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50 miles on the road bike last night, Bury, Rochdale, Littleborough, Tod, Bacup Road (to Bacup, funnily enough) then over to Rawtenstall and back home through Ramsbottom. I started to get some pain in my left knee, which was weird. Stopped and unclipped and then clipped in again just in case my foot was slightly skewed, but there was definately something going ping when I was climbing out of the saddle. More news on that if/when my leg falls off.

Two young women in a car pulled up alongside me whilst climbing Bacup Road to offer me a pint! No idea. They were obviously more deranged than me.

I ended up walking half a mile through Prestwich to get home after I smashed my front wheel into yet another pothole and got a puncture. I was nearly home, it was nearly midnight, so I took the “waddling along the pavement in roadie shoes” option.

I had a day off work yesterday so rode the cyclocross bike over to Oldham, climbed up to Delph and joined the Pennine Bridleway. Headed south, got a bit lost where some of the signs have been removed and ended up in the middle of Glossop. After climbing the Chunal hell-climb I rejoined the bridleway and called in on Rich who served me a pint mug of tea. After a good natter and a brew I set off again, following the bridleway towards Buxton. It gets very steep and rocky after Hayfield and I was either straining up the climbs in my lowest 34:27 gear or plummeting downhill over rocks, giving myself impressively large, pumped-up forearms. Like Popeye.

I didn’t really have a rear brake for the whole ride, I tried to improve things a couple of times but I think the pad’s contaminated. It started to bite a bit after I dragged it all the way down a big hill but then my BB started creaking (again).

Eventually, the bridleway peters out and the route becomes predominantly tarmac, then joins a dismantled railway. I followed this for a bit then got bored and headed over to Macclesfield, all covered in dust! Ace. It’s always sunny and dry when I ride down here

68 miles, 2240 metres ascent, just a drop of milk, no sugar. Cheers.

Another late night ride last night – a surprisingly short-and-felt-like-a-lot-more-than 35 miles but this time it was OFFROAD! Woohoo! It seems like ages since my last offroad ride. Everywhere is so dry and dusty at the moment, I had planned to ride a particular route but added a bit on for good measure. Plenty of climbing, plenty of rocks, cobbles and sheep. The best bit was my Ergon Grips that I’d just fitted to the Global – I’d heard some good reports about them but I was more impressed than I thought I would be. My hands normally feel a bit battered after 3 hours or so but these things are very comfy and offer loads of different hand positions. I wish I’d got some sooner in fact. Yes I know they look spazzy.

As usual for new bits, they started to rotate a bit by the time I got home which spoiled the party somewhat.

Anyway, why is it that every nook and cranny of the local bridleway network that are accessible by cars almost always contain a car full of young lads smoking dope?

I decided that I wasn’t going to be racing at Lee Quarry today, it would have been a logistical challenge too far just for a 90 minute race, so I went out uber-early on the road bike up towards Bacup (past Lee Quarry) and into Calderdale. 50 miles later I returned so that Deb could get on with her stuff.

We went to LQ later on just as the race was ending. Had a natter to Twinklydave who came 2nd, Rich and Ann who were there taking photos and Phil, who decided to enter the race in the “racer” category which was optimistic but he didn’t come last. Good lad!

We all then went up to the Singing Ringing Tree. The kids liked it even though it was totally silent (due to lack of wind), we had a picnic with a grand view and I got sunburnt again.

The weather looks like it’s going to continue for the rest of this week so I’m taking a day off to get another long ride in, in addition to the usual weekday darkness rides….probably the PBW down towards Buxton again

68 miles, 2883 metres ascent.

I met up with Phil yesterday to ride the MTL. I’ve been planning to ride the loop from the house for some time now, estimating it would be around 70 miles, mostly offroad.
Not much to say about the ride really, it was warm, it got dark, we had one puncture between us, I lent my phone to a young lad who’d taco’d his front wheel near Hebden Bridge (and had no credit to ring his dad) and there were some notable differences in the food we had both packed. I had energy drink and gels, Phil had bananas and cheese butties. I wish I’d thought of taking cheese butties.

Manchester-Anglesey – 128 miles, average HR 144, average speed 17.7 mph

Set off at 5:30am to my mum and dad’s place on Anglesey. I’ve ridden this route a few times in the past, but the last time was a couple of years ago. I assumed, quite wrongly, that the route would all be the same and the lack of wind and nice weather would equal a fast and incident-free ride.

Basically, the plan is to follow the A56 to Chester, then ride though Connah’s Quay, along the coast past Rhyl then pick up the Sustrans route 5 to Bangor. Route 5 pretty much runs parallel with the A55 and allows cyclists to avoid the busy dual carraigeway entirely. In theory anyway…

The first 100 miles flew by. My average speed was just short of 19mph and I was looking forward to completing the ride at least an hour earlier than I was expecting. 100 miles equals Conwy – it’s at this point that everything went wobbly. The Sustrans path appeared to be gone. “it can’t be” I thought, “I must have missed it”. For almost an hour I searched for the cycle lane, apparently the only alternative to riding, illegally and suicidally, on the A55. The annoying (extremely annoying) thing was that the cycle route signs were still there, so one assumed that the route still existed. It was a bit weird though that the signs were sending me around in circles – across the Conwy suspension bridge to the castle walls, then a U-turn through a subway, around a couple of busy roundabouts and then back again. WTF?

