Tell us about your weekend ride

Ta

The plan for the next few is 300km in 3 days to get around Bologna area.

200km rides are a bit silly atm. Mentally, I'm a bit over it, so pushing for home and long days seem like a good idea at the time.

Hey ho, all part of it!

Just don't cook yourself. Heat stroke ain't fun.

@deerheart looking at that route, I've definitely come close to it if not done some little parts of it around Reichelsheim.

I rode to Michelstadt from Bensheim last time, but did forgo the Melibokus ascent and went via Ober-Hambach.

In that area there's so so many forestry roads and farm roads, you can even improv route deviations pretty easily, which is very unlike Australia where you better be sure that it's not "private property mate" shouted at you by some bogan.

There's also some good riding on the eastern side of Odenwald, up from Michelstadt towards Vielbrunn and over to the Main river, which I am yet to explore. But with my time here coming to an end again, I doubt I will get round to it.

As for the Donnersberg direction, I made it as far as Ober-Morschel, which has a nice castle ruin to rise up to.

Glorious 100km to Littlehampton and back. Maybe too hot for such a ride, but still!!

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Gave up trying to fix my tubeless tire, put an inner tube in and went out.

Found a new pub, got told off for cycling on a footpath, saw lots of wildlife, got a bit lost, came home.

Brexit crisps and big sky

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Regravelified the bike I've been touring on and got stuck back into local loops. I was a bit bored by local stuff before the trip but I have a new appreciation of how good the gravel and road riding is from my doorstep.

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In the beginning, hippy ate the heavens and the Earth

Nice

Don't ask

This helped

Traffic was a nightmare

And you got papped by a cycling celeb.

Yeah, that was very weird to see. Bloody stalkengers.

Artefood Windsor, undergoing refurb.
Hopefully opening again Wednesday

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Not a weekend ride, but yesterday I did this 280km wiggle from London down to my Mum’s. I was flying for the first few hours but there were some horrible cross and head winds once I reached the coast that absolutely hammered my spirit not to mention my average speed. Total moving time was just over 9 1/2 hours.

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A Possible Ride for Tomorrow

The Victor Berlemont Road Race, HQ Woodcote Village Hall:

https://woodcotevillagehall.com/

Woodcote is between Pangbourne and Wallingford and should be within easy reach for anyone on the west side of London. Start (from the HQ) 11.30 am. There should be a map of the circuit (which is about 10 miles round)at the HQ

This must be one of the best road races of the year - it's a little over 100 miles, and this includes nine ascents of Flint Hill (just north of Goring) which is the obvious spot for spectating.

If anyone is interested, pm me tonight and I'll send you a copy of the rider list so you'll know who's who.

I'll be there, but without bike as I'm reporting the event.

This bike took me on a very enjoyable solo overnighter south of Bristol on Saturday-Sunday. A route cobbled together from some bits I knew, two Komoot suggestions edited and added together (manually, not sure if there's an automated way to do it) and then some more bits I knew, which worked out ok but definitely wasn't perfect. I enjoyed working it out on the fly though, exploring lanes and dead ends and too many gates, and know what I'll do differently next time. Had a pub burger and then bivvied in a little copse, bit close to a road but otherwise fantastic. Got to 100.03km thanks to mistakes!

What I learnt: it might be time to go tubeless. A visit from the fairy on both days, one front one rear. I also need a Jack the Rack or similar to stop the bar bag occasionally rubbing the front guard/tyre. They're not yet on general sale though.

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Big respect to the older gent cycling in his smart black Oxford leather shoes & full club lycra around the Kent Alps this morning. I presume he had an issues with his proper cycling shoes but his desire to get out was just to strong.
I salute you Sir!

Anyone know if it is legit to cycle on the so called Aylesbury Ring - can't find anything definitive online? Ta.

South Downs Way?

New Oxford Street

I desperately need to get some long distance qualification rides in for Paris-Brest-Paris, so signed up for a ride in its inaugural year. It was all a bit last minute, so packing was frantic and late. I like to get all my usual long distance travel gear out the night before and go through things like a check-list, then make final adjustments the following morning after I’ve slept on and digested my options. First pack…..

I woke up in the morning and did something they say you should never do, totally change your plan at the last second, scrap everything you’ve prepped for, and just wing it. I decide I’m going for a different approach to the multi-day camping approach most of my fellow competitors will be opting for, I decide I don’t need any of that shit above, I’m going to travel light and try and smash through it all in one hit. The weather look good so even if I bonk and can’t continue, and have to sleep on the roadside, its not going to be a life and death situation to no have a tent. I set myself a target of completing it in under 48 hours.

Though the weather forecast was good, traffic and public transport this weekend was predicted to be a total nightmare, so this just seemed an obvious opportunity to get a few more miles onto the total by riding to the start.

And then onto the dilemma of what bike to take. I’m expecting 80% of riders to be on gravel bikes, with about 20% being on old or newer mountain bikes repurposed for overnighting. With my last minute change of plan comes a last minute bike choice too, with my new aim being speed over comfort, I opt for a road bike with 28c tyres. It could all go horribly wrong but as I said it looks like its going to stay dry, and we’ve had such a dry summer the ground should be pretty hard packed...here’s hoping.
And so the day arrives, I don’t sleep well the night before because of usual pre epic ride excitement, but I’m up early, I’ve carbo loaded the night before, triple espresso’d up this morning, had a massive shit, its on, lets do this. This is going to be epic...and so it begins, I’m off on the first ever ‘ride the queue 2022’ randonee. Just got to hope the low profile tread on my Vittoria Corsa graphene tyres are able to maintain traction with roads covered in the salty tears of a nation.

