It's been another great week of cycling with a surprise CX session, rollers, a failed club ride, some exceptional service from Andy and finally a super muddy Sunday ride.
Let's start at the beginning, it is after all a very good place to start. On Monday we were invited to join in the kids CX session at Prologis Park by Mark Evans, the KCC Cyclones coach, I couldn't get there fast enough! It was a thoroughly enjoyable fitness session on the course we'd used a few weeks back in the Central CX league.
My learning curve with rollers continues. I'm still at the 'getting used,' to them stage so it's not full fitness sessions yet. I am still in the corridor and would probably have fallen off a couple of times without those walls to save me! It's all good though.
Flat!
On Saturday I set off to meet the club riders who, luckily for me, were coming through Rothwell once again. I got as far as the Kettering Road when a loud bang ended my ride abruptly. I'd had a rear wheel blow out wrecking a tyre that was only a few weeks old. So what do you do in these circumstances? Well you just stick it on social media and then Andy from C&D Cycles comes to your rescue. I was able to pop to the shop well before the quick group got back so Andy sorted me out with a new tyre, he fitted that plus re-doing my troublesome rim tape. Like I said great service. We had some extra time for a good chat and catch up and Andy was keen to explore ways we can continue to promote the club as a community.
To today! I set out for the shop on a lovely bright morning for another of our 'dirty banter,' rides. I rrived in good time for a change to discover what can only be described as disorganised chaos...
Where we going Steve? The plan was to go to Loddington and through to Draughton turn left on the Brampton Valley Way and go to Pitsford. Hmmm...no tunnels then? Oh maybe not, Then Andy suggested...Finedon as a way of sort getting to Pitsford. I'm still pondering his slim grasp of local geography. So I suggested I knew an interesting route and before I knew it I was leading the ride. I can't help thinking there was a collective monkey's breakfast here to trick me into leading. Possibly even more crazy was that one of our group, Marcus, was on a road bike!
I love a good shadow pic!
You might be fooled by the pics that we mostly rode the roads anyway. I didn't take many pics in the muddy bits because the camera was splattered. Shortly after this pic we headed into the back of Weekly Woods and then onto Glendon. Chris and I wanted to show the others the Prologis CX course and it was at this point that Marcus road tyres started to struggle. From there we took the track from Glendon through to Rushton where a picture with the Llamas was necessary. Chris's made up fact of the day is a Llama is the product of mating a sheep with a camel.
Next stop was Desborough and on the way it became clear to me that someone's rear cassette was way to shiny. Click on the picture and get a good look. It's just not right on a CX bike, don't worry though. It doesn't look like that now!
From Desborough the old road to Harrington has been turned into a bridleway so we headed semi off road down it. Marcus road tyres let him down again as he narrowly missed a bush on the bend. We also encountered a dog walker carrying a Pheasant! It all goes on around here. That's a lovely little spin until you realise it ends at the bottom of Harrington hill and we had a grind back up to Desborough Road Drop. One of my favourite bits of downhill but on a 29r my PR was never at risk. It was also questioned at this point whether we would ever get to the Brampton Valley Way and if we'd gone to Finedon would we be on it now? The answer was, we'd be on it soon and for the love of God shut up about Finedon!
We took the gated road/farm track from Arthingworth to Oxendon and hey presto we were on the Brampton Valley Way. At this point we were totally filthy and I don't mean Steve's mouth! I'm not sure how I was seeing out my glasses because they were covered in spots of mud. The BVW didn't improve this because it was pretty much one long mud track!
Ken decided to roll a quick fag...
Here's our dirty half dozen at the Brixworth/Spratton crossing. You'll not I was wearing shorts. It is unseasonably mild and frankly shorts weather. The others in their full winter kit must have been boiling (oh okay us larger riders are less susceptible to the cold!) I was knackered by now and kind of cursing my lack of fitness. I tried some positive self talk earlier and it worked great but by this point my inner dialogue was telling my positivism to get lost as frankly it was quite happy feeling tired!
From here we made our way to Merry Tom Lane which being a Northamptonian I know all about and the others didn't. It's a good climb up to Brixworth and onto the track around Pitsford reservoir. Before we went off road yet again Marcus wisely decided to leave us! I should also mention that Andy Pendred could not award his jogger of the day because he missed his opportunity by being nice to me about what a fun route I'd blagged together.
After the reservoir I was completely hanging. We took a road route through Holcot, Walgrave, the green Lane to Mawsley and I left the group at the Loddington turning. I worked out if I took the next turn to Orton I could get home without any further uphill misery.
As I pulled up shattered at Lindsley Home Sweet Home I stopped Strava and was amazed to see we'd mostly mudbashed for nearly 50 miles! No wonder my legs are sore right now. My bike pictured below was in quite a state and is still drying outside.
Filthy Franz
Foamy Franz
I was in a totally filthy state too! I have to say I'm particularly impressed by the state I was in and I think the highlight for this sockwomble is the tide mark left by the socks I supposedly don't wear!!!
You'll see Harvey was unimpressed by my state and soon after I got in I was nagged into taking him for a walk. My legs objected but Harvey wasn't listening. Still he is an effective footwarmer whilst I'm blogging.
Note the clean legs and it's still shorts weather!
Right I need to go and help Sam with his homework!
Happy Pedaling
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