January and February, gone.

January and February gone, poof. 

It has been a busy couple of months. Post second week of January I finished a 3-month work contract and decided to have a week off the bike to go on a quick trip to Belgium, visiting Brussels, Bruges and Ghent - lots of walking, quite a few tipples and, of course, snow. 

Back in the UK and in between contracts (and thinking more work was imminent), I panic booked a mid-week trip to the Lincolnshire Wolds. I get a bit giddy building these mini tours and decided, as a Lincolnite, I'd go to the Wolds. Definitely not as popular (or probably as scenic) as other AOB's, but it's close to home and I was curious. As it's still cold and i'm not brave and/or mad enough to wild camp in January, I found some good lodgings at a pub, The Black Horse Inn, in Donington on Bain, about 12 miles from Market Rasen. Good accomodation, excellent food.

My trusty steed for the journey, a Temple Adventure Disc 2 - 105, set up with tool pouch and Restrap large conebag 

TBHI served as my base for a few days. Day One (the trip there + a 30/40 mile cycle around) proved a tough day on the bike! I took my steel Temple Adventure with a cone bag and a 12L backpack, definitely feeling the hills around - and they say Lincolnshire is flat! After a couple of punctures and niggling problems with seating tubes in a tubeless ready wheelset, decided to route through to Louth on Day Two (quick bike shop stop!) and head out to Mablethorpe after for some flat coastal rides, before heading back into a 20mph block headwind back to Donington. Phew. Both quite tough days. Day Three an easy day back to the station for the trip home. 

Lovely smooth sailing along the beach front at Mablethorpe 

The steepest, craggiest hill descent - took a month off my discs I think!

Like all small couplets of days out on the bike, what you prepare and what happens do not always tend to marry up - but that's cycling! I'm not the most mechanical of bicycle owners, so all experience is good experience. 

Post Belgium and Wolds is the main event - new bike day.

'Stan' - the new steed from Berlin

In love with my new steed, a Standert Erdgeschosse, in a flecked British-racing green / raw steel. It's a steel frame with carbon forks, a much racier geometry than my all-rounder Temple. It's like a glove in the (downgraded) saddle, with a simple Wing Win on the back. Chomped a few hundred miles on it so far. Decided to take the plunge and go tubeless - what a revelation. Still slightly worried about riding it on lower pressures, so the PSI is high and i'm bumping around off-round, but will get used to it eventually.

Needless to say, this is a dream bike of mine. I saw a load of Standert rigs at Rouleur, and while this one wasn't there in-person, I knew when I saw it online (and on sale!) I absolutely needed it to take the gravel riding seriously and to enjoy it tucked in and at speed. 

In the spirit of the new bike and gravel, i'm currently getting fit and ready for my first gravel event at Sherwood Forest with Glorious Gravel on the 23rd March. I've chosen the long-route to push myself (80km+) but hoping it'll be relatively dry and 'good' gravel. It'll be my longest stint off-road, but at an amble i'm sure i'll get round.

Beyond Sherwood, I'm also booked in for a long ride around the North York Moors, in-and-around Scarborough. The Glorious Gravel events seem a great first try of the overall scene, which I've seen and heard a lot of good things about. Here's to more miles!

January - Indoors!

A decent cycling week for January considering the weather, following the NYD ride out with a bit of Zwifting and a club ride, a 40ish mile ride to the Dairy Barn, a new cafe to add to the list. 100+ miles on the board. My aim is to average 90 or so miles a week this year.

Week has dropped in temperature, so planning a couple of indoor Zwift rides and hopefully a 50 on Sunday, give or take.

On the 'business' side of things, brochure for TCS is nearly complete, and the club newsletter is coming along nicely. Will share/update in time.

More excitingly, the Standert Erdgeschoss I ordered in November is in't shop (in Berlin) and should be with me in two-or-so weeks time. Get me on this bike.👆

Mixing it up in January.

By virtue of signing up to ‘compete’ in my first gravel race/event in Sherwood Forest in March, there’s no better time to start getting techy and hitting the off-road gravel-come-mud scene.

There’s not actually all that much gravel in my local area (minus a few trails leading to wind-farms, and a quarry), so public bridleways it was. Created a 20-mile off, 25mile on road route, with the off a mixture of cycle-paths, gravel and public bridleways.

Turns out, public bridleways in this county are a bit of a myth. They either do not exist – in which I ended up on a farmers doorstep or nearly KO'ing into a fence/wall – or they’re not maintained; crumbling and barely useable. Compound that with the sheer amount of rain we’ve had and well – slip, slop, failure.

A few diversions here and there (unfortunately back on road) and it ended up being a pleasant and warm ride, visiting villages new to me such as Irnham, Keisby and Aslackby, with undulating hills, nice sweeping lanes and really beautiful skies.

2023, complete.

An odd but decent on-bike year. Cycled similar mileage to 2022 but can definitely see really good areas of improvement, particularly in my fitness and lifestyle choices -  eating healthily, less drinking, combining to drop me down to a much more natural weight of around 70kg (170cm). 

I also feel far more comfortable on the bike with a combination of improved flexibility (thanks Yoga with Adrienne lol) and better bike-handling. My main struggle of 2023 has been staying healthy - a combination of stress, weather and (from time-to-time) pushing myself too hard and expecting too much (watts, power, speed).

I’ve improved a lot and know I want too much too quickly, so 2024 aim is to be a bit more intentional with my training, get a coach/trainer and just manage my expectations. 

Sadly cycling oversea’s eluded me for another year, but really did enjoy a lot of UK roads and fields, mostly in-and-around Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, as well as a couple of excursions into Yorkshire. Nearly did a bike-packing trip around Cornwall (overnight sleeper), but storm-stopped play, but is back on the list for 2024.