25th July 2015 Regaling with gales.

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Saturday 25th 62-64F, 17-18C, gales with very heavy rain. The forecast was exactly right as we were woken at 5.30am by thunder and torrential rain. It was precisely this forecast which had sent me for a decent ride yesterday. Knowing that there would be very little chance of a ride today. There is a pause around lunchtime but much more is due later. I missed my chance as it began to pour just as I finally made the decision to go out under darkening skies. Tomorrow holds greater promise after forecasting an earlier wash-out.[sic]

I'm calling this one: "Inarticulate aliens first attempt at scribbling crop circles in Danish." Too pretentious? Well, I am a tricycle artiste!  ;ø]

Sunday 26th 55-61F, 13-16C, windy and overcast. Possible showers with winds gusting to 35mph later. A blustery walk, admiring the forces of nature, after the storm. The roadside trees were flailing as I was passed by a peloton of some twenty-odd, keen clubmen cheating by riding fast with the wind. Then a Norton and BSA twins cheating by riding the opposite way, into the wind, assisted by large engines. I noticed that the BSA rider had a very long plait. So he [or she] must have at least one close [and very patient] friend.

There were countless slugs washed out of the landscape by yesterday's heavy rains. It is difficult to be sure whether the crop damage was done by down-draughts, or rather, down-blasts in this case. Or the sheer quantity of water falling from the sky. Other bits of Denmark got a bit "soggy" but it wasn't too bad, here, for most of the day. 18mm/ 3/4" in a half an hour cloudburst was recorded just north of us. It is odd how the stiffest crops suffer the worst storm damage. It hardly moves in the wind but gets battered flat just the same. While the softer stuff, which wafts in waves to every breeze, survives unscathed.

The crosswind was strong at the start of my ride, with fierce gusts, but not too much of a problem. A roadside tree from an elderly avenue of Hornbeam had snapped mid-trunk. Probably over two feet in diameter at that point but likely due to rot.  Passing gaps in high hedges and between buildings with a crosswind is always a bit of a worry with overtaking traffic limiting elbow room.

Our hero [moi] "rescued" a large frog in a supermarket car park. I came out of the shop to find the frog sitting under the back axle of my trike! Presumably it stretched its legs while it was tipping down yesterday or overnight.  After several attempts to contain its huge leaps I finally caught it in an empty carrier bag and carried it straight to the boundary fence. Where I spotted a pond and released "froggy" to find its own way back down the bank. No doubt he/she/it is still exploring the car park. I was going to ask him if he was "Edible" but thought better of it.

A tailwind pushed my speed up to 28mph on one descent but I still couldn't go any faster despite the tri-bars. Better than the 26mph last time though with a much lighter tailwind. I shopped in three villages before finishing off the last leg on the tri-bars, again, to maintain my speed straight into the wind. Well loaded today but still only 17 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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