Tell us about your weekend ride

After getting to bed at midnight, sleeping at 1 because of the heat and a 4am wake up call a 5am departure seemed like a bad start.

Still, with a free pair of grandstand tickets to the Grand Prix in my bag, it was almost worth it despite 3kgs of cameras and lenses weighing me down.

The route out was actually really great if you do it that early in the morning:

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/8819904

Heading west out of Dunstable we hit this sustrans route following an old railway track through a cutting. Downhill all the way!

followed by several miles on the River Ouze, by which time the morning dog walkers were out.

The towpath there is weird - tarmac'd but in a way that makes it uneven and ridged. Still, it was calm and quiet if not the most direct route.

The A roads were all near enough empty save for the final slog along the A421 towards Buckingham which had a fair bit of traffic heading to the race, including apparently JK with his Ferrari Enzo (number plate: ENZ0) and helicopter after helicopter overhead.

In the end it took the best part of 5h, but I'll put that down to my companion who was struggling to upgrade from a 4 mile commute to a 60 mile early morning slog across country.

The view from the grandstand (Woodcote A) was excellent (if we'd paid, the tickets would've been £300 each!) - here's someone else's video shot from pretty much where we were sat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEkkRhty6P8

The straight coming towards you is the end of the DRS zone, so there were a few overtakes to be made there, followed by Luffield corner which got the first rain of the day to much excitement.

Once the race was done, the track was opened up and full of people so it would've just been rude not to unlock and head out for a lap. My phone's GPS has been atrocious lately (leading to comedy navigation all day from ridewithgps) so the strava trace isn't quite as impressive as it could have been:

https://www.strava.com/activities/339637786/embed/d4eb13a9a7b1a9c7e3e8c02b0bb4f2d1232d4b28

For the ride back my mate decided to bail and headed ~15miles towards Milton Keynes for the train but after the leisurely pace on the way out I decided it was time to get some miles in:

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/8837187

Bit disappointed with my pace really - 62 miles in 5 hours when I was hoping for more like 4, but I guess I probably had half an hour of breaks shouting at my phone and checking directions.

The ride back was pretty dull - I should plan it better next time - it was just A road after A road all the way pretty much. By the time I reached Hemel I was really wishing I owned some padded shorts but not much you can do besides stop off in Potters Bar for a shandy and solero recovery combo.

All in all, pretty good day - no punctures or mechanicals, no getting lost despite my phone's best attempts ('riding' the route using streetview beforehand so you recognise the turnings and landmarks is a great help) and at 120 miles I think the furthest I've done fixed in a day (44×15 w/172.5mm cranks).

Would accept free F1 tickets again.