It’s been a while since I was out for a long distance Sunday training ride, but today I got out for a 45 mile jaunt around north Down.
I started much later than usual to avoid some early morning heavy rain, hitting the road around 10 am and heading for my normal route into Belfast, following the Sustrans cycle path along the shores of Belfast Lough. In hindsight, that probably wasn’t a great idea as the path was very busy at that time on a Sunday morning, and initial progress was slow as I dodged free roaming Brownian Motion dogs and waited for each successive group of pedestrians to amble aside and clear a path.
Once far from these madding crowds, I started to make better time and headed towards north Down along the A2 Sydenham Bypass / Belfast Road / Bangor Road. Road and weather conditions were good and I held a decent (for me) speed of around 20mph for most of this distance. As this was my first serious ride for a number of weeks I had intended on attempting a relatively short route of approximately 35 miles, so at the 20 mile mark I decided it was probably time to turn around and head for home again. But I was so close to Helen’s Bay at his point that I pushed back my turn around point by a couple of miles so I could visit the beach.
Helen's Bay
This was a fortunate decision, as the previously good weather conditions changed suddenly when a torrential rain shower blew in and I would have been soaked if I hadn’t been stopped and able to take (some) shelter under some trees near the shore.
Helen's Bay. Rain is coming.
After the shower passed, it was definitely time to make for home. But why make things easy? After the Bangor Coastal Challenge I concluded that I needed to do (a lot) more miles in the hills, so instead of heading back along the flat course that I’d followed out I turned for the Ballymoney Road that winds it’s way up into the Craigantlet hills.
In the Craigantlet hills
Progressing along this road I was soon passed, not by any cyclists, but by a convoy of very nice cars traveling at speed: a Nissan Skyline GT-R, a BMW M5 and an Audi RS4. It’s a shame I didn’t get a chance to snap any pictures of the convoy. Car porn on a cycling blog, whatever next?
Following the Ballymoney Road and then on to the B170 Ballymiscaw Road and up into the hills, I was treated to some stunning views overlooking the city. This stretch has a deceptively gentle average gradient of 2% over 4.5 miles, but the profile is actually one of short, steep climbs of up to 15% followed by equally steep declines on the other side.
Craigantlet, looking over Belfast
The tail end of the B170 provides a pant-wetting mile of 15% down gradient descent into east Belfast, with some tight turns thrown in just to make extra sure you’re awake. As I went over the top my iPod switched to Ultrasonic’s Check Your Head, both the title and the track suiting the moment perfectly. Freewheeling down and braking I still hit 41mph, but seeing car parts embedded in a damaged wall on one of the corners was a timely reminder of the danger of going in too hot.
Imagine the pain of the cyclist that I sped past as he ground his way up that incline.
From there I headed through east Belfast to the Castlereagh Road, and back into the city where I rejoined the cycle path I’d been down a few short hours ago. I was tired now and taking it quite easy, but as I moved closer to home I found some extra strength and attacked a short 20% gradient with everything I had. It didn’t go quite to plan however and I had to back off halfway with a thigh cramp and limp the rest of the way home.
Sunday Ride 2009/07/19 - Route
I finished with 45.4 miles and 1600 feet of climbing on the clock, with an average speed of 14.7mph brought down badly by the final mile or so of pootling home battling cramp. It was up around 15.8 mph at one stage, so that result is quite disappointing. More pleasing though is the 41 mph maximum speed attained on the B170 descent from Craigantlet and overall I was happy with the ride, especially since it was the first one back after quite a break.
