I’ve avoided going east from home until now for two reasons, I would have to repeat some of my commuting route and it’s hard to avoid busy B and A-roads. But this Saturday for a change I decided for variation to head east.

I’m not very good at planning for the wind as a strong and blustery SW wind was blowing as I headed NE to start the route on to the A417 at Culham (you’ll see why this was a bad move in a minute!). There is a cyclepath alongside the fast, busy A-road which I used. This is where the UK is so poor at accommodating cyclists, this path is VERY rough, potholed and narrow. A real teeth-rattler. In fact they’ve been patching it in recent weeks and, no exaggeration, the patched sections are actually WORSE than what they have replaced. Still it’s just about better than using the road but I don’t blame any cyclist for not using it.

Turning onto the busy B4015 cut through to the A4074 at Clifton Hampden, this is another road I have avoided until now, luckily it’s quite short and wasn’t too busy. I now had my first section of dual-carriageway …

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Cycling to and from work on my now regular 17 mile route via Appleford, Long Wittenham, Little Wittenham, Sires Hill, North Moreton, South Moreton and Cholsey. I can do this route without having to think too hard and it takes in a couple of moderate hills, one up to Wittenham Clumps and Cholsey Hill. There is another short steep hill in North Moreton.

Also got to test my new front light which is like having a headlight, made such a difference to cycling on the unlit country roads. It was a thoroughly miserable day though, the morning ride was overcast but dry but it poured down on the way home and I got soaked. Dark and wet winter cycling… hmmm…

I followed the cycle home by immediately going out to play table tennis in the Divisional Championships. I won my group but sadly lost in the semi-final.

Distance :: 17.17 mi
Time :: 1h10m34s
Average Active Speed :: 14.60 mph
Run.GPS Training Profile

Distance :: 17.19 mi
Time :: 1h09m28s
Average Active Speed :: 14.85 mph
Run.GPS Training Profile

In my never ending quest for variation in routes I stole another route from the Wantage CTC. They rode this almost exact route on 1st November as their ‘moderate’ ride. I was interested to see whether I would keep pace with what they manage. They averaged 13.3 mph on the route, I did 15.02 mph which was faster than I expected. I wasn’t keeping track as I cycled as I wanted to see what it would be and I wasn’t especially pushing hard.

The route started in Sutton Courtenay and went via Milton and under the A34 and up Milton Hill. Using Featherbed Lane as a cut to the A417 there was a brief section on the A-road before turning thorugh West Hendred. Heading up to the highest point on the road close to Ginge and along the very quiet lanes to Ardington and Lockinge. Crossing the A417 onto Grove Park Drive fast downhill past Lain’s Barn. I took a short break where the road crosses the old Wilts & Berks Canal, I was looking for an OS benchmark which is on the old bridge access but didn’t find it. There was a brief heavy shower, the weather had been …

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The main distinction of this ride to work on a grey November day was that my front light is rubbish. I couldn’t see a thing on the way home as this was the first commuting ride since the clocks went back. I still did the full 17 mile route, but boy it was dark on the country roads! The picture isn’t my light, I have been using an old battery light, this is my new light! Normally £300 the nice man in Rides on Air in Wallingford sold me his last display model to me for £150! I was going to buy the £65 Cateye rechargeable light but couldn’t resist the bargain. Not had a chance to try it out yet but it looks pretty impressive.

The other thing to note today is that I officially broke the 500 mile training distance. So I’m halfway to John O’Groats already!

Distance :: 17.24 mi
Time :: 1h07m38s
Average Active Speed :: 15.29 mph
Run.GPS Training Profile

Distance :: 17.26 mi
Time :: 1h010m51s

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After recent hilly rides I picked a very flat route for this Saturday ride. But this was wind-training rather than hill-training as there was a bitter and strong NE wind blowing. It was grey and drizzly as I cycled from home via Drayton to the Hanneys. The Hanney Road was extensively covered in mud from tractors, which was slippery in the damp conditions, and with the crosswind it wasn’t the most pleasant stretch. From West Hanney I turned north into the wind and cycled via Lyford and Charney Bassett to join the B4508. This is a very quiet B-road, I barely saw a dozen cars all the way through Hatford, Shellingford, Fernham and Longcot. This was the wind assisted stretch as I was heading southwest.

Of course that meant I had to head into the wind all the way back! Through Uffington and Baulking the weather was thinking about getting worse but it was a lovely stretch with the White Horse on top of its hill in sight all the way on my right. I had to join the A417 for a few hundred metres before turning through Goosey and Denchworth. Soon I was back in West Hanney to repeat …

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I bought a new telescope a couple of weeks ago (that makes a total of six that I own) and it’s a beautiful piece of work. It’s a William Optics Megrez 72FD and is the best engineered telescope I have used, solid and strong. The focuser is beautiful, it has a 1:10 ratio dual focuser which is just so precise.

It’s only 72mm aperture but the first apochromat (APO) refractor I have owned, this means it is well colour corrected (the colours all focus to the same point) a common problem with cheap refractors is false colour when you observe with them. The Megrez 72 does show some blue blooming but it’s not too bad. The short focal length of 432mm makes it an F/6 which is pretty fast and gives a nice widefield view.

I primarily bought it as a portable scope to take on holidays etc. it comes with a custom backpack to carry it in. I have been doing some imaging with it on clear nights since I got it, the short tube and widefield means it autoguides much …

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As I looked out of the window at 6.30am on the morning the clocks went back it was pouring with rain and the wind was blowing strongly. Did I really want to take my cold and cycle in this? I nearly didn’t but in the end the weather further north was nowhere near as bad and I don’t want to be a fair-weather cyclist!

I met up with my brother around the midpoint between our homes near Warwick services on the M40 at Burton Dassett Hills Country Park. At 8.45am it was wet and bleak on top of the hill but there was brightness to the north where the weather was coming from. We had worked out a route, partly from a route in an old book of cycling on Warwickshire lanes and partly out of my head (and to avoid the bridleway bit which I thought might be muddy!).

The Country Park is right on top of a hill and has a distinctive beacon visible from the M40. In the light rain we zipped down the hill to Northend and along the lanes towards Knightcote. A beautifully smooth and deserted lane (Hambridge Road) took us north. The lane only …

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Fairly uneventful cycle to and from work in glorious autumnal weather. On the way in I did a 17 mile route via Appleford, Long Wittenham, Little Wittenham, North Moreton, South Morteon and Cholsey. ON the way back I basically reversed the route but removed the loop via Little and Long Wittenham, this is almost 4 miles shorter which is quite surprising. Of course it’s almost dark by the time I get home now so don’t want to spend too long on the roads making the routes longer.

At the time of writing I’m currently running 7th on the Run.GPS Community Server for strongest calorie burner for October! Also 8th for total distance and total training duration. You can find me on their Hall of Fame.

Distance :: 17.26 mi
Time :: 1h08m18s
Average Active Speed :: 15.16 mph
Run.GPS Training Profile

Distance :: 13.41 mi
Time :: 0h53m23s
Average Active Speed :: 15.08 mph
Run.GPS Training Profile

Cotswolds last week and the Chilterns this week. This was the toughest training ride I’ve done. Not especially long but there were some ‘serious’ hills on this one. I borrowed the route from Bikely which basically crosses the Chilterns from west to east and back again in a circular route. I didn’t know many of the roads but I knew Watlington Hill was going to be a proper climb. In the end that one wasn’t too bad, it was long and steep but not really a problem.

Anyway, I started in Crowmarsh Gifford and headed north through Benson to Ewelme and Brightwell Baldwin. The route joined the B480 at Cuxham and went through Watlington and up the aforementioned hill, which measures out at 1 in 8 (13%), to Christmas Common. The ride along the ridge was great and crossed the M40 near the large chalk cutting at Stokenchurch Hill. A very short stretch along the wide A40 and back onto minor roads at Junction 7 of the M40. A very fast descent followed through Ibstone down to Fingest. Then another serious climb up Dolesden Lane, this one was quite deceptive as it gradually got steeper and steeper towards …

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I’ve been spending some time tweaking the templates. I wasn’t completely happy with listing every entry from the LEJOG category on the home page and swamping all the other content. So I’ve gone for a summary/more layout for a bit to see if that works better in my head.

I also spotted quite a few errors in the templates whilst I was doing this, for example anything in the LEJOG category wouldn’t show as a single entry! Hopefully I’ve eliminated all/most of these now.

In other site news, I’ve slightly changed the galleries so the thumbnails should load a little faster. I’ve also changed the way the astroimages are shown in the lightbox.