Day 1 - 81.90km

I've been itching to get out on the road bike for the last week or so but a combination of picking up a cold, the snowy weather and work/family commitments have meant I haven't really had a chance since riding in the Imperial Winter Series race at Hillingdon over a week ago.

With temperatures hovering around the zero mark and snow still on the ground I'd probably normally find myself having second thoughts on whether to go out but I know the challenge will be a tough call with family to visit over Christmas and Boxing Day if I didn't get a few kilometres ticked off early on. So, with Christmas shopping finally finished this morning I was determined to head out for a few hours this afternoon.

Whilst the main roads are clear of snow we've still got snow on the side streets and smaller lanes I'd usually ride so it was never going to be a particularly picturesque ride with a lot of it on A roads. Luckily it seems everyone was out doing last minute shopping and away from the town centres the roads seemed fairly quiet for most of the ride.

I did have a short venture into the lanes but quickly decided that was a bad call after a few scary moments on the icy snow followed by a few minutes of indecision as to whether it was safer to keep going straight to the main road at the end or try and turn around and go back.

Total ride time was just over 3h 30mins with 81.9km covered at an average speed of around 22 kph.

Full Garmin ride stats are here - Festive Challenge Day 1

Todays random ride thought -

Does Nuun stop you're water bottle freezing? It contains salt so it must do right?