It has been a quiet at work this week which makes a change for me. The weather has been mainly dry but very windy. My right knee has been very sore since Monday afternoon so I have not much exercise this week apart from a 3hour + hike on Thursday. Today I thought I would give the bike ago and see how I get on. Again it was dry but very windy. The sun did sort of come out for around 5 minutes but that was it. The rest of the ride was cloudy / overcast. I took the Cannondale Synapse Neo 1 with the 650b Hunt wheel set and 2" tyres. as my planned route was mainly off road with a few inter linking short sections of tarmac / country lanes. I was up and out by 7am and it was lovely and quiet. I took the back way over to Baxters Wood to then pick up the old railway line to Broom Park picnic area where I turned left and went all the way to Bishop. At Bishop I rode through the market place and out onto Durham road all uphill to pick up the old railway line Spennymoor. Once at Spenny I nipped through the town centre to pick up the road through Tudhoe Village, Croxdale, Browney then through Croxdale Estate. This spits you out on the Bowburn Road, I take the cycle path to Bowburn, around the back Bowburn area to Low Shincliffe, around Madisen Castle, into and out of Durham and a loop around Frankland / The Sands before crossing the east coast main line and into Newton Hall to call in past and see my mum before heading home. All in 36 miles, 2hrs 45 mins and only 1700ft of climbing! The lines have dried up lovely with all the recent wind, they were lovely and quiet as well. Below are quite a few photos, enjoy and hopefully more soon -
