Friday 20 July 2012

Hamsterley again again again

Another trip up to Hamsterley on Thursday; the fourth in eight days, which is unheard of riding frequency for me. Dropped down (Section 13 then up the Transmission climb and down Transmission, Accelerator, Nitrous) before heading up the road climb out of the forest.

Felt much better than last ride, after a day off on Thursday, and got a mix of fastest or very close to fastest times (for me) on the climbs, and went down the off-road stuff faster than usual too. Turns out, I get faster at riding a bike if I ride a bike; who'd have thought?

Apple juice and pork pie fueling seemed to do the trick. The pies were nice and peppery, but I'm looking forward to trying the ones with apple in next time. A mix of plain, pickle and apple should be good for Kielder100 this year.

There was even enough enough sun to finally start this year's ridiculous cyclist's tan.

Distance: 83km (31km Darlington to Woodland, 20km from Woodland into/round the forest and back again, and 32km back home again)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 4:25 (1:45 + 1:10 + 1:30)
Weather: Warm and dry
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4″ tyres on 32:17)

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