Monday 6 August 2012

Pics from our ride on Sunday.

Warren and I went out for a training ride on sunday. Were Warren writing this he'd probably have managed a pun around the word "training", and the fact that it was raining. I however am not blessed with this level of writing skill so I've had to settle for the above title.

After watching endless cycling on the telebox over the last few days (and a quick play through the songs on melodica and mandolin - suprisingly trebley!) I set out with high hopes of emulating Wiggins...

Whilst we didn't achieve that type of performancewe did get a cracking pace down after lunch. The long and short of all this is that it got me thinking about the stuff I carry with me on the bike and how (in bad conditions) we used almost all the kit.

  • 3 high calorie snack bars (two before lunch and one after at the various breaks for map reading)
  • Waterproof jacket (Hi-vis... cos if it's raining then cars can't see you in a road coloured jacket)
  • 2 litres of water
  • Pump
  • Mobile Phone
  • Punture repair kit
  • Toolkit (Allen keys in my case although some bikes need spanners)
  • Lunch
  • Spare inner tube
  • Sunglasses
  • Sun Cream
Apart from the tools and  puncture repair kit I used all of the other items... Yes sunglasses, suntan lotion and waterproofs. I also planning on getting some waterproof socks.

One solution that works quite well in the rain is to not wear too many layers of clothing in the rain. You don't want layer upon layer of soggy clothing/fancy dress. On a bike this your cycling shorts and top. If it's warmish this is often the best. Once you stop you put a jacket on to stop the wet clothes cooling off. This worked well on the warmer days in scotland last year. I favour only putting waterproofs on when it really comes down, then not taking them off again until the sun is warm enough to dry you off in a pleasant way.

Hopefully we'll have a dry and bright trip together, but the British weather is at very best unpredictable. It only rained on sunday for an hour, and it was only roasting for two hours but without sun cream and waterproofs it would have been a potentially uncomfortable day.

As it was it was lovely.

(by the way I know photo 2 is a bit strange. This was our view from the bus shelter where we had lunch.)

Dominic

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