Tell us about your weekend ride

Awesome :)

Went on a bit of a last minute adventure up to Mount Buller here in Victoria, to take on recently constructed 'Epic Trail' rated extreme. All well and good except I haven't been on a mountain bike in at least 15 years, and even then it was just in a car park.

He works for Spesh out here, so we were both on some pretty serious machines...

We got to the ski resort near the top of the mountain at around 9:30AM after a drive up from Melbourne, and pumped shocks/put on clothes to suit the 2 degree temperatures. I was pretty badly prepared, having almost no MTB cycling clothes (and I still don't own a winter riding jacket for some reason). I opted for SPD's as I had some SIDI mountain shoes which have previously only seen use on my track bikes.

We got rolling and I immediately learned how taxing things would be - right off the bat the trails were steep, and a night of rain on the mountain meant everything was slippier than a slag's waffle iron(?). It was a very pretty mountain though.

The first few rocky downhill sections were terrifying, and I was chasing my friend's 650 Enduro at a fair old speed, squeeks brakes and from my own lungs as I went. I was on an aptly named Epic, and it didn't take long to work out that I was riding an absolute weapon, even if I wasn't exactly pushing its capabilities.

Fixin'

The elevation really started to pick up along the Stonefly route, and we covered about 3km in what felt like a decade, churning up sodden, rock filled pathways. I struggled with adapting to staying sat down when the bike was almost completely in the air, and ended up flopping over sideways like a complete twat on more than one occasion until I got used to things.

After a few routing conundrums, and a shit load more climbing, we reached this absolute brute of a hill:

Doesn't look like much but after thirty something kilometres it was enough to push us both into dangerous near-bonk territories. Then descending the other side, this:

He'd cut right through two pretty jagged rocks in front of me, causing a hilarious sounding pinch flat. Funny until we realised we had no tire levers and some very tightly fitting rubber (oo err). About 20 minutes of faffing and grunting later, we'd swapped it out and were descending for what felt like only the second time.

A while later we passed a sign etched into a fallen tree that simply said "Enjoy!", denoting we'd reached the pay off for all of the effing, jeffing and sweating - a 20 minute tits out descent which can only be described as a jungle scene from Indiana jones on acid, and it was fast as fuck.

I crashed pretty hard twice, the first of which was caused by a recently fallen branch which ran parallel to my wheel, sening me sliding off the side of the bike and bending my saddle off to the side. The second time I was riding pretty close to my buddy, who called out on a particularly nasty corner a bit late and I came face to face with an ominous tree stump, bending the rear derailleur slightly.

Ten more minutes of incredible rolling, swerving track we hit a fire road which brought us out at the river, which we rode along for another couple of easy, weary and beautiful kilometres.

All in all, and despite being a terrified wreck for some it, it was some of the most fun I've had on a bike. Time for a drive-thru beer.

Strava doesn't seem to wanna embed.. https://www.strava.com/activities/292613299

Looks like I wasn't the only one suffering from skill deficit this weekend ;)

Rad adventure though, nice! Bet that Speci Epic was a handful.

Awesome. Epic ride.

Congratulations! Big ride.

Not quite the epic rides some of you have been posting, but here's my weekend effort. @user47620 might sympathise.

Easy 25k to Brighton this morning for breakfast. After buying a couple of nice beers, I decided I should earn them with an impromptu 38k back to Bury. Over the South Downs Way. On a 13kg, single speed 90s mtb, with rack, semi slick tyres, and a backpack. Slightly underestimated how difficult that was going to be.

Even taking a link out of my chain so I could run the 2:1 ratio I still had to walk up a few ramps because the rear tyre was spinning when I got out the saddle. And I forgot just how tiring and bumpy the flinty, chalky trails are, some of the faster bits were a terrifying. Point the bike downhill and it just rockets. Quite frankly I'm pleased we're both in one piece, but I'm glad I did it. The Kuwahara is swiftly becoming my favourite ride.

Don't think I'll be doing it again anytime soon!

And of course the front punctured 500m from home. Them's the breaks.

Strava

Delicious beers

Me after 35k

View from Chanctonbury Ring

Trail

Bonus piggus

Rick Stein's Fish and Chips in Padstow. Cooked in beef dripping. Utterly amazing.

Also, the absolute worst thing to eat mid-ride. I thought I was going to shit myself for the next 20km or so.

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^haha. Classic.

Fish and chips is truly a finisher

Had my first race of the season today. Checked the forecast friday. Sunny 9C. Checked saturday. Sunny 9C.

Get to Sykkylven. It fecking snowing sideways and absolutly freezing.

We parked at the top of the brutal climb to the finish. Averages 12% for couple km. I voiced my dislike of the idea of descending through a snowstorm to the start. But figured i was fecked anyway. Short bibs, shortsleeved jersey (ls base though), fingerless mitts......... Fecked.

Stood at the start with both hands down the front of my bibs. Looking in pain. Some random guy, takes pity, and hands me some xc skiing gloves from his van.

Tried to start strong. But lost the lead group. Thought about climbing off. I was in a whole new suffer zone. But i held on.

The course involved 3 there-and-backs. The last one dragged on forever. I was starting to think id missed the u-turn spot.

