A most exceptional week.

It has been a great week for me once again. I feel so lucky to be able to enjoy my cycling so much, both on my own and with friends.

 My three rides were all so blessed with fine sunshine too.

View to the north from the Purbeck Hills Military Area

Monday 19th August 2019.

Thomas Hardy's ashes are interred in Westminster Abbey but his heart is buried in Stinsford Churchyard.

Tuesday 20th August 2019.

My four pals from the Pedallers who rode the Dorset Coastlet with me. We were ably led by Dave who knows the route by heart. BryceNav was not much help on this occasion!

As you may notice my finishing point on the map at 66.6 miles is 1,7 miles from the actual end of my ride, this is due to my Garmin battery running out. It seems it only has a life of about 6 hours. I managed to extend this by turning it off at lunch but doing that saves the ride and splits it into two, so I have to stitch the two parts together. If I had done that at the tea stop too it would have been OK. But that would have meant 3 segments to join. Thankfully Txiki's battery was fine being not much more than 50% depleted due to a conservative use.

The Chesil Beach as seen from the ranges.

The Admiral Hardy Monument.

Sunday 25th August 2019.

What a way to celebrate what would have been our 59th wedding anniversary. Perhaps that is what inspired me today!

Total miles for the week: 128.5 Average per week this year 99.2. Am I going to be the cycling equivalent of Don Bradman who averaged 99 in his test match career?

Best wishes to all my readers.

Gridironman.

Paddy Challenges Me.

An exceptional week of rides. Made good use of Txiki but also managed a ride on Paris my carbon road bike and another short one on Sunday on Posh. Paddy has been driving himself and me to clock up the miles. He has done very well clocking up over 129 miles in the week so he has won the TUK medal.

Although the weather has been very variable I have been lucky enough to have good weather for all of them. Just a couple of raindrops on one or two, but not enough to call a shower! Today I waited until the rain had cleared away.

My total miles for the week 151. Mostly with E-power assitance but still hard work as I use the power only when I really need it.

Gridironman.

Paddy encourages me to clock up another "Ton".

Another excellent week despite the changeable weather. I guess having the option to ride whenever I like makes it easier.

Paddy by the little church in Colmore.

The Pedallers ride for Tuesday was postponed so I went out on my own. On Thursday I joined the HCMF and today Sunday I enjoyed Paddy's company on a trip to Liss.

A nice mixture of rides clocking up over 100 miles once again,

The unusual War Memorial in Blackmoor.

Gridironman.

Another Ton Up!

I have had an excellent week despite missing out on the usual Pedallers' ride on Tuesday which was postponed due to the terrible weather. The ride was rescheduled for Thursday but I still had not got TeeTee back from Marquis so I rode to the HCMF meet at Itchen Abbas and then to collect TeeTee from Upham. I joined Winchester CTC  on Friday for an excellent ride with around 25 others. Today, Sunday 4th I have had a solo ride. More details below:-

Combine near Hinton Ampner discharging grain into the trailer alongside as the cutting continues.

One of three combines I saw working on Sunday taking advantage of the fine weather. In one place the dust from the operation was so bad that I stopped for a few minutes to wait for it to clear. 

Gridironman.