31st May 2015 Sunday run.

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Sunday 31st 50-53F, 10-12C, very windy with bright sunshine. I was up early and hoping for a better day for a longer ride but it is already blowing a gale. 30mph gusts from the SW are promised again with rain after 3pm this afternoon. Which usually means I could cover a lot of ground going somewhere else but take hours to come home again.

Just a 3/4 hour walk to test the cool, overcast and windy conditions. Watched a Nightingale[?] singing in a roadside tree. Superb song with considerable variation. I shall have to wrap up well for my ride as it isn't likely to get much warmer today. The early sunshine has gone with no promise of more to come.

There was some brightness at times as I explored the gorgeous countryside above Fåborg. The whole ride was very hilly in short burst of major corrugations. Fields, woods and forests decorate the bumpy landscape with small villages, hamlets and often pretty houses at intervals.

I seemed to have chosen a day for serious cycling. Being overtaken several times by pelotons of riders with numbers attached. Then there were the clubmen out training as individuals and large groups. It can be quite nerve racking to have thirty riders pass my trike at speed. Their steering is much more agile than mine and a trike has very different needs to remain absolutely stable on rapidly changing cambers. All I can do is maintain a straight line and let them go around me. Their well-honed skills at riding in a mobile and active bunch probably saved the day more than anything I did.

I tried to tack on the back of one untidy gaggle at 10 miles but soon had no wind left on a long uphill drag. It can take me 20 miles to clear the pipes properly these days.

Later I led a large group up a steep hill as nobody seemed keen to pass before we crested the top. Several riders called out well ridden as they passed. I was too breathless to hold a stimulating conversation so just grunted my thanks.

The wind was more helpful on the way back and I cut the 3 hour outward time by an hour. Returning by a different route, again with lots of hills. 5 hours for 62 miles on one sandwich and a banana isn't bad considering all those hills. Though I did drink a couple of mini-boxes of pure apple juice to keep my strength up.

It seems John Kerry is raising international concerns about the safety of cycling. He has crashed twice now. The last time was in 1992. Twice in 23 years seems rather careless to me. At 71 he ought to be seriously considering a tricycle! It seems a pavement stepped out in front of him this time. His bicycle had to be lifted from the Swiss Alps by mountain rescue helicopter. There is no information on the condition of the kerb.
 
John Kerry breaks leg in bicycle crash in France - BBC News

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