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Bike Blog

A tale of Moss-adventure

Last night I mapped out a near 50 mile route in Strava for this morning. Then discovered that unless you have a Garmin computer, you can’t do much with it. So in the end, rode out this morning with the concept of a route in my head and managed about half of it and came in 18 miles short.

I had wanted to get to Chorley with the option in future of heading to Rivington, but was fundamentally screwed when I went the wrong way out of Ormskirk. My route took me back over some roads I’d ridden previously in reverse. I’d found it hard to follow routes here previously and it’s clear that Google Maps has a few errors around here:

On the Moss

Other tarmac roads just turned into gravelled roads which caused some amusement. 23mm slicks on dusty dirt roads gave some interesting handling and miraculously no punctures.

On the Moss

Still the headwind on the final coastal route home was horrendous so I was glad to get home with a few miles left in my legs.

Blast and Scout

Cashed in some banked hours at work and did a recce ride south, out towards Spennymoor and then into a loop back into Durham from the south west. Spennymoor looked okay, colleague at work said: “No, you don’t want to live there. I worked there for 20 years and couldn’t wait to escape.” Few other areas looked reasonable.

That evening, driving home I decided to explore some other areas. Weardale had some appeal, yet the 20 mile drive strikes me as a mission during the daily commute. Fab once you get there and some epic driving roads in that part of County Durham. Whether we live thee or not I can see some weekend and evening driving happening. Check out the views:

County Durham
Out of Stanhope towards Teesdale

County Durham
Between Middleton-in-Teesdale and Brough

Back. Sort of.

Ended up getting ill. That took me out for two weeks. Then was really busy. Moved digs. Did a track day (involved wrecking a classic 1970s Alfa Romeo). Faffed trying to do up the house to sell it. Was really busy again. Other excuses…

Any way last night I did 10 miles on the turbo. It was hot. It was boring. It sucked, but I did it. More to come.

Lancashire Lowlands

Back in Lancashire for the weekend, but with the bike for the first time. Picked up the turbo trainer from storage and will take that back with me. I am thinking of getting one of the Wahoo sensor kits to track trainer based sessions.

Up and out early enough to make the coast road an option so hammered it up past Southport and then came back across the moss. The landscape here is flatter than Norfolk. You can see the hills of the West Pennines from here in the distance.

Lancashire Levels

It was cool this morning, enough to justify the insulation and air block offered by full length Assos winter tights and Castelli Mortirolo Due jacket, but by later today as forecast it’s warmed up to the teens. Spring is coming.

Lancashire Levels

The Pulhams

Still in Norfolk, this morning I rode East and then turned into a southerly headwind which was a fairly consistent 25km/h. This was not fun, but at least the sun was out. The problem is that in this area the landscape doesn’t offer much protection from the elements because there’s no trees or hedges that might break the wind.

Exposure

Shortly after taking this photo I was picked up by one of the VC Norwich Sunday Club Run groups for a nice tow into Starston. Once I reached the Waverley valley I peeled off the bunch and things picked up because the wind was now at my shoulder. I had a good tempo as I skirted near the Suffolk border and on through the Pulhams. As I turned North it became a wind-assisted big ring power ride most of the way home.

Titanium Crown Jewel

Longest ride so far since getting back on it. Just under 30 miles and I am not totally destroyed so maybe the slow ramping up of distance is the way forwards. The bike is ace 🙂

Lotus Loop

I was born and for a significant portion of my life have lived within a short distance of the headquarters of Lotus Cars. The irony is that I have rarely been there and prior today the only ride was at night on a mountain bike. So today’s ride was about setting the record straight. Back in Norfolk for a long weekend with the Ti Crown Jewel, I headed out rode a big loop around the factory (saw a couple of V6 Exiges and Elises), before getting the ride evidence photo by heading down Potash Lane.

Lotus Cars Head Quarters, Norfolk

The weather was typical of February, just without the snow. Temperatures hovering about 2 degrees, grey and overcast, wet (but not raining) with a northerly wind to remind you that route planning is important to avoid those long exposed roads that the Norfolk landscape offers. I was testing out some new kit, including these Castelli Toe Warmers, which were fine for about an hour and then once waterlogged were pointless. Proper windproof and waterproof overshoes are still needed, but colour co-ordination with socks was appreciated.

