Technical dramas...

I was up early doors to crack on with Phill's challenge of 100 off road miles in June. And I mean early doors! According to my Cyclemeter App I started riding at 0422hrs. I was well chuffed with the early start it meant I could get some serious miles in and get myself on the scoreboard.

I started off on my usual way over the Waseley's then headed off towards Clent via some bridalways around Belbroughton and get as far as Hagley/Blakedown and bridalway my way back via Stourbridge. Well, that was my plan.

My first puncture happened just over the Waseley's, then rather than bore you all with it I had a total of 7 punctures along the route. Nope, you did read that right, 7 punctures, 2 of which happened front and back together on the bridalway down by Bradford House! Add on to that the bite valve on my Camelbak constantly leaking so I had to ride with it permanently in my mouth and the battery being flat on my digi camera and I had the feeling that this ride was damned from the start. So I decided to cut my losses and get home a bit early. We are off out over the Cotswolds later with the kids to visit Broadway Tower anyway.

Photos of ride below.

Sunrise over the Waseley's from a Belbroughton bridalway.

My double puncture at Bradford House.

Interesting bit of industrial heritage on the village green at Belbroughton. Look at the year on the plaque, I'm surprised it was sourced from the States then as Birmingham was the workshop of the world at the time.

The climb up to Walton Hill Clent with Worcestershire spread out below.

Trig point at the top of Walton Hill.

So, that was my first effort to get a 100 in for June, a bit disappointing to be honest, I did enjoy it though and the puncture thing is just part of MTBing, but the flat camera battery was bad admin on my part and I'll have to get a new bite valve for the Camelbak.

It was in its own way as disappointing as my weigh in yesterday, I put a pound on! How the flipping heck that happened I do not know, 116 commuting miles and I was good with my food too. In the words of the great Brummie songstress Toyah Wilcox, it's a mystery.

Stats here, just look at the average speed FFS!

Started: 5 Jun 2010 04:22:46

Ride Time: 2:40:12

Stopped Time: 29:58
Distance: 14.77 miles
Average: 5.53 miles/hr
Fastest Speed: 32.07 miles/hr
Climb: 1657 feet
Calories: 1056

And track here for audit purposes:

http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/d1c4/1bb6/4b96/d37e/Cyclemeter-Cycle-20100605-0422.kml


Yesterday's pedal home was a very enjoyable Canal, NCR5 Lickey Loop, the nice weather had everyone out and I was constantly dodging pedestrians along the way, mostly who were wearing Ipods and seemed blissfully unaware of stuff happening around them. It does annoy me.

Stats here:

Started: 4 Jun 2010 11:46:02
Ride Time: 1:11:45
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 15.86 miles
Average: 13.01 miles/hr
Fastest Speed: 20.43 miles/hr
Climb: 837 feet
Calories: 843