Rain, hail and a broken chain…
Blustery Brenchley
Blustery Brenchley – try saying that fast, repeatedly!
Spring is in the Air
A beautiful day for riding around the Vale of Kent! My longest ride since my knee injury…
Christmas Floods
Quick look at the floods
Trosley Country Park (SFA)
Wet and windy ride to Trosley Country Park, via the Medway Bridge
Hawkhurst Lakes (SFA)
Sunday Inters ride to Hawkhurst Fish Farm
Hever, Eynsford & elsewhere
Long ride to try and salvage my November total mileage…
Four Elms 2 (SFA)
Distance: 70.1 miles. Elevation: 3197 ft.
Another club ride with the Sunday Intermediates. It was a cold (8°C) morning with almost no wind. It was a dull, grey day with a mist that ultimately turned to fine rain. The roads were dry though and I took the Colnago.
Due to possibly snoozing my alarm-clock in my sleep, I was very late leaving. So I sprinted to Marden, averaging 19.2 mph. I got there at 08:57.
There were 6 riders out today. We had a good, although uneventful, ride to a garden centre café in Four Elms that was packed with other cyclists. On the way back we got pretty damp, cycling through the fine rain.
When I got back home, I had covered 68 miles so I rode up and down a few times to round it up to 70! Job done!
Return to Vigo
Vigo Hill and some urban cycling…
Wye (SFA)
Distance: 66.4 miles. Elevation: 3082 ft.
Another club ride with the Sunday Intermediates. It was a cold (7°C, feeling like 4), windy morning. So it was on with the winter gear: skull cap, Roubaix longs, base layer and winter jersey, The roads were quite dry though so, unlike last week, I didn’t feel the need for mudguards and I took the Colnago.
I was late leaving so I rode with haste to Marden, averaging 19.2 mph. Just as I got into the village, the church clock was chiming 9, so that was good timing, or cutting it fine, depending on your perspective!
There was a good turn-out of 8 riders. We set off soon after and made our way to Wye. It was a windy day and the wind was mainly behind us for the 28-mile ride there. It was sunny but chilly. My feet were cold and my body wasn’t that warm either. I’d had nothing for breakfast again, so I was really ready for some food by the time we arrived at Wye. But, to our dismay, the café was closed, possibly for good by the look of it. Plan B involved riding 8 miles to Great Chart Golf Club, which took us another half an hour. By now I was even more ravenous. But the small snack bar at the golf club wasn’t geared up to serve eight hungry mouths in a hurry. It took another 40 minutes before I finally got some food inside me, in the shape of scrambled eggs on toast.
Eventually we set-off again, this time mainly into the westerly breeze. Just as we left Staplehurst, with about 5 miles of the ride remaining, we rode into heavy rain. I didn’t have my rain jacket and I got drenched, which was particularly uncomfortable due to the chilly wind. Despite that, and various other delays that we had on the way back, we averaged 15.4 mph on the return journey