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Saturday, 25 July 2015

Three Bridges to Oxted via Crawley Down, East Grinstead and Lingfield


Smugmug Gallery

Leaving Oxted, going to Three Bridges via East Croydon

Outside the bakers and butchers in Crawley Down Village

Crawley Down Pond

Crawley Down Pond

East Grinstead Railway Station

The Red Barn Tandridge Green

Near Crowhurst

Near Crowhurst

The Bus Shelter Broadham Green

Broadham Green

The Bell Old Oxted

Sunday, 28 June 2015

A Week on the Machar Peninsula (Rough Cut No Sound)

Not cycling related but a great place to cycle. Low levels of traffic, pleasantly undulating use Sustrans map 'Lochs and Glens (South)'

Isle of Whithorn 2015 (Rough Cut) (No Sound) from Stuart Murden on Vimeo.

Tuesday, 16 June 2015

Off to The Isle of Whithorn



We'll be off to the Isle of Whithorn soon so there will be a bit of a blog break


We'll be packing wet weather gear ...  It's one of the 'sticky out' bit of Dumfries and Galloway.
 
 

Sunday, 7 June 2015

The Dartmoor Ghost Ride - My Next Micro Adventure



The Dartmoor Ghost Audax Link to Audax UK

145km cycling event starting from Bovey Tracey, Devon. Controls at Whiddon Down and Yelverton, plus 3 information controls.

Under the ethereal light of the full'ish moon, experience the wonder of the open Dartmoor roads, & visit numerous 'haunted' locations on your way. 

This has the makings of a fairly significant 'upping the ante' for me with much more climbing and a distance of 147km that's 50% further than my standard 'long ride' plus it's at night.

AAA 2.25 'grimpeur' (hill climbing) event

Although there is a lot more climbing than my previous rides the gradients don't seem to be a bad as some hills I've done recently. A lot will depend on the weather. I quite like riding at night. The ride is very close to a full moon so if cloud cover permits it won't be that dark. Watching the dawn has a unique quality but cloud cover can spoil that. 

Cycling means you're travelling very 'close' to the weather; what direction is the wind, how strong is it, what are the clouds doing, is it hot or cold maybe I need another layer? 

So far I have been very lucky and really I've had no rain to speak of except once on a Brompton ride from High Wycombe to Tower Bridge where I mis-read the rain. I thought it was going to be a 'localised minor shower' so I didn't put on any rain gear when really the rain had set in for the day.

Cycling and Audax in particular has a 'smiling at adversity' culture.

This distance and profile seem to indicate that I could be in the saddle for 10 hours. That's quite a long time. I'm planning to gradually get up to 12-14hrs by the end of the year.

Over The Hills And Far Away - Tewkesbury and Malvern 100km Audax




Over the Hills and Far Away 100km Audax from Stuart Murden on Vimeo.
I great 100km ride using my Surly LHT. The wind was very strong something like a 20-25kph from the south west.

The Bike Re assembled at the long stay car park in Station St.

Upton on Severn

Looking West from the 'Singing Kettle'  (3rd Checkpoint) view 1

Looking West from the 'Singing Kettle' view 2
Lower Lode Inn (Penultimate checkpoint)

Oddas Chapel (Last Checkpoint)
The Brevet Card (Shot 1)

The Brevet Card (Shot 2)