Tell us about your weekend ride

140 miles today. Did the boat ride audax route in reverse up to that nice pub/ museum in northampton shire. Followed the same audax route back to quanton in oxfordshire. Jumped on the steam ride route from there on. Nice day out. No massive hills. Some poor road surfaces in oxfordshire.sunburt now in garden with beers

Bike the Bounds of Hackney today. Only 20 miles, and very slow, but lots of good company, and ve best wevah evah. Gorgeous day.

Great ride on a lovely sunny day. Slightly spoilt by two incidents, one with a cock in a pick up trying to beep me out of the way and the most extraordinary incident with another cyclist cutting across my front wheel into and through a roundabout. I've never experienced the like of it before. The kind of thing you expect from an angry white van driver. Oh well, shit happens.

Really felt the benefit of all the climbing I did in Mallorca last week. Was able to go quite a bit harder on some sections, even after climbing for some time. Quite pleasing.

Stopped for veggie samosa, coconut water and chocolate cake in Peaslake with all the mountain bikers. Nom nom nom.

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/525358474

tl:dr Sunny Surrey Hills. 2 utter bell ends. Big efforts in the hills. CAKE!

two incidents, one with a cock in a prick up
Fixed.

Great little ride in the antipodes this morning - 35k loop on the SS monstercross around 'Swampy Summit'.

Stupidly left my phone in the car so photos are courtesy of google:
about 50% dirt road:

30% gravelled track

20% steep slippery stuff (and ramblers)

All in all, mostly relaxing route with great scenery, only 15 minutes from home and not a soul in sight. Would ride again.

Right. I'm going to munch some brunch and head out for a reliability ride / mojo finder. Might whip down to the velopark and bomb round in loops for an hour or head out East to the lanes for a bit. I'm actually nervous. First time I will have ridden the road bike since I dumped it really hard on wet tarmac last November.

Have a good one and enjoy the sun on your back.

Unfit!

Nervous!

Slow.

But no one died.

Had a pootle along the river from Surrey Quays to Crossness Pumping Station, which was open! It's incredibly ornate for what it is and the old boys restoring it are doing a great job (one of them is 91!). The best part of it was that I got to wear a hard hat.

Awesome!

Took the SS 29er out for the first time in a while. Dont want to stress the body on the road bike so close to Styrkeprøven. Forgot how knackering off-roading was. Probably not helped by me racing a roadie up a tarmac'd climb before I'd even hit the trail. Cracking fun smashing around the trails though.

The route was mapped in one man's head only – only he knew where we were heading, but it turned out perfect.

Gently rolling roads, then a few climbs, then some little lumps.

Nice, warm air, top views over quiet countryside. Quick enough on occasions to taste effort, but steady so everyone gets round and enjoys themselves before (the optional extra of) emptying themselves chasing a signpost.

Gravel on the minor roads, lots of it. I felt the front wheel move on two occasions. And a bottle cage keeps working itself loose.

Not a single flat and only one "chain off" is good going for a group swelling to 30ish at points. A group this big gets a bit tricky if the roads are winding and drivers are impatient... so some shit driving did happen. A brush past from a Range Rover and another driver trying their luck on a blind brow – proper slow-clap-deserving behaviour.

The cafe did really good local ice cream so I invented the Oxfordshire Affogato (double espresso with a scoop – no flake).

Was going to do the ditchling devil route, but decided I couldn't be bothered with such a long solo ride, and went looking for hills in Kent instead.
And I found some:
http://www.strava.com/activities/156727665

Glorious day out on the bike, ending rather dramatically when I arrived home and had to split up two guys kicking the shit out of each other outside my flat!

When I leave London next month there are some things I will miss.....there are others I won't.

Full write-up of my long weekend in Morzine to follow, but a quick #boastpost first. Turns out I got a #3 placing on a Strava segment on yesterday's ride. #2 is Lars Boom. Ah, if only I'd tried a bit harder...

Although it is a descent, so my naturally-gifted-descender status may have helped...

My kind of segment ;)

I'm somewhat amazed that you managed to average 193w while travelling downhill at 50+kph. I'd og back and have someone lead me out for the first few km. Beating Boom would be too sweet to pass up.

Cant rep you it appears. But its the thought that Counts.....

Classic Surrey XC loop with bonus trails and tacking on Box Hill for the cake / lols.

Halfway up the first Ranmore climb the ride partner nonchalantly drops in the hundred miles of gravel grinding he did on Saturday into the conversation. He was still a beast, though. Great ride, amazing views from Ranmore, Pitch, Leith and Box.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/526297769

My short travel XC rig fitted right in at Peaslake village

The new extended Summer Lightning trail is much rad - recommend, worth the climb.

Managed this on the Ranmore southside descent. Shows I was giving it some, or Crests are made of cheese.

^ 37.6 mph... Was that off-road?

No - it was on the paved Ranmore descent towards Box. There was a chap on a road bike in front and we had to make him feel bad by scalping him, obvs.

Rode bike. Much pain. Put bike away. Drowned sorrows with beer, cider and live rock and rollski.

Im up in Banbury. Its Edge hill (the Knowle). Actually less than a mile!

clintsmoker off here and meself ride these roads regular when up visiting our respective family units. shit, might even been one of us giving it the billy big bollocks ;-)

TWO separate 'spoons? Living the actual dream!

heehee, you know it. i have actually stayed in wetherspoons hotel this year. yeah, they now have hotels!

Badger ran about thirty yards down the lane in front of us before it took a right turn.

Went out on my road bike for my first night ride and first century on Friday after work with fussballclub and MuleManning.

We met at the Jolly Butcher's in Stoke Newington at 7:30pm and set off for our first destination, Santa Maria in Ealing, pizza and ice cream was eaten and then we set off towards Thame in Oxfordshire over the Chilterns, we looped back from here towards West Drayton and got the train back to Paddinton at around 6am.

The route was awesome and I'm sure if it hadn't have been pitch black them the views would have been lovely too. there were some sketchy descents through woodland with gravel and potholes to skip around, I nearly lost my front wheel at one point but I remembered not to lean and all was well, my hope vision one worked out well else some of the descents would have been even more terrifying!

Lots of wildlife was seen and or heard, foxes, rabbits, deer, owls, I think bats and of course the badger fussballclub mentions above. Watching him chase the badger up the road pointing his light at it whilst swaying from side to side was fucking hilarious, wish I'd filmed that.

This was my longest ride to date, 115 miles all in with around 4,500ft of climbing, not that my Garmin wanted to play ball. At one point in the wee small hours I saw that my Garmin was showing a blank glowing screen, turned it off and on again but the damage was done, my recorded ride was cut to just under 94 miles.. grrr! First Strava Grand Fondo I've completed this year though so still happy with that.

Nice work! When did you get back?! Must have been about 2am!

Am thinking of an epping evening ride this week, but when i did it last week i was a bit of a mess the next day at work (but did ride a good 15-20 miles further than planned...)

We were not speed demons, it was definitely more of a pootle rather than a sprint! We stopped for snacks and toilet breaks and stuff, riding time was about 8hrs 45 mins.

I'm interested in an Epping loop this week but not sure if I'll be free, Thursday is most likely I reckon.