Rapha #festive500 Day 8. Wet.

Some idiot realised whilst descending Chunal 37 mph that they'd left their waterproof jacket at home.

So today I would get very wet, and Minipips wouldn't.

Over the Snake Pass we went.

It felt a particularly long hill today.

 Woodbine Cafe in Hope for mid ride refreshments.

From Castleton we road up the broken road. Minipips wanted to go off road all the way back, but I just wanted to get home.

The last climb up Maynestone Road.

Then as we descend back into Hayfield the rain really comes down.

61 kilometres and 952 metres of ascent - Strava.

Making a grand total of 504 Kms and over 34 hours of riding time.

After the epic we had on day one, I am amazed we made it.

Minipips says he's off to the park with his bike tomorrow.

Rapha #festive500 Day 7.

We have lots of friends who were going to be at the Todmorden Cyclocross race today, so that was where we were bound.

We got dropped off on the Rochdale Canal, and we followed it's course Northwards.

At Todmorden it rained which made the cobbled climb entertaining.

After watching some of the racing and lots of chatting with friends, we went back the way we came as far as Rochdale.

50.6 Kms today - Strava data.

57 Kms left to do tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone congratulated Minipips on his efforts today.

Rapha #Festive500 Day 6.

If one picture sums up conditions today on day 6 of our Rapha #festive500, then the one below is it, except you can't see the wind.

Still we rode, again towards Ashbourne on the Tissington trail.

I

Tunnels are ace places to eat Haribo, oh and that's rain on his face, not tears of joy.

At Ashbourne we waited 5 minutes for Amy who is also doing the #festive500 .

After lunch in Costa, we all rode back up the trail together.

An old building made a nice shelter to get out of the rain, just before the last few Kms.

Strava says we did 60.7km today.

393 of 500 km done, with two days to go.

Rapha #Festive500 Day 5.

This is the only road we rode on today, which was a good thing considering the visibilty.

Once over the road, we headed down the Tissington Trail towards Ashbourne.

A little bit of rain, but lots of puddles.

Oh and mud.

Lunch in Ashbourne, then we retraced our route back to Parsley Hey.

From there we headed towards Middleton Top to add a few extra miles.

At 40 miles we turned round, and back to the car.

Deserted trails apart from the odd person. A special day out.

So good we're going to do some of it again tomorrow.

83.7 Km today - Strava data.

332/500 Km done of the Rapha #festive500

Did I mention the mud?

Rapha #Festive500 Day 4.

We were back on target for the #festive500, today was to be an easy day of canal towpaths and generally easy peasy riding. A convoluted loop often touching somewhere we'd been before but, why not? Comfort riding.

Before we left I had to fix a relict flat tyre from yesterday. 4 hawthorns worth of damage.

We bimbled through New Mills, Whaley Bridge, Buxsworth all off road and lovely, we even saw a couple of herons.

From there we headed again to Whaley, this time on the road to then make our route along the canal again further North to Romiley.

British Waterways must have been busy since we last came this way a week since, as there was hedge debris all over the towpath. Try as we did to avoid, we both punctured. Between us 4 times. One of which was one of those "I've got all the thorns out" , "Err, no, obviously I haven't".

By the time we reached the Polocini Coffee Shop the day had all gone a bit wrong and though Minipips wasn't much bothered I thought otherwise.

Thankfully at Polocini HQ they had a track pump to get our tyres up to the proper pressure, and Al gave us a tube just in case to get us back home.

We left after Cake, a fine sandwich made with homemade bread, and warm drinks. Humour restored.

From there we headed over to Glossop and then back home, short on daylight.

We even failed at the pub at the end as I'd not brought enough money out with us.

55.9 kilometres which considering our time out should have been a lot more.

Still we're 49% there for the #festive500 . 4 days down 4 to go.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

PS. I went home for pub money.

Rapha #Festive500 Day 3.

A leisurely start to the morning, though someone had been trying to get me out of bed since 7 o'clock to go out cycling.

9am we left with a rough plan to head down towards Jodrell Bank. We needed a decent distance today to get us back on track for the #festive500

I always try to include as much traffic free riding, and the Middlewood Way is a good way to get some traffic free miles in as far as Macclesfield.

 Once in Macclesfield it was time to eat our bag of Jelly Babies.

From Macc we headed further South to Congleton before heading back up North via Jodrell Bank (which unfortunately was closed)

On the way back, I managed to get a mega puncture which involved 5 Hawthorns in one tyre.

The lovely weather faded on the way back. By Alderley Edge it was tipping it down.

A fairly big day today, but all easy cycling with no big hills.

