Tell us about your new improved government regulations compliant cycle part II

On this morning's commute, I passed 100,000 kms on Strava since joining in 2012. :cool:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1154080824

Forgot my Garmin this morning. I had become a bit of a slave to the speedo and lately I've been ignoring it. Was nice to just wander.

Chilly this morning and the traffics getting heavier. Really wasnt in the mood for a cycle, feeling tired and sore last few days but dragged myself out for a stupidly short 13km spin. Feel better now coz in past i would have just said im not feeling up to it and stayed home and then done same next day and day after that and suddenly its a month or 3 later and the bikes not been used

Stopped beside a lovely Kawasaki on the canal today, tried to have a laugh with the rider and I said 'I thought real Kawasakis were green', impressed he was not

Had hired a Carbon Bianchi Intrepida for the duration of our trip to Valenica, but due to the pressure to be finished before Siesta time had a frustratingly limited ride experience. Got in 4 spins on the first week and two this week (hopefully a last hurrah tomorrow morning) thanks to a combination of insomnia/broken aircon and thunderstorms.

Yesterday I set out to do a bg one, 160km with 2km+ change climbing.

To minimise upset to Mrs Rollingscone I'd learned to take the bike in off the balcony the night before and keep it beside the bed. Kit was packed and ready to go, managed to get about 4 hours of more or less functional sleep and aside from the awkardness of another early rising guest walking in on my getting into my UV leg covers in the communal kitchen got out pretty efficiently and was on the road by 07:20. Getting out of the city centre went fairly efficiently despite having to bypass the normal route through the Turia Riverbed park due to the soaked clay.

It was still lightly raining and not yet bright at this stage, then I made the fatal error of trying to use Google maps to navigate from one of the small satellte towns onto my route and ended up riding a CF roadbike through farm roads and getting wet clay on my cleats.

Eventually with consultation to a proper map and the Garmin Route I was able to cross some concrete farm roads back onto course, given a speed boost when about 8 farm dogs swarmed out onto the road and gave chase.

Things went fairly smoothly from then on although I was now mud spattered and an hour behild program. I took a stop after the first short hill and bough a 1.5 lire bottle of water to replenish my bidons (I'd had to use some of my starting supply to wash clay off my cleats as couldn't clip in and scrapiing wasn't doing the job.) and set off through the rest of Olocau, in the next villaage I stopped at the end to take a picture of the local castle and stepped into a park area, immediately sinking into more welt clay and going throughCleatgate a second time.

Amazingly there was a segregated cycle and access only car lane for the entire next 20km runnng parrallel to the dual carriageway and this took me to the start of the mountains proper.

At first climbing went well but I was passed handily by a local roadie on the way to the first peak and then began what I think was a 7km descent: many boardsies will know my story of hard earned technique over cowardice descnding progress and I can safely say on that first long winding clifftop descent all of that progress dissappeared.

After this descent and nother stop for a water refill I began the second and tallest ascetnt wherein two things happened, one the temperature rose to 26c and the road surface degenerated to sub wicklow loose gravel.

At this point I came to learn that every single climb in the Serra Calderon is basically a variatiopn on the Wicklow gap, never very steep but always never ending and flaunts it by showing you the next long stretch ahead of you at every corner.

It was truly beautfiul up there but it got difficult to manage my heart rate and athough it was a blessedly cloudy day with an occassional cool breeze the ambient temperature was sapping and Rivelo kit whle very nice does not breath well in warm close weather.

I tried to stop in the picturesque village of Alimehjad before the peak of this climb but could find no open shop or cafe (aside from the community pool) so I follishly forged on (and didn't risk the lovely looking font in the town square as it wasn't marked as potable.)

This led to me struggling up the rest of the climb with many stops to "take photos" and running out of water.

Luckily after an unpleaseantly gravelly 1st half of the descent on the other side, I found a local cafe/bar in the tiny hamlet of Ain (another gorgeous place) and despte being swarmed by hungry cats managed to fuel up with another 1.5l water, an ice cold radler, a coffee and a Bocadillo (turkey, melted cheese and spicy chutney - the Numero Cinco -) ; having my coffee stop mid descent was awesomesauce and gave me a boost through the next section which took me over a lower hill (still struggled with the heat and the headspace, f'in flies!) and after buying another 1.5l at the next town *actually at a random roadside hotel past the town) I had to deal with the flat heat of the open valley as I crossed for a good 25km to the final clmb, and ended up buying a 4th vbottle of water on the way!

The last climb was Oronet which I had managed handily on an 85k spin a few days before but again I found myself dragging in the heat and managed to stop at least three times on my way to the peak.

After this it was a straight drop back down through the town of Serra and a flat rush back to Valencia, where upon finally arvng (and emptying the last drip from my bidons on the edge of the city), I immediately lost the run of myself and got briefly lost ddespite having a dead cert way to get home.

Mission more or less accoplished at 175km.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1159957585/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-US&v=1504126482

RayCun wrote: »

Car/bike collision right in front of me at the KCR today
Car was breaking the lights :mad:
Luckily both saw each other in time to slow down, but still hit each other. Cyclist went over the bonnet but got up, him and bike seemed ok.

You must be mistaken. It is cyclists that break the lights, not cars. You can ask Pat Kenny or George HOok if you don't believe me.

Nice 65km spin out around NCD beautiful morning for it...Jaysus that stretch of road from Ballyboughal to Naul seemed never ending!!!

Disappointing 40k today. Had planned to go to from the docklands to Sally Gap via Stocking Lane and try not to sightsee a the viewing point and at Lough Bray. Really struggled with a stitch and my legs felt really heavy while on Stocking Lane and so went to Glencullen, Stepaside and back home.

I was really surprised to see that I set a new PR for Stocking Lane by knocked exactly 5 minutes off my previous best! :eek: It felt never-ending today.

50odd kms up around Enniskerry and Glencree. Beautiful day for it. The descents from Johnnie Foxes to Enniskerry can be hairy at times with the loose chippings

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

You must be mistaken. It is cyclists that break the lights, not cars. You can ask Pat Kenny or George HOok if you don't believe me.

Yes, but had it been the cyclist braking that red light, he could have killed the poor motorist.