Love the lengthening days

 

With the change to British summer time, we now have longer , lighter evenings but consequently we are back to the darker mornings. Still , I prefer to get my cycling in early so I have been going out lit up like a Christmas tree  with flashing lights on my helmet as well as the bike.

The days have mostly been grey and damp but it hasn’t deterred me and I have cycled every day. One morning, as we were crossing the bridge at the Tees  barrage  , we came across a raised bridge.

In about 10 years of riding over here , we have never seen the bridge raised to allow boats to pass through the lock. so it was a first for us to be stopped. It didn’t take long though but another cyclist was a bit miffed at having to wait.

On Saturday, I was invited to go on a Billy Flemming Memorial ride. She was a lady who in the 1930’s rode every day and rode nearly 30,000 miles in the year. She died aged 100 in 2014 and this is to commemorate her world record which hasn’t been broken as yet.  I went on a similar ride last year but as we had friends coming I wasn’t able to do the whole ride with the Cycle Sisters.

I can really tell that cycling every day is paying dividends and I cycled over to the meeting point in Yarm , 9 miles away , in less than an hour and  managed the climb up the bank in a higher gear than I usually do.

I was early having allowed myself nearly 1 1/2 hours but C was there. She bought some anti-inflammatory gel as her knees were a bit sore. The joys of getting older!!

We set off through the estate from the Aldi carpark and then rode up past the prison and along to Weary bank. The road surface is worse than ever here and I was getting on fairly well up the climb. C’s gears wouldn’t drop  so she got off to walk. Well, I couldn’t let her walk on her own , as she was riding back marker, so hopped off and pushed the bike up the hill. I always say, there is no shame  walking.

I wish I could say it was lovely weather – but it wasn’t . It rained intermittently and we regrouped at the top of the bank. Dilemma? put on the waterproof jacket and feel like a boil in the bag fish or just get wet in the rain?

I carried on without donning the jacket up through Seamer and then down to Tanton before climbing up from the beck to ride along to Great Ayton. We crossed the little foot bridge over the Leven.

C taking a photo as we cross the bridge  before splitting to 2 groups to go to a café for a break. However, this was where I was leaving them and it had begun to rain in earnest and I had about 8 miles to ride home , I did put on my jacket and over trousers. Doing that usually stops the rain but not today and it rained nearly all the way home.

On 1st May, the Tour de Yorkshire will depart from the Boro and pass through  Great Ayton so the whole village is decked out in blue and yellow bicycles in readiness for the influx of spectators.

On Friday I got in another 3 miles of riding on my Dahon Speed TR as I went to collect my car from having its  service and road worthiness test (MOT) . It meant that I could use  cycle paths to get there and thus avoid a lot of home time traffic. I wish it had been as easy to get home in the car. It took much longer and I had to detour because of an accident.

So in total this week I cycled another 99 miles. I know I should have done and extra mile to round it up  but I didn’t.