Strava says we did 95Km which takes our total to just short of 200Km for the #festive500

Rapha #festive500 Day 2.

After yesterday's misery we were both looking forward to a better ride today.

Thankfully the weather played nicer, we had rain, but not lots of it.

We were having Xmas dinner in Leeds, so this was to be a linear route. We'd see how far we could get before Ann caught us up in the car.

From Hayfield we rode through Glossop then over Holme Moss. This was the first time Minipips had ridden over there.

The climb is a couple of miles long, but not particularly steep. All good.

The view from the top was nonexistant.

We were hoping to bump in to Ali and Emma, but they got there later.

The weather improved as we descended into Yorkshire at 50+ kph. 306/386 on the strava segment., not bad for a 7 year old.

There was little traffic, and what there was on the road seemed a good deal more courteous than usual.

We rode on through Holmfirth and Hudersfield and got picked up just before we got to Brighouse.


43.5 km today - Strava data.

Only 402.7 Km to go

Rapha #Festive500 Day 1.

We left home about 8am and the weather was pleasant, above freezing and no rain.

This lasted about 20 minutes.

By the time we'd got to Whaley Bridge it was raining properly, and this is the way it stayed for the rest of the day.

Heading up Long Hill on our way to Buxton, I was very glad we'd bought some bright lights with a flashing mode from 18 bikes. The visibilty became very poor as we headed up the hill into the clouds.

At Brierlow Bar we popped into the bookshop for a hot drink from their vending machine. Minipips actually wanted a vending machine with a nice hot Sun in it, but they didn't have one.

Revived, we headed out again. The rain fell heavier.

I'd thought we'd be OK though, more hot drinks at Parsley Hey but, they were shut.

Both of us in spite of having the right clothes, and lots of them, were cold.

So firstly we abandoned the plan of heading further south, then hammer down time in the hope of warming up. This worked a bit, but it was obvious that we weren't warming up properly. Rain from above and loads of surface water was not making this a fun experience.

So once back in Buxton we found a cafe for more hot drink and food, where I made the executive decision to end our ride.

Grandpa was happy to get out of doing the ironing to come and pick us up.

We'll be out again tomorrow, Xmas Day for a couple of hours, we're hoping the weather will be better.

Strava says we did 53.8 km. 

Monsal Trail Cycle Ride.

We were planning on going on a ride with some other folk over in Macclesfield forest today, but somebody forgot to set their alarm last night.

So running late and realising that we wouldn't make the depart in time, we opted instead to go and ride the Monsal Trail again.

Another nice easy ride, with all bar the last bit into Bakewell where we had lunch being off road. It was great to see some other kids out riding their bikes too today.

It was bloomin chilly out, I had to buy a hat in Bakewell for our return journey as I'd not brought one with. Minipips had remembered his though.

33.2 Kilometres and 300 metres of climbing. Though I have to say the gradient of the disused railway is such, that it feels flat.

A Saturday Cafe Ride.

Minipips, James and I went out for a pleasant ride over to Romiley to visit the Polocini Coffee Shop.

Run by cyclists and for cyclists, it is a great place with proper coffee and lovely food.

The route we took from New Mills where James lives, was all off road, following the Peak Forest Canal into Romiley. James knew this route, but we'd not been past Marple before on the canal. The above picture taken by James shows us heading over the Marple Aquaduct.

The home made cakes were as usual very good at the cafe. I'd seen via they're twitter feed that they made a dish called Rijsttaart, a Belgian rice tart which Minipips wouldn't try. I however did and it was lovely.

Tom was given a new bidon and will be getting one of their test team jerseys when they next get some.

We headed back home on the road taking in a few hills, where minipips tried to outsprint the grown ups.

Not a long ride, 29K and 500m of hills, but a very pleasant day out.

Minipips new blog first post.

Every blog has to start with a first post, so here's a quick intro for those who don't know us.

Minipips is my boy and he loves cycling. He doesn't have that name on his birth certificate though.

My name is Richard and I too enjoy riding bikes and other outdoors stuff.

Over the last year Minipips enthusiasm for cycling has increased so much that I thought it'd be nice for him to have his own little part of the internet. Though he has featured on my mainly running blog here, doing his first sportive in a cyclo-cross style and the account of his UK double coast to coast ride via Hadrian's Cycleway here.

We've got some good stuff coming up over the Xmas holidays, so stay tuned.

I'll sign of with a quote, not from anyone famous, but from a lady in her sixties we came across in a cafe last weekend. She asked my son what the furthest he'd ever cycled in a day was to which he replied.

"75 miles"

Her retort.

"I didn't think children were allowed to do that anymore"