In all past years of my life, and I've had a number, I've known a freeze is coming because I hear the crunch of salt under my feet and the darkness is illuminated by the orange oscillating lights of the gritters.
One knows when austerity has started to bite, when the first time you learn a freeze is coming is finding a damp patch of main road is not wet but ice and rubber which has gripped throughout a year of damp roads throws in the towel!
Thursday night's innocuous billed club ride was the first in which I've unknowingly hit black ice cycling a main road, no salt, no warning, no gritters! Gutted my upcoming weekend cycling plans are now in ruin, my treasured bike is scared and my ageing body damaged. Austerity hurts!
This year's November monthly club ride was, as in previous years, a ride up to attend the Rousdon Remembrance Sunday service. One slight difference this year, was that we laid our own wreath in memory of those service men and women who through the years of conflict have taken to the two wheels we all love to travel on.
There are many references written of the 7th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment formed in 1908, which, on outbreak of the First World War, became part of the Southern Command. Based at Totnes, they patrolled along the coast from Lyme Regis to the River Yealm, east of Plymouth. Just think, they would have cycled the coast roads we are so used to ourselves!
We turned out in force with the largest ever gathering of Pedallers at the Rousdon memorial, on this 100th anniversary year of some of the worst fighting these pedallers would have experienced. While the cyclist battalion remained in England throughout the war, many were sent over seas, for example, in 1916 a number joined A Company of the 2nd Devons to fight in the Cuinchy sector on the Somme. A sobering thought.
The Victorians had great vision and ingenuity. Methods of transportation were expanded exponentially and many of the most ambitious engineering projects were instigated by the Victorians, but what would they make of their legacy? Dis-integrated railway network, gridlocked roads & pointless cycle paths ..
Yes, OK, a tenuous link to the state of my local, so called, cycle paths but I do wonder what the Victorians would have done differently. Compulsory land purchases akin to that which enabled railways to crisscross the country, lavish bridges and tunnels to keep motor and pedal power apart and draconian penalties for crimes against the cycle. Well, come the revolution, may be!
Why the angst? Well these 2 videos show what Devon CC have provided cyclists to keeps them off the roads. I appreciate how difficult it is to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear but has this really been money well spent?
The Axminster Kilmington Cycle Path
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On this path cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to put in, but it is neither regularly maintained by the council nor rideable for much of the year, for either being flooded or covered with farm waste. Cyclists are thus forced to take to the busy A35 or ride the equally unfriendly shared pedestrian path, scarily just feet from speeding oncoming traffic!
Seaton Cycle Path
Seaton Cycle Path is more a case of being given permission to use the path than a purpose built and fit for purpose cycle path.
Sticking to my mission for 2017 to ditch the sportives and just cycle with mates, 7 of us coffee clubbers headed out on another epic ride. We met at Kilver Court, Shepton Mallet .. the home of the Rapha Archive store, what a co-incidence! Another co-incidence is that a few months back we did a 100mi ride from home to Kilver which the Rapha CC copied a few weeks later and most of this Saturday's 100km route followed one the Rapha CC did themselves earlier in the year. I do love a theme.
Once the essential shopping was done, coffee knocked back and bikes unloaded, we headed off to Wookey Hole and our first climb. Surprisingly this was far worse than the feared Cheddar Gorge, reportedly 1/100 of the best UK climbs, which we were to tackle som 85km into the ride!
Anyway .. apart from me having the our only 2 punctures of the ride and emptying my bank account in the Rapha store, it was a great ride with super company. I’m loving these mates rides.
Living and cycling in the UK means that we can’t always guarantee warm and dry weather what ever the month, and this is why most agree, “there’s no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothes”.
It’s most frustrating, therefore, when we follow the Met office forecast, and head out in shorts and dry weather gear only for the heavens to unexpectedly open at the furthest point from home! This was what we experienced tonight, in the dark and amidst 2 forced stops to repair punctures!
I’ll say no more other than to share this video which shows it all. Our wettest ride of the year in the wrong clothing!
