Girls on Cogs

The March Critical Mass met at the Curve to a Drumming ensemble and all the cyclists gathered round in Brazilian theme fancy dress – a few wearing flags, many in Brazilian colours and one with a Brazilian wax costume!

We headed up London Road following the bike trailing the Sound system and giving the mass a festival feel.  People were joining in with bells and whistles and waving to bemused motorists and pedestrians along the way.  We cut through Victoria Park and back down Regent Road and into town to circle the Clock Tower a few times before regrouping at the Crumblin Cookie on high street, with the Drummers bringing us in to finish.

A good turnout again, and it should only get better with warmer weather and lighter evenings!

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Our big cycle ride this year is part of the Coast and Castles ride along the East Coast, from Newcastle to Edinburgh, some miles. This is planned for the end of may bank holiday and we have a group of 14 signed up! So, we thought we’d best start some training as not that long to go.

As the first cycle ride this year, and a start to the training, Claire, Caroline and I went out for a Sunday afternoon cycle ride, planning to do a good couple of hours cycling. We set off at 1pm, with the sun shining and headed out to Thornton Reservoir. After 7 miles we had a little pub stop at Field Head for some lemonade (Caroline hadn’t managed to drink much that morning!) It was only another 3 miles to Thornton and the Steaming Billy pub where the girls fancied a little stop for some pudding! We checked the stats and 10.8 miles cycled in a rolling time of 1hr and 5, average speed around 9 miles an hour. As we’ll be doing around 70 per day for the Coast and Castles they could have some long days on the trip. Still it’s early days yet, and time to improve the cycling times! We managed the return journey in one go as Claire had to get back for a sick cat – so we broke 20 miles in total and a very pleasant little Sunday afternoon ride!