I battle through some predictably sleepy drivers and south London grimness early doors, grey turns briefly to green and brown as I cycle through the first park of the day, Kennington park, where I immediately regret not having a gravel bike.

I see a crow and 2 pigeons, both native to the area according to my guide book. I can’t get too distracted by the wildlife this early in the ride so I press on, back out onto the post apocalyptic Walworth Road. Luckily this stretch was brief and after a quick left turn I’m suddenly riding along the great lakes of Burgess Park, recently declared a world heritage sight, its a regular stop off for many of northern Europe’s migratory birds and people wanting to smoke skunk outside and pretend to do some fishing.

I then cross the urban superhighway and south eastern clusterfuck known as the Old Kent Road, I survive and live to tell the tale, the noob e-hybrid sector were taking more risks, renegades!

Then onto the 3rd park of the day, and this is just getting to the official start!! Finally arrived at the Southwark Park in Bermondsey.

Just through the gates, I’m greeted with a reality check and a reminder this is going to be no cake walk, which is a shame cos I love cake and a shock because of the high WI presence. The scale of the challenge is writ large on the LCD.

I smash a flapjack and take inspiration from a local sculpture on a nearby roundabout. Aero for the win!

The queue snakes to and fro making its way towards the first bridge of the day, London’s famous Tower Bridge.


Spirits are high even this far out, people are smiling, the police aren’t tasering anyone, the sun is out and there’s some great British queuing going on. And the monkey business was kept to a minimum, what’s not to like!

Passing Tower Bridge feels like a real marker, proper London town. And we can now chalk off each bridge we pass as we inch closer to the finish.

Press crews from here on are much more noticeable which makes us feel pro, and it felt like something special is happening, miracles even. This lady suddenly appeared to not need her zimmer frame any longer, praise the Lord, its a miracle, she’s cured!

Or maybe she way carrying it for someone further up the queue. Whichever one, its amazing, what a crowd! There’s definitely a magic feeling in the air.
I smash a gel and decide to take a slight diversion up the col de London Bridge to get some elevation for nice photos. A panorama of the Metropolis looking back to Tower Bridge from where we’ve just come.

Onward, and I do the same elevation seeking trick again as I climb the hors categorie Blackfriars Bridge for, some of the highest fully segregated bike lanes in Europe . This also secures my Audax AAA points. I’m expecting my elevation for this ride to equate to summiting 1.2 Mount Everest’s. From here I look down on the silent conga as it snakes its way along the river without even a hint of rhythm.

I lose a bit of time on the Lombardia section, when the gravel boys and girls have the edge, but I man up and use my old MTB skills to stay upright and make it through unscathed.

Photo opp outside the front of Tate Modern and some dedicated her maj signage. Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral can be spotted across the valley in the distance.

Cycling in urban environs can present a challenge when it comes to going to the toilet. Are all these people holding it in? The age profile of many puts them in what I consider the prostate is shot category, how are these heroes managing this? Or are they carrying bottles to piss in, or pissing on any bushes they see? Is stepping out of line for a wee or a pooh classed as leaving your place in the queue? Its a long way to the back of the queue from here. As these thoughts race through my sleep deprived brain….and then like an Oasis suddenly appearing in the desert, hope is spotted on the horizon…

….never has hope looked so bleak, but those in need have no choice. I overhear some chatter from the queue, Doris from Tower Hamlets is telling us how she wouldn’t have missed this for the world, London’s had it rough in recent years, what with losing Barbara Windsor, and now this. Blitz spirit Britain at its best, just with less terror, bombs and fire. But then like now, these people’s spirit cannot be crushed.

We’re getting towards the end now, the London Eye is one of the final markers to cross off. My arse is in bits and stomach can’t face any more food. I’m out of gels, so I break out the emergency rations, I insert my last fig role into my destroyed sphincter , hoping the dying last twitches of its life can absorb enough nutrients to get me to the finish....

...it does, finally, onto the last bridge of the day, Westminster Bridge.

I made it without sleep, I’m drained but elated. This is the final checkpoint, beyond here is the final approach to Westminster Hall, where Liz2 lies, where she has one more sleep before being put in the ground. She’s touched us all and now the nation is queuing up to touch her back, she will remain forever in our hearts. . This last bit probably involves frisking, I smell so bad as a mark of respect I decide not to walk this final section and leave the walking heroes to their grand finale, instead opting the long ride back home and the promise of a warm shower, a cold beer and good nights sleep.

An amazing day out and met so many cool people. I’ve already signed up for next years ride! All my batteries died so I’ve not got enough charge to extract full ride data and stats yet, but its defo epic, I sure I’ve done enough qualifying mileage for PBP now, so can cancel Lands End to John O’Groats now and spend tomorrow and the rest of the season in the pub. Its what she would have wanted.

Been off the bike for 5 weeks, in part due to being on holiday, in part due to coming back from holiday with labyrinthitis and not having the requisite ability to stay upright to get out for a ride.

First ride this morning. Was idly plotting a