Dartmoor can be one of those places where the weather can be predictably very wet, windy and during the winter months, rather cool with sub zero temperatures the norm. This August bank holiday weekend we were treated to the exact opposite; it was a day to be spent by the beach rather than astride a bicycle!
The ride had been planned for some months as our annual 100mi/100km club ride, with the intent to follow the route of Mid Devon CC's Dartmoor Classic, so not one for the novice rider. Indeed, I for one would not have used it for my first 100, some 4 years ago!
Andy and I drove over in the Yeti and met up with a crowd of Pedallers at 8:00 am in Chudleigh. At the depart we had a great cross-section of pedallers, old and new, boys and girls and even a couple of Sid Valley cycle club guests. Despite the gruelling climbs ahead, it had that feeling of going to be a real social affair; quite different from the Classic Sportives I've ridden in the past.
Signing in
At the outset, Clive, the professional ride leader he is, got us to sign in with emergency contact details, little knowing then that sadly he'd not be seeing the ride out himself! More on that later.
The plan was going well'ish as we rode to Princetown to refuel at a popular cycling favourite, the Fox tor cafe http://www.foxtorcafe.com/cafe/. Here, we arrived in waves and sought shelter from the mid day sun, mingling with other lycra clad riders from Mid Devon and Plymouth cycle clubs. Mark also got us chatting to the director(s) of Primal, the Devon cycling apparel company, who adorned in smart looking kit jumped into a polished sales patter .. who'd be a kit master (all applications c/o TdF)! I mention the ride having gone well'ish as there had been two close shaves: a sudden stop to avoid cattle may have given my a rear tyre a flat spot (check out the video at 9:40 am) and a little later my chain bounced off the big ring and wrapped itself around every sprocket it could find! Luckily, I could continue but I've not yet done a full damage check nor ascertained what could have actually caused it.
The AVP Peloton passes near Haytor
It was at Princetown that Clive, who'd been poorly the previous day, had to call an end to his ride and get a cab back to Chudleigh. I had thought of posting an APB on our club's FB page but being at the furthest point from base camp, close to a 90 minute drive, it would have been a miracle to have found a Pedaller out and about near by. So, in the absence of a support car, and still another 2 hours cycling to be done, a local taxi was the only option. Clive later reported that it was the best value £50 taxi ride he'd had!
From Princetown, a handful of Pedallers continued on their extended 100 mile route while the larger peloton, myself included, chilled a little more in the cafe before taking the return loop back to Chudleigh, with the obligatory stop for ice cream refreshments at one of the many tempting vans strategically positioned along the route!
Ice cream stop on the return to Chudleigh
In addition to a number of stills, I pulled together a short video of the day's ride. This one has a Krafwerk'esk backing track which I recently commissioned from my musically talented brother-in-law, aka SunDog, which includes sampling from my Tarmac's SRAM eTap chainset and FFWD free hub .. I hope you like it.
100km (60 miles) over 1800m (6000ft) of climb, in temps exceeding 25 degrees, made for quite an epic ride and one which was definitely a great social ride, as billed. My new year's resolution is holding firm.
At the turn of the year I made the resolution that I'd forgo all sportives this year in favour of doing a few epic club and social rides.
It took a bit of time to get going as it was May before my first epic ride, the Rapha 100 Ride which satisfied both of my passions, the title saying it all! July's investment in wireless gear change triggered the second, a ride on Dartmoor with club mates.
Seaton on the South Coast
This weekend, I joined one of my best buddies, a bit of a last minute thing, on a Coast to Coast 100 mile Ride. We did something similar with the club 3 years ago when we were still doing the all comers' 100 milers, bit this was a much quicker and less formal affair. It was perhaps a little bad form to skip my usual Coffee Club Ride, which as default ride leader (for reasons that are still a mystery to me) caused a bit of a stir, but sometimes one just has to do these things! It was a top ride, we had 2 coffee stops in Taunton at the 25 and 75 mile points and a tasty lunch overlooking Blue Ancor Bay on the north coast and on the return to took time out to watch a local steam train. It was a real boys' own adventure!
Watchet on the North Coast
Our next epic club ride will be a return to Dartmoor on 27th August to do the Classic's 100 km route.
