Sun is shining & the weather is sweet

make you wanna move your cycling feet.

Summer hit with a bang this weekend, 28deg C today and I rode 105km in it, in 3 hours and 45 minutes. That's only 10k short of our first planned day, so I feel pretty good about it. I squeezed in 25km yesterday too before going off to my niece's wedding and leaving that for Tony's 40th birthday party. Both of which were fun.

Anyway, today I retraced my steps, more or less, from the rain soaked ride of a couple of weeks ago, except I made it across Cropredy Bridge which was under 4 feet of flood water last time I tried, to Canon's Ashby where I refilled my water bottles in the National Trust cafe, seen here. How terribly English.

The ride was pretty much without incident, although I hit 70.5kph re-entering Warwickshire from Northamptonshire which is about as fast I've managed and nearly hit a car which reversed out in front of me on a blind bend, fortunately I was doing more like 7kph at the time.

To show the contrast to my last big ride, here's the view to Edge hill from the top of Burton Dassett. Last time I was here, I was in cloud!

When I got back I was earlier than expected and Beth was out. I didn't have a key, so I sat in the sunshine for a while waiting for her (she wasn't answering her phone) before getting bored and cycling off to get a Sunday paper from the local petrol station. I didn't have a lock so I took my bike into the shop with me and stood at the counter, in lycra shorts, sweaty shirt, cycle helmet, bike by my side. The guy looked up at me and said completely deadpan"any petrol sir?". Needless to say this caused much merriment on my side. So I bought the paper and went home, arriving at the same time as Beth...who'd been out to buy me a paper. Bless her. Now, can I sell a duplicate Observer on ebay?...