March 17th 2014

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Monday 17th 47F, 8C, gales, overcast. Mild, with potential showers and sunny periods forecast. Winds gusting to 35mph+ yet again. Peaking late morning to lunchtime. My usual window for a ride. So I ought to go out on my trike earlier and walk later. Except that I usually prefer the opposite.

In recognition of services to shopping I was allowed early coffee and off I went into a westerly gale. There was quite a bit of leaning to stay on the road during the fierce gusts on open stretches of road. Talking about hedges: Y'all couldn't make it up. First the council sent out the tractor mounted, scissors action, hedge clippers. This left the roads strewn with thorny twigs and the verge four-five feet high in very large bits of hedge for literally miles on end. Much of this clipped vegetation was being blown across the road by the gales.

Now you will never guess what they are doing? They are sending tractors with high speed cutters to mow the grass on the verges! I kid you not!! I passed one tractor spraying thorny twigs and mud right across both carriageways of a main road in a huge cloud of brown dust! One is forced to ask whether the person who made these "horticultural" decisions is suitably competent.

Talking of the council: As I was riding along the gutter/cycle lane in one large shopping village I noticed a continuous glitter of broken glass for literally hundreds of yards. This was on both sides of the road amongst the existing moraines of dead twigs, rubbish, filth, mud, gravel, drinks cartons, cigarette butts, beer cans, rocks and assorted debris which has flown out of the trailers of those visiting the recycling yard. (Recycling yard visitors can be a bit "special" in this regard. Most seem to consider themselves rather above netting or ropes to contain their own carefully collected, potential road debris)

This awful mess is right outside the council offices. Nobody who "works" there, who is not actually registered blind, could possibly miss seeing the years of accumulated filth on their own doorstep! Cyclists are supposed to use these same glittering moraines as cycle paths by law! The gutters are demarcated by white lines precisely for this purpose! 14 miles. Fighting against the odd(s) on all fronts. A large dead fox on the verge was having an even worse day.

Tuesday 18th 46F, 8C, overcast with rain. Still at first but becoming windy. There should be a brighter and drier window before lunch but it's actually getting darker. Though now the rain has stopped. I was lucky and it stayed dry but grey and windy while I had my ride. Shit spreaders everywhere again today. Barked at by farm dogs. Saw plovers bombing a field. 19 miles.

Wednesday 19th 43F, 6C, overcast, breezy. Showers forecast with 40+mph winds pm. Better to go early. The drizzle paused after coffee so I set off. Only for it to start raining and blowing more seriously. So only 8 miles. It is supposed to dry up this afternoon but blow a lot harder. I have to go out again so I might as well go on the trike. It stayed dry while I did another 7 miles. The wind was not as bad as I feared.

Thursday 20th 50-57F, 10-14C, sunny, quite mild but rather windy. Gusting to over 35mph later according to the DMI. It was mostly a crosswind both going and coming back. Climbing well despite another heavy load of shopping. 18 miles.

Friday 21st Another rest day.

Saturday 22nd 41-47F, 5-8C, windy, thin high cloud, sunny at first. Denmark is on course for a record warm March. The "windy" turned into a gales with fierce gusts! I was cruising at 20-25 going and crawling at 7-8mph coming back. Using the small ring I hit a low of 5.9mph as I crested a hill straight into the wind. There was some sort of organized ride for teenagers in one village. Then I was overtaken by a peloton of ten club riders but they didn't really make that much distance on me. 19 miles. I was going out again but it is clouding over with rain forecast. So I'm going in the car. My break from morning walks doesn't seem to have had any positive or negative effect.

Sunday 23rd 38F, 3C, breezy, sunny periods but rather cloudy. Sunshine and showers forecast. With winds gusting to 30mph later. Just a short ride. It started raining. Only 7 miles.

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