Was a lovely day up here today, sun shining, not much more than a light breeze and a bit of heat in the air
There was a heavy Haar sitting just off shore so we couldn't see Hoy but it never hit land all morning and cleared about 1pm or so. The wind was strange for here as it was due east, whereas we normally get hit with it straight from the west. I had a few things to sort this morning and cleared the afternoon so I could get a few miles in. When i say cleared the afternoon, I really mean cleared it with Heather
(not that that's ever a problem )Anyway just before 1 I set off and thought I would do a sort of figure of eight type route, basically from home out to Greenland, Duran and Gillock then into Thurso from the south. There I stopped at the bike shop and picked up a seat clamp for Calebs bike, that was meant to be a quick in and back on the road but we started chatting over a lovely Bob Jackson that was in for sale and also a local Mercian mtb that was in. I knew this local had one built especially but this was the first time I have seen it. Really nice with full XTR 9 speed and carbon bars etc. Nice but I preferred the Bob Jackson myself
An older one but spotless, looks like its just left the shop, but it does get ridden as I've seen it about. So back on the road and headed out along the coast to the west past Dounray and onto Reay. This bit was a nice quick run. I then turned east back towards the farms of Westfeild and onto Thurso. This is where I realised the easterly wind had increased a good bit and while not too bad it was just a consistent slog. I stopped and took a picture at a wind farm and you can see I'm heading straight into it. So a slow grind back to Thurso then on out to Castletown, back onto the Greenland road and home. All the second half into the easterly. A great run regardless. I was just a couple short of 100klms. I arrived home to Heather having dinner ready, a nice homemade Chinese feast
Spoiled, I know.Then straight after dinner it was out with Calebs tag along and seat clamp now fitted and all three of us went out for a ride round the block, which is about a mile and a half. Heather took the tag along for most of it and I rolled round on my 1X1.
I did get a chance to try out my new wheels today on a longer run and they were great, never an issue, as expected. Normally though I run Hutchinson tyres and these have some nice Continentals fitted and they were good tyres grip wise but I am not sure whether it was the tyres or the hubs but they make a different sound to my Ultegras, not noisy just different. They sometimes made me think there was a car coming up from behind, I'm sure its the tyres.
Hopefully its nice tomorrow and between getting the lawns mown and Amstel Gold race in the afternoon I can get some miles in on the Trucker. I need to get some longer miles and time in the saddle if I am hoping to even hint at finishing Brians crazy Audax run of 400klms in 27 hours.
Anyway I hope everyone else had the sunshine and managed to get out for a ride, or at least had some down time. As usual here's a few pics, such a nice day I just had to share.
Jamie
Time for a shave me thinks ;)
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