In the end, I rang Deb, vented my spleen, told her I was going to be late but stopped short of asking for a pick-up. A few minutes later I was asking my dad for advice (yes, I was desperate). He suggested the Sychnant Pass – a 200 metre climb that would bring me out a few miles west, exactly where I needed to be.

I pondered the climb for a bit, rode around the roundabouts once more just be be sure I’d not missed anything then thought “sod it” and started to climb to Sychnant from the castle. I’d lost a whole mile per hour off my average by now and I’d been fannying around for ages. Bah.

As it turned out, the Pass was tough but gorgeous. Once over the top, the downhill to Penmaenmawr is super-steep but really wide so off-the-brakes bravery is called for. Yay!

A few miles further on and the route 5 signs appear again. The cycle path runs up the hill between the two road tunnels then across a series of footbridges. Great stuff…until you get to the bit that isn’t finished yet

Once I’d clambered across the barriers I had to then climb down this

…which placed me neatly onto the A55 at the bottom. I had to ride on the A55 for half a mile here, which was exciting.

The Sustrans website (which admittedly I should have checked before I set off) says the following:

“Between Conwy town and Llanfairfechan National Route 5 has been dismantled due to its popularity! The Welsh Assembly Government’s Transport Division made the decision to remove the signs due to the number of people using the route and the narrow and missing sections at Penmaenbach and Pen-y-Clip. We are working with WAG to clarify when the route will be reinstated but at present no dates have been confirmed. Please do write to your local members, AM’s and Ministers highlighting this unacceptable step for cycle provision along the north Wales coast.”

…so the bit that was “missing” was indeed missing. Ah well, at least I’ve not gone completely mad. Dismantled due to too many people using it? Uh? If anyone understands the logic behind this feel free to comment.

Good ride though. Felt good, caught the sun

Nice sunny weather all day yesterday, that was until I started to get ready for a ride. Then the rain started. Undeterred, I set off on my usual Macclesfield-via-the-Peaks route, feeling good despite the rain. Soon, the rain stopped and I was riding at a good average – my cold is definitely pretty much gone now as I only coughed up about 3 pounds of phlegm as opposed to 12 and that was early on in the ride. Once my lungs had opened up I felt fine. The climbs at Stalybridge, Chunal and Kettleshulme were dispatched quickly and I was feeling great….that was until the last 10 miles of the ride when I remembered that I’d not eaten anywhere near enough during the day – not only that, but I’d not bothered to bring anything with me. When will I learn? Just because the route is a familiar one I seemed to think that it was going to be easy. It wasn’t and I was getting dangerously close to the bonk. All I could think about was food – I swear if I’d seen anyone walking past I’d have asked them for some grub or just bit into them.

I stopped to get my heart rate down and to get my head together, set off again and kept the HR around 60%. I wasn’t sure if this would help in all honesty but it seemed to.

Within seconds of getting into the house I’d already eaten cake, a large bowl of cold baked beans and half a pint of milk….and that was just the start of a locust-style feeding frenzy (sorry about that Kath. Burp).

Freezing cold, dark, grimy winter misery is over for another few months, so I’ve ceremoniously removed the winter wheels and mudguards from the cyclocross bike and put the XTR wheels with Small Block 8 tyres back on (yay for fast dry-conditions CX tyres!). I also cleaned all the road grime and salt off the frame with some degreaser and greased the callipers in the brakes – the rear one was seized solid due to the salt on it. No wonder it felt crap.

I had a ride over to Rivington on it on Sunday morning to meet Junkyard John who had bought some bits off me. There were loads out on bikes and after a Twitter conversation the night before I found myself chasing people down whilst playing the theme from Jaws on my In-Head Jukebox. Well, it beats “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead” any day of the week

I stopped by Fred Dibnah’s house – it’s now got a blue paque on the front wall and I hear it’s being turned into a museum, which is brilliant. The back garden looks like he’s just stopped work for his dinner.

On the way back I met Deb and the kids and we had a picnic – good times. Due to me feeling pretty crap when I ride the bike still (this sodding cold just won’t admit it’s beaten) that was my only ride of the weekend; however I did go for a run twice. I’m doing more running than riding at the moment, which is good for my fitness but I’ve got to tip the balance back in favour of cycling now – not long until CLIC, then only a matter of weeks until Mayhem….bring it.

As usual, the hardest part will be sticking to the plan and staying motivated/awake. Oh, and not getting ill again would be really bloody handy.

I also managed to go and see shop-owner Shaun at Cooksons. I’d not been in since he’s taken over. He’s built a new counter and everything

Dave has created a new site here where Lee Quarry-related videos, pics and news can be shared.

There’s some good stuff on there already – have a shufty and sign up, like. If you’ve not been over there for a ride…chop chop.

I’ve been feeling crap all week after catching another cold from the kids last weekend. I managed to get out for a ride last night for the first time since Sunday so went over to Simon’s to see how he is after his accident. I took a few DVD’s for him as a broken pelvis and collarbone normally results in long periods of boredom…

I was quite surprised to see him walking to be honest – he even made me a cup of coffee!

As for the ride, felt rubbish and short of breath on the way there, turned on the taps and felt great on the way back. Must have been the coffee.