Adventures in a Winter Wonderland….
The UK hardly ever has snow. But when it does, the country comes to a standstill. I am not cailming that the snow we do get when it finally comes is so bad, just that we are so bad at coping with it. I thought I would take this oppertunity to tell you about my experiences with the snow on my 7 mile commute.
Monday
Cycled to work with no worries but got slightly worried as I watched snow and more snow fall during the day. The ride home was fun riding through the snow/sludge with some slightly tricky bits.
Tuesday
Day off but managed to have some fun in the snow with Version 2.0 in the morning.
Wednesday
Went to work on my bike expecting it to be a doddle but really had problems with ice. Went to work REALLY slowly as the bike slide around alot.
Thursday
Fresh snow had fallen overnight and the ride was through deep (Actually shallow, but deep by british standards) snow. As not too many people had ridden in it, it was quite easy to ride on. I even got quite warm riding in so I had to remove one of set of gloves I was wearing. First half of the ride home was fairly slushed based. The last half was compacted snow which made the ride a bit twitchy.
Friday
Oh my god! More snow had fallen on the compacted snow making the ride REALLY twitchy. I was a tough ride. Unlike Thursday, which was actually fun, Friday was not fun in any way. Bus problems meant I had to ride home. I decided against the cycle track as I expected little improvment there. The roads were fairly clear but with occasional ice patches. This got me worried as I had to share the roads with heavy cars….which may have control problems when in contact with ice…. A slow ride home was achieved safely and I am looking forward to not having to ride for a few days.