Monday Riding

Hannah over again to spend the morning playing in the dark peak, Nick joined us in Hope and we headed up the Roman Road. Lots of climbing, lots of rocks, a new bridleway to me and lots of mincing from me before cake at The Woodbine. Another fab Monday.

Hannah's First Audax

I invited Hannah to join me on a 100k Audax today, she said yes and then pointed out how hilly it was....to be fair very! I rode over from home and was early enough to get a Costa Hot Chocolate and Pastry and Hannah arrived not long after me.

The usual low-key start and we all stayed together for a while before Hannah's chain came off, and again....she should have taken it in to Garage Bikes!

The route basically went up or down! We had a lovely 16% to get up near Macclesfield Forest.

I think Hannah was glad to get to the lunch stuff and we had half an hour in hand which is always nice! I made sure I ate loads.

Then more hills, meaning more amazing views.

We even met this cute little fellow.

Finished with an hour in hand and were fed a sandwich. The regulars then started trying to persuade Hannah to do some more, 300k was mentioned!

An urban explore

The best laid plans and all that....well this weekend none of the plans quite happened but as it turned out me, Sally and Sarah had great fun exploring round Morley. Sarah now has some plans for the next Garage Bikes rides.

This is why

Shattered after finishing after 10pm and then having to be back in for 7am this morning it would have been easy to spin home along the road but I made myself head off road. Once off-road I never regret it and with views like this I can't help but smile.

Mountain Biking to Work

Took the mountain bike instead of the cross bike today, lovely day apart from when the showers came or it got windy. Finished with Pindale, stopped a few times but rode it. Riding in knee pads to see how that helps confidence as getting really tense descending which obviously just makes it worse. Lovely to ride in on the mtb for a change and as I was being picked up no need to ride it home on the road.

More playing in the Peak

A great day showing friends our local trails. Lots of food and smiles.

A lovely day

Hannah came over on Wednesday this week, I'm sure it was a cunning ploy to have a shorter ride (I was in work at 1pm). Well it worked but I still found lots of hills! Nice loop up the Roman Road, along Rushup Edge, Edale, Jaggers Clough and the Roman Road back to hope for cake at the Woodbine.

Although she said she was feeling sorry for herself having to ride here I don't think she really meant it.

Another Monday Explore

Hannah couldn't make it over this monday as she had an appointment but I was determined not to waste my morning and get out. I had plotted a route but I still amost wasted too much time in the morning. The route took me over towards the Monsal Trail where I then followed various byways. Some were way too rocky for me to get up on Kermit so I did a bit of carrying practice.

I then met up with the Limestone Way and managed to puncture, oops. Got to work with ten minutes to spare, quick hosedown for kermit and shower for me then onto reception.

Bike Swapping

Chatting to Rachel at Mountain Mayhem she really wanted to have a go on a Kinesis Pro6 as she's thinking of getting a cross bike. We compared calendars and worked out we were both free today. Her and James came here and after failing to get my pedals off we just swapped shoes. The weather wasn't as amazing as it has been and at one point we all had waterproof jackets on. I led a route I knew would be enjoyable on a cross bike over to Hope where we had cake at the Woodbine. Then back over to home finishing off with the rocky descent down which Rachel cleared.

I was riding her Cotic Solaris which was maybe a little too long but definetly enjoyable, but apparently this was a demo bike and the production model is a little shorter. Certainly a nice bike.

A little too techy for me

Another Monday and another ride with Hannah, I am enjoying these rides. The first bit involved following a restricted byway, I basically crawled up the last bit!

Some more exploring off the moors led to a lovely techy descent, I could tell at that point I wasn't riding well, probably not helped by the fact I was on Ali's bike and it is a tiny bit too big for me! The Beast was the next big downhill challenge and it mostly defeated me!

28miles done when we got home and a quick shower and lunch and I headed to work.