Hurricane Dave

Well that was brutal...I loved it! There's something rewarding about riding on tough days. You have accept your average will be low and the strava PR's aren't under much threat but...you know it's money in the bank in terms of building strength for nicer days to come.

Today I rode a bit with C&DCYCLES and a bit on my own. Just for good measure I took on four of the toughest hills around these parts. Rocky hill is always a big challenge especially as it was against the wind today. The others at Ashley and Cottingham are pretty fierce and I really didn't need Arthingworth to Kelmarsh towards the end of my ride.


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Today's ride is named Hurricane Dave because of the blowiness and in memory of Roger Lloyd Pack. On Facebook it's national Dave day...after Rodney!

I nearly didn't get out this morning, as I tried to put the overshoes on Harvey set up camp on my feet!

I was so glad I had these in my pocket to keep me going today

And of course I had my ubiquitous kitkat!

All that windy action sets me up for the rest of the day. The dogs still need their walk but after that I can enjoy the rugby, come on England followed by come on you saints with as much beer and pizza as I like. Yes that's the truth of a good ride, you can get it down your neck without any calorific concerns.

Happy Dave day, peddle for Trigger!

Windy old shop ride

This was Saturday's C&DCYCLES shop ride and it was brutal in the wind. Tremendous turnout from us and bags of  other Lycra loonie groups out on the first dry day in a while. Predictably there are still lots of roads you could canoe down and the odd ford that isn't usually there! Still that wind! I did 40+ with the ride to and from the shop and it felt like 80! The plethora of cake at the shop was very welcome.

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lovely day, another flipping puncture and a tiresome wind

So this morning I set out on a little 30 miler, pretty much the aborted route from my last Sunday puncture fest. I got past Scaldwell this time but got a front flat on the very next climb, another cat4 or maybe for Northants it should be called the 'other' cat4. No kind man with a track pump this time so I tried to get up to pressure with the mini pump, I wish I'd bought a CO2 pump now. The pinch I got from furiously trying to get the tyre somewhere rideable added insult to injury.



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Got a pinch off my mini pump!

Beautiful Northants

Snowdrops in Harrington

The view from Mill Lane on the way to Old

piddle poor preparation prevents perfect pedaling

Or how to ruin a good ride!





Ok so I set out to ride some more of my favourite roads, it was dry, sunny and there was little wind. Then coming up the cat 4 hill into Scaldwell, I heard the intermittent hiss of doom...SSS-sss-SSS. I stopped in the beautiful village and pulled off my front wheel. Then I discovered one of my two spare tubes  was in fact useless (serves me right for being a skinflint and repairing instead of buying new tubes,) but no matter the other one was fine. A kind citizen of Scaldwell brought me out his track pump to save me using the mini pump and swiftly back to 120 psi all appeared well. The chap took his pump home and I put my kit back in the bag. Uh-oh! The rear was flat too! No spares left, no puncture kit - dufus! So I called my wife and sat by the phone box next to the domesday plaque. Scaldwell really is a lovely village but it does lack a pub! When I checked Strava I'd got 4 PRs and a load of 2nd best times. Seems I was having a great ride. Guess whose buying 3 spare tubes tomorrow?

Lovely place to stop...

C&DCYCLES Shop Ride - Oundle Loop

Lots of these posts will be about the 'shop rides,' because they're fabulous, varied and possibly the thing I enjoy most about cycling. It's the wrong time of year for pictures and also the wrong ride. I couldn't ask the others to wait endlessly whilst I got some scenery shots so I'll direct you to appropriate places. Oundle is a beautiful market town and frankly a bit posh, have a look here Oundle Wikipedia page,. The rest of the ride took us through typical rolling countryside with villages on top of hills and church spires on every skyline. Check out some of these links if you want an idea of the places we rode through Warkton, Grafton Underwood, Brigstock, Aldwincle, Twywell.

There's a piece of history which dominates our route today and it's difficult as we enjoy a pleasant ride through the leafy lanes, past the village pubs and well maintained churchyards that this part of Northants had a major role in the WWII. Memorial at Gratfon Underwood, wiki RAF_Grafton_Underwood, RAF Grafton Underwood layout.

The other thing we're fairly blessed with in Northants is Country Parks. On this route we passed one of the lesser known gems in twywell-hills-and-dales.

Quick stop in Aldwincle. If you're into that sort of thing you'll notice a sign directing you to the Historic Church all-saints-church-aldwincle

Well earned cake back at the shop

Tea and cake is pretty much the staple diet  of the keen cyclist. Andy and Chris do us proud with the service at C&D providing us with free refreshments. We also chip in ourselves with the odd cake. It's the way it should be!

Lovely ride out to and round Eyebrook reservoir

I planned a longer ride today but a touch of frost and the residual jitters from coming off and eventually snapping my rear derailleur last week meant I decided to wait a bit before venturing out. I had in mind that since ruining myself on the 3 counties sportive I had some demons to conquer and these particular demons reside around Eyebrook Reservoir. As the blog title suggests, I do go beyond Northants and today I briefly touched Rutland. Some great hills, notably Dry Stoke coming up from Eyebrook, Cottingham and Ashley Hill. I touched the base of the infamous Rocky Hill, which, I agree with many to it being a tough test but I find it disappointing where you end up as there's no choice but to join busier roads around Corby. I also managed to get some pics today, they're not great due to it being dull but I hope it catches the flavour of the ride. To be fair some of the villages are so pretty with amazing features I could've spent my whole time snapping and not getting on with the ride. My route deviated just before Gretton and I paid an unintentional visit to Caldecott, the pictures will show you why.

By far the nicest surprise of the ride was bumping into fellow C & D Cycles rider, Iain Tingle.

I don't know why the strava map isn't showing it worked fine for the previous ride. UPDATE: it's a strava bug, some maps don't show, they're working on it!

The Triangular Lodge in the grounds of Rushton Hall. A famous piece of architecture and an example of a Catholic architectural statement and linked to the gunpowder plot , for more check English Heritage

The view from Cottingham, the road in the distance leads to Bringhurst, where I went earlier in the ride

OK so that's not a great pic of Rockingham Castle

Nor is that!

For better pictures of Rockingham Castle and a bit of history click here: It's not in Leicestershire...just so you know!

The river Welland between Lyddington and Gretton blocked my path and I'm not sure the two cars I saw go through were being that clever.

Another flood pic

Approaching Eyebrook Reservoir

Bit floody heading to Bringhurst but at least I could cross this one

Wet wet wet

Like me the swans are having fun!

The other good thing about today was that I outwaited the frost and got home before the wind and rain started again. I'm lucky I have an understanding wife!!!

New Year's day Ride

Well I wanted to start the year as I meant to go on, so on a wet and windy New Year's Day my good friend Darren and I set out on a route I planned encompassing many of my favourite roads. Others were invited but a combination of the weather and late nights put them off. This is where rule #5 comes in. If you haven't read velominati - the rules well you should. I break many of them including having a saddle bag and a pump attached to my bike. Darren smashes the facial hair rule to pieces. Anyway a sanitised version of rule #5 is: Harden the flip up! However we did stick strictly to rule #9: If you are riding out in bad weather you are badass. Period.

The main points of this ride is to prove that Northants is not flat! In just 40 miles (oh dear that's rule #24 broken: Speeds and distances shall be referred to and measure in kilometres,) we climbed 2000ft. That might not be the Col de L'Alpe D'huez but it's enough test for my 43 year old legs. If I'd taken pics you may have seen some stunning scenery, however on that day it's more likely that my camera would have been more waterlogged than a bog snorkeller.