Wading through this with my bike

This weekend has been a difficult one for cycling but at least I managed to get out yesterday simply by going up and down all the main roads in Oxford. The snow wasn’t that much of a problem yesterday as all the main roads were fine, so as long as I stuck to these I could stay on the bike instead of resorting to walking.  The problem comes with how far I can go. Pretty soon I ran out of roads that weren’t either impassable country lanes (on my thin no grip tyres) or dual carriage ways.  I’m sorry to say that I’m not strong willed enough to just go up and down the same roads repeatedly so I only managed 14 miles.

This weekend hasn’t been a total loss though, I have learnt a few more things:

– I can’t rely on doing all my miles on a weekend, because sometimes things get in the way and I can’t do as much as I’d hoped. I’ve decided I need to add more miles during the week and I think the best way is to extend my journey home by going the long way (which in reality means going in the opposite direction for a while).  This should add a few more miles every day as well as to train my mind to cycle when it really just wants to go home.

 
– I need to get contact lenses, or perhaps some windscreen wipers for my glasses.  On days like today, with falling snow, I only manage to cycle for a few minutes before I can’t see anything!

 
– Thermal socks.  I need thermal socks.

– Drivers don’t behave how you’d expect them to when it’s been snowing.  They go slow and then speed up suddenly, or stop for what seems to be no reason.  They also dont seem to expect a cyclist to be out on the roads in snow and don’t seem to know how to react to that.  I know now that if I’m cycling in the snow I need to be extra cautious and observant of traffic.