Well, today has been a good day on the bike. No, it's been a great day and I've really enjoyed myself.
In just over 3 weeks I'm doing the Tour Ride which follows the Stoke On Trent, Tour Of Britain stage route. It's quite lumpy but not as hard as last year for some reason.
So, as a training ride I chose to head up and join the route at Uttoxeter and then ride as far as the Mossgate turning. This takes in the big hills of the Peak District section of the ride.
The weather today was great when I started out, sunny and warm and a light SW wind. My ride today took me up the hill near home known to us as Kingston Hill, it goes from the Blythe to Kingston and rises at an average gradient of 7% hitting a max of 9% near the top, short and sharp and it got me in the mood for some hills.
I took in the two categorized climbs of the Tour Stage, Ramshorn and Gunn Hill - I'm not sure but I think they may also of made Commonside (just outside Cheadle) one of the King Of The Mountains climbs - it's the toughest of the lot, short (only half a mile) but very, very steep and last year had the Pro's struggling with the gearing they were using.
This year the route misses the ride up through Onecote (pronounced as On Cot) and Longnor. Instead it heads left after last years Pro's feed station up a wonderful road called the Morridge. A spectacular high level road with amazing views to the left and the right over the Staffordshire Moorlands and the Derbyshire Dales. From the Morridge the route drops to Blackshaw Moor down a very steep and bumpy road. I can see some crashes on this, there are some long very fast sections into very tight corners and towards the bottom there is a 30mph speed limit leading into a tight left and a hairpin right. It's gonna catch out those that haven't pre ridden the route.
Then to Gunn Hill, painful but dooable - even for this overweight middle aged MAMIL (middle aged man in lycra!). That ticked off the list and then to the bit I really don't look forward too - Leek to Wetley Rocks! Evil bit of road, rolling but the ups are hard and the downs aren't long enough to get relief for my aching thighs......I really must loose weight!
Now for the saving bit, I was riding towards the climb at Commonside when I rode past a small sparrow sitting in the road, I rode on but thought that it must have been a late fledgling as it didn't move and I thought to myself that I couldn't let it just be squashed by a car! So, I turned round and rode back up the road. To my horror a car came down so I gesticulated wildly but the car driver just carried on in his own little world, but JUST missed the bird. When I got to it it just sat there and I could see that it was actually an adult that was injured - I guess a cat's had it. It was bleeding from a cut above it's eye, perhaps even from the eye, I think the best option would have been to kill it, but I can't do that. The best I could do was pick it up gently and place it in the long grass at the side of the road, a little stroke on the head and it hopped off. Let's hope it survives, poor little blighter!
Oh, Commonside nearly killed me! Brutal.
As for the Pebble Dash! The bloody councils in the UK insist on doing something that they call Road Dressing. It comprises of dumping gravel on to sticky tar and then leaving it - they are supposed to roller it and then sweep the excess but they never do. It's a cheap and really shit way to cover the roads, they don't fill the holes and they make the road surface loose and dangerous - the first warm weather we have and the gravel gets ripped up from the warm tar and the road is worse than before. Well, the local council in it's wisdom has pebble dashed my fave descent towards my home. Now it's lethal, loose gravel on all corners and in the middle of the road. Made my last few miles a misery - the bastards!
We should start a campaign to stop this crappy cheap way of road repair.
Got home feeling tired but happy that I'd worked hard - only an extra 26 miles to do on the day, should be do-able if I pace myself a bit.
Here is the Endomondo workout for today.
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