Boil In The Bag Biking.

After a few days of being confined to Barracks with the Manflu, I really needed to get out on a bike and in the fresh air, but the weather forecast didn't look at all promising. Well it was promising something, rain, potentially a fair amount of it too. Well that's ok I thought, I'll just bung on my 'waterproof' (Yeah right...) over trollies and my jacket before leaving (I hate mono hopping about on the roadside in a downpour with one foot stuck in the leg of a pair of plastic trousers) and I'll stay (mostly) dry should I get caught when the heavens opened.

So off I trundled on the old crapheap Carrrera and had a very enjoyable slow pedal around one my extended loops. Despite being over cast and pretty breezy, it just felt really good being out on a bike again. Being on the back lanes means I was sheltered from the wind mostly, but the noise it made rushing through the trees was really quite something, really loud, but along with the ever more threatening skies, it all added to the feeling that something was coming. That slight feeling of anticipation and foreboding as you know bad weather is on the way, a feeling I love.

I didn't capture the buffety, humid, wind coming from behind me in this shot, and showing up in the crops as ripples racing across the landscape. Quite mesmerising seeing the countryside seemingly alive like that. 

Nope, not turning for home yet...

Despite the imminent deluge, I was enjoying the ride too much to take the first turning home, and the next, and the next one after that as well, always the sign of a good ride.

Grass in the middle of a road doesn't always indicate a dual carriageway or motorway...

Better yet, it only started to rain about a mile from home so I stayed dry, right? Well I was wearing my wet weather gear... but it is also a two piece personal sauna suit in the summer, and I was soaked in sweat. But that's alright, that's what the shower is for after all.

The best bit to take from the ride though was I conquered the ugly hill from Lanner Mill (here... that rhymes...). Now this hill is bang out of order – a properly steep beggar that would have some of the Tour De France lot saying 'non monsieur' I'm sure (yeah right, ok...). I've only ridden all the way up it once before, and even then had to stop at the top to get my lungs back and hold my heart in. Today though, instead of the usual take a run at it, stick the boot into it and see how far up I can get, I opted for the winching gear right from the bottom and just pedaled, and pedaled some more, and made it over the top quite comfortably in fact.

Easily one of the slowest rides I've done this year as I rarely made it into double figures on the speedo, but also one of the most relaxing and enjoyable.