If you look across the fields to the left cycling down Outlet Lane, you can see nine single-storey brick buildings arranged in a perfect 3x3x3 grid. The field between the buildings and the path is just covered in last years stubble and was baked dry so I cycled 200 very bumpy yards over to one of the buildings and took a pic. I'm not sure what the buildings were built for but I do know there were a lot of internment and prisoner of war camps in this part of the country during world war two. Anyhow, I did four ups and downs for 30.9 miles.
6th May: Another gorgeous hot day today so the Strael got another outing. I did the usual and was going to do four ups and downs like I did yesterday but it was too hot so I stuck to three (I had red sunburned D-shaped patches on the backs of my hands from my gloves when I got in). My mum's friend Mavis came up with a great suggestion over lunch as to what the nine brick buildings might be - ammunition storage bunkers from world war two. I know there was a lot of munitions manufacturing around here and the fact that they're spaced so far apart suggests a deliberately designed safety feature, if one bunker exploded for any reason it wouldn't set off the others. One of my neighbours is a local historian so I'll run the theory past him the next time I see him. Anyhow, 25.3 more miles.
7th May: Yet another gorgeous day today so I took the Strael for another spin. Because I've been out in the sun two days on the trot I was getting rather pink so this time I slathered myself in factor 50 everywhere and headed out. It was a fairly uneventful ride but very hot so rather pleasant over all. I did three ups and downs for 25.0 miles in the end because I was boiling but a great ride for the tan!
13th May: Well, the day has finally arrived, my second sportive of the year. The event was the Wiggle County Durham Dynamo and, rather foolhardily, I'd signed up for the middle distance - 75 miles. I stayed in a budget hotel a few miles away so it was up early for a full English breakfast and I was signing in at 7:50. By 8:05 I was on the start line waiting to set off. The BBC weather website had predicted rain all day so I took every bit of cycling clothing with me on the trip and it's a good job I did. It was overcast initially so I wore my Stolen Goat over my Altura jersey which was perfect. By the first feed stop at 28 miles it was brightening up a lot so I changed the Stolen Goat for my Castelli jacket. It continued getting warmer and sunnier so at a t-junction just before the second feed stop I took the Castelli off and rode in my short sleeved jersey.
I stopped at the second feed stop and then carried on into what turned out to be a horrible climb and because of the dire weather predictions I'd taken Awesom-O on the ride so not the best bike for the job. It was hard work and I had to stop and take a breather half way up but made it eventually but by the top my legs were absolutely fragged which didn't help because there were plenty more smaller hills to follow. Looking back, we could see that we'd been at the bottom of a valley and were now up on the moors so no wonder it was tough! Anyhow, we carried on and got to the end for a total of 76.0 miles. A very hard ride but one I'm glad I conquered.
17th May: Today's ride was something of a wasted opportunity. The BBC weather website said it would be around 11-12 °C so I wore my Lusso shorts and Castelli jacket to take the Strael out to do the usual. As it turned out, it was sunny and pretty warm so I could have worn my short sleeved jersey and topped up my tan but hey ho. There wasn't much wind for a change so it was a fairly pleasant ride and I'm not sure if the secret of the farm track is getting out or not but I saw at lease half a dozen road cyclists which I suppose is a good thing. Anyhow, another 25.0 miles.
19th May: It was a gorgeous hot sunny day today so I took the Strael out to do the usual. I'm fed up with my Altura Peloton jersey because all the decals peeled off after a couple of washes and the 'yellow' bits are neither green or yellow but a weird sort of mixture. I was going to buy a La Passione jersey but their website is messed up so I bought a stolen goat top I've been drooling over for ages.
I wore it for today's ride and I'm extremely pleased with it, it's gorgeous quality and fits absolutely perfectly. The photo on their website doesn't really do it justice, the colours really pop on the real thing. Anyhow, it was warm and not too windy so a pretty good ride overall with a lot of other cyclists out and about and another 25.0 miles in the bag.
21st May: I had today booked off today because it was my mum's birthday yesterday so I took the Strael out to clear my head a bit. It was another hot and sunny day so I went out and did the usual. A very pleasant ride with nothing much to report and another 25.0 miles in the bag.
24th May: It was another hot and sunny day so after another boring day at work I manfully necked a mug of Tesco's Finest Sumatra Mandheling coffee and took the Strael out for a spin. I did the usual but finally remembered to explore a side path I've cycled past hundreds of times. The road had obviously been re-laid because it was black and as smooth as a race track and zig-zagged for about half a mile and came out at what looked like some kind of horse farm. The new road surface also explains some of the patched up potholes on the farm track, they'd obviously has some left over tarmac and been asked to use it up. Anyhow, it was an enjoyable enough ride except for the wind which was quartering behind me going up the track but quite hard work coming back down it. Coincidentally, and quite coolly, this proved to be the ride that finally got rid of my annual mileage deficit and took me over the 12,000 miles since I started again barrier. A decent ride and 25.7 more miles.
27th May: It was boiling hot day today, the BBC weather site said 24 °C but it felt hotter, so I took the Strael out for a spin. I was looking forward to this ride because, since reading an article on road.cc, I'd replaced my inner tubes with Vittoria latex ones and was dying to try them out. Although latex tubes need topping off before every ride because they're more porous they are supposed to have much lower rolling resistance than butyl tubes. Anyhow, I set off and headed for the farm track.
Bizarrely, despite being hot and sunny, it was incredibly windy. Heading up the track was great fun but it was a real chore heading back in the other direction. The tubes however were brilliant however, much faster and more supple than butyl. There are several sections of really sharp black tarmac on the track that normally really shake you up but they were much more pleasant on the latex tubes. I'm definitely not going back to butyl! 26.2 very sweaty miles.
28th May: It was a bit of an odd ride today. It was hot and sunny again so I took the Strael out to do the usual. It started off normally enough with no issues other than there being a lot of kids out walking dogs from the animal shelter which means slowing down a bit and generally trying not to startle anyone or the dogs. I then carried on and came across half a dozen youngsters with huge backpacks on who I suspect may have been cadets or something similar; they moved to one side of the path to let me pass but at this point in the ride I decided the path was too much hassle and decided to do the local 27 instead. Because it was so hot I didn't want to do the full distance so I took the long road that bypasses the industrial park and came home via the East Lancs. I stopped at the Co-op in the village on the way back and the sweat was pouring out of the back of my hands which doesn't happen very often unless it's very hot. The ride was shorter than I thought it would be so another 23.0 miles in the bag.
31st May: It was hot and muggy this afternoon after work so I took the Strael out for a spin. It started off bright but cloudy but around half way through the ride it started getting quite dark and a lot cloudier and threatened to start raining. It then did briefly rain for a few minutes which I enjoyed but it never really got going at which point it occurred to me that summer storms are associated with lightning and getting struck by lightning is not a good way to start summer!
On a side note, I did the short road up to the horse farm again to add a bit of distance and took this photo of a what turned out to be a funnel cloud. You can see the spiralling winds pulling a section of clouds downwards and the rain falling to the ground from the end of it - pretty cool! I was also quite peckish by this point so I ended up doing two ups and downs of the track and heading home via the kebab shop for 20.9 miles.
It's been a great May for cycling this year with lots of hot and sunny weather so I ended the month with a not too shabby total of 328.0 miles which is great because I've got rid of the mileage overdraft. Long may the sunny weather continue!
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