One week to go until the 100Km (62 mile) Bangor Coastal Challenge! In the spirit of tapering off before the event, today’s ride was a fairly gentle tour of some parks in Belfast. It still worked out at 32 miles though.
After spending an hour or so fixing a puncture and fitting my first ever set of clipless pedals to the BeOne Storm. It was a warm Sunday morning and I had another new toy in the form of a dhb Finchdean short sleeve jersey. Short sleeves? It must be summer!
 Shimano M424 Pedals |
 dhb Finchdean Jersey |
Setting off along my favourite local cycle path, the Newtownabbey Way, and I was soon headed for Belfast along the Sustrans NCN 9 cycle path following the shoreline of Belfast Lough. I somehow managed to avoid the torrential thundershowers that were coming my way from the Belfast and Bangor directions after a busy morning’s flood-causing. I think I must have ducked underneath them when they weren’t looking.
Sunday Ride 2009/06/14 - Botanic Gardens - Yes, that woman is doing a headstand.
I’d originally intended to cycle to Botanic Gardens, have a bit of a sit down, then head home again. But when I reached the gardens it was such a nice morning (really) that I decided to continue on and took in a lap of a couple of other local parks for good measure. Not far away was Ormeau Park and a few miles up the road again was Orangefield Park where I’d discovered a cycle oval a few weeks previously. I completed this little Tour De Les Jardin Public at a relaxed pace, then headed back to Botanic Gardens for that promised sit in the sun before heading home again.
Sunday Ride 2009/06/14 - Route
Sunday Ride 2009/06/14 - Elevation
There is an interactive map of this ride available on BikeHike. You can view the photos from this and other rides on my Bike Trips Flickr Set.
At 32 miles this route was much further than I’d really intended to go today, but the pace was very relaxed for much of the distance so I’m not concerned about having overdone it. I also managed to survive my first ride in clipless pedals without falling off, though I did have a couple of incidents where I forgot I was physically attached to the bike. Fortunately though I was able to unclip in time to avoid any embarassing “clipless moments”.
So that’s it, the last training ride for the 2009 Bangor Coastal Challenge. There’s nothing left to do now but the event itself! I think I’m ready, but we shall see next Sunday.
Stay tuned!
Hi John,
I will be attempting the ride on Sunday too. I have done 60 ish km’s for the last two weekends and another 30k during the week so I am hoping I will survive. I will keep a eye out for you and a least it means there’s at least two Beone’s in the race
Damien
Good man Damien! And good luck for Sunday! There’s a few of us going and we’re maybe going to be leaving a bit before the mass start that’s at 10:00am. Keep your eyes peeled!