My Most Recent Ride 2014 (Part VII in a series)

Forgot to mention that I saw a poor bloke on a trike (not sure what you call these trikes) go down. I think his left foot slipped off the pedal, but not 100% sure.

If you watch for the trike rider coming towards me on the right side of the road you can see him tip over the trike. Someone came to his aid so I left them to it. Hopefully he is okay.



Andrew

 

You'll have to stop posting all these videos of nice sunny weather - I'm getting really jealous ! We've had nearly 6 weeks of pretty much continuos bad weather and storms here in the UK, with lots of localised flooding. Many of my favourite routes are currently impassable as the Thames has burst in banks. One problem with a trike is its not much good in deep water ! I hope to get out on Sunday as it looks like the rain will hold off - I'll try and take some flood pics !

 

I rode 27.94 miles on Valentine's Day. Even ran into a couple riding I went to school with in my home town. They were in the town and were riding the River Trail. What a small world, haven't seen them in 30 years.

 

It will be your turn soon or your could migrate here ... half the population is from England

That said I hope that you get through the floods okay. Does not sound too good at all.

Andrew

 

How fantastic!

Andrew

 

Found a broken spoke in my 700c rear today when I was swapping out the Tektro brakes for Avid BB7 so decided to try out a 26" rear whilst the 700c is in for a new spoke and truing.

Short 24 km test ride this afternoon to make sure all is good. Average speed was done but then the winds where pretty bad so not sure if it is the wheel or not yet.

Also saw a wedding party at a funny place for a photo shot - not exactly scenic.



Andrew

 

Finally managed to get out today - supposedly we are at the tail end of a conveyer belt of storms we've had for 6 weeks. No rain today but very windy. Managed 22 miles, tomorrow is looking good so hope to add a few more miles to the total. My wife has taken pity on me, so she's letting me out as I'm going stir crazy here. We're not affected by the flooding, but my heart goes out to those who are, it must be heartbreaking to see your home and possessions slowly submerge underwater. Still most of the houses that are flooded are built on flood plains, or on the riverbanks, so it shouldn't be a complete surprise after the wettest recorded weather since 1776. That was another bad year for us Brits in more than one way !

 

I rode 27.06 miles. When I got to the truck realized I had lost my wallet. When I got home a person that works for the same company I do called and told me her friend had found my wallet and called her. So this little nice lady returned my wallet to me and was worried she didn't get to me quick enough to keep me from cancelling everything. This is amazing! Two days in a row of amazing rides.

 

Got out for a ride today in spite of the fact I discovered it was raining when I went to take the trike out of the car. Since it was almost 40 F and it was more of a sprinkle than a real rain, I decided to swap my light wool for heavier and go anyway.

Instead of the River Loop, Loke and I headed for downtown Uppsala for the weekly trip to the American food store. Usually, Jens, Loke and I walk there, but my feet still hate me from walking a couple miles around the old parts of Uppsala to play tour guide for a lovely English woman I met on my trip to Falmouth last year.

It rained on us the entire time, but never quite hard enough to do more than leave me damp. With the lack of wind, the heavy wool was enough to keep away the chill despite the damp wool. I added little extra zig-zags to push the distance to roughly the same as the River Loop. 4.5 miles is better than 2.2.

Rain or not, it felt good and Loke did fine. He was a good boy, waiting patiently for me to get back when I parked him with the trike.

Terii

 

Out with Betty on her Eliptigo. We met some friends of ours, she has an Eliptigo but hasn't been on it much. I put her husband on the Windcheetah and he loved it. A mile down the road and he yelled at his wife that he wanted one for his birthday. 11 easy miles on the trikes, the ladies worked real hard on those strange contraptions.

 

Rode 40.01 miles today, but nothing amazing happen. Did have a mishap cutting and bruising my elbow which I didn't notice the damage until I got home.

 

What a great feel good story. So nice to know there are still people around who give a toss about others.

Andrew

 

I got out on Sunday with the intention of the completing the Strava Gran Fondo 2 Challenge (130 km ride) but alas it was not be. My front tyre blew out when doing a slow 25 km/h and I hit the bitumen. At the time I had hurt my knee (hurt walking) but it felt okay to ride with it so I continued with the ride ... was about 1/3 way into it the planned distance. That was a mistake. With about 30 km to go I was down to crawling along in pain so had to abort the ride.

A day later I am on crutches and have an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon. Nurse Anne (my partner) is not helping either ... getting the told you I would pick you up, this is your fault perspective and now in trouble for being at the computer Never have a relationship with nurses

One positive to come out of it was that I met Bartek from the Australian Cycling Forums in his Sinner Bikes Mango. I really need to get one

Oh the bike is okay.



This photo was taken later in the ride at the Alco's Aluminium Refinery. I ended up doing 118 km.

Anyway that is the last riding update for awhile from me I suspect

Andrew

 

Ouch! Hope things go smoothly for a full recovery!

Terii

 

Heal up quickly Andrew, I am sure Nurse Ann will have you doing everything necessary

Off early today and the Venom was already loaded and ready to go. It was 65 degrees and sunny when I started but became overcast windy and cooler almost immediately.

My LBS guy and a local kid that hangs out there joined me at the start and rode with me to the top of the hardest climb. I usually would have put up better numbers on that hill but not today, too much time off. I only managed a paltry 4.2 mph on the climb and they both beat me to the top.

We caught our breath and then parted ways. I chose a flatter route after coming down off the ridge. Unfortunatly after a few miles the road was closed and I had to turn back. This meant 5 or 6 miles of very rough pavement but I did have a partial tailwind for this section. This road would lead to a really smooth concrete road that I would stay on for about 10 miles. I would have enjoyed this road more but the winds were swirling and I was starting to get cold.

The final road was a fight. My legs were burning and I faced several hills and a stiff headwind. Determined I told my legs to shut up (Jens Voigt says it works for him). It must have worked, I kept the speed up until the end. Now as I sit here typing this I am again talking to my legs, asking them nicely not to cramp!

33.5 miles with a 14.9 moving average in 2 hours 12 minutes with 1800 feet of elevation gain.