Late again - sorree! | BigCloset TopShelf

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Look, its been a full day okay?

So anyway, I'm here now and to quote ELO, Here is the news.

First up - travels awheel. As I mentioned on Wednesday, my ride schedule got a bit messed up due to the weather earlier in the week so no ride Thursday or Saturday, those rides deferred to Friday and today respectively.

Friday was dry but a bit grey with something of a south westerly wind keeping the temperature down to @ 5c which wasn't a problem as I headed north to Cirencester before changing direction towards Gloucester. I ended up with a bit of a zaggy route as I tried to keep off the busy dual carriageway until I picked up the Stroud road. Considering I don't have a map covering this bit of the Cotswolds I didn't do too bad and even though it was now into the wind the road southwards was pretty nice to ride. To be fair I think the wind had dropped some, it wasn't any warmer and with four hours riding down I stopped for a bite to eat at a snack bar just before Nailsworth.

It was perishing down in the valley, I was glad to start riding and climbing up onto the main lump of Cotswold again before dropping through Wotton and into the lower countryside that takes you back towards Brizzle. I had at one point thought I'd get an imperial century in but I came in about 10 miles short - oh well another day then.

And so to today. the forecast was cold but bright all day so I decided that I'd head to Usk across in Welsh Wales. When I got up it was quite frosty so I worked out a route that should be largely free of ice hazard and set off into the frigid morning. I made good progress, an hour to the Severn Bridge although the sky was blue and the sun shining brightly (cue more ELO!) it was damn cold.Across into Cymru and a speedy ride over to Newport before taking the very fast but uphill dual carriageway north towards my designated lunch stop.

I wouldn't usually have used such a main road but it was convenient and avoided the possibility of ice on the smaller roads. Anyhow I found my way into Usk where I had my makeshift lunch - a cowboy pastie (or sausage and bean in Gregg talk) sat on a wall in the sunshine. Time to head back I guess however I took the wrong road out of town and found myself not going where I wanted, rather than do the sensible thing of turning round I decided once again to use Maddy PS instead.

So the road I took was spot on in terms of where it took me, the only problem was the heavy frost which was covering it. I carefully climbed the lane but at one point the gradient increased to just the point where I lost forward traction so I hopped off and walked maybe 100m to where it levelled off a bit. over the top, I could see the road I was headed for the only problem was the narrow, twisty descent to get there which of course was covered in ice! It took all my skills and stupidity to get to the bottom in one piece. Thankfully the new road was clear of such issues, a glorious climb at a nice gradient then an equally fun descent all the way back to the English border.

A stop for tea at the Aust services then a gentle ride back to base. The pace had been high most of the ride, an average of @ 15mph (might not sound much but for big lengths it was well into the 20's but the few stiff climbs reduce things dramatically!), the distance just over 120km pushing this week to over 400km in total. Despite the sunshine, the average temp was just 1c but, apart from the icy roads, it was a joy to be out riding.

Next up, publishing. Well as usual Amazon are employing delaying tactics with the print version but the 2nd edition of Gaby book 6, Girls Girls Girl? is now up for Kindle. So for those interested, here is the Kindle link again, i'll put up the print version as soon as its cleared.

Kindle