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This time down on the sunny South Coast.

More pics here

Sometimes the weather behaves itself on my day off and I made the most of it today with a lovely 145km ride in glorious sunshine. The ice cream on Southport seafront was lovely too

Been doing a few local club evening TTs this year (and a couple last year) but tonight was the Championship 10. Unlike the other events which are 8.75miles (to allow for a straightforward out & back route) this was over a full 10 miles – my furthest ever time trial!
I started off reasonably well, managed to negotiate the tricky turns on the extra loop but everything came to a grinding halt when I got to the roundabout. I was confronted by a large HGV going slowly around the roundabout and was forced to stop. It probably cost me 15-20 secs as well as all my momentum. Oh well, will make it easier to beat my time next year! Finished quite strongly and ended up with a time of 26m38s which was good enough for 17th/33. Pretty sure that everyone ahead of me was on a TT bike or at least a road bike with tri-bars, I was just on my standard road bike so not bad going.

Results here

Thanks must go to the club members who did the start/finish/marshalling and to the guys from North Cheshire Clarion who came along to help marshal and take photos.

Thankfully I am on holiday for the 25mile championship – not sure I can race that far!

More here

A splendid way to spend an afternoon.

I fancied riding somewhere different but still local yesterday so met up with Amy after she finished work for a muddy ‘cross ride from Bolton. We decided to stay lower down to try and avoid the icy conditions higher up.

Despite staying lower down we still managed some lung-busting, leg screaming climbs! There were some fun descents to make up for it though. We were out for a couple of hours or so in the end, just what the doctor ordered.

Took a demo bike home from work yesterday which was a great decision – woke this morning to loads of snow Had emailed Amy last night to see if she fancied a ride and a txt this morning sorted meeting point & time.

Got to Pigeon Tower at the agreed time only to see a txt saying she was running late. No bother, rode along George’s Lane and met herjust before Wilderswood. A walker had mentioned that conditions in there were fantastic so we headed down along a thin sliver of singletrack through trees heavy with fresh snow. Magic.

From here it was a new trail for me followed by the long drag up the school climb back up to George’s Lane where we bumped into Vikki and Flipper the dog (who was having great fun in the snow!). The long climb up to the top of Winter Hill followed with a halfway stop for a snowball fight and to make a snowman

The tarmac part of the climb to the top was made easier as the centre of the road had been gritted – it was a bit of a shock to hit snow again at the top! The descent was littered with crashes (mainly mine) but it was great fun. We tried to get a pint in Belmont but the pub where we could see the bikes through a window was shut so a quick stop at a shop for food and it was up the long, snowy road climb back over the hill.

We headed along George’s Lane again and then took another new (to me) trail before climbing back up to the bottom of Wilderswood. I was shattered by now, no way was I continuing the climb back up to George’s Lane again! We said goodbye and headed of in separate directions. Got back home with 5 1/2 hours showing on the clock – no wonder I’m knackered! A great ride

I finally managed to drag myself out of the house for a proper ride yesterday! Met up with Amy at 10am (silly early for a Sunday!) and we headed off to Southport in search of Fish & Chips. We were following a route on Amy’s new Garmin and apart from one wrong turn (quickly corrected) it got us there safely although I’d have preferred if it had routed us around rather than over a couple of hills! I did hit over 55kph coming down one of them though – somewhere in excess of 170rpm

The sun had made a few pleasing appearances on the way there but it was quite chilly by the coast. Luckily we found a chippy where we could sit inside to eat. The fish and chips were really nice which helped as we11!

All too soon it was time to head back. Rather than an out and back were were on a circular route so the earlier hills were avoided although there were plenty of draggy climbs to replace them! Luckily Amy had strong legs to drag me along and the lure of an ice cream stop at Fredericks helped me along as well

Got back home with 106km showing on the clock. Not bad given how little riding I’ve done in the last couple of months. Legs are feeling it today though!

I managed a whole 4 rides in January. Started off the year with a fun (if puncture filled) ride with Nicky just after new year and then the snow returned along with illness. Recovered just in time to spend a day snowboarding with Amy and Ali, since then I have managed 2 commutes and a local pootle. A grand total of 217.5km. Pathetic!

Maybe February will be different? I’m aiming for 1 commute a week (still waiting for lighter mornings which will make getting out of bed easier!) plus one other ride a week. Next Sunday will hopefully see a fixie ride to the coast with Amy so I should really give the Pompino a bit of tlc before then.

The Cyclogs site appears to have died so I’ll be updating my progress over >>> in the sidebar. Last year I only rode about 2/3rds of the distance I managed in ’07 & ’08, maybe this year will be different?

After a week of being sick I needed to do something today. I was thinking of maybe a gentle ‘cross bike ride in the snow but then I had an email from Amy who suggested a day of snowboarding with her and Ali in the Bolton Alps. The decision was made.

Got to bolton around 1030 and we headed off into the hills. After a few runs on the first short hill we got to we headed a bit further on to a longer hill where we played until hunger set in. A handy park bench made a nice setting to have our sarnies (we were well prepared!) and homemade oatcakes (thanks Amy) before heading back up the hill again.

We soon fancied a bit of variety so found a bunker (we were on a golf course!) that looked like it would make a nice kicker and sessioned it for a while. Much to my amazement I was able to get some air! Have always been a board on the ground type rider but this was great! Once we tired of jumping we did a few more runs before heading back to the original slope where we held a who can slide the furthest contest. Ali won but I’m sure that was because she had fresh wax on her board

We then headed back through the trees (with another very short but fun run) and then tried to make a snowman. The snow wasn’t really the right consistency (too dry) so this soon degenerated into a fun snowball fight

All too soon it was time to head home to a cup of hot chocolate followed by a tired (but mercifully short) drive back home. A fantastic day