Castelli Toe Warmers

The other product getting a first ride were Assos TK.607 S5 Bib Knickers. I’d decided that after 3 pairs of Endura Thermolite equivalents that I’d go back to Assos, in part because I’d not been overly impressed by the last pair from the British firm: the graphics peeled off the legs after the 3rd wash; fabric lost elasticity; and the leg grippers weren’t wonderful and consequently the fabric has an annoying habit of riding up and bunching behind the knees. I’ve put up with them because for the money when mountain biking you are not going to cry if you bin it and put some extra ventilation in them.

I also have a pair of Rapha ones which came through IF when the two firms were working closely on the Cross Bike project. For pretty much the same money, the Assos ones do seem a more technical garment and do offer a better fit for me. The downside – they’re not as warm as either the Endura or Rapha equivalents, but in all other aspects have impressed so far.

A downside to back road riding this time of year, particularly in my part of rural East Anglia, is that the winter has littered the tarmac with assorted detritus and perhaps inevitably I picked up my first puncture on the Independent Fabrication road bike. I managed to get within half a mile of home before having to concede defeat and stop to pump some more air into the front wheel, which was just enough to get home.

Rainbow Ride

Taking a couple of days off at the tail end of the week was an opportunity to explore the area further. This time it was west again out of the city, but rather than an immediate uphill slog it started with a steady ride through the Deerness Valley out to Esh Winning. Winning was a word used to describe striking a coal seam, but the last open cast mines closed here in the 1990s and the landscape has been restored.

From the Herat of the village the road to Cornsay was taken but rather than riding into this colliery settlement, I turned south and began the ascent to Hedley Hill and across the moor. To the west a cracking rainbow lit the valley, it’s rare to see a full one, but the solid headwind and threat of rain encouraged me to press on.

Rainbow Ride

At Tow Law it was time to head for home and wind a mega tailwind it was big ring time all the way. The road to Stanley Crook where I’d stayed in my first week gave some more great views and showed surface mining for coal still in action.

Rainbow Ride

The rest of the ride was on roads I’d driven before, but never in daylight and it’s transformative to see the County in sunshine. Not a bad place to be…

West to the Hills

Day two of riding. West of Durham is up hill though the west Durham Colafields towards the North Pennines. Today it was about doing some climbing and the sun was out. I hadn’t expected uphill into a headwind, but that’s what I had.

Ti Crown Jewel

From the higher elevations there are some good views to be had, this is looking north west above Langley Moor.

Ti Crown Jewel

Lanchester nothing like Manchester, it’s a small, attractive village nestled in the hills. There’s a 1:5 ascent up Peth Bank to wake you up.

Ti Crown Jewel

Burnhope. Pity Me. Killerby. There are some uplifting names for villages. Another 20 or so miles in the bag…

Back to Basics

riding again

From the first ascent I knew I had lost it all. Any hope of having retained any bike-related fitness evaporated from my pores and in the steam from my gasping lungs. This is what it’s like to be starting again from scratch, legs burning, feet feeling like lead, awkward on the bike. Walking, even up and down cardiac hill on a regular basis, doesn’t prepare your body for the task of fighting a road bike (even a featherweight one) against gravity.

It seemed to make perfect sense, choose the road bike. Everything else into storage. The rationale being that skinny wheels were best for covering distance and exploring a new landscape and the villages and towns within it. Over the last six weeks I’ve often thought that the ‘cross bike would have been the better choice, particularly due to the seemingly vast network of disused railway lines, but I keep reminding myself that just means more mess. And so as I once again drop off the big ring to crawl up another incline, I confirm my decision. There was no other option.

The offers are coming in. Once you get settled lets go mountain biking at Hamsterley. Kielder. Into the Dales. I’m missing sliding around corners and bouncing down trails, but today is about grinding out the miles and noting mentally which former pit villages are to be avoided. By and hour and half in my legs give up. The rest is still willing, but ten miles from home and increasingly cold and wet, my legs have hoisted the white flag and are begging for me to stop.

Meanwhile my feet have picked up on the fact that the thick merino socks I was sure I’d packed are absent and that actually race socks and shoes don’t offer suitable protection from the elements. Later they burn and tingle as they get circulation moving back through them under a hot shower. The return to Durham requires use of Google Maps to avoid ending up on dual carriageways and occasionally my legs forget that they’re destroyed and I stomp on the pedals and progress nicely (this is usually downhill) and as I eventually find my way back to my digs there is a strange and somewhat forgotten sense of achievement. Maybe I am still a rider after all.