Tell us about your weekend ride

Hmm, felt like a long drag today but people were mentioning some very steep climbs nearby, plus some good off road trails in the vicinity too.

@Cycliste and I started the Tour Transalp 2017 yesterday in Sonthofen in Germany. Yesterday's stage went from Sonthofen to Imst over 90km of rolling terrain and then the very unrolling terrain of the Hahntennjoch, topping out at 1,894m. It was raining hard when we started, and carried on raining hard for the next 4 hours. It'd be nice to have some Strava data to share, but my Garmin Edge 1000 objected to being rained on and died. It's now doing a very convincing impression of a brick, but slightly less good than a brick as a building material. Anyway, total stats were 136km and 2,352m of climbing according to the race handbook.

Happily, I'm aware of how unreliably shit Garmins are, so I brought an 810 as well which I used today. Today's stage was fairly simple - leave Imst, go over the Timmelsjoch, go down into Naturns. 142km, 2,526m of climbing:

Tomorrow's stage goes from Naturns to Bormio over Stelvio. A mere 97.8km, but a bit more climbing at 3,025m. At the moment we're solidly mid-table among the mixed teams. @Cycliste is still refusing to acknowledge it's a race.

Enjoy the Stelvio. As you start, if you look up to the east, you can see a refuge that looks impossibly high up. Later, as you near the summit, look back down and you can see it way below you. It gives a great visual sense of what you've just achieved.

I know the one you mean. We did Stelvio last year on our Col-bagging holiday. @Cycliste was faster than me up the Stelvio last year, and I suspect tomorrow may be the same.

I should've known you'd done it before, given your exploits in this thread.

Can you not keep @Cycliste in sight, then outsprint her at the summit?

Possibly. That might work. Last time I went off hard from the start, and got a good gap, but she came past me with 1km to go and I had nothing left. We'll see... Of course, we're supposed to be racing everyone else rather than each other, as it's a team event, but bollocks to that.

Day 3 today. Naturns to Bormio via Stelvio.

The figure for metres climbed is wrong. It was actually just over 3000m, but my Garmin had a wobbly so that figure is Strava's overestimate.

It was dry when we left, started raining shortly afterwards, stopped for the climb up Stelvio and then started again at the top, with rain for most of the descent. @Cycliste beat me on the descent down to Bormio. In the dry her descending is OK, nothing more, but in the wet she's a demon.

Longest stage with the most climbing tomorrow. Bormio to Livigno via Umbrail.

Did you beat her to the summit?

I did, thanks to a Norwegian registered campervan. I pulled out a gap by the food stop half way up, but @Cycliste pulled a blinder by turning up just as I was about to leave and saying 'Hold my bike', as she went off to forage at the food station.

However, I pulled out another lead through the hairpins in the forest, but @Cycliste was playing a waiting game as we entered the last third of the climb, hanging back about 50m behind me. But then we came across the Norwegian campervan - a huge twin axle thing being driven really badly, getting stuck on every corner. I managed a quick sprint to get past it, @Cycliste was stuck behind it until the last few hairpins. So an easy ride to get to the summit first.

Good tactics, the likes of Coppi would approve of the chicanery.

He wouldn't have approved of them cancelling today's stage due to the weather. Albeit not until we'd got almost all the way to the summit of the Umbrail pass. Currently standing in a big tent wondering how the organisers are planning to get 2 thousand riders, and their bikes, to Livigno.

No update on twitter yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBtCCcmZAs&sns=em

Sorry. I hope you all okay.

It looks like they've stated getting coaches to move the riders. The plan for the bikes is apparently 'Leave them here and we'll sort something out.' Not too keen on that plan. We may end up just riding it to Livigno along the SS38. It's only 37km to the next hotel.

Did the Fred Whitton for a friend's birthday on Saturday. 104 miles & 11,994ft elevation climbed. I'd never experienced hills like that before (never been to the Lake District before) - I'm used to the Yorkshire Dales where a 20% gradient doesn't last long at all - they just go on for ages out there!

Quite pleased with being being in the top:

• 2.4% on The Struggle.
  
• 3.8% on Honister Pass.
  
• 3% on Newlands Hause.
  
• 5.9% on Whinlatter Pass.
  
• 1.2% on Hardknott Pass.
  
• 1.3% on Wrynose Pass.
  
  

Looking forward to going back to the Lakes now! There's a fair few more, lesser known passes to do, including my girlfriend's favourite - Little Langdale.

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We rode it from Bormio to Livigno in the end. 39.7km but the road goes over two passes, so there was 1,118m of climbing. Pissed it down with rain the whole way. Having got changed into nice dry warm clothes I've just realised I've got to ride to the start/finish area to pick up our day bags. Arse. Wet arse, probably.

Nice work. What was your official time for the whole thing?

Thanks! We weren't doing it in any official capacity, & we did stop for long lunch & a pint or two at the bottom of Hardknott so overall time wasn't competitive at about thirteen hours (eight & a quarter hours moving).

A pint or two before Hardknott? Double kudos!

The organisers have now cancelled stage 5 of the Tour Transalp as well. It appears that Germans are water-soluble. Screw that, we're riding the stage.

Haha, cheers. Beer & bikes are a classic combo! Cider & climbs for me. We were meeting a friend at The Woolpack but took longer than we expected to get there, so he had had five pints by the time he started the climb!

15 sunny, sweaty, windy (meteorologically) laps of Regents Park followed by a double espresso, perfectly cold water and a slice of avocado cake (yes it was only a matter of time) at the coffee stall outside Kentish Town station. Bliss. Thank you London. Despite the shoite hurled at you, you can deliver.

Sunday

Friday afternoon (Otztal Glacier Road)

Were you riding fixed?