At work there was a sweepstake as to how long it would take me to cycle to work in the morning. The cycling route would be about 16.5 miles long on the back roads. It takes me roughly 28 minutes to drive into work without any traffic on this route.
Here are some of the guesses of times from people at work.In the end it took me just over 50 minutes to get to work. I was really surprised how much longer each of the guesses were. The ranged from Wiki's time of 54 minutes to a high of 1hr 45 minutes from John. Needless to say that Wiki was very pleased to have the closest guess.
An amazing view of a field of poppies on my way to work.My ride to and from work goes down Streatley hill to work and up it on the way back. It's a very steep and quite long hill which was graded on the Tour De France when it was over in the UK. So far I've managed to cycle about half way up it before giving in. It's about half way along the route home so I don't really want to tire myself out in cycling all the way up it. Maybe one day I'll conquer the hill, one day.
Unfortunately I managed to come off my bike on the second week of cycling in.It was only a small accident at relatively slow speeds. I was just at the top of Streatley hill and rode into a covered manhole on the side of the road while trying to avoid cars overtaking me. The problem was that the hill had only just been resurfaced so there was plenty of gravel to fall onto and the drains were quite recessed.
My handle bars on the bike came off a little worse.In some ways I was quite glad to come off at such a slow speed as I was only going faster and faster on the bike and it would only have been a matter of time before I came off. Then it would depend on how fast I was going and how serious the fall would be. I have slowed down a bit since the fall, which is a good thing.
It was my friend Dave's daughter Jennifer's birthday recently and there was a party for her.
Just don't ask, it was a hot summer's day and they are playing some kids game while we watched on.
Jen enjoying herself in her own unique way!Just about every chance that I've had I've been out cycling on my road bike in The Peak District near to where Debbie lives.
Out in the middle of nowhere in the Peaks on my road bike.There is a steady climb from Upper Mill into the peaks. It's not so steep as to be totally tiring but steep enough to get the heart racing and have a good sweat. Once you reach the top of the hill after about half an hour of climbing, you can fly back down it again on the way you went up. It feels so surreal coming down the hill as you don't have to touch the breaks and you feel as if you're flying down the hill at about 50kph for ages. Needless to say it's so much fun and I could do it again and again.
More views.Debbie and went to Alton towers for a summer day out. It's only about an hour away from her house in Manchester. We had an amazing day out and considering it was a Saturday in August it wasn't that busy either. The longest wait we had was for about 45 minutes and that was only once.
A great view of the Nemesis ride.It was very funny as on the end of each ride you get to see a photo of yourself on the ride. On every photo there was a picture of me yelling with a big smile and Debbie screaming with her eyes closed and the look of terror on her face!
The Oblivion ride. Probably my favorite even if it was the shortest.
