Tell us about your weekend ride

98km of seeing how uncomfortable my TT bike is heading out to cookham, up to stokenchurch, down to henley, Twyford then windsor and home.

https://www.strava.com/activities/296585703

The answer is that its fine for about 75km, the last 20 odd were a combination of bonking and discomfort, only in the shoulders though ant its probably more fatigue than anything else.

Thankfully my clubs Saturday ride had just finished as i went through Windsor so I stopped and had a ginormous hot chocolate to restore my energy levels, and give the shoulders a break, and headed home and out for a short run!

I just rode wnkr Kent 2 Otford with my brother and an old friend. Horrible weather, lovely ride. Highlights were the brief off road section, the roller coaster past the deer park, the espresso and brandy at the plough and then the pilgrim's way dash home.

I was also SO pleased at turning our nose up at exedown after it defeated me last Saturday on Kent 1 St Mary Cray.

Feels so good to be riding. And to be sat on a train splattered in mud, posting this drivel.

What did I miss? First ride with arm warmers and short sleeve for me this year.

Light drizzle my arse, heavy down pour for most of our club ride which we cut short as most us under dressed.

First ride out with my new wheelset, very impressed could definitely feel a difference in both climbing and on the flat.

I've always loved the term, a girl in every port, but my girlfriend has always said no !!! So the next best thing was to have a bike, wherever we go !!!

With a niece getting married in Sydney, one day we were riding the Mallorca 312, a couple of days later, we were standing in the rain at a wedding in Sydney, and all I could think was, we need to get the bikes out of storage and ride !!! But once this was done, she was very reluctant to take hers out in the rain !!!

After waiting 4 more days for the rain to stop, we finally hit the road on a route that most people from the North Shore ride, the four gorges, but we decided to throw in another hill for good measure !!!

The steeds

Hers - 1993 Klein Attitude
Mine - 1985 custom Reynolds 531 frame with 6 speed 106 52/42 12/21. It makes it interesting going up the hills !!!

We set out, it was pretty humid, and 7ks later, we were at the top of our first hill, Bobbin Head, 4ks down, 5ks up, loads of cars cutting through the National Park going the other way, we had a nice pleasant ride till we hit Asquith where the peak hour traffic was on the highway. We jumped onto the next road, and not long after, we were flying down to Galston Gorge, and then the climb back up the other side, but this one was covered in traffic, and amazingly, the Sydney drivers gave us room !!! Once up, we rode through to Arcadia and out the otherside until we were now at the top of the hill down to Berowra Waters. We flew down the hill and jumped on the waiting ferry

Off the ferry, we pushed on up the hill and into Berowra. Normally, most people turn right at the lights and head back to Bobbin Head, but I wanted to go on the old Pacific Highway down to Brooklyn as it is a lovely ride down and I had never climbed back up, so with this, we flew down at her speed. We passed the turn off for Brooklyn and rode over the bridge. Once on the otherside, we chucked a u-turn and headed back up the hill. The traffic was minimal so it was a very nice climb.

Back along the highway until Mt Colah, we dropped back into Bobbin Head for the downhill. I have driven, ridden this more times than I've had hot dinners, the road is fast, and it just flows, even though I don't live here anymore, I reckon I could ride this blindfolded !!! At the bottom, we rode slowly up the other side as we were starting to feel it in our legs, well, actually it was me due to the gears that I push !!!

At home, being the domestique, I was made to wash the bikes as they were going to be put away in storage again till the next wedding/funeral/etc/etc !!!

And finally, the strava - https://www.strava.com/activities/297731458

Today's ride consisted of lots of this:

And the realisation that a merino baslayer & a long sleeve jersey were a bit overkill. Full summer kit next time

@jdp where is that? And Touche, base layers can, today at least, >>>>>>>>>

Every year I get to about October and decide it's cold and I can't be bothered to ride my bike apart from commuting. Then it gets to March and I decide I can't start riding again because I'm really unfit and it'll be awful. Some months later I drag myself out of my self-imposed spiral of self-loathing and misery and go for a ride. Today was the day!

I covered 116 miles of Kent, Surrey and Sussex and did 7955 feet of climbing. It took me an absurdly long time and I nearly didn't make it home before dark, but I did see a baby stoat, and I think I feel better for it. At least, I'll probably feel better for it when I start feeling stuff again. Ow.

Feast or famine.

Well played.

Well done. I did the usual Green Street Green to Uckfield and back via Ashdown Forest and the usual hills. Today I did it anti clockwise for the first time. May Labour win on Thursday.

Near Scottow in Norfolk although a lot of the roads I rode were like that. Strava here.

Last Saturday I rode from my home town (moved here as a student 27 years ago) to my parents for the first time. It was a beautiful spring day with just a little headwind. My brother rode down and met me at about 120km, we rode the last 70km together. Very nice to see everything you don't see when going by train or car. So I basically crossed the country from South to North, it is that small ;-)

1 Attachment

Friday hill reps, sunday short 60km smash, monday decided we were bored of our normal routes so made use of the new garmin and found a bunch of really good Kent roads we'd not done before. Fuck all traffic, a bit of sunshine, loads of bluebells and a sense of all being right with the world.

I'm working on a farm to extend my visa so I took my bike to ride when I'm not herding cattle, driving utes and generally being a right crikey bladdy bloke mate.

Made a very ill-advised route/bike choice and decided to head over Mt. Samaria to Mansfield, but at the foot of the mountain the tarmac ran out, and it turned into a fire track. A bit of sharp climbing and it turned into clay, then sand, then rocks and sand at the point where I was too far to turn back.

My 23c tires were all over the place on the dirt climbs, and effing and jeffing reached unnecessary levels - and yes that is the easiest possible gear.

Instead of one of those Timotei adver descents down the other side where all your hard work comes to fruition, I spent the whole thing shitting myself over sharp rocks and gravel. I'm never buying a bike with callipers again. Return journey was into a headwind on a desolate road with this:

And fuckall else for 50 Kilometers. Back to the support ute, and home for a deep clean on my poor bike.

2/10 shit ride would not ride in Wolf Creek territory alone again.

https://www.strava.com/activities/296380508

Sounded great to me ^

I know that feeling. I was riding on the Gold Coast a couple of years ago and found myself in a similar situation on a mountain road that gradually turned to dust the higher I climbed. It's that eerie feeling when you realise that you've not spotted a single human being or sign of life (other than those you fear may eat you) in hours.

It was still one of my all time top 10 rides though.

Did Pedal Norfolk again this year - really fantastic event. Got absolutely soaked on the Sunday, but still had a great time. Definitely recommend.

Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3

^ That looks like a lot of fun. You lot were hoofin it @upstart

@TTM - that's it exactly! Come to think I saw two old dudes on horses who said 'Road's a lot better than it used to be' with a smile. That was the mud bit. Oh and I had to pull over because a dude on a quad was driving sheep toward me.. Australia is exactly as one would imagine in so many ways!

Makes my 50miles for the weekend look a bit lame (was windy though). Was that in big groups or mostly solo?

Tilburg is nice, went there for the theme park.

Big groups for the first two days - just two up on the final day as mechanical issues meant we started after everybody else had gone! It's really flat there though so the riding is pretty easy.

aaah, this one?

Yeah that one.

would rep :)

Ellevehøjevej

1 Attachment