Solo rides and punctures

30th & 31st July 2016

With Andy taking a well-earned holiday in Slovenia and Lara busy with art exhibitions I was the only one left to ride this weekend. The plan was to ride on both Saturday and Sunday, with Saturday being the shorter day of about 40km and Sunday being the longer and harder day of about 100km.

With it only being myself riding this weekend I could go out a little earlier than I would normally and at 8.00am on Saturday morning I set out for my first ride. I decided that I would ride out over Rudry first and set off at a nice steady pace. I hadn’t been riding long and I saw a couple of riders up ahead, it was a young lad and his father out for a spin. They soon turned off and I headed towards Rudry and the hills. Over the last few weeks I have been using my gears a lot more and this has made riding up hills a little easier.

As I started the first climb I saw a rabbit dart out in front of me and I had to swerve to miss it, the climbs weren’t too bad but I didn’t feel that I had rode them too well. After Rudry I headed towards Cefn Mably and Old St Mellon’s, the route was now much easier and is mostly downhill. I was surprised to see the young lad and his father coming the opposite way and they seemed to be going well up the hills. I was riding ok but didn’t feel as though I was going particularly well. Once I had headed out of Old St Mellon’s I headed towards Lisvane, Whitchurch and then home.

Once I had reached home I uploaded the ride to Strava and looked at the stats for the ride and to my amazement I had ridden a lot of the route much faster than I had done before. Although I didn’t feel I was going that well the stats told a different story and the first part of my weekend turned out well and the 40km ride was much better than I thought.

I had been thinking about my Sunday ride for a couple of days and had decided on the route that I was going to take. At about 8.30am I set off and headed towards Tongwynlais I was riding at an easy pace as I knew I wanted to ride at least 100km. After getting to Tongwynlais I then headed towards Pentyrch and the long climb to the top. I had only been this way once before and the climb was much harder and further than I remember. Once I was over the climb the ride was a little easier and I headed off towards Pendoylan through the country lanes.

It was a sunny and warm day and riding through the lanes was good and quiet. Once I had been through Pendoylan the route then took me onto a familiar route through Bonvilston and Cowbridge. The pace up to this point was ok and I was getting faster and faster as the ride continued. After Cowbridge I went onto St Athans and the ride was going really well, unfortunately somewhere in St Athans I picked up a slow puncture and this didn’t start to show itself for about another 8km when I felt that the back of my bike was sliding around a bit.

Eventually I had to stop and change the inner tube, I did this but my pump then decided that it didn’t want to work properly and I could only inflate the inner tube to about 50psi. I could still continue but at a much reduced pace as I was unsure about the tyre and inner tube. I decided to cut the ride short and headed back to Cardiff where I was able to pop into The Bike Shed (a local bike shop) on Cathedral Road and pump up my inner tube to the correct pressure.

The ride up to the point of the puncture had been good but the pace dropped on the way home and it ended up being an easier ride than I would have liked. I had only been joking the day before with Jo that I would get a puncture on my ride as she was in Swansea with her father watching the cricket and wouldn’t be able to come and rescue me and what happened a puncture. These things happen and it was good practice, it may happen on the challenge.

With only 46 days to go until our September riding challenge from North to South Wales we have set up a couple of giving pages and if you would like to support us the pages can be accessed via the following links:

Andy is raising funds for the MS Society and his Just giving page can be accessed via https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Andy-Lloyd10

I (Mike) am raising funds for Mind and my Virgin Money Giving page can be accessed via http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MikeShevyn

All donations to either Andy or myself are appreciated and you will be helping two very worthy causes.

Keep reading the blog for more cycling adventures .....................................

#Solorides #punctures