No blog last week because it was a bit of a washout and I stayed in by the fire!
This week I've got back on it. I enjoyed coaching at the cyclones again on Monday, through the week I had a couple of runs and some roller sessions. This weekend I got out for some proper riding!
Saturday was fondo day for the cyclasylum. We decided to postpone to this weekend because of the weather last weekend. For those who don't know, a Gran Fondo is a long ride, for us it's a monthly challenge on Strava.
I was undecided on what I wanted to do but having reviewed Marcus' route I decided to meet the others in Harrington. I didn't tell anyone this so I didn't expect anyone to know my plans...the truth was I still hadn't decided if I wanted to go full fondo, do my own shorter ride or whatever. Group 1 whizzed past and I got some hellos but didn't really know what was going on. I could see more riders in the distance so I thought there must be two groups. I tried to catch group one but trying to catching up with Graham et al in a stiff headwind wasn't going to happen. So I eased off and Mike and Richard G caught me up. We agreed to ride as a three and then to our surprise Mark, Paul and Neil joined us in Kelmarsh. So that was our group of 6!
As you can see it was full winter clobber all round. Everyone was doing something different with some early birds 🐦 and all starting from different places. Paul will need to invest in winter gloves though!
We'd just had a chat about how clean Mark's bike was when the route took an interesting turn. This started as tarmac, turned to gravel and ended up as thick mud. Mike ploughed on through and loving this sort of thing I was laughing my socks off as I slipped and slid through puddles. Group one apparently abandoned this particular folly. Apparently my group decided they better follow me as I'd just ridden on through it!
Not really road bike suitable
Once back on tarmac some furious bike cleaning took place with sticks and leaves. Other cycling groups looked at us oddly due to our muddy state. A group of MTBers rode past looking cleaner than us! For some reason my rear tyre lost pressure, I tried to carry on and it kept losing...I started to worry a tubeless fail was immenent. However we confused the hell out of some temporary lights as I pumped back up leant against the stop sign. Pressure was returned with no further issues and my tyre remains firm the next day.
Neil on the other hand was less lucky. His tubeless tyre set up appeared very odd. We soon found out why...he had inner tubes! Poor Neil was clearly confused by the whole situation and with the usual onslaught of unhelpful banter his skills deserted him. We decided to abandon the traditional approach of pointing and commenting to actually help out. After less than twenty minutes or as Mark said, the time it took for an entire weather front to pass over, we were on our way again.
We made it to the cafe in Catthorpe to discover only outdoor seating available. It was a nice touch for cyclists but on a cold wet day we didn't wish to hang around.
A few miles later our middle aged bladders were struggling in the cold and we stopped for one of several pee stops.
Richard G managed to step in something unpleasant and more sticks were deployed to help Richard the turd. We then carried on with better weather in front of us and rain chasing us on what was now a tailwind.
After Naesby we joined the quiet lane back to Kelmarsh. This section made the ride for me. Its a bit rough in places but mostly its just a great bit of downhill.
The group split as we made it back to Harrington and having said I wasn't bothered if I was short of fondo distance...I cycled past my house on 57 miles and carried on until I got to 63!
This morning I just wanted to get some off road miles in. I got my MTB out and saw something on my front tyre. I pulled out a massive thorn which was too big for the sealant to cope with!
To resolve this I superglued the hole and then waited for that to set before putting more sealant in and reinflating.
This left me time for a short ride which was good as I soon discovered heavy legs from the day before. I also found that my fast rolling summer tyres weren't really up to the job...instead of repairing I should have swapped over to tyres with more tread!
I was enjoying myself though and decided to add just a little bit more. I thought this would add ten minutes until I discovered the farmer had ploughed his field with no respect for the right of way that goes through it!
I made it home in time for a quick shower before heading to the inlaws for dinner.
In other news the televised cycling this weekend has been fantastic. I really enjoyed the mountain bike world championships on red bull TV. Another great victory for Pauline Ferrand Prevot! The Giro has also been good. I'm pleased for Alex Dowsett on his stage victory. Also Gent-Wevelgem was a good race. Somewhere I believe the CX superprestidge was being shown but I didn't find that one.
Happy Pedalling
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