I also ventured out in my new lightweight camo jersey and shorts, after work. The very day I've been looking forward to for months. What a joy. Mind you I won't be surprised if I'm back in several layers + tights or even overshoes before summer kicks in properly. I've seen it snow in May round these parts before.
I took the Cannondale on a Twycrosser. I've been sort of saving it for the 200 miler, not wanting to put any more wear on the gear cables, tyres etc. But I thought it was time for its first spin of 2018, and anyway I wanted to test the pedals that are now attached to it, that came with the second Boardman. And the new skewers (although there's not a lot to go wrong with a pair of skewers, is there?). The pedal in-out stiffness is set just right, and the skewers were fine.
And my god what a difference it makes - I don't know whether it's because it suits me better or if it's inherently a quicker bike but it feels so sharp, so agile - it really gives me a definite, non-marginal gain, even compared to the Planet X. This is not exactly a scientific assessment of course but intuitively, I reckon it would buy me an extra 11 or 12% of distance - in other words, for the effort that 50 miles on the Planet X would take, or about 45 miles on the Boardman, I could get about 56 miles out of the Cannondale on a typical route. I 'kin love this bike. I wanted to high five it when I got off it.
Beautiful weather, a light breeze but warm and sunny. Still some standing water just to the side of the roads.
I did start to feel a bit of discomfort in my knees after a few miles, but it never gave me any trouble as such. I never felt like I needed to get off and stop for a bit and apart from the knee discomfort my legs felt fairly strong. I'm not going to do a long one for a while but I'm pleased to have done 20+ without any bother.
My GPS watch battery gave up the ghost after the first 22.7 miles:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1516854680And I didn't have a phone with Strava on so I synthesised the last 4.41 miles when I got back:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1516962556which of course has messed up my average speed / times on Strava slightly, but I only really care about the distances.
27.11 done which takes me to 273 this month, 1004 this year.
This was only the 26th ride of the year (compared with 40 this time in 2017), But I'm 137 miles ahead of where I was last year on 18 April (863 miles). Looking good for 5000 in 2018 as long as I haven't buggered my knees.
