Saturday 10 March 2012

A little lost and the Dee Bore!

After a wet start to the week, Sunday and Tuesday were very wet rides, today felt like spring had finally arrived. I risked a short sleeved jersey, with arm warmers, and shorts, with knee warmers. No overshoes for the first time in months, and mitts instead of full finger gloves!
I had a great ride on Friday night,  testing myself on a 10 mile TT route, and managing an average of 20mph and completing the circuit in 31 mins. If I can find another couple of mph I will start to think seriously about entering a 10 mile TT!
So today as I headed up to Paul's my legs were reminding me of the effort I had put in last night. It was warm but a little breezy and Paul and I knew we were in for a tough ride if we were heading into it. 
There were some new faces, and some old ones who haven't been out for a while joining the ride. 
There were 12 of us that left the shop. I suggested that we head out past Chester, to Saighton, where there is a CDNW race tomorrow that some of the team have entered. I had an ulterior motive, as I wanted to check out the circuit for good spots to take photos during the race.
We were lucky on the way out, the wind was mostly behind us which helped to keep the pace up, once we were on the Chester High Road. We dropped down onto the Dee Path and as we started along it, we noticed there were a lot of people on the bank of the river. Curiosity got the better of me and I was told that the Dee Bore was expected any minute. It's not the sort of thing you see every day, so we paused for a minute to watch the phenomena pass.  




We continued along the path, dodging dogs, walkers and wobbly cyclists, into Chester, then followed the river path through the city to the end. We got out to the start of the course and without discussion, the pace lifted and everyone adopted a race mentality! This was where the navigation problem started, as we missed a turn and ended up adding 7 miles to the ride! the roads were nice though!!
We got back on track and started the inevitable slog back to the shop into the wind. When we arrived back in Chester we nearly stopped at one of the riverside cafes, but decided to get the tough Dee Path, with a head wind, behind us before we stopped.
I find it is like riding up hill through syrup when you are faced with a headwind. With the wind behind us travelling towards Chester, even dodging the Bore crowds we had achieved an average of 25.5mph, but heading home I only managed an average of 15.8mph.
We stopped at Eureka and bumped into Shaun, Ade and Dave. Check out the link to the Wirral Mamils Blog to see what they have been up to recently, on the track and riding the Winter Sprinter.

Seeing as we had taken an unplanned detour, we decided to head straight up the Chester High road back to the shop instead of winding our way through the lanes. We worked together and it wasn't too long until we were back in the traffic of Heswall and then at the shop. As everyone left I took the chance to take a closer look at a new bike the Lads are building. Phil doesn't want me to spoil its unveiling, but I couldn't resist taking a photo!


After a long, or testing ride, it is important to help the recovery process. I have tried numerous drinks and methods, but have finally found the best that works for me. On a recent TV programme it was suggested that milk was a good recovery drink, which was backed up by cycling legend Chris Boardman on Twitter, who added a twist by suggesting that flavoured milk is even better. So the secret is out, get down to the supermarket and buy some full fat milk and a milkshake mix! I promise you wont be disappointed. Strawberry is better than chocolate!!


This weeks ride details can be found HERE



2 comments:

  1. What happened to the canoes and surfers?

    ReplyDelete
  2. We did see some on the banks but not in the water!

    ReplyDelete