Tell us about your weekend ride

I was out on the Shiv for a few hours testing shit. Shit failed.

Not really a weekend ride, but MEC (other half) and I rode to the Isle of Wight for a 5 day holiday last week. We rode with all our gear via Axiom Streamliner racks and dual 25 litre panniers. We upgraded to large tyres at the back for the load, with 28s and 25s. We AirBnB'd for both nights touring.

The first day was an 86 mile jaunt to Hailsham via National Cycle Route 21. Despite Sustrans warning us some parts of it were not suitable for road bikes, we only had to get off and push a couple of times.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/3123448

Day two was Eastbourne to Chichester, with Beachy Head right at the start. Unfortunately my phone extra power brick shat itself and tracking conked out in Worthing. Due to a significant amount of knee pain for me caused by compensating for a hotspot, we caught the train from Bognor to Chichester (5 miles, so close).

http://www.ridewithgps.com/trips/3129630/

Day 3 was the flattest route, wiggling on the National Cycle Route 2 all the way to the New Forest from Chichester. Several very cute ferries really help cut the day up and gave me a chance to rest and stretch my knee regularly. We really underestimated time when confronted with a headwind in the New Forest and slogged the last 12 miles thinking we were going to miss our 5pm ferry - we made it with moments to spare. Absolute elation.

http://www.ridewithgps.com/trips/3132920

2 weeks agos week ride if you can be arsed to read it
http://jasonmfalconer.co.uk/wp/?p=1103

I'll keep spamming pictures from my rides whenever we go to this site

looks like an airport, in Scandieland?

Right on - 3.5km runway

Already done more miles in a week than I think I've ever done before and got a ride taking in as many of the top 100 climbs (3) as I can and still keep within a 100 mile circuit of home, not sure how I feel about riding that far solo, the only other 100 mile solo ride I've ever done is a time trial which is a bit different as there are lots of people doing the same stupid thing!

Beautiful. Anymore pictures?

Rode to Southend on Sea and back today. Nice route, although I have been spoiled after cycling in the Peak District, it just takes so long to get outside of London.
http://www.strava.com/activities/181088949

I flew into Basel rather than Geneva this weekend, so Cycliste and I enlisted one of Cycliste's colleagues to act as taxi-driver and wingman, and headed over to the Vosges mountains. The route we had planned featured three climbs, the last of which was Les Planches des Belles Filles, as featured in the 2012 and 2014 TdF.

The first two climbs were enjoyable but unremarkable. 7-10% average, climbing through the forests to the top of the pass - typical Vosges riding really. At the bottom of Les Planches des Belles Filles we were joined (well, overtaken) by Mr. Serious Race Face on his Scott - he's at the back of this group, with Cycliste and her colleague Daniel up front. Not for long, admittedly.

Although we'd been told the view from the top of the Belles Filles was nothing special, it wasn't actually that bad. Certainly gave you the impression you'd climbing out of the valleys:

And to round things off, here's Cycliste at the top of Belles Filles, after the 22% section. Cycliste was disappointed it was only 200m long, and denounced it as an insufficient challenge after all the hype about its severity.

All in all, a damn fine day's cycling, topped off by an excellent lamb and aubergine dinner at the local Turkish restaurant.

Oh, and I hit a new top speed on two wheels today - 89.3kph or 55.3mph. I've looked at the data, and it looks genuine rather than a spike.

Today was punctuated by p***t*r*s

Really liked this climb.

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Then Arc 1800.

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Followed by a hike up a meadow to get back on route.

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Followed by an existential question.

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Was the existential question 'Is the whole of the rest of the world tilted through 90 degrees, or is it just me?'

Thanks for getting me out of house, good day out. Tailwind on a way out was a great fun.
Glad you enjoyed the route, thanks to Dimi for showing it a while ago.

^^ No.

Feeling rather envious of you guys climbing and descending over there in the Vosges and Alps! Did you do that rocky downhill trail @fussballclub ?
I'm riding flat roads but very much looking forward to next weekend's ride: http://www.alpenbrevet.ch - will be the hardest thing I've ever tried. Well actually not quite, as I failed to complete a similar 275km/7000m elev. ride 2 years ago when I had been riding for 2 years. The shame has been severely haunting me since so I have to make up for that ;-)
As my last two big rides (except for a flat 500k) were the Fleche Wallonne in Belgium and Les 3 Ballons in the Vosges mountains a while ago, I was feeling like I might be behind on the HTFU schedule. Yesterday I did a windy, rainy and sub-optimally navigated 100+ which turned out fine, never rode faster than that so I guess I'm ready (enough). Just impossible to take away the anxiousness for something like the Alpenbrevet I guess. Suisse here we come!

Not been on the bike for weeks due to work and illness, so this morning tried to get 40 or so miles done. Headed out towards Shoreham, half following a route. Unfortunately, somewhere on a descent near there I hit a tiny dip in the road that snapped my Raceware mount clean off, taking my Garmin with it into the undergrowth at the side of the road. Bless the four cyclists that helped me look for it for half an hour before deciding that it's never going to be seen again. Bollocks.
Cycled home pretty pissed off, got rained on, ate a massive wedge of Stilton for lunch.

Which side you come up? French or Italian? We did the French side a few weeks ago. It was nice.

The wind! I did quite a lot of hiding from it today.

Decided to go out for 30 or so this afternoon.

5 miles in, having gone over a large hill and down the other side, shifting down for a junction, my rear mech cable sheared off at the end inside the shifter.

Cue 5 miles of riding (and a bit of walking) with two gears. Nightmare.

Did you shift and keep freewheeling? If so, you're holding tension in the cable.

#doingitwrong
#fixed4lyf

I don't think so.

First time I've ever popped a cable, mountain bike or road bike.