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Not been on my bike since my Father passed away on April 30th, never finished my challenge but to be honest family is far more important.

Today I done my first ride with 5 lads from a road cycling club I ride with called Palefish

They met me in Neston at 8.15 an took the new route going over the new firing range in Shotton, we then made our way to Llandegla.

My fitnss has dropped alot due to a rough cold and chest infection but it was good to snot it out, made it to One Planet Adventure for around 10.30-10.45 and had a brew. SOme other had cake, muffins and tea cakes! looking back I should have as 30 miles later on the way back I bonked (means you have no energy, sugers drop and you have no will to ride!)

If your still reading then well done! I appreciate it.

We made our way back via Bangor-on-dee and Hold to Chester, after that we jumped on the cyclepath to Shotton again and cut off to the new cycle path, we were met with head winds all the way.

All in all the ride was good, some great company. Not as sociable as MTB riding but still good.

Tomorrow I have another ride with the club but will be cutting off to ride off road then meet them at the Pondarosa Cafe later on while the loop round and climb the Horse Shoe Pass.

Thanks for reading, safe riding.

Phil

You do well Mr Phil.

My parents, when they were young and us children mere twinkles in their eyes, used to cycle into Wales at the weekend quite often. I believe they all met up at the cafe on the Welsh crossroads.

Not so windy today for you. Hope it's a good day.

My dad was also a keen cyclist Moonstar. He went for miles and miles into Wales and Shropshire . Must have been quite difficult for them in the hilly regions, without the modern bikes. They probably had baskets on the front
Obviously traffic was like nil then, so I should think their rides would have been vey much more relaxed,rather than what MrPhil and friends have to endure.
Strangely enough, he would never buy myself or my sister a bike. He didn't like the idea of us on the roads! ( or maybe he couldn't afford them)

In my youth I was a keen cyclist; I well remember the cafe at Two Mills, Moonstar. When I was a projectionist at the Plaza, when we finished at about 11p.m. I used to ride to Chester and back just to keep in trim.

Thanks Moonstar, the cafe you mean is Eureka. It's a very busy place of a weekend, I stay out of there due to not wearing lycra and receiving daggers lol.

Ended up binning the ride orr today as I stretched my hamstring so strapped it up and rested, case of doing to much to soon I think.

My mate done a 92 mile trip to the Pondarosa Cafe before and rode the Horse Shoe Pass so he is made up! He had a good average speed of 9mph, considering he is 17st and over 50 he done good!

Not wearing lycra! I don't know why but I found that really amusing. What did people wear before lycra and having padded seats. I think they wore 'sensible' keks and more comfortable saddles. The old bikes I remember were reasonably light and had the drop handlebars. The bottle of home-made lemonade probably went in your coat pocket along with a packet of sarnies.

Thats why I am a cat amongst the pigeons on my MTB. Winds them up to pedal faster.

To be fair the lads from Palefish are a good group.

We wore shorts with a double seat in them. Even in those days our bikes could be quite sophisticated; mine was a Claud Butler all-welded frame, Reynolds 531 tubing, very lightweight. 5 speed Campagnolo gears with a double Williams chainset. Toe clips and special cleated soled shoes. We didn't have to carry a bottle in our pocket; bottle carriers were a quite early invention. For night riding, a Lucifer dynamo set was preferred.
One of my regular trips was to start about 11 p.m., Queensferry, along the North wales coast to Conway, down the Conway valley, stop for breakfast at the Bettws-y-Coed station dining room then back along the A5 to Llangollen, then Ruabon, Queensferry and home about 11 a.m. About 140 miles.

Nice miles Chris!

Route sounds nice aswell!

After a nice 65 mile leg stretch on Saturday I decided that on Sunday I would get up early and ride from Little Neston to Llandegla via Cilcain, Ruthin, Pondarosa Cafe

Woke up late at 10.30am and packed my Camel Back with the following...

Tool kit
2 litres of Lemon Juice with Salt added
Pump
Tube
Light
Inhalor (just in case)
Spare tyre incase one split

Also filled a 500ml water bottle with Orange Juice with 2 tea spoons of suger and Salt as I knew dehydration would ruin the ride.

Log from the ride..


All in all the ride went well, only thing stopping a linger ride was battery power on the phone.

With Summer being here I intend to try and get abit fitter, cardio is letting me down at the moment as I can only do short bursts on hills.