A lap of the Isle Of Wight

Hi all,

I'm feeling pretty good. Pretty knackered but pretty good.

One of the rides on my bike bucket list has been the Isle Of Wight. I've cycled down to the south coast near where I live many times and always looked out to the Island wondering what its like over there.

Now, I know.

It's hilly.

I live in Hampshire. It's lovely. It's lovely and mostly flat. It's a bit hilly to the North, but other than that it's fine. What I didn't expect was the scale of the hills over there. It's Devon style hills. Real hills. The north of the island is fairly flat, with rolling, gentle, undulants. As you go clockwise towards the south of the Island, all of a sudden you find the horizon is above you. A long way above you.

I set off with the local CTC group, who are a great bunch of people. the 9 of us set off at a gentle pace had a few laughs and a few breaks. We stopped at a fantastic tea room which you can see in the pictures below. If you are in the area give it a try. We lost a member of the group there as they found it hard going. They headed back North to the ferry. The rest of us carried on.

We got to about half way round (after Black Gang Chine) and we seperated into 2 groups. I tried to keep up with the fast group but I admit that after the hill, I was shot. I had a break and some sweets and waited for the slower group. I'm glad I did as it was great fun. Such a laugh.

I had a couple of issues where I ate too much or drank too little, but nothing major.

One thing that I will remember though. The roads are smooth. It looks like they've just been resurfaced for the most part. Also taking real, proper corners at 35mph on nothing but a small bit of tin is really exciting. I loved every second of downhill.

I won't be doing this ride again until next year as it was pretty tough. I need to do longer rides more regularly to get up to fitness for this sort of thing.

Pictures and Strava below:

Thanks for reading,

Leap to Lepe

Hi all,

This weekend was really busy so the only time I had was a couple of hours on Sunday morning.

I love riding to the waterside, or to the sea at least, so my route of choice has to be Lepe. There's a great coffee shop down there that sells good coffee and ice cream so it's all to the fair. There is a nice 30 mile loop from Totton to Lepe going down through Eling, Marchwood and Hardley and back through Beaulieu and Longdown onto the "Green Route".

I put my camera on my bike for the first time in a while, so I've grabbed stills from the video. I might process it later but nothing cool happened. It may serve as some evidence for the local council to fix the bloody roads though *fume*.

The weather was pleasant enough. A tiny bit of drizzle before I left, but otherwise dry and sunny in parts.

Pictures and what's left of Strava after my Garmin stopped being weird:

Thanks for reading,

New Totton to Marchwood cycle lane

Hi all,

This route has since been completed and I've been down it a few times. It's a bit safer than Pookesgreen but a little bit longer as it takes you through the village. Here is a video from when a a mate of mine and I found one end of it after a hop to Hythe and back.



If you are going to tank it down there, don't bother. Not because the surface isn't very good, you can see in the video it's flat as a pancake, but because small children and families go down there as it keeps everyone away from the main road. Personally I like taking it easy down there, and I like being nosey and checking out the solar farm.

Thanks for reading