Creative hedging

Seen recently on a ride out east. Can't recall where exactly but I think it was somewhere near East Markham. There were a number of others too, including a rabbit and an owl.

Windy Winnats

Cycling up Winnats Pass is hard at the best of times but going up recently in to the teeth of a stupidly strong headwind made me question my sanity. It probably would have been almost as quick to get off and walk but Look pedals and cleats meant that wasn't really an option. Grinding, gurning and gritting of teeth were all required.

Muchos credit to my mate Pete who made it up (without stopping) with his arse on this:


And whilst I was 'honking' on the pedals, he was 'honking' on this :-)

C-C-C-C-C-Cold

Well below freezing on the commute in this morning. The combination of clear blue sky and fields covered in white made for a beautiful ride but by golly it was cold. Fingers and toes numb for a while afterwards, and as for the skin on my cheeks ... The cold does encourage you to ride faster though.

Forecast is for it to be about -3 on my way back to Worksop later this evening and about -8 tonight. Nice.

Bl**dy farmers

I knew I shouldn't have replied to Ian's email about his spate of punctures! I'm actually no believer in fate but its usually better to keep your counsel when talking about stuff like that. The sunny weather in the early part of this week didn't just bring out more cyclists. It also brought out the local farmers with their flail hedge cutters. Now if anyone else decides to chuck vegetation all over the road then I'm pretty sure that, at best, you'd be yelled at and, at worst, be fined (heavily) for littering. So WHY do farmers think it is perfectly OK to leave decimated hawthorn hedge in their wake and not clear it up. It was so bad near Kiveton that it was impossible to pick a way through it all. The only small silver lining was that by leaving all the thorns in the tyres I could get back and fix the punctures at home. GITS.