With the lovely Sian Lloyd waving her magic sunshine wand, the opportunity for a long ride presented itself. The idea was to just get out and ride as far as I could before the sun went down. I made my way north into Windsor Park, and did my normal lap (past the castle) and back down to Virgina water. You can tell it was warm by the amount of flesh on show – anyway enough of that but it definitely makes the miles go past a lot quicker 🙂 (good job I had my dark cycling shades on)

I then cut south through the leafy lanes of Longcross – I gave it extra special effort as I flew past the Foxhills Spa / Club (which is where Sir Brad was based during the 2012 Olympics) I then joined the Olympic road race course again and south as far as the top of the 1st climb on the route. A quick stop for some refreshment and to take on some fuel and then I head east and then north back towards Woking. I cut across country to Pirbright and onto Normandy and Ash before heading north back to the local for a well deserved beer.

Ride details are here

A 100km ride around Surrey.

I was a bit upset I could not get down one of the roads I wanted to … as you can see clearly they don’t want hot guys like me.

Studs on the road

Facts of the ride.

Punctures: 0
Drink Stops: 3 (£1.50 for a lucozade in a local shop !!!!)
Number of Flies eaten: 84 (what is going on with the insect plague)
Sneezing fits: 3 (Pollen has gone mental)

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The weather for cycling has definitely improved. A great big high was sitting over the top of the UK a beautiful 17 degrees and clear blue skies. Pete and I had signed up to do the Rotary Club’s 3 Counties cycle ride, a beautiful 50 mile ride out into the Chilterns. Pete and I did the Isle of Wight Randonnee a few weeks back and this was going to be another training session to get some miles in. On the day Pete was unable to ride, he went down with a chest infection. (The similarity with Bradley Wiggins / Giro Italia was way to coincidental I thought) Was not looking forward to a 50 mile time trial on my own.

At the check-in point I bumped into Grant (Who I play footy with) He had a gang of 5 going out on the 33 mile course and he was very kind in letting me tag along. (its a lot better to ride in a group)

It was a very pleasant ride with no drama, apart from getting a puncture 2 miles from the finish. (I dug out a tiny flint from the tyre after I got it back in the garage) The 50 mile route goes up over the Chilterns which is a bit of a climb but you are treated to a lovely 10 mile downhill into Henley on Thames.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=esT0T4brVgE width=”320″ height=”180″]

All the ride details are here.

So now for some hill practice, the Isle of Wight Randonnee is an annual event run by the local Cycle Touring Club. Once round the island, clockwise which is about 100km (62miles). I stayed over on the island the night before in the very nice Jireh Guest House in Yarmouth. Luck would be having it the owner of the house was also doing the ride as well, so I managed to sneak an early breakfast rather than having to wait. The Yarmouth start point was just round the corner, so quickly got myself my waypoint card and map and followed a couple of guys out onto the route.

The weather was looking a bit overcast so I had my long sleeve cycle jersey on. At Cowes I picked up the chain ferry and clanked over the Medina river to meet up with Pete from work. The weather was definitely warming up, so off came the Long sleeved weather gear and out came the MTB Firenze top (now we are really racing !!)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZqI1gU6rQxU width=”320″ height=”180″]

Pete and I made good progress all the way round, I hit a sugar low about two thirds of the way round but a quick stop for a choccy bar and an energy drink to refuel the rocket seemed to do the trick nicely.
There were some notable climbs, Niton and the last couple of downs before freshwater bay were a bit of a slog but with the weather turning out warm and the blue sky this was much less of a chore than it would have been on a cold wet day.

A fantastic ride out, the video tells it all.

Ride stats and technical data here.

Well another ride in Windsor Great Park again last night, this time a couple of figure of 8s in the evening sunshine. The great thing about riding in the park are the closed roads, which means you can keep the bike rolling without all the stop, start, stop, start that you get on the main roads. There were a couple of polo games going on so I sat and watched for a bit.

Polo at the Guards polo club – Windsor Great Park

I am not too sure of the rules, but as far as I can tell the idea is to ride around on your horse while trying to break the legs of all the other other players horses with your stick, while trying to avoid your horses legs getting broken by the other players. I was toying with the idea to join in the game for some extra training but I feel I would have upset the champagne brigade who were watching on the opposite side of the pitch (and I didn’t fancy having my Mavic wheels smashed up with a mallet.)