The Rapha Festive 500

Actually even a road one would be a lot easier than doing shitting little commute extenders now that I have hols for xmas.

Thought about attempting the 'do it in a oner' this year, just depends on how cold it gets overnight.

A dip into France would have been a good way of doing it, but not sure lockdowns are going to permit.

I've never done it - in the ten+ years I've been riding bikes - so am going to try do it this year. december in scotland = lovely stuff

The way I did this way back when, was to create two loops and use my home as a base. I set off early, did a 300km loop, spent an hour at home and did another 200km loop. The section waiting for the sun to come up on the second loop was truly, truly savage. I've ridden plenty overnight but not at Xmas and I really cannot emphasis how absolutely freezing cold it was.

Looking forward to this again, but definitely got to get some practice miles in over these next few weeks! Good luck @cozey, I've really enjoyed doing it the last couple of years.

If you fancy seeing some of the South Downs over the Christmas period I'd be delighted to show you a nice route, it's very beautiful around there (as long as it's not absolutely pissing down).

A lot of talk about F500 being cold and hard. You know that's the point right?

You mean it’s not about likes on social media?

It's cooler to not have any social media any more. Keep up

How do you get validation of your consumerist choices without it?

Current projects?

How do you get validation of your consumerist choices without it?

You take them to the car park in Richmond Park

Current projects?

Sadly not. @amey ruined those forever

Will he redeem himself with @JB 's old bike?

I thought this was social media.

I thought this was social media.

It is, we aren't cool

I've done a 600k audax on Boxing Day and it was positively mild. I guess it depends where you are and how lucky you get with the weather.

If I'm involved, it tends to absolutely piss it down :D

South Downs Way is on my todo list but yeah, everyone says it's fucked if it's wet.

I just thought it was about riding in the downtime between xmas and new years. It's hot as fuck in Oz for this normally.

I am never making a proper comeback to current projects, not because I have moved on from cycling as a hobby; far from it. Now the projects are slower and there arent many niche left for me to buy a bike for.

Yeah. It was actually fine for the most part. Waiting for the sun to rise on the first loop from Camberley > Cotswolds was fine. It was the second loop from Camberley > Salisbury that was absolutely savage. Just wide open and a freezing cold wind. The Salisbury Plain was just brutal.

@monkdagola ya don’t say.

there arent many niche left for me to buy a bike for.

Yeah you really completed all the niches when you bought an XC bike. Not many of those around

Bloody S Hemisphere. Ruining the Festive Flu and SAD for everyone.

Haven’t done this before and often thought about it & there’s likely to be little else happening so should be the year for it. Might be nice to try to do a ride on every bike I own as one of them’s only been out of the house once this year

Could be up for this, as it look like I'll be in London again this Christmas