Two outdoor riding days in a row, and it’s still January? Amazing. More down to my determination, rather than ideal conditions, but still. Result.
Well, it was a cold one today. Yesterday was cold, but warmer than today. What yesterday had going for it was that the snow came during the day. That meant the roads were a bit mushy, and in some parts a bit crazy, but by-and-large, the snow hadn’t stuck, so there wasn’t a huge risk of ice.
Not so today.
Yesterday’s mushy remains, combined with very cold weather overnight meant the view out of the window in the morning was not ideal.
I decided to stick it out and wait for the afternoon, see how things progressed, weather-wise.
At worst, I’d do the Stage 5 of TdZ 2021, which is a Volcano KOM after party. Honestly, it’s not such a bad route. The climb at the end is equivalent to another Box Hill effort, but my reasoning for not wanting to do yet another indoor ride is simple:
I am indoors all week.
I basically don’t leave the house. If I can get out at the weekend, then for my own sanity, I am going to try.
So, ice concerns permitting, I decided to stick entirely to the A-roads today. A 15km ride out towards Lancaster, all up the busy (and crucially, gritted) A6 / Garstang Road. My loop back comes at a funky 6 way junction, before turning into Garstang village(?) centre, and back out to the main road, returning the way I came.
Nearly got plowed at the roundabout in Garstang. Little old ladies are the worst.
I wore my rubber / neoprene gloves as effectively liner gloves, and then my big snowboarding gloves over the top.
My hands stayed warm, mostly. I stopped in Garstang to have a banana, and had to de-glove for the banana love. I noticed my fingers were very red. My bigger concern today was adjusting to using my brakes and gears through two layers of gloves. This was not easy and if I had had to make a sudden braking maneuver, I’m fairly sure that would have ended badly.
But anyway, a decent ride out in terms of exercise, and a much needed hour and ten out of the house.
Let’s hope the weather picks up a bit this week and next weekend is a touch warmer. Roll on Spring though, eh? Bloody hell it’s cold. Combine it with a lock down and Brexit and I can’t imagine a prison sentence is much worse.
