Hello to all you lady cyclists out there. Just to remind you that we are cycling on Friday am straight from the playground weather conditions permitting and refreshments obtainable at journey’s end and along the way. It would be good if there was someone coming with a keen sense of direction as Judy may not be able to come out and is usually better than a tom tom. As John will tell you my sense of direction often gets muddled between left and right and John’s adage of if in doubt go straight on may not apply in this case. Anyway hope to see more than me cycling on Friday. Nadia

This is the route for the Winter 100. (NB Ignore the direction arrows as they are wrong ) The start is at Argos at 7am.

This is not a club organized route and does not have any turn by turn instructions, so please print a copy of this map and bring it with you.

There will be a vehicle at the 50 mile point which is  Long Bennington. It  will serve water and some malt loaf. Nadia and Nikki will aim to get to there for about 10:45 to 11:30 so fasters riders will need to put on the blog their ETA at Long B and I will see if Nadia and Nikki will get there earlier (not guaranteed though).

Agreat way to kick start your winter training and, maybe, set you on the path to the ‘100 miler’  a month club.

Forecast said 1 degree, roads said sheet ice.

The plan was to leave at 6.45am and get to Ashbourne and back by 11am. Normally a sedateish affair for Adam, Rich A and I but today was different.

As soon as I stepped out of the door the sparkly light told me that it was cold. We headed out on the main roads up to Ilkeston heading towards the first ride up Cloves Hill for the year. Thanks to good lights we could see where we going and the better news is that if you leave at 7am next week you should reach it in daylight. Turning left onto Cloves was done gingerly and going up was surprisingly ok ( I think the gym helps) but going down was another matter. Through slush and ice keeping a straight line and relaxing helps.

The sun allegedely came up (in the East) but made no difference and once past Kedleston and onto lanes that had sheet ice on them discretion seemed to be the better part of valour and we headed for main roads. Thanks to Adam’s Garmin 705 we could re navigate a route that saw us meander over to the run in from the club’s challenge ride via Drum Hill.

Half way round I got a tension headache from worrying so much – not a fun ride but some great winter scenery and in the end a three and half hour butt clenching roller coaster.