplating my future actions as I was extremely doubtful that I'd get to the Moorcock Inn never mind up Blackstone Edge; Paul let me know that if I wanted to turn off back to Hollingworth Lake I can do. I said I might just sneak off round through Todmorden and meet them at Hebden Bridge while they climb the Edge and descend Cragg Vale. Welly wasn't going to be riding the Edge or to Tod.
As it was, both myself and Welly continued to climb Blackstone Edge to the Moorcock (and the base of our hill climb). Once there Paul was waiting for us and having a welcome rest as he was hauling ass on his Scott Yecora mtb while the others were on lightweight Giant (Joe), Dolan (Pantani) and Jamis (Simon) roadies.

It was decided that, as my legs were whining a bit too much for my liking (most likely due to the heat and humidity) that myself and Welly would head back to the Lake - we'd both taken part in the club ride which is what matters!
After watching Paul set off up the vicious climb, we turned back for a rapid descent into Littleborough and the dippy road that leads to what used to be The Fish and headed to the visitor centre for coffee and tea cakes.

After we were rested and refreshed, we both set off down Wild House Lane (beware the furry Exocet missiles) and Kiln Lane (lovely fast descent, shame about the junction at the bottom of the steepest bit!) and turned right into Milnrow and Firgrove to take us back to Kingsway, where we followed our outward route back through Castleton and on to Middleton, passing the MCC club room to the Middleton roundabout by the lovely shiny new Middleton Arena, which was opened not so long ago by Steve Redgrave and where, according to Simon, the water in the pool is rather cold.

I bid farewell to Welly as he went straight across the roundabout to head back to his wife while I went through a bit of Grotsville to get back to Kenyon Lane where I followed my outward route exactly until I reached Phillip's Park and turned off to head to my moms for a lovely roast pork dinner and then home.

N.B
Whilst at Hollingworth Lake we got talking to a fellow cyclist (mtber) who noticed my wheels were still muddy after Wednesday's Whaley Bridge ride, and he was asking me where I ride etc. I told him that I take Everest off road onto tracks and trails provided they're not too rooty, gnarly or crap. He said that I should get an mtb (if I had the cash I would) and went on to say that he has an mtb frame that I can have for free provided it's the right size of course! Obviously, I'd need to buy the components etc, but that can be done cheaply on eBay, Amazon and at bike fairs etc. naturally I snapped his hand off for it, gave him my mobile number and asked him to phone me once he's measured it up. At 6:55pm I got a call from the Bike Man to say the frame is a woman's one (I dunno whether it's an older design one or not and didn't ask), he'd measured it and it comes out at 18" - I can ride Paul's Scott happily and that's a 17.5" frame, so the 18 would be a tad better for me. He then asked me if I could change tyres, which I thought as odd seeing as it's just a frame I'm getting; it seems there may be some wheels with the frame. It may be that he's kind enough to give me a complete bike.

Anyway, he's bringing it round to me tonight, so we shall see from there. It could need a bloomin good service, it may be falling apart or in bits, or it could be a fab freebie. I'll let y'all know soon.

Stats - view route
Hot, muggy, sticky, cloudy yet still fab
Average speed: 13.4mph
Miles: 35.61
Climbed: 705ft

Where there are no whales

2009-06-24T22:00:00.001+01:00

What a wonderful day to go for a lovely ride into the hills - the sun was shining bright, not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was already rising as I set off south/southwest without having much of a destination in mind other than to get further than Marple.

I set off on a route that I rode with Amy last year or the year before through Denton and Bredbury and along what is possibly the worst cycle lane I have seen in my history of riding a bike - it had to be only 6 inches wide and was on a very busy road with an industrial estate on either side of the road. Not pleasant to ride along at all.

Once onto the busy A560 between Bredbury and Woodley I managed to miss my turning due to the influx of traffic coming in the opposite direction (I didn't even get to see the road I wanted!), so I had to carry on a little further and made a right turn onto George Lane, which would make a later turning not necessary as I then went straight across the cross-roads onto Barrack Hill, Otterspool Rd and then Dooley Lane.At this point I did exactly what happened when I rode it with Amy and took a right turn instead of the left. I'm blaming the climb up to the junction for addling my brain! Anyway, rather than turning round like a numpty, I decided to carry on this way and took a left at the very next junction to Hazel Grove. At this point I gave up on Marple and thought I'd head to Lyme Park down the road in Disley, although I wasn't sure if the cafe/restaurant would be open seeing as it's a National Trust site where the buildings are closed for periods of the year.

So, off I set up the climb for approx 4 miles to the gates of Lyme Park and promptly changed my mind and continued on as the road dipped down a little to New Mills and beyond stood Furness Vale. Not much further was the roundabout on the A6 that was to be my final deciding point: carry on along the A6 to Chapel-en-le-Frith, Dove Holes and Buxton or get onto the A5004 to Whaley Bridge, Fernilee and Buxton? I opted for the A5004 as it was a little less busy than the A6 which was looking very much like an uber busy multi-laned motorway never mind a dual carriageway!