Then suddenly we were at the base of the final climb? I literally have no sense of direction. So hitting the initial 16%, i was probably the first cyclist ever to be overjoyed to see that climb. Relishing in the warmth of the effort, and a promise of a nearing finish.....

For a slow day on the bike i hurt everywhere.

http://app.strava.com/activities/293015264

Well done for not chucking in the towel - sounded horrendous.

@Howard the bike was the only thing that saved me!

@Smallfurry sounds like a hideous ride, well done for finishing though.

Cheers. Looking at the results list there seems there was a 40% DNF rate. Only a couple didnt make it in my middle-age class though. Tough old bastards we are.

#lifesbasicallyoveranyways

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Madness.

It was beautiful. But i dont ever want to see those first few switch backs ever again.

What, these ones? ;)

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AAAArrrrgggghhhh!

Pretty good weekend riding really, myself and 10 others from the south coast set off from Eastbourne at 8pm on Friday, aiming for Paris and back again by Sunday. Arriving in Dieppe at 5am with the rain slashing down wasn't particularly fun, but the forecast wasn't going to get any better so we set off down Avenue Verte, stopping every 15mins due to flint punctures:

Getting a solid speed down the Avenue is tricky because it crosses so many paths and roads, so every now and then you encounter a split pathway and a sign, which Olly somehow managed to ride straight into, denting it. Lesson learned, hold onto your bars when hopping up curbs:

A quick coffee and a warm up in Forge Les Eaux, then we got our heads down and battled on. The weather picked up too and by the time we got to Paris, it was pretty sunny. Had to be done, blast down Champs-Elysees:

Day 1, done - https://www.strava.com/activities/293775049

Day 2 started off sunny and bright, everyone in good spirits, blipped through Paris in the early hours before the traffic got bad:

The extra hours sleep and decent breakfast helped everyone, and we soon got back out into the countryside:

Some very disciplined group riding meant we helped along those in the group who hadn't ridden much before - Tom had only ever done 40miles of MTBing in a day before - but despite the sore legs everyone did their turn:

We were pretty lucky in that Graham's parents very kindly acted as a support vehicle for the weekend. They also brought all the food in the world, so we ate really well at our stops. Ham and cheese sandwiches all round!

Sadly, the weather didn't last, and by the time we set off again it had started raining again. Really really raining:

Back on the Avenue we were thwarted by yet more punctures, and a couple of minor crashes. I managed to hit the deck because I was laughing at Austin having to bail suddenly to take a shit in a bush. Graham (who was riding with his arm in a cast after breaking it 3 weeks ago) also stacked it 300yards from the ferry in Dieppe. But he's a proper man and sprinted it off immediately. Despite the much quicker pace today, we barely made the ferry in time.

We also in the process raised nearly £4000 for various charities - Macmillan, Parkinsons and Sussex Air Ambulance - http://justgiving.com/teams/piertoparisandback

Day 2, done. A really nice ride if the weather is good, and so much more fun with a group of mates! https://www.strava.com/activities/293702177

All ways wonder where the tracks go over the downs that are at the end of some of the road climbs. Maybe one day I'll have to get a mountain bike and take a look.

@Jingle_Jangle no
Good posts all. Love the pics.
76 miles last weekend.
I ow to come this.
Enjoy

Today @Cycliste and I decided to ride over the Col du Mittelberg. Leaving Vevey we headed up to Chatel St Denis via Blonay, and headed up to Bulle for coffee and cakes. Suitably fed and watered, we headed over to the Col du Mittelberg, past Gruyere, in warm and dry conditions but with ominous clouds ahead of us:

It started raining at the start of the main climb, and by the top of the Col it was properly wet. And cold - there's still plenty of snow around at that height (1600m) to the extent that the little cul-de-sac leading off from the top of the Col was still under a foot of snow.

By the time we got down the other side to Saanen we were both freezing cold and very squelchy, so rather than do the Col du Pillon and head to Aigle we decided to get the train from Saanen. There was an hour's wait until the next train, so we started off with a couple of beers, followed by a cheese fondu and a bottle of Fendant.

Not quite as long a ride as we'd hoped for, but still a decent afternoon's cycling. I've nearly dried out and warmed through too.

P.S. Bugger. Turns out the Tour de Romandie went through Bulle today, albeit quite a lot before us. No wonder all the cyclists were going in the other direction. Oh well. We had cake and coffee.

Blegh. Turbo in front of tour d'up north on TV by the looks of the weather.

Decided to ride to John O'Groats yesterday, not quite the adventure tour you would imagine as I live only 15 miles away but the round trip made it my longest fixed gear ride to date @ 36 miles.
I was blessed with the sun on my face and on the return leg the wind on my back which is a rare occurrence as we don't see the sun very often here.
I did suffer with a serious case of numb nutz toward the end of the ride so I've finally bit the bullet and ordered a Selle Italia Max Flow. I have been trying various set ups with my Change Spoon saddle (nose slightly up seems best) but on longer rides I can't seem to avoid numbness, the rough road surfaces around here are probably a contributing factor.
https://www.strava.com/activities/296444594

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longest fixed gear ride to date

Chapeau!