Monthly Archives: Aug 2025

103km: Rivington-Aughton & back

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25°C strong sun & easterly 10 mph

My legs said ‘go’, so I went. Average speed started out low at 20kph into the headwind then the hills. Horrocks Hill was first (Bannister Lane) and then you drop back down to Coppul. Then it’s Up to Irvington for the café stop.  Coming back I took the back descent to Parbold.

Does not include the return 20km.

What an exceptional day. Perfect weather (25°C full sun). The bike was good but lacked the lower gears. If this Campa transmission should play up, I may put the Tiagra 10spd on instead.

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Bannister Hill is 13%

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22°C, light W 10mph, strong sun.

I chose this route partly to find the actual gradient. My GPS Speedo does report gradients (along with other stuff like temperature). After riding up this hill for 15 years, I finally know its gradient.

I’ve had an excellent cycling week. As you can see, my weekly target was met.

The first number is my record and the second – my target. 162.4 km is set because it’s 100 miles.

Another 23.7kph

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22°C, sun & clouded over later, no wind & dry.

Old photos.

Rode another 23.7kph on the fixie. This matches last week’s ride but was much further. I caught up with a nice little group of roadies; a guy, his daughter & friend. They had nice modern road bikes in contrast to my 15 year old steel single speed.

He told me they were regulars at Manchester Velo and did National events too. I asked about their training while we were talking about Garmin data. They both had cadence & power meters but that was really only for the use of their coach. They typically did 10 hours a week and about 6k per year.

I was dead impressed which drove me on to set a pace after my cafe stop. I’m quite inspired actually.

Summer hills

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21°C, sunny with light W.

On a parish noticeboard

August roads are very quiet until home time.  This is the best time of year to ride; warm, dry & empty roads. I had the energy to ride up Bannister Hill which was comfortable. However; later on, bad behaviour from divers was encountered. Firstly with repeated horn blasts from one and later a dangerous close pass on a bridge from another.