Almost the usual Stockbridge loop, but climbed out of the Test Valley in Long Stock, by way of the aptly named Bottom Lane. 25km's in one hour and twenty minutes.
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Fill that hole is a campaign step up Cycling UK (CTC) to get pot holes filled in by local councils, have downloaded the straight forward app and will being seeing how effective it is in getting the council to improve the local country lanes in my end of Hampshire.
Nice ride out to Conholt Park and then back along the route of the Roman road to East Anton. Unlike the last ride out, the weather was still, with barely a breeze which did make the effort a little warmer. So out via Amport, Thruxton and Kimpton, At Kimpton we looped back to Fyfield via a byway and then onto Redenham and the long climb to the top of the Chutes Causeway. Back via Conholt Park and the 'Hampshire gate'. Rather than the easy descent to Clanville I followed the route of the Roman road, which straight as a die arrives just outside Enham, it consists of sections of byway, country lane and single track which follow the original route.. From Enham is was a matter of using the local housing estate cycle paths to get home. So in total 40km's in just over two hours. Up to Upton and then back down the Bourne Valley to Wherwell and then home via the Clatfords. 50Km in just under two and a half hours. Alot of climbing in the first 15km, which included a Cat 4 segment climb between Wildhern and Upton. Once at Upton the ride then consists of a gentle descend all the way to Longparish. It was a interesting ride out, mainly due to the windy conditions which seemed to ensure a headwind regards what direction I was going in.
So the mini heat wave the British Isles has been experiencing for the last few days, came to an end in a crash of thunder and a cloudburst of torrential rain. This occurred half way round my route this morning which was compounded by a slow puncture in the rear tyre, which require pumping up twice on the way round the 23 km's. Getting completely soaked when the heavens opened wasn't unpleasant and didn't stop us enjoying the ride out. On return to home, the rear tyre was inspected and found to have let another hawthorn piercing the carcass of the tyre. The Schwalbe Landcrusier tyres come 'K-GUARD:
A layer from natural rubber, reinforced with Kevlar® fibres. The protection standard for every tire from the Active Line' . The previous week we'd would three hawthorns in the front tyre so not quite Hawthorn proof. Bimble around the villages west of Andover and back, very pleasant morning out, 31.5km's in an hour and a half. If was a quiet ride out apart from one moment when a female fallow deer burst out of the hedge to my right, in front of the bike, and then zig-zagged off down the country lane until it found an opening in the hedge to slip through, it certainly woke me up!!!
Warm, cloudy morning for a ride out to Broughton via Spitfire Lane and back via Over Wallop, Grateley, Amport and Monxton. 41km in just under two hours on the Mango Point AR, Average speed of 21km/h, which is 2km/h faster than I would get on the Cube FS 29er. The Mango has the same gear ratios but runs on thinner Schwalbe landcruiser tyres and thus less drag, and also lighter as it has no suspension fore or aft. Replacement helmet time, my Met Kaos UL has been a brilliant helmet and I'd would of replaced it with another unfortunately it is no longer in the Met helmet line up, replaced with more enduro styled helmets. So having a look around and never one to knowingly follow the herd, I bought a Urge Seriall. On unboxing it looks a very sturdy piece of kit, and like most helmets now features a full in-mold construction with the bonus of a plastic shell that covers pretty much the whole EPS foam core thus protecting the foam from unintentional bumps when storing it.
It has the usual ratchet adjustment system which allows the helmet to snuggly fit my head, it appears to have the same amount of air vents as the Met Kaos, so we'll see how hot my head gets this summer. It comes with a plastic visor which comes with the Urge products trademark exhaust port, not so sure about how useful that will be, but time on the trails will not doubt confirm that. Update: So I have been using the helmet for a month now, and have to say it has functioned brilliantly, with only one niggle which is the visor which does impinge upon the field of vision continually and because of it's mounts cannot be adjusted. Apart from that it has been a great replacement helmet. So the second charity mountain bike event of the year was located in Swindon, the aptly named Castles Bike Ride. This was the 21st running of the event which was in support of Macmillan Cancer Support. I have to say it was a very well organised event, the marshaling was brilliant helping to direct you on your way along with the signage it was an easy route to follow. Some of the more remote marshal points were manned by members of MB Swindon. the local mountain biking club. The refreshment stops had a selection of drinks, bananas and cakes to allow you to replenish your energy levels. The event was well sign posted into the start/finish site which was the Croft Sports Centre in the Old Town part of Swindon. There was off site parking provided which was a short walk/ride away. So I got my wrist band from the slick registration point and awaited the start of the event which was scheduled at 10:00. We where informed that this was not a race, and there was no timing involved. Which lead to a rather relaxed start to the ride, we even had a Police escort which lead the riders to the first piece of off-road track, I'd not ridden in the area south of Swindon prior to this event, so was looking forward to some new trails, I'd selected the long route, but things didn't work out quite as I expected. So we spent a lot of time gaining height on the 'old ridgeway' which took us along the bottom of Barbury Hill upon which sits the aptly named Barbury Castle. And then onto the Ridgeway where we kept the gained height until the route dropped down into Rockley via the Marlborough Downs. Here we found the well supplied refreshment stop a the foot of a long northbound byway which had the occasional Car or Horse on it. This long ascent took us to Upper Herdswick farm which is just short of the top of Barbury Hill and there we enjoyed a very long grassy descent along the Ridgeway towards Osborne St George. Here the Medium route took the N482 sustrans route back to Swindon along an old disused railway line, or continue with a loop west of Osborne St George and and then back along the N482 with the medium route. I'd assumed that with the generally dry weather we have had recently I could get away with using the Vee Rubber Mammoth on the front still, which was brilliant on the dusty chalk byways we crossed. Unfortunately it's nemesis - mud lurked in a small wood we went through, the track was rather churned up and at the first touch of mud the front snapped away and off I went. So at Osborne St George we decided to cut our losses and make our way back to Swindon. That wasn't the end of the days adventures, at Chiseldon, a poor gear change up a short steep climb snapped the chain. Fortunately I carry a chain breaker and replacement links so it was a 10 minute job to sort out the chain and we were on our way again. Back over the M4 motorway on a footbridge which brought us to the 'Coates Water Park' and through a succession of housing estates which meant we didn't have to ride along the busy roads of Swindon. We arrived back at the start just in time for rain to start...... It was a great event, not spoiled by the mechanical or the small off, and it is for a very worthy cause. In the end because I mixed the long and medium routes I covered 43km's with 500 metres of climbing in 2 hours and 31 minutes. An early morning start of 05:30 and off we went to Houghton via The Test Way down to Horsebridge, then back via Broughton. Added a new piece of bridleway which crossed the Houghton Down towards Stockbridge, unfortunately it did mean we ended up on the A30, and even at that time the few cars which passed me where hurtling along, so cut back onto the Old Stockbridge road to Long Barrow and Waters Down farm, where we traversed another overgrown byway to the Longstock Road and back to Andover via the Clatfords. The overgrown byway hide a rather large hole and in ploughed the front wheel and came to a abrupt stop and my momentum caused me to go head over the handbars to hand in the lush vegetation, I hadn't been going at any great speed due to the byway being overgrown, so no damage done. This byway also seemed to be last muddy spot in the Test Valley so we came out rather mucky indeed at the end. |
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