50 miles on the road last night. Didn’t set off until 8:30 again so it was getting very late by the time I got back. Pretty good route though, over to Bury, then Rochdale, Milnrow, Newhey, over the hill to Denshaw then across the foggy, wet and windy moors to Ripponden. A climb up to Blackstone Edge then a drop down to Littleborough. That descent was awesome last night. All the high level roads were shrouded in thick cloud, as soon as I started to ride downhill though the mist cleared and I had a great view of the lights of Rochdale whilst taking the fastest lines through all the bends in the road.

Disaster struck late in the ride where my rear light packed in. I thought it was a battery problem but inspection this morning has revealed it’s full of water! WTF?? Anyway, that made the final 15 miles or so interesting to say the least. What kind of mong goes for a 50 mile bike ride, on the road, in the dark, with no backup light?  All I could think about were severe spinal injuries, that dead cyclist in Moss Side and The Darwin Awards.

Almost 3 hours dead for the whole ride, which wasn’t too bad.