I started by making my way up through Mottram, into Broadbottom, up to Charlesworth then over the top to Glossop and then to the stop of Snake Pass.
The whole ride was brilliant!
I warmed up on the hill to Mottram then went for my first aim of the ride, to ride over Monks Road non stop finally putting to rest the monk monster. In all honesty the monk didn't quite have to same bite as it once did on my old frame and setup. It felt great!
Once I had run over the top I went for the next part of my test, a speedy run down to Glossop. I managed to push it reasonably hard but not too hard! I am not that crackers that I would push a bike that I built myself too hard. I did hit just over 44mph. My bike felt great and so did my legs. I wasn't dying this time due to bad gearing and the only thing I did have to worry about was keeping hydrated as it really wasn't cool today. I headed off up Snake Pass. I noticed an unmarked police car had pulled over some motorcyclists at the foot of the pass. It looked like things were busy as I made my way up the road. I stuck to the white line all the way up. I just maintained a good high cadence in a low gear and sailed my way up the hill. It wasn't the fastest assent ever but it really felt good. Once I did get to the top I stopped and made a quick video (see below) after that it was again rapid descent time this time however with a bit of a headwind.
I really pushed it to get down the 3.2 miles as fast as possible. I really enjoyed the run down too. I didn't touch my brakes once right until the last bend where I bottled it. Well it is a 90 degree left turn so I didn't really want to kebab myself on my first run out. After that it was just a slow trudge through Glossop's legendary traffic (it really is that slow) and then the climb back up to Hyde with a run down the unbelievably pot holed Matley Lane.
The whole run took me just short of 2 hours and earned me a record 32 Strava cups!!! I was quite surprised when I got home and checked that out myself in all honesty.
The bike handled like a dream and cornered really well too. I was thinking that sometimes I may have been a little close to the edge but I really think now that I could have done more and pushed harder.
Lessons learnt from this ride:-
1. Attack everything!!!
2. I really need a longer derailiure hanger as the one I currently have fitted wont allow me to engage my big cassette ring while I am on my lower chain ring. I don't know if I will be able to get hold of one though.
3. Some small fine tuning of the front derailiure as I can feel/hear it catching the chain still when I drop down to the bottom ring.
4. Attack everything!!!
In all though I really did enjoy today's training ride out and look forward to the next one. Until then however I feel it will be the same dull commute to work. However I really don't mind that as I am still riding a really nice bike!
Happy cycling! :)
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