Winter Miles for Summer Smiles...goes the saying

It's just a saying, unless you are able to ride each and every Sunday to a consistent training plan and I'm far from that at the current time. Weekends are full of birthdays, xmas prep, work mulling, all sorts, so the Sunday just gone was my first ride for two or three weeks.

I'm riding Gloria at the moment, I name all my bikes, and she's a gravel bike, a canyon that rides like a dream. She's got knobbly tyres that you can ride at a low pressure, and she floats over rough roads - and they all seem rough and grimy at the moment. I don't really ride gravel, but thought she'd be a perfect winter bike. She's pretty lightweight, has SRAM wireless gearing, just a single chain ring but a bit of a dinner plate on the back for going uphill and a few nice touches like integrated storage for tubes and puncture repair, as well as a garmin mount with a front light beneath it. Little things that please my easily satisfied mind.

GLORIA!!!!! :-)

She's also not that slow. My first gravel bike was a tank, indestructible, but she felt like a tank, just couldn't FEEL any acceleration, slow into and out of corners, and I didn't enjoy riding it - so I wouldn't. This one I want to ride all the time. Confident I won't get punctures, looking forward to the ride, and sure if I'm with others who are on road bikes I'll have to work a bit harder. I'm not going to be able to average 30kph or above on this thing, but it's winter right? Social. Chatty.

So we went out to Faversham without a plan, around the top of Sittingbourne, up to what we call the water tower, a long draggy climb which then leads to a descent which is fun in the dry, but with corners you need to think about in the wet, and it was wet on the ground and drizzly in the air. It more 'felt' like it was gonna rain, than did rain, still a pleasure to be out.

Quick coffee and then straight home, the direct route which means the pedals get pushed a little harder, and the eagerness to be home sets in. A couple of bits where the effort jacks up - and you jump on a wheel to cling on. Also a dreaded puncture (not for me, but I worked hard watching it be changed ;-) and then repaired after the second tube split too and Mark only had one spare. A mix of road and gravel bikes with different width tyres meant everyone with different tubes - and no loans to be made.

Cars were a nightmare though. I have friends really uncomfortable riding on UK roads. I don't normally notice, I'm so unobservant, and I switch off mostly to the cars on the road. I say 'thanks' and nod nicely when we are let go, or someone is cautious passing, but I don't pay attention to the idiots. There are idiots everywhere and why let them ruin your day. This week we had FOUR angry men (always men) beeping, or making their displeasure clear and one complete moron.

On a bike you have such clarity as to what is going on around you. I knew we had a car coming behind us, and we were single filed ready. Up in front on a narrow-ish road there was also a car coming towards us, and an elderly dog walker in the road (no pavement). I'd slowed us down a bit, because I knew I'd have to pull out a bit to go around the walker, but the car coming towards us might get nervous, even though there was space (and even a car might have to swerve for a pot hole, you have to think about the worst that could happen). The car behind can just wait.

Well it didn't want to wait, it just went. Out to the right, and past us, but then realised that it wasn't going to safely clear us and miss a head on with the car coming towards it (which is now braking), so it swerved at pace to the left to cut in front of us. Which would have made him an arsehole anyway - but only worth an under the breath mutter. THEN he sees that of course, he's going to hit the dog walker, who is now in the grass verge looking terrified. The driver JUST about stopped and controlled it. He must have seen the fear on the face of the old man, the anger and shock in his mirror on our faces, but nope, no apology, just a drive off at speed. He could have killed the walker, and I'm not even joking.

That apart, a nice 85km or so in the bank, a bit of hard work - my legs were dying by the end without any recent work in them, a good chat with some riders from the club, an Americano and a banoffee pie for breakfast. But I can't follow it up next week, Hollies birthday breakfast takes precedence. Just keeping in touch with what it feels like to pedal - and as always just that has me smiling. 5 mins worth would make me smile. Winter or no winter.