Tell us about your weekend ride

As soon as you strap a trailer on the bike everyone suddenly remembers that you're a real person and perhaps would like some courtesy on the roads.

@airtime - from your OP it sounded like your main objection to the meeting place was that it is 'in a housing estate' next to a 'high rise block of flats' which you said 'put you off a bit'. If I misinterpreted, sorry for any offence caused.

I think Al's comment has gone taken out of context and overblown a bit here.

To be fair, their meeting point is in a very inaccessible little square that I think everyone would struggle to locate on their first attempt. I think it would make sense if they just did it in a car park / lay-by or something on the side of the road rather than in the middle of a maze.

Ha, not quite but that appears to be the appearance that you convey with a trailer.

What time do they usually meet at High Beech out of interest? I may meet there on Sunday..

This weekend I made a series of discrete decisions that resulted in me riding a solo century with a tent balanced on top of my saddlebag, itself filled with formal clothes for a wedding.

I planned to set off early but spent some time trying to find clothes and shoes that would be a) suitable for a wedding and b) packable, and then trying to secure the tent on top of the saddlebag. When I eventually set off I was held up at the Woolwich Ferry for a good half hour (I don’t know why I persist in loving the ferry so much) and it took forever to leave London. I wasn’t sure I’d make it on time, and started to think about where I could get a train from.

Things picked up considerably when I left the howling wasteland that is East London and I stopped in a village near Chelmsford for a plate of pasta, surrounded by women drinking pinot grigio on their way to the V Festival. I rode up a dual carriageway to Braintree and managed to get lost (despite having a garmin) in some lanes near Sudbury. I was trying out various different gels and bars, some of which were unpalatable (I’m looking at you, powerbar) so I had to throw some of them away (in a bin, I hasten to add) and was pretty hungry. I took a shameless selfie.

The final 30 miles were a blast, I felt really zen. I arrived at the campsite, pitched my tent, had a shower and headed to the wedding reception, where I danced to abominable/awesome music all night.

Would I do it again? Yes – with a smaller tent (I was able to do yoga in mine the next morning, it was so spacious), with a different route out of London and with more food (there was some bread and cheese at the reception but it didn’t fill the hole and I woke up in the night so incredibly hungry that I had to go for a walk around the campsite, the only thing I had remaining to eat was a caffeine gel and I couldn’t bring myself to do that).

Awesome. How'd you get home?

Rode to the nearest train station, found out it was £45 single (!) and thought about riding home... but it was raining, so I coughed up and got the train back. #copout

it was like 8.30ish i think mate, or maybe 8.40. it's about 13m from hackney meeting point i think

This past weekend saw our 5th annual rugby club bike trip. It started when two of the guys bought an old 50's tandem off ebay and had to get it back to London from Gloucester so we rode it over 3 days with about 6 of us and our groundskeeper driving a support vehicle. For fun, we called it Matt & John's Great Tandem Retrieval Adventure Project (MAJGTRAP for short - obviously). So far we have done Gloucester, Great Yarmouth, Dover, Birmingham and now Winchelsea. Not massive distances for 3 day rides but the focus is very much on the social aspect rather than getting the miles in. Also, it is encouraged to have a bike older than yourself, I rode a 1940's ladies' Hercules with only two of the 3 SA gears working. This year it was Winchelsea to Seaford, Seaford to Redhill (with a trip on the Bluebell Steam Railway to cheat slightly) and then Redhill to Dulwich.

My Steed

Getting ready for the off

No need to pack light with a support Transit

The only major mechanical/incident was a rear blow out on the tandem when the rim brake over heated in the decent into Hastings. Scared the shit out of us and the locals.

Being irresponsible somewhere near Hastings

Go Pros are pretty cool

There were some pub stops

Ok, plenty of pub stops

Lovely beach beside a mediocre campsite

Team photo (last couple of years we have had around 30 people. 10 was much more manageable this year when I am the main mechanic).

^ enjoyed that a lot.

Stylish outfits too!

We don't fuck about when it comes to fucking about.

Getting ready for the start...I think I see a Holdsworth Professional

Awesome adventures @hats and @stevo_com

A mate of mine always does this to me, despite being a stronger rider than I am. He lets me tow him around all the boring bits, then when an exciting segment arrives he gives it some and drops me

standard practice for me :)

oh my god! thats beautiful!

what a great story and nice pics. sounds like a right good old jolly

^^^^^ nice Holdsworth !

Not mine, unfortunately.

Rode 30k today in preparation for the Cycletta Surrey ride I have signed up for. I attempted this a few months back and it was disastrous as I am shit at hills. This time I nearly managed to get up Farncombe hill (10%er at the start) but the gears on my bike fucked about so had to stop to sort them out but I made it up Charles Hill no problem and felt fine for the rest of the ride. Last time I stopped in the top right hand corner and could not go on. I'm getting there!

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Today's training plan said 6hr of hilly riding on the tt bike but I wanted to go somewhere rather than just doing loops, so got some climbing in early, 1000 meters in the first 60km and then headed up to Oxford (which apparently has no cafés with seating outside) and came back via Streatly and Henley, at which point I'd been in the saddle for 7 hours and was going to be just under 200km and 2000m of climbing so threw in some random extra bits to finish with 203km and 2001m of climbing and then headed out for a 1hr run which was 52 minutes as I was bored, and running short of time!

Lower back is a bit tired now, but feel ok for tomorrows swim/run!

Lewisham to Paddington for train to Penzance to start Lands End to John O'Groats tomorrow unsupported with the girlfriend. 9 days, 1600 km, we're going to (slowly) tear this country a new one.

Triathletes kept crashing into each other at the drink station

Any chance of a brisk rubdown with a damp copy of the Sporting Life?

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