Distance riding and cycle touring

Distance riding this summer has mostly been solo, wet, and windy. Hattie is luggage lady, and very kindly takes my weekend stuff on the train whilst I get to cycle weightlessly (sort of) to our destination of choice.

Bristol to Portsmouth

The longest and fastest distance ride I’ve managed is my usual trek back to Portsmouth from Bristol.

I rode it on my birthday, and this time I took the nice shiny carbon bike as a birthday treat, managing a slightly more respectable average than my normal snail’s pace. The weather was pretty nice, although it was a strong easterly wind all the way.

Bristol to Ilfracombe (via Blue door cottages B&B)

Blue Door Cottages

The weather has not been kind to me on the most part however, this weekend in particular was especially awful for wind and rain. Cycling to Ilfracombe in two parts, was formed of a first part into the headwind from hell, and a second part into something similar with over 4500ft of climbing in just under 60 miles... (Bristol to Bridgewater, then Bridgewater to Ilfracombe).

The overnight stop just past Bridgewater however, at Blue door cottages, was an extravagant luxury that really helped me regain strength to get back on the bike the next morning.

The lovely owner Christine let me have a cottage at a real bargain price of £50 due to a cancellation. She also left a ridiculous amount of breakfast supplies that were more than enough for both an evening meal and morning one. I highly recommend blue door cottages and intent to go back there again some time, discounted or not.

Pretty cool pizza oven

Upon arrival at Combe Martin I was greeted by a 6 mile steep, wet decent, which polished off the brakepads as I rolled into the campsite.

I was met by Hattie, her work colleagues, their tents, and one very large 6 man one that was making a dash for it across the field. That’s how windy it was.

A great weekend followed however, meeting some really interesting people, bonding over a love of the British summer, the outdoors, and good food. I was especially impressed with this pizza oven made on site by one of the company directors at Eunomia.

Bank holiday at the Gower

Our trip to The Gower was unfortunately postponed by a day due to work commitments, which did cut our camping time short, but we didn’t let that stop us, and managed to have a really nice weekend at the beautiful Gower Peninsula in Wales.

It's our second visit to The Gower in two years, and I really love it there, the beach is breath taking. I'm sure it won't be long till we visit again.

We didn’t cycle there however, instead we braved the bikes on trains nightmare, cycling only from Swansea to Three cliffs bay.

We did get some longer miles in on the Saturday, all at a very leisurely pace. This was practically anti training... but we were on holiday, so I’ve been told this is acceptable.