Back in the saddle

First venture this week was a cycle around the TTT 20 route. Just a minute off my quickest time. Weather had forecast rain so I was wearing my new Rohan jacket - however, no rain was to be seen. The jacket was swapped to a larger size, but this was seriously too big, so I swapped back. All good now.

Wednesday would have been a great day to test my new jackets waterproofing. It was a seriously miserable day and the rain hammered down. I didn't use the new jacket though, instead I wore my old trusty jacket and went out on my mountain bike instead. I hooked up with Ron and we cycled some old paths around Astwood Bank and naughty fields. A relatively short cycle but fun all the same.


As chance would have it, Thursday was a real wet and miserable day too.  I seized the opportunity and took Cayo out to test my new jacket. The jacket performed almost perfect - it kept me completely dry and snug despite the heavy rain, menace hail and gusty winds. Only minor menace with the jacket is that under layers want to ride up and pass the sleeve ends. The route I chose to complete was the good old TROAD route. I hadn't cycled this route for a while because I kept getting lost and had forgotten about it. My cousin Aid reminded me of the route (he rode it with Ron after my wedding) and Ron emailed me the instructions today. Ron (and maybe John) created this route a long time back and it is so named because it is The Ride Of Absolute Doom. Or so they say. This ride is quite hilly (includes the menace Cobley Hill), is just over 25 miles long and for a newbie is quite demanding. Todays ride was not quite as demanding as I previously remembered and we all know bigger and better hills. TROAD is the perfect ride however, if you want some climbing action but only have a couple of hours to spare. Ron rides an extended TROAD, maybe I'll ride that next week and feed back.


Weekly totals: Cycled 62 miles.