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Now retired but busy still living..

Wednesday 28 September 2011

CYCLING THE DORSET COUNTRYSIDE.....

Within  just a few days of returning to the UK I have been out on the Felt cycling around the Dorset countryside. The weather has been great for cycling with very little wind and some nice dry days. This weather is set to continue so I will be out making the most of it.
The first time I got back on the Felt it really seemed odd....after a month of riding the Touring bike the Felt was really light and twitchy but after a few miles it was business as usual and after all the hills that I have ridden on the ROCK2UK I found that I was flying up the steepest hills that Dorset can offer.. Today I even managed to speed past a couple of twenty something year olds on a 20%. I was riding behind them when it dawned on me that I was able to pull out and accelerate past them.......Oh what pleasure!
Now I have acquired a pretty high level of fitness and ability I must make sure that I try to maintain it.....

 ROCK2UK..............
Wow - what a trip that was......Everything went well until we had to actually start cycling...!!!   The weather in Spain was just too hot. I had originally planned to start the ride in September but John was unable to get the time off in order to complete the ride during September so we had to start the ride in mid August....Oh what madness..!!

They do say 'Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun'- well we certainly did that.
After the first days ride from Gibraltar to Ronda we really felt that we had bitten off more than we could chew...The route from Gibraltar to Ronda was uphill for the entire 62 miles....in temperatures approaching 112F the difficulty of what we had set out to do became all too obvious...

Starting in my next posting I will explain how we tackled the problems we faced and also share with you some of the photographs taken during the ride.

6 comments:

RANTWICK said...

Hey man, it must be nice to feel fit. I'm in a downward trend right now, but I'm hoping to reverse the slide!

If you see any beautiful Autumn Trees on your countryside runs on that lovely bike, take a snap for me and enter my contest!

Steve A said...

"Englishmen go out in the midday sun..."

Obviously related to Americans in the Southern US!

Big Oak said...

Welcome home! Thanks for posting photos from your journey, I appreciate you "taking us along". That was quite a trip, and I'm glad you both got back home safe and sound (even better than sound!).

Tracy W said...

I always feel twitchiness when I get on my road bike after riding the tandem a lot. It takes a few miles to get accustomed to the smaller bike, but like you said, when you do, it's great!

TrevorW�� said...

*RANTWICK
I will cycle a bit slower over the next month or two so that I can lookout for a suitable tree to submit.....

*Steve A
I think that there is some kind of relationship there....

*Big Oak
Thanks for 'following along' on my recent trip. I will be posting some more images from the ride over the next few weeks.

*Tracy W
Yes....I really felt like I was going to fall off when I first set out on the much lighter bike and those 23mm tyres.
Luckily that feeling didn't last too long.

GreenComotion said...

Wow, Trevor! It was 112 deg. F and you still rode the 62 miles? You are a very dedicated and strong cyclist! Bravo!!

Peace :)

Six weeks off.

 The visit to see the Consultant went quite well really ...   My ' numbers' have started to creep up again so I am going to be given...