The Isle of Wight

Last weekend was the inaugural 'Lad's Cycling Weekend'. To say it was a blast doesn't really do it justice. It was the most fun I've had since I've been in the UK and that's saying something. I'm late to posting, so I don't want to repeat everything that Rob's written about the weekend. If you haven't already done so, go there and read about it. What I do want to do is show some of my favorite pictures and in the next post show off some of the stats. If you'd rather see the entire photo set click here.

I was really impressed that the ferry we rode over on had a bike shed on it (the yellow bit). You knew that this was going to be a bike friendly island when you saw that.


Every time we stopped we were like a little gang. We'd lay out our bikes and sort of occupy the site. This picture is from our scone stop and you can see what a motley crew we were.


A huge thanks has to go out to Sally for booking one of the most amazing hotels we could have found. The climb back up the cliff the next morning wasn't great, but when you look out your window and see the sea, it's a good thing.


Dinner was an interesting experience. Good seafood all around, and this was the prawn genocide that Sam committed. It was amazing how many he got to start, but then he stacked the carcasses so that they were staring at you. That was just creepy.


One of the things that we didn't realize after the hour long ferry and the day full of riding was that we hadn't really gone that far. Only 40km? Heck that's a 90 minute ride on the road bike.


If I had to choose, I'd say that the length of the days is the hardest thing for me to come to grips with in the UK. This picture was taken at 9.30pm! And it's this light at 5.00am too.



Being a Floridan and near the sea I couldn't resist taking a dip. At some point I should think that the coast of the UK is a bit colder than the coast of Florida.


The next morning, we had a great breakfast that restored our energy and set us up well for a full day of riding


Well for about 10 seconds until we hit the 25% grade!


After about an hour of riding we got to a nice peak at the southern tip of the island. If you blow up the picture you can see the chalk cliffs of Freshwater and Needles at the end. This is probably my second favorite picture of the weekend.



One of the things that I really liked about the island (and that will draw my father) is that they've really kept the rustic feel of the place. One of the biggest things was there are an amazing number of thatched roof houses on the trip. This is just one example, and by no means the most impressive.


This is my favorite picture. As we approached Freshwater and lunch on the second day, we were all really exhausted. It'd been up and down and after the previous day everyone was feeling it. Unfortunately we had to climb a serious hill right before we entered town. At the top everyone stopped and waited for the stragglers and generally had a good look. As we don't really have chalk cliffs, or cliffs at all for that matter in Florida, this was absolutely stunning.



That's it for my favorite photos from my set, but I encourage you to take a look at Rob's post and photo set as well. Part 2 will include cycling stats tomorrow.