A change of plans

Having looked at the forecast last night (mainly cloudy, 10% chance of showers) I'd decided I'd ride the pompino into work today so I loaded my courier bag in preparation. Of course, forecasts aren't always accurate and I woke up to lots of rain. I could have gone back to sleep for an hour and driven in but instead I dumped the contents of my courier bag into my pannier and set off on the cross/commuter bike (still haven't got round to putting mudguards back on the pompino). Nice ride in despite the weather, steady pace.
Busy in the shop again, Steve popped in this morning and bought the Trek freak shitter that we had on display. I have no idea how many bikes he has now but it's a lot :)
Steady ride home with more showers, didn't want to ride hard as I'm hopefully riding at Delamere tomorrow with Steve.

96km|3h46m

A change is as good as a rest

Decided on a bike change today so rode the Pompino. Another gorgeous day (although it was a pretty chilly start) for riding and arrived at work with a smile on my face. Was pleasantly surprised to see that I'd got in faster than usual as well. I guess riding a fixie stops me from being lazy. It's ace in traffic as well. Really must remember to tighten the tension on my left pedal though as I pulled my foot out when skid stopping. Managed to avoid crashing into anything though so that was ok.
Yet another busy day (I see a theme developing there!) with little time to stop so was expecting a tough ride home. I was wrong! I had a great ride. Fuelled by a couple of jam doughnuts, a Torq gel and some sport beans I felt really good for the whole ride. Now sat here with a bottle of Fursty Ferret. Spendid :)

96km|3h26m

A riding companion, good samaritan and tired legs

An excellent ride in this morning. Great conditions and legs felt good. Rode a few miles with another cyclist who showed me a nice variation to my route. A bit further but a nice country lane rather than 2 main roads. Turns out he knew Samuri from Flickr. Small world! Ended up riding a bit faster than I wanted to and I knew I'd pay for that later, especially as I knew I hadn't brought enough breakfast in with me.
Busy day at work again, no sitting down time so was quite tired when I set off home. I knew I hadn't eaten anywhere near enough to maintain a decent speed for the whole ride so deliberately kept the speed down and vowed not to chase anyone who overtook me - I managed to stick to this vow until I was about 5 miles from home :) Just before the Warburton Toll Bridge I spotted a girl by the side of the road struggling with her bike. Stopped to see if she needed a hand. Turns out she'd hit the kerb trying to get out of the way of an ambulance and her rear wheel had come out. Anyway, fixed it in a few seconds and it meant she could ride home rather than waiting for her housemate to come and rescue her. That was my good deed for the day :)
Sat here with tired legs now, will probably have a couple of days off the bike. Quite a high mileage week last week (for me) so should probably take things easy this week.


101km|3h58m

Transformation complete

My cyclocross bike is now a full on commuter - Specialized Armadillo tyres, SKS mudguards, Topeak rack and Carradice panniers. It weighs a tonne, thankfully I haven't got any proper hills on my commute!
A misty start to today's ride, quite pleasant as it kept the temperature down a bit. Not much wind either, pretty perfect conditions really. The extra weight on the bike is definitely noticeable but I'll get used to it and it's so nice not having a bag on my back.
A very busy day so I didn't get to stop for much food or sit down at all. Anyway, still had a reasonable ride and a couple of Torq strawberry yoghurt gels (the most palatable gel I've tried so far) gave me enough energy to get home. Bolognese and red wine to end the day :)

96km|3h43m

What a lovely day for riding!

Hottest day of the year I think. The closest weather station to me measured 23.8C :)
Expected to wake up with sore legs after my 132km ride yesterday but felt fine so decided to ride in to work rather than drive as planned. Nice cruise in, armwarmers came off after a few miles and even a slight headwind couldn't spoil things.

The ride home got off to a bit of a rubbish start as 3 car drivers tried to kill me as I was heading out of Altrincham (car door opened on me, guy turning right nearly clipped my rear wheel and a silly woman then turned across me forcing me to brake quite hard). Thing soon picked up once I was out of town and the rest of the ride was most enjoyable. I even felt strong enough towards the end of the ride to chase down and pass somebody. He clearly didn't like being passed by a commuter as he sat on my wheel for the next couple of miles @ 30+mph (slightly downhill) before passing me. I was within a mile of home by then so just sat up and span the rest of the way :)

Just waiting for a pizza to cook now!

96km|3h33m

Another great commute

More sunny skies and a lovely ride into work. Took a couple of detours and a few photos. Got to overtake loads of stationary traffic on the East Lancs courtesy of an overturned lorry. Arrived a bit early and sat outside in the sun eating some breakfast and chatting to Leon who also got in a bit early. He'd ridden in on his Trek Madone 5.2, lovely bike.
Afternoon rain looked like making the ride home a bit miserable but it had cleared by the time I set off and I had another splendid ride home :)

A few piccies

98km|3h43m

Edit: I was tempted to make a last minute trip up to Scotland tomorrow for SSUK but I don't think I'll bother. I don't think I can face the drive and the weather forecast isn't looking that great. Will probably do some local riding instead.

Lovely ride in this morning helped by some gorgeous weather. Just cruised in and had a couple of photos stops. Had another puncture (my conti gatorskins were fit for the bin quite a long time ago!), so I fitted some new tyres before the return trip. Unfortunately they are slightly bigger than the gatorskins and fouled my mudguards. Not having an 8mm spanner to hand so that I could adjust them I had to take them off. This was a PITA as it meant removing my disc calipers. Eventually I managed to set off on my way home. The predicted heavy rain didn't materialise which was good and I had a nice ride home.

There are a few pictures HERE

95km|3h40m