Some nice longer rides over the past few weeks with the club and solo. Things are not getting any easier (but you do just go a little bit quicker). 60 miles is now feeling relatively stress free so confidence is gaining again. I am now doing regular rides with the Woking CC social group which is perfect for RideLondon training. We ride at a slower speed which gives me longer time in the saddle and I tag on an extra loop after the club run to push the distance up. Not long to go now, just over a month and we will be on closed roads. I hope they fix the bridge between Pyrford and Ripley, the road has been shut for 3 months now, and they will need to get a move on to fix the bridge before August the 10th.

Cranleigh coffee and cycles 100km

Woking CC made an appearance at the Pearl Izumi Tour series last week. Stage 9 saw professional riders hit the closed circuit in Woking town centre. Woking CC put up the gazebo and we camped out to watch the action. We also entered 2 teams into the “community races”. Teams of 4 riders with the first team to get 3 team members across the line – wins it. Its a great festival and the weather was glorious.

Check out the action, in the latest video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a0AfpAYS08Q width=”320″ height=”180″]

A longer ride planned for today, The 3 Counties cycle ride. This is a great event organised by the Bracknell Rotary Club. The weather was promising to be kind with the forecast of warm temperatures with sun. To add some distance I rode from home to the start to add some extra miles. The ride is a great event, once you get out of Bracknell and into the country lanes up towards Henley on Thames the cycling is beautiful. Open fields, single track roads and various wildlife as you cycle along. I got plenty of views of re-introduced Red Kites. I was riding today with a friend I play football with, it was his first time on a roadie and the furthest he had ridden was 30 miles. For this reason we took it at a sensible pace and went for a the 50 mile course. By the time we got round, he had mastered the gears etc and was even sitting in my wheel on some of the flat sections (not sure if we have a cycling convert yet, but he definitely seemed to enjoy it). Due to some sign-age malfunction we ended up cutting the top of the course short but we took in some beautiful countryside along the Thames as well as some very nice looking country pubs. (I have made notes of their location and intend to re-visit after RideLondon)

All in all.. It was a very nice 80km in perfect cycling weather.

Well a few more cycling updates, need to get some longer rides in as there is little more than 2 months to go till the 100miles. A few runs after work to keep the legs going.

I played about with the Garmin 510 course creator and planned out a little jaunt to circumvent Bracknell. It was not a bad ride, although the traffic was a bit busy in certain areas. (I will tweak the route to iron out the busy bits)

A few long rides out in Windsor park as well during the week, when I got the chance. The usual long loops while enjoying the polo matches, deer and wildlife. (its not all about burning a sweat every ride you know.) Nice to just tick over and enjoy the greenery for a bit.

Last weekend was a glorious weather forecast and I saddled up for an excursion to the Surrey Hills with the usual Woking CC crowd. Quite a few rides out as it was wall to wall sunshine and blue skies. Nice group of 10 of us made some great progress over the downs and up Leith Hill (from the Prudential Ride London Route “Steep” side). Then the crazy descent all the way to Shere, where the obligatory Coffee and Cake stop at our usual tea room haunt. The club motto is not “Velo et Gateaux” for nothing !!! you know.

Last few days I have been down in Avonmouth, Severn Valley Firetraining and rescue center. A couple of fun days running into burning buildings and dragging out dummies. I took the bike along for a an evening ride after training. The roads are fantastic for cycling along the Severn. All single track roads cut between fields and small holdings. The tarmac was is good state and I think I got passed by a total of 3 cars on a 50km ride- heaven.

The wind died down into the late evening and I clocked up a nice distance, including a jaunt over the bridge into Wales. (and no you dont have to pay) You only have to find the service road which leads to the pedestrian / bike route over the bridge.

The 2nd Severn Crossing from the 1st.

Sunday 18th of May was a bit of a mixed bag on the cycling front. I have at last fixed the issue with the shifters, which forced me to use the spare bike for the Isle Of Wight Randonnee.. The gear cable had frayed into the ratchet so this involved some micro-surgery with a pair of long nosed pliers and a cable cutter. I now have a nice new gear cable fitted and the gears adjusted correctly and with a good dose of oil everything seems to be working good as new. I planned to take it out on a club ride but due to some last minute messing about with indexing on the gears I missed the 8am start. I decided to instead to do a gentle spin with the Woking Bikeathon. A yearly charity ride (which conveniently starts in the same place as our club rides)

Choice of 2 routes, medium which was 17 miles and the long which was about 30. There was allsorts of people out; tandems, kids on mountain bikes, a few road cyclists and plenty of fun riders. I nipped round the 30 mile course in about an hour and a half as it was fairly flat. My average speed was pretty high, as there is always someone to “chase” just in front. I paid for this on the way back and had nothing left in the legs to get me home. I met up with Bikeswanky at checkpoint 1 and we got to pose for the local paper. I have no idea if it got published, but will post a photo if it is.

Ride details here.