Tell us about your weekend ride

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Nice one. What route did you take to get out there?

Got the train so i could sleep a bit more after a pub crawl friday. Also bc i was leading a ride for my colleagues who don't have much long ride experience so i didn't want to overstretch them.

I don't know a nice way out unfortunately. I have ridden out to do similar routes but tend to go A20. The lanes and villages are such a joy once you get there though

I just smashed out my maiden metric and imperial centurions in one ride - London to Portsmouth with a few guys from work. Haven't done anything like that sort of distance before, but what the heck...

Glorious day, lots of fun. Much swearing up the hills.

In unrelated news, I don't seem to be able to move off the sofa. Would anyone like to come round and get me a beer from the fridge?

I did the Surrey 5 Hills route today. Gears not fixed. Great ride; so much climbing in just 30 miles. No idea how some of you do it fixed.

Mostly pedal and steer.

Flew over to my parents in the Pyrenees, they got my bike there so all I have to do is get the cheapest flight to Perpignan (£17!).

Did some riding in the last couple of days, then notice that there's some bright and big gravel road on the top of the mountains, end up using Google Earth to see what condition they're in.

Drew some new route in Strava, put 30mm tyres on the road bike, then head off from Arles-Sur-Tech to the old Batere Mine, then onto the gravel road.

Starting off in the late morning when it's getting warmer, I took a smaller quieter road to reach to the old mine, I missed a turn that allow me to climb to Batere via a gravel road, but press on the tarmac to Batere instead, not a problem, the view is spectacular, next time.

Passing the old mine, the road get a little narrower, and the landscape become spastic, I regretfully haven't brought my wind jacket, as it was freezing once I got onto the gravel that take me to the signal tower near the Canigou.

The gravel road was in great condition despite being high up at 1400 metres, the 30mm tyres hum quietly as an old bloke enjoying his Meccano set, but still got to pick my line carefully as I drop the pressure down a bit more to gain traction (and cushioning), certain section were really rough, and end up having to stop every 10-15 minutes to take a break from modulating the brakes trying not to go too fast on the descent.

It's intoxicating, I'm very much a road cyclist at heart, but the tyres limitation were blatantly obvious in some poorer section of the route, even on tarmac.

While the "all-road", gravel-grinding or adventure bicycles is very much on trend right now, it make perfect sense being able to get up to the top of the mountain on what felt like a road bike with minimal effort, then blast through the gravel with minimal discomfort, instead of getting your mountain bike up in the first place, or not being able to press on future on your 23mm, I'm seeing the appeal of the Cannondale Slate now.

The Pyrenean horses are fucking huge, even the foal is about the sizes of a regular horse, pretty daunting going pass them, even thought they're generally docile, make for great photo opportunity.

A nice round trip back to the flat made me reevaulated the Pyrenees in a different way, instead of going on the usual popular route to the Cols, I'll fit a 650b wheelset on the disc road bike and put 38mm, maybe 42mm slick tyres to make the most of the gravel road in the Pyrenees, or bring the Elephant NFE with the 48mm slick (not much difference when climbing on the lightweight carbon bike), the fact there's no one around, not a peep beside the huge horses make up for the French insistence of overtaking you every time with very little room as if it's considered the right thing to do.

A1 tip top clubbing jam fair, don't need the on trend bike for this (mine is billed as a disc road bike), just grab your CX/tourer/road disc and fit the biggest tyres possible.

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Oh yeah, Strava...

https://www.strava.com/activities/555258225

Great pictures. Can't help but feel it would have made a better read without constant reference to tyre width.

that looks like a bloody great ride @edscoble! copied the route just in case I end up there somewhere in the future...

and lol @pastry_bot ;)

Thanks for sharing that. So beautiful. Makes me want to go there tomorrow.

White Horse Challenge today. Had a generally good albeit slow ride. Dad's ill and I promised to stay with him (painfully slow at times).

Great to see a Brixton Cycles club jersey on a guy's back.

Less great to see "Zappi's" club from Oxford riding like utter wankstains.

Have you thought about fitting wider tyres yet?

Open Google Maps, and turn on Earth, you'll see the unmistakable white/tan coloured road, this is a great way of finding alternative route that isn't listed as a road (more of a walking route).

@edscoble ah yes like the GR routes. but most of those become singletrack as they get more remote. the ones you rode at least looked like roads

And possibly more about the horses and other wild life.

Have you thought about anything else?

Cantis are A1.

Three weekends in Colorado:

1. Headed over to Boulder, I know the route now which feels nice and it was great to tip the bike into the turns without having to check the Garmin. Stopped for a coffee, popped into Vecchio's for a chat and then started up Flagstaff:
   
   

This is a climb from the alluvial plain which makes up all of Colorado that isn't the Rockies, into the front range of the Rockies.

It's one of my favourites as it goes directly out of town and the contrast is always enjoyable.

Colorado is very, very dry in the summer.

If you go over the top of Flagstaff mountain you get to Gross Dam - guess what the name means?

At this point the tarmac stops and it's exclusively dirt road (gravel, highly compacted earth).

This is fun, but on Sprinter Gatorskins cornering and braking is a little nervous, climbing out of the saddle isn't an option either as the rear wheel spins.

This section of the route dips, then climbs up onto the Peak to Peak highway, which is starting to get high (2,400 meters), and the next section is a long sweeping descent down Coal Creek.

This is a lot of fun, until this happens:

I changed to the spare tub and then tried to keep the speed down to 50Km/h on the rest of the roll home - this requires massive self control down this road.

At least I got to check that my corks where ok when I glued the spare on when I got home:

1. A winter storm blew in, this ruled out being on the bike so I hired some snow-shoes and went hiking in Chautauqua national park (right next to Flagstaff):
   
   
   

1. A quick one as I was flying that day, so I decided on an out and back to Flagstaff, make an effort on the climb and call it good.
   
   

It was very overcast starting out, this is actually a good thing as temperatures on Flagstaff can get extremely high, and when the gradient kicks to 15% managing your own temperature becomes an issue.

These mailboxes are the agreed upon finish line for the climb.

Heading down again, that speed limit is likely only seen by a cyclist in the middle of tight corners.

That said you had to tip-toe around a lot of the corners due to the amount of salt on the roads from the previous weekend.

Looking at Strava afterward I'd PR'd Flagstaff - clearly riding a 20 year old steel frame is the way forward.

Okay you won, I'm very jealous that you're able to do shit like that.

hmm, tough call, Pyrenees or Colorado

Pyrenees for me

Whereabouts do you head to in the Pyrenees?

I'm looking for somewhere to go in May.

Nice or Torino obvs.