On a day like today, with the sun shining, the wind on my back, the road and the rhynes stretching away in front of me in converging parallels, blue bouncing between water and sky, and green all around, there is nowhere I would rather be than on my bike.  All was so well with the world :).

I had no plan, I just chose roads I like to ride on, and wiggled myself a loop.  I even rode up some hills because secretly (between you and me) I quite like them too.  The aim was to have a good ride, to enjoy it, and not to push it.  But if pushing it is fun then that’s ok, right? 😉  I like going fast when I can, possibly because it makes up for the times when I can’t.  Even fighting the chilly north westerly wind was fun.  Obviously having it behind me was more fun though *grin*.  It has to be the closest you can get to flying, right?

In deference to it being October, and October finally behaving as it should, my winter cycling kit has started emerging.  On with the winter long socks.  On with the winter long tights which are now rather too big, which is good because they don’t constrict my knee, but bad because they’re baggy elsewhere.  On with the layers, where baggy is less of a problem.  I pretty much got it right, in that I had to stop after a while to take off the jacket arms and a buff, but that was it.  I haven’t really got the hang of winter dressing yet, since I think I’m pretending that winter isn’t happening, but that was a fairly good start.  I really could use a whole new set of winter cycling layers and gear since mine are either old, too big, or both, but, in the absence of a lottery win, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Cycling time: 2:02:31 hrs
Distance: 33.26 miles.
Avs: 16.2 mph
ODO: 10616 miles

So there you go, that was my ride.  And it was a good one :).  I need to hold on to the memory of such rides in the dark depressing days ahead when riding is far from fun ;).  To help me focus beyond the winter, I’ve started planning next year’s events.  It’s hard because a lot of the dates aren’t out yet, and I have done an awful lot of the events around here, but so far I’m signed up for the Mad March Hare (4th time around), the Tour of Pembrokeshire (having met the lovely guys behind it on Saturday), and next year’s biggie – the Maratona dles Dolomites.  Today they released the 2012 Etape routes – two again – and if I wasn’t already committed I’d be doing Acte 2 and continuing my box ticking trend by adding the Tourmalet to my list.  OK, I could fit it in the schedule, but there’s no way I’d get away with that on top of the Maratona! *grin*.  Etape 2013 I reckon – Ventoux maybe?