RIP:
16 minutes into my workout, with 1800 miles on the 32c 5000 TR rear tire and it’s dead.
Pro tip: Vittoria Air-Liners work as advertised!
^ looking back at the overpass that has taken its toll on so many tires.
Oh no!!! I hope you made it back home safely!
My wife owed me and it’s only 5 minutes by car 
I got a pretty big gash yesterday, from a screw or nail or something, and thought I could get one more ride before my rest day tomorrow.
What a great wife!! Sorry about the tire!
Some early morning cow bell from earlier this week in a light rain. “Hello, Ladies!” didn’t get a reaction, so I tried “Morga,” “Morgan,” and “Grüezi,” which also didn’t impress them.
And some trail and gravel time this morning.
There seems to be a new regular I’ve now seen on the trail several times: a grandmother-looking lady out of central casting in a blue puffy jacket and carrying a flashlight that looks like the kind you’d take camping in the 1980s.
Snow is forecast for this weekend, but I don’t expect a lot of white stuff to stick but I do expect a lot of wet trails and soggy leaves. We’ll see…
I’m super impressed you ride in those conditions. I picked up cycling while in Florida so anything below 65F seems cold to me.
Little loop to Newquay and back yesterday afternoon, on the last day of my short Cornwall trip.
Weather was amazing for this time of year. The amount of steep hills was fun / annoying in equal measure. Made for slow progress.
I had a good go at the climb out of Mawgan Porth nabbing second in my Strava weight class (200 to 224 lbs).
Notably the KoM for that hill is held by Chris Opie (pro and ex GCN presenter).
After that effort I wasn’t motivated to push it on as it’s supposed to be my ‘rest’ week 
Beautiful countryside help distract me from sore legs.
As a native of Southern California, yup, below 65 F (or even below 70F!) was cold. Get below 50 and whoa, bundle up for a hard winter. I also remember walking along the Venice (Los Angeles, not Italy) boardwalk before New Year’s Day and seeing all the crazy people from Michigan or wherever (supporters U of Michigan, or whatever other team, in town for the Rose Bowl) in shorts and t-shirts enjoying the “warm” weather we were bundled up against. But you get accustomed to the cold… Several years ago when we were back in LA for Christmas and visiting Manhattan Beach, the kids were playing in the ocean and building sand castles, I was in shorts and flip flops that I had to buy because I willfully didn’t bring such attire. Then we got ice cream at the place at the corner Manhattan Ave and Manhattan Pier Ave and as we sat outside it dawned on me, as I watched people walk buy in winter coats and jeans why I didn’t bring shorts: because “LA me” knew it was cold. Then-London me though thought it was warm and I was baking in long trousers. It’s all relative and you eventually adjust, usually and maybe not always willingly.
@dsirrom great pics.
So true. When I was in FL I didn’t think twice about riding in 110+ heat index - just put on sunscreen and bring two bottles for every hour of riding.
Apologies it wasn’t actually today’s ride, today was a travel day, the 6.25 days before that were actual riding.
Day 0 I arrived in Tenerife before noon and was desperate to build my bike and test it. Check in wasn’t allowed till 3pm which spat me out in Rush Hour traffic so I just went round the block.
Day 1 - There wasn’t a guide available but the tour company hooked me up with another rider. He was a bike salesman (KONA) and was super strong and totally burnt the legs off me till near the top of Teide. Near the top was where I could go into the 52 and I was burning the legs off him. It only lasted about 20miles though, as soon as we went down he was a much more confident descender than me. He was also better prepared clothes wise than I. My gilet features often as I only took one not expecting so many descents or the need for armwarmers (thankfully I had packed Armskins for future days after this).
When I got back to the Hotel my Garmin said I needed 3days to recover; I ignored that.
Day 2 we were led by a guide to the East coast and a bit of a flatter ride (well for the Canaria anyway). We were chasing the guide to the coast which was just under 16mph which was fine when it was stuff I could handle in the 52t but on the way back I dropped to the 34t and was well of their pace.
Day 3 - The bike salesman had to go home which meant a much more sedate ride for me up Teide west side. Where I discovered my well off his pace was a lot faster than everyone else pace.
![Screenshot_20211126-210322_Strava|243x500, 100%]
(upload://j1RlEwbiPKOyB56qMdEefMWHWLX.jpeg)
That sign again !
Day 4 - Was just me chasing the guide which was fine when I was in the 52t but I was still turning the 34t at the pace I’d turn a 36t so was well off his pace.
We stopped at a cafe and I ordered what turned out to be their ‘Special Omelette’. I just saw lots of bits my body was craving. I think it was ‘Special’ as in contained EPO as it restored my energy big time. But maybe it’s just because it was again a 52t ride after that.
Day 5 - I joined another group which took the bus out passed where we cycled to yesterday and a famous climb (Masca). It was a good recovery for me as I was able to ride circa 70% and easily be faster than the others. Not as fast as Kwiatkowski though. He did the climb in 14.41 and I a 28.32. I was held up by traffic and was pacing myself for the next 2days. I am sure if I got a clear run and went flat out the KOM would be mine
Day 6 - was one last ride up Teide. I was the only person (other than the guide) who made it the whole way to the top but it was in strong winds and was really dreich. We waited for 20 minutes and instead of getting cold we got in another 5 miles and they still hadn’t appeared. Turned out they had given up and went home 
Pisgah on Thanksgiving morning, DuPont the day after. Maybe Pisgah again Saturday.
Short 16 miles with 2100’ of climbing this morning with the temp moving between 0C and -2C. Yesterday before dawn of Black Friday, we had our first dusting of the year. Last night and through dawn, a bit more came down. (No frogs were seen.)
First, over the ridgeline and down to the river valley and onward to get up and traverse (from left to right) the ridge ahead, eventually dropping down well behind me to the road on the other side of the river…
Then ascending the other side of the valley.
Out of the forest for a bit…
An easy cruise…
And the bike…
Yesterday we had a dump of snow, however it fell on fairly soft unfrozen ground so it wasn’t worth going out. Oh, there were 60km/h winds to deal with as well. It froze hard overnight so it was time to get out the fat bikes and go play. It began to snow just as we were about to set off and never really stopped all ride, it put 3cm down at the house by the time we got back.
A bit of road and then the first bridleway:
Higher up it becomes an access track to a couple of houses and was quite icy, complete lack of grip on that so had to walk about 100m until it levelled off.
Some more road led to the next BW.
After this we had a few options and ended up going for the shortest one. In the event this was probably wise. A bit of hoiking the bikes over a gate wrapped with barbed wire (the area got really popular during lockdown plus there’s no BWs on it)
The next bit is normally rideable but the snow had drifted in so a bit of hike-a-bike was in order. Given the state of that I wasn’t sure if the following bit would also be drifted in as it was in the lee of a stone wall but it was mostly rideable for the climb and level sections then fine on the downhill bit.
At the end of this is a lane that regularly ices up so we walked it. Didn’t stop me from falling over, fortunately I landed exactly on my front tyre so a soft landing! The last bit of off-road is legal, it used to be one of those silly BWs that just stopped in the middle of nowhere but the last field has been upgraded from footpath.
A steep climb up the lane in the above shot then left along the track by the wall on the skyline.
Only about 11km (the batteries in my Garmin died after 7km) in nearly 3hrs. Not exactly fast riding but fun.
That looks amazing 