So there’s something a little unexpected: cycling in January and feeling warm. Today was almost like an end-of-spring day, and the perfect excuse to jump on the bike for a quick ride out to Conwy and back. The photo below is of Conwy castle from the Sychnant side.

Okay, that makes it sound a lot easier than it felt. The first ride after Christmas is always hard work, and this was no exception. Perhaps setting myself a 30 mile loop including the Sychnant Pass was a little cruel when there’s a 25mph headwind for the return leg, but what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right?

The run down to Abergwyngregyn was interesting because there’s still loads of damage from the floods and closed roads. There’s even a good amount of cycling through miniature lakes, and the highlight was climbing a short hill which had an inch and a half of water running down it. Hopefully we’ll be spared too much more rain.