Ride report by Michael Capone 24 May 2020 Today we made a long-overdue pilgrimage by bike to Manaccan, where titanium was first discovered. A titanium plaque at the site commemorates Reverend William Gregor, the Vicar of Creed Parish, who first identified the new element in 1791. While visiting his friend, the Vicar of Manaccan, Gregor noticed black sand in the Leat of Tregonwell Mill that was attracted to a magnet. A keen amateur geologist, Gregor took a sample home and […] Read More
With the warmest day of the year so far forecast, and with a moderate ESE wind, I decided a reasonable non-OGIL ride was in order, but not with too much west to minimise the amount of headwind riding in the latter part of the ride. I toyed with the idea of Poldhu, but judging by the OGIL WhatsApp group it was likely to be pretty crowded. Instead, I thought I would explore the top end of the Lizard, and visit […] Read More
With the new rules allowing us to stay out for as long as we like, and with someone who isn’t a family member, Paula and I decided to cycle down to the Lizard today. We’d been yearning for a longer ride – the Mawnan Smith circuit is lovely but it gets a bit boring after a while. It was cloudy and cool, and being mid-week, the roads were still very quiet – a contrast to last weekend when hundreds of […] Read More
I’ve just finished an online exercise class and while waiting for the kettle to boil so I can take Clive a cup of tea I will write about our ride to Portreath that we did yesterday. I had had a look at a Strava post from Colin for the route which was Halvasso, Twelveheads, Blackwater, Portreath. Easy, what could go wrong. Unfortunately, I am well known for never knowing where I am going or where I am so this was […] Read More
Mawnan enough hills! Where shall I go today?……it was so much easier before lockdown when others made these decisions for you. As I’ve ridden to many of our usual destinations I thought I’d follow Robin’s idea and keep to my own parish. After all there are plenty of hills in Mawnan Parish – Maenporth, Durgan and Helford Passage – in fact ten of over 10%. For every descent I immediately ascended again and state d within the Mawnan Parish boundaries. […] Read More
Gill and I were pushing wheelbarrows along the lane the other day, each full of well rotted horse manure for our garden and generously donated by a neighbour. It was quite some way and the task felt like a lockdown version of the “farmers walk”, which is an exercise we regularly do in the gym with coach Rob! Anyway, it was towards the end of the afternoon and the light was fading so I wasn’t certain that the cyclist, who […] Read More
Welcome to our April meeting and I really hope that everyone is fit and well. The past month seems to have been really quite busy considering we are in the middle of lock down but as always the Wheelers are a busy lot. We’ll start with welcoming Sonjia and Anne back from their travels to South America. We await the full report as I understand it will be an entertaining read. Sonjia in true Sonjia style made the most of […] Read More
It was Wednesday so why change a habit of a lifetime, well the last number of years anyway, and with the sun shining Clive and I set of on a shortish local ride. I never have any idea where I’m going so I let Clive set the route. We usually head off through Budock Water but we’ve found recently it’s been quite busy and difficult to keep 2 metres away from people in the village so we went the normal […] Read More
Following on from Robins hill climbing around Mylor I decided to look at my local area. Mongleath rd joins Mongleath Avenue at the top and both join Boslowick at the bottom, giving a loop of 950 metres, only a short loop but with one hill with 110ft climb in the middle. I’ve been thinking of doing a few loops for a while so today I gave it a go, 10 miles but with 1600 ft […] Read More
Sunshine and Iconic Climbs. I received an email from Solmar Villas the other day giving us directions and information regarding our forthcoming holiday in Spain. The holiday we all know won’t be happening. A bit insensitive I thought! Am I really going to miss the driving, queuing, cramped seats on a plane I’m already thinking I should no longer be using, etc, etc? Ok, the sun. And yes, the amazing tarmac on roads that meander over beautiful mountains. And the […] Read More