Well done to anyone who rode in that. In a rare moment of sanity I decided to go for a run instead of a ride as I thought that might be safer, I even decided against my original plan of running along the coastal path in favor of a more inland (sheltered) route. It didn't seem that windy when in the woods... however once on the ridge overlooking Freshwater Bay things got a bit more lively It wasn't possible to look into the wind as the rain was being blown into my eyes with such force it was like having pins stuck in them.

I survived the experience and made it to safety. On the local radio they claimed the winds were 80 mph? they might have been close as I kept getting blown sideways despite leaning at a considerable angle into the wind

Glad I didn't take the bike as from previous experience of storm force winds on the route I would have been pushing it anyway

FWIW, although I wasn't out yesterday it was just due to me being busy and nothing to do with the weather which was, as they say, nothing to write home about. We've had worse days in the summer. I do understand the need for weather warnings, and that weather forecasting isn't an exact science, but it seems that the hype has only increased since the decision was taken to give "storms" names.

On the bright side, woke up to loads of lovely snow today.

We did 30km from Rotterdam to the Hook of Holland yesterday afternoon. I got blown up a dike. Quite proud of this as the national headwind champs were cancelled at about the same time.

In case anyone is interested...

Think I lucked out. Rain had stopped when I headed back to Bristol at 3.00 in the afternoon. A brief squall near Dursley had me sheltering in a deep Holloway to put on my waterproof trousers, otherwise not too bad and dry on the slightly tortuous cycle.travel route home meant that the diminishing wind seemed to be coming in many directions. About 30 miles home in 3.5 hours. Chucked it down later when home.

"I got blown up a dike"......had to reread that as I had a flashback to
My 7 month stay in Holland

Was pretty breezy here and mucho snow here today (above 500m). Off on the boards tomorrow....
Looks like Calderdale got it pretty bad, hope any on here from the vicinity is OK