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They are three things that normally happen on one of our rides, well it seems normal as in they seem to be happening everytime we go out lately. The first was the wife fell off her bike, not once but twice and I missed both occurrences, I just heard the scream from behind me. The first off was while negotiating a narrow mud filled path, I managed to get through, the wife got stuck and in her attempt to get through she bit the dust or rather the mud. The second one was a bit more spectacular by all accounts, rolling down a deeply rutted track the wife got the front wheel caught on the edge of one of the ruts and well, were not sure but it looked like an over the handle bars job based on where I found her sprawled on the floor and the bike on top of her.

Our second normal occurrence, is mud. We must have been around three quarters round the route before we hit the first mud (where the wife fell off first time). It was deep clay type mud and it looked like they had run the grand national along the track, it was wall to wall (or fence to fence) hoof divots. It was just a case of trying to ride through or find the driest path to wade through. It really has made a mess of the path through Ferndown forest and up the path toward Horton Tower. I can’t see the path to the tower improving when it has dried out, as it will be deeply rutted with the hoof divots.

Finally the third happening, was……………..I broke my bike again, a another spoke snapped on the rear wheel, never noticed until I was washing the bike down, I am not happy and will be penning a letter to Cannondale and tell them exactly what I think, not just about the spoke problem but the entire bike. I will let you know the response (if any) I get.

The ride itself was very enjoyable, only 12 miles but with less than 20% of it on roads, we had everything from wide bridle ways grass tracks, single dirt track and the amount of hill we went down did not seemed to be matched by the equivalent amount of hills going up even though we started and finished in the same place (pub car park). The weather was sunny from the start and although cold for the first few miles it soon warmed up. We finished a nice ride off with a drink and sandwhich at the Horton Inn although we did look a mess walking into the bar covered in mud with all the families there for an early mother days lunch!! We did the decent thing and sat out side in the sun and ate and drank and very nice it was to.

Info on Horton Tower can be found here

Here is a couple of pictures from today

Looking down the track through the trees

Horton Tower

Horton Towers current residents

Apart from a broken spoke this mornings ride was a good ride, did the route I normally do on Sunday (have plans for tomorrow), wife normally comes with me on Saturday and she was happy to go round the Throop loop.

I must remember to sort myself out before I leave in future, I had stopped three times before we even did a mile. First was to pull the polar buff over my ears, then it was to adjust my saddle height, and then it was to put headband on (my forehead was freezing).

Didn’t take long for us to warm up, once we hit the first field along the river, churning through all that mud, soon it was clinging to the wheel like the proverbial to a blanket making the bike feel twice as heavy. When we hit the gravel path sections the mud was flying off the wheel in all directions, had to remember to keep my mouth shut for fear of swallowing a lump of mud.

At one point of the ride we go along a narrow path, it is probably not much over 3 feet wide, with a tall wire fence on one and side bushes, trees and bramble on the other. Half way along there a tree stump at handlebar height that sticks out a bit into the already narrow path and it draws you in. Well I shouted at the wife as I went past it to remind her, next thing I here is a scream from behind me. I didn’t have to look round to guess what had happened, once I stopped and got off the bike (which is no mean feat in such a narrow area) I see the wife’s bike is horizontal on the floor, her left leg between the bike and the floor and the wife sat on the frame, in essence she could not get up. It took several minutes to extricate her from the frame.

I also found that my seat height had slipped since I had adjusted it at the start of the ride, so a quick tighten and a re-adjust and boy what a difference!! Up until then my knee was starting to hurt, but once I reset the seat height the ride was a whole lot different and the pain I had been feeling started to go. My butt is becoming accustomed to the new saddle (a Charge Spoon).

When we got back to the Hurn road, the wife headed for home and I headed for my second lap around Throop, I had just got into the first field and I heard a distinct ping from the front of the bike. I stopped and found there was a broken spoke on the front wheel my 4th spoke to break since the end of December. I took it steady for the rest of the ride. Fortunately I was able to get the wheel over to CycleFix who fixed it while I waited.

At the end of the day it was a good ride, a tad under 21 miles. Hoping for another good distance tomorrow so that Mondays weigh in is a good one. I have been pretty good eating wise this week so looking to get back on target ( see the Count Down page).

Not sure where we are riding tomorrow, have a few options and as daughter is taking the son out for the day and then he is staying over at the in-laws tomorrow night we don’t have to rush home.

Apparently there is something special about tomorrow that the wife says I better not forget or else???