It was a spur of the moment decision (literally) as I swooped right at the roundabout and headed off up the hill. Once I got to Whaley Bridge I was disturbed by a loud rumbling sensation - my stomach reminded me that I needed to eat something. I asked in the local bike shop (The Bike Factory) where any cafes were, only to be told that it's half day on Wednesdays so may be better off going to Tesco on the canal bank.

After a Cheese n Onion sarnie and an OJ from Tesco I decided I'd head back along the canal; something I haven't ridden along for a couple of years, and when I did last time I was on my mtb which I no longer have. The first section was along a freshly gravelled path through Bugsworth Basin before becoming the old tracks that need to be repaired. Once through Fernilee and alongside Strines Rd I was back at Marple and the lock flight where I'd damaged the mtb on a previous ride out this way.
The first section of locks has a tarmac road to ride down before crossing the road or squishing the bike through a very narrow tunnel (and I mean narrow!!!). Once on the other side and alongside the memorial park, the locks continue and the tracks now become rutted, gravelly and pot-holed. Not fun to ride down, never mind when there're boats going through the locks and dogs running around off the leash. Once past these lot of locks and across yet another road or through another skinny tunnel and the locks come thick and fast. At this point, I developed a following of teenagers on mtbs who thought they'd be clever and either try to whizz past me at warp speed or tail me closely, making silly little comments thinking I wouldn't be able to make it down the locks on my roadie as the tracks were crap with a few steps to drop down. At this point I was beginning to wonder if I could get down them safely anyway as the pathways were getting worse, but I persevered, balanced myself perfectly and slowly dropped down the locks hearing the odd yelp as a muppet came off or skidded.

So much for their 'ability' and their hardtail mtbs. My classic steel roadie handled it all better than them! Their jeers and taunts carried on as a cobbled humpback bridge loomed into view. One of the muppets flew past me thinking they'd show me how to get over it, only for me to laugh my head off as I sailed past them as they bobbed about all over the place. My final bit of revenge came about as I neared Hydebank Farm as I knew the canal went into another long tunnel and a big climb carrying the bike was ahead of me as the track left the canal side and reared it's ugly head at a 45 degree angle straight up to the road outside the farm. I leapt off Everest, hoicked her up on my shoulder and began to climb the stairs; as I neared the top I heard squealing brakes and more yelps as it soon dawned on them that they'd have to carry their tanks up a bugger of a hill if they wanted to keep up with me. Sadly, for me, they doubled back and I was left to my own devices.

The section of the canal for the next 4 miles was the worst I've seen in ages with huge chunks missing in sections with sheer drops to the valley floor below and in several places mud so deep it covered my tyres and rims. It certainly made for interesting riding and tested my bike handling skills!

I left the canal at Hyde as I knew the tracks would only get worse. Besides I wanted to ride onroad again. A sting through Dukinfield, Guide Bridge, Snipe and Droylsden and I was at my moms hungry for the roast chicken we were having for tea. Yum.

Stats - view route
Glorious, hot 24C, sunny, not a cloud in sight.
Maximum speed: 34.3mph
Average speed: 13.7mph
Miles: 39.93
Climbed: 761ft

Climbs of note -
Stockport Rd (A6017): 66ft in 0.15miles with max of 17%
Dooley Lane (A627): 59ft in 0.11miles with max of 20%

Another appointment ride

2009-06-23T14:00:00.002+01:00

Had yet another appointment in Ashton, so seeing as the weather was lovely I made a short ride out of it - through Guide Bridge and Denton on the way back instead of straight home down the main road.

Stats -
Gorgeously warm, cloudy and sticky
Maximum speed: 29mph
Average speed: 13.7mph
Miles: 13.71
Climbed: 203

Brain Freeze

2009-06-22T13:44:00.002+01:00

Yet again I've had to tweak the totals. Due to brain freeze and it letting me down big time, I managed to balls up totting up my mileage!

I've checked, double checked, used a calculator (twice) and now it should be right (honest!).

You may note I've added a bit to the totals so you can see my monthly road cycling miles.

Please, if you see that my totals aren't all adding up to the grand total, let me know ;o)

Monday meander

2009-06-22T12:50:00.004+01:00

My weekend passed by without even getting on the bike and after last nights events I wasn't sure I'd be able to today, but I gritted my teeth, ignored the pain, forced my gloves on and got out. It had to be a short ride as if I got a flat I wouldn't have been able to fix it given the state of my thumb and the fact I couldn't (and still can't) really use it properly, if at all.

The ride followed one of my common, just out for a quick un routes - into Ashton, through Bardsley to Daisy Nook and back home via the Jericho Trail and Littlemoss.

Every jolt sent waves of pain through my thumb and steering ended up being a one-handed affair near the end, but miles are miles and one little ride adds to the mileage I'm building up no matter how short it is.

Stats -
Lovely and warm though very cloudy and a little drizzly
Maximum speed: 23.9mph
Average speed: 12.8mph
Miles: 12.50
Climbed: 118ft