Recovery ride

Bank holiday Easter Monday turned out to be a glorious day, so going on the bike was irrestible. I had rested yesterday as I was shattered after the 200km ride on Saturday. I topped up the front tyre send set off only for it to blow on Scott's road. So I walked back up th hill and decided to change the tyre after 3 blows in the last days. That took longer than normal but I still decided to go out with the thought of doing a shorter ride on my mind. In the end although my legs were aching I reached dowsetts lane feeling pretty good and as for once the wind wasn't against me I flew up the hill. And I decided to carry on so off I went east past st Edmunds and down to Dane end.   All was going well until I pretty much ground to a halt on sacombe hill.  I recovered at the top, flew back to the old A10 and home going up Hoe lane for a change. 

https://www.strava.com/activities/132609638

Easter weekend

Family are away:

Thurs 17th my birthday. So I did a 20 mile circuit after work including sacombe hill.  There was quite a breeze from the west which meant hard work going up dowsetts lane. Was supposed to be easier going up sacombe hill but my times didn't reflect this.  Felt quite good going up wades I'll to thundridge for a change 

https://www.strava.com/activities/131221691

Good Friday 

There was a club easy ride to wandon end. Was colder than I thought and I didn't warm up with the gentle pace but it was good company and a fantastic bacon sandwich at the golf club. On the way home we started going a bit faster and then at Welwyn myself and john mac stretched our legs all the way to Hertford. Great.

https://www.strava.com/activities/131476247

Double Dutch audax.

An early start as graham picked me at 6;20 am for the drive to Huntingdon. We set off at a reasonable pace in a group with Peter.  Then I punctured after 5 or 6 miles.  Turns out there was some flint in my tyres from the previous day's ride.  My co2 cylinder didn't work too well either leaving me a soft tyre. Alex caught us up having started late and he rode with graham and I for most of the ride. Heading northeast towards March we rode into the wind. Stopped in March for pork pie and a coke and then onwards north east directly into the wind.  Alex led the way and despite his best efforts to shelter us and not push the pace I found myself hanging on for dear life in places.  Some nod from hitchin nomads joined the hw peleton as did another bloke for a while.  The nomad couldn't match Alex's pace and fell back first. Then I dropped and finally Alex and graham waited for me at the next junction. The other bloke rode on but our reformed hw peleton of three took him later and left him behind.  We rode into kings Lynn which looks a pretty town.  More food and a ferry ride across the river gave me an opportunity to pump up my front tyre better.  After the ferry my garmin got confused and decided to keep finding the shortes route back to Huntingdon instead of following the route. So lots of beeping and basically ignoring the directions on the garmin meant we followed the paper instructions and made some headway as the wind was behind us for a while.  After a ride along a cycle path sections my tyre blew again. Must have been a pinch puncture after riding 30 miles on a soft tyre.  Back riding again we made good progress riding through the bleak exposed lanes in the wash.  Finally we turned south and had a break from fighting the wind.  It was a good spell to spalding and beyond riding alongside the river welland occasionally into the wind and mainly with it behind us.  At thorney, graham suggested a cup of coffee which I needed.  Alex headed off to meet his family as he didnt need the break. Graham and I were refreshed from the sit down and did well on the last 25 miles of fairly dull road but we did encounter some small climbs back to Huntingdon and home just after 6 pm. We had done 8:08 hours of cycling but it had taken 9:43 hours of real time. Graham drove us home and I enjoyed a take away curry as I was too tired to cook!

https://www.strava.com/activities/131961457

Panshanger TT

Tuesday and it seemed like a good evening for the TT. Panshanger is a nasty course with two hills and bad road surface on the B1000. I set off number 1 and straight away noticed the easterly breeze going down the A414.  So to cut a long story short - the breeze meant I was a minute slower on the 414 segment  and as I didn't get the speed up I didn't have as much momentum on thieves lane hill so was slower up that too. I doing seem to be doing hills well this year. 32.06  -two mins slower than my best last year. Hmmph 

https://www.strava.com/activities/130596101

Shenley

Family away, so can go on the club ride to Shenley.  Was a nice day with a gentle but chilly westerly breeze.  We followed a familiar route to west of Welwyn then went on new routes for me around wheathamstead and skirting easy of St. Albans then across the A414 south to Shenley.  We lost two riders after a repeat puncture but they caught up at the cafe having solved the problem of a misaligned brake block digging into the front tyre.  Shenley park cafe us quite pleasant but as it was quite warm and by now we had to sit inside as all the outside tables were full. The way home was up eventful apart from 3 nasty hills around Newgate st to bayford.  Theis was followed by the fast downhill to Hertford and home. 

https://www.strava.com/activities/129803313

40 mile route

Family are all away now after taking Montse to the airport at 6 am this morning.  So time for a Saturday morning ride and I decided to do the 40 mile route. I felt the wind as I rode towards Hertford so wasn't sure how the ride would go - uphill out of Hertford and into the wind but actually I did alright as I climbed to datchworth. Kept on above 15 mph ave to walkern and onto cumberlow. Got a surprise as I was on the last surge up to cumberlow as a lady said hello and shit past me!  So I carried on and got a good Strava segment time and then her fellow cyclist came past.  I followed til Rushden when I turned right towards Sandon and up the hill. A good climb and pace to Buntingford and over to Hare street. Then the wind hit and I felt out of energy. So a slowish ride to puckeridge and home with occasional spurts when I could. All was well until I got to ware and got stuck at the level crossing for more than 5 mins so I carried the bike over the bridge and rode up the hill home. Turns out that it was my fastest time for the route after all. So happy with that 

https://www.strava.com/activities/129358177

TT and club ride

The next Club TT came one week after last week's success. Unfortunately the weather was very different, damp and breezy and I wasn't as well as last week. One week with a blocked ear and some earache. Still I rode to the start like last week up the A414 and hit the wind as I reached the flat bit towards the roundabout at Letty green. Hmmm. 

Anyway I set off number 4 and had a reasonable start up the hill but when I moved to use the tri bars I had a wobble which shook my confidence a bit. As predicted the up hill along the 414 was sheltered a bit but I hit the wind at the top and slowed down. Two more laps of the same but this time I got slower each lap and ended up with a time of 31.18. Nearly two mins slower than last week.  So conditions played their part as does gear choice. Last week I managed a cadence of 95 this week much lower. 

After the TT Rob from work (USA)  joined us for the ride to Codicote. Was a reasonable pace reflecting that most of us had done the TT. Some hills, some wind and a nice bacon sandwich paid for by graham as I had left my money at home by mistake. A short ride home and in the last bit rob was suffering as he had fond 50 the day before plus today's 50 as he had ridden from Stevenage to the start. 

https://www.strava.com/activities/127463604

Restricted gear TT

30th march first time trial of the year is the 72" restricted gear event on the cole green course. It turned out to be almost perfect conditions, dry, warmish for March too. And it ended up being a good day for me. The idea of the restricted gear is to get your cadence high as you cannot use big gears and I managed to keep to an ave of 95. I felt pretty good as I rode round though my second lap seemed a little slow but I was on course to break 30 mins. I was overtaken on the last lap by dean who set off one min behind me but that was an incentive to try to hang on. Coming off the last roundabout my left foot unclipped  when I hit a bump but I still managed 29:40. So under 30 mins on the first race of the year when the big gears are not available.  Happy with that !

https://www.strava.com/activities/125167103