We had a nice cup of tea and a toasted tea cake in the tea room on the way back...
We also spotted a Heron - in the words of 'Monty Python' - Trying not to be seen...
When we got back home we had lunch and I got changed for a cycle ride....I planned to do a 'Hilly 60'....
I plotted the route in bikehike and downloaded it to the Garmin as both a gpxx and a tcx file, I wanted to try the gpxx as it uses it as a navigation base instead of a stored route (tcx).
After waiting an age for the gpxx to load, I set of and the Garmin promptly dumped the navigation :-( so I went back the 100 yards to the start and loaded up the tcx file- and followed the route.
I headed out of Chippenham towards Patterdown turned left to Lacock and up Naish Hill :-)
The photo really doesn't do justice to the gradient!, as the road turns round to the left it kicks up steeper (A little over 1:6 I would guess).....However I appear to be getting VERY used to it now, and went up it with no real drama.
At the top I turned right towards Sandy Lane at Bromham I headed right towards Melksham then hung a right at the bottom of the hill back towards Lacock and up Bowden Hill..
Again the photo does not show the gradient well, it goes to about 1:6....
At the top I headed left towards Derry Hill cut across to New Derry Hill and crossed over the main road to Studley, I then turned left and headed downhill to Stanley and up Bencroft Hill.
At the top of Bencroft I headed towards Bremhill then Charlcutt, I realised my route plan had missed out Wick Hill.....What a disaster! - So I hung an unplanned left to Tytherton then up Wick Hill :-)
Interestingly Wick Hill is used by the cycle club in its Hill Climb cup - I may well enter it :-)
At the top of Wick Hill I turned left and rejoined the planned route, at this point I was 3 miles behind the virtual me - and 5 miles further than planned... (The virtual me was doing a constant 15 mph average speed)
The route took me cross country to the next and perhaps the toughest hills, Broad Town and Hackpen Hills.
I didn't take any good photos of Broad Town hill as I was working hard cycling up it!
Hackpen however is very photogenic from a distance....
And close up....
By the time I had reached the top I had emptied what was left in my drink bottle :-( - Hills make me thirsty!
It was a quick run into Marlborough, I stopped at a market stall and bought a can of coke and emptied it into me!!!!! (Must not do that again as I was then burping for the next 10 minutes)
From Marlbourough it was a quick ride along the A4 (Passing West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill)
The it was up Cherhill and down into Calne, from Calne to Chippenham it started raining and it was soooooooo refreshing and nice!!!!
The cycle computer obviously got a bit water logged as it stopped recording on the last stretch :-(
According to the GPS I did bit the virtual me home by over a mile!!!
The GPS had the ride as 67.04 miles in 4 hours 7 minutes with and average speed of 16.3 mph and a climb of 4409 feet!
The cycle computer showed 66.91 miles in 4 Hours 3 minutes with an average speed of 16.4 mph (Didn't lose as much data as I thought :-)
This is the first ride I have done in a very long time where I actually feel tired! (Although could be that I had a late night!)
The GPS track of todays ride can be found here...
Cycled over 5000 miles this year now.........
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