Coughton Sunburn

Having done little cycling since the Dynamic 100 (unless you count 14 miles off-road at Cannock Chase) I felt it was time to get back on the road.

 

This morning, I covered myself in factor 30 suncream and took the Specialized out into the blazing sunshine. For the first 27 miles I attempted to follow the Dynamic 100 route which I had studied on Jonnie's Strava. I managed this to varying degrees of success - going the wrong way at least three times and having to resort to using the map on Strava. Eventually I got to the Salt Way which meant I would now start to head East towards Aston Cantlow. This meant 12 miles or so on roads I had never cycled along before. This second part of the route was put together a couple of days ago on Google...And it turned out great!

I saw some genuinely beautiful views and passed through lovely little villages. I even got wolf-whistled by a van driver (but he wasn't my type). I had my lunch ( a breakfast bar and a mouthful of water) on a bench in Sambourne - a place so picturesque that normal people (non-cyclists) were driving there to have their sandwiches and hold hands and that sort of carry-on. I whooshed past Coughton court and thought what a pretty place it was.

The route eventually joined up with the last 15 miles of my usual training ride. On the way back I was suffering like a dog and only stubbornness got me up Tom's Hill.
I met a group belonging to Shirley Roads Club on their Wednesday run. All of them senior citizens, some of them appearing to be twice my age, they were still making good progress in the heat and already had 36 miles under their belts when I met them. I got talking to the fella at the front and he told me an amusing story:
His mate has 7 bikes, but his wife thinks he has only one. How does he do it? He only buys blue bikes and keeps them in the shed where she isn't allowed to go! All she ever sees is him wheeling his blue bike out of the shed...
Not sure if it's true or not but it made us chuckle.

In other news: my brother is already a fit and healthy guy but has recently decided to have a go at cycling. He got himself a good Specialized and set about putting in the miles. In his first week he was the victim of a hit and run by a van driver in London. My bro is tough enough to recover from his bloodied knees and elbows, I just hope that this doesn't put him off cycling.

Finally, I am just about to finish reading Bikie by Charlie Woods. It's an exceptionally interesting book and really well-written. A word of warning though: the author assumes you are an informed reader and are well versed in road-cycling lore and it's idiosyncrasies. He uses a lot of cycling terms, particularly about bike parts and racing, without bothering to explain them!