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Well done.
I did a 400 last Thursday. It was my first solo DIY, ie where I didn't tag along with someone who was doing it.
I did the Chilterns Cycleway route, with a leg out from home.
Hardest 400 I've ever done, and the slowest. Lots of lanes and ups and downs. Some off road sections, some of which were wet chalk that I had to walk, and some others I detoured round. Had hoped to be able to ride all the Chilterns bit in daylight to make the descents easier, but had an hour of dark lanes at the start and two hours at the end, when it got really slow as I had to go easy on the descents.
I enjoyed it, only considered DNFing at one point, after about 140km when things were hurting and still a long way to go.
Slightly disappointing to find that the best bits were mostly bits I already knew. The northern end near Luton was not that great -lots of fly tipping on the quiter bits and some busy roads.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33981022
This week I'm going up to my parents in Carlisle and thinking of a hilly 200 round the Lake District, over most of the main passes.
frank9755-
Looks like you did all of the Chilterns!
Which bits would you recommend? Want to do a 150km -200k DIY this weekend. -
Nice, I don't know many of those roads. Presuming you were on a slightly bigger tyre setup?
I kind of prefer solo DIYs a lot of the time, there's the massively reduced faff risk and you can be ruthless (unless you have a rock solid regular riding partner) but slight added danger of your brain telling you to pull the pin when it gets tough and no one to talk you out of it.
dsalmon
honk
Did the BBC London 600
as a DIY at the weekend in lieu of all the other fun rides that I've cancelled this year.
Great route, though tons of it's along Sustrans and NCN, which really are a mixed bag in terms of surface quality.
Monsal Trail at night was incredible though, mile-long rail tunnels in pitch darkness full of bats.
Passed another rider in there at about 10pm which completely freaked me out, like.
Riding across the fens was brutal though, featureless and windswept. Not looking forward to that bit of LEL if I do it.