After last weeks injuries and mechanicals I thought it best
to back off the technicality on todays group ride and planned a nice flat route
using the canal system.
There are really only two hills on the route and the rest is
flat terrain. Anyone who has been kind enough to read my blogs before will know
that I’ve mention that “flat” doesn’t mean easy. The joy of bicycling as
opposed to say running is that even though you have to physically power the
weight of the machine up hill you also get to coast downhill (if you want) and
get a bit of recovery time. However, if almost the entire ride is flat you
never stop pedalling, there is never a break from turning the legs and it’s
almost constant effort and this takes it’s toll.
The first canal steep hill conquered we then passed through
bandit country, a very dodgy estate where unconsciously speed picks up until we
were back onto the canal, then the flat part began. There were intermittent
sections of very deep cloying mud and cold wide puddles to contend with too and
we were soon splattered with the black gritty surface of the towpath. I was very
glad of the coverage my Mudhugger mudguard gave keeping my backside comfy!.
We passed under the washboard tunnel with it’s raised brick
surface, a sure fire chain unseater usually but my narrow wide chainring kept
it in check on the 1 x 10 set up, even without a clutch mech.
Eventually just as energy started to flag we made it to the
tea stop and cake and cyclist special ordered we tried to warm up and not drop
too much mud onto the carpet! Although with the amount of cyclists in
attendance I’m sure they are used to it.
The trouble with sitting in a warm café is that when you get
back out side the cold is even more apparent and it was good that we had the
final hill to contend with to warm us up. I shouldn’t be proud and probably
shouldn’t post it here but we managed to set the speed awareness sign off going
down the the other side!
So todays ride consisted of burnt out narrow boats, cake,
cars through hedges and did I mention a hell of a lot of pedalling?
Ride 9
29 miles
Total 136
Commute 40
No comments:
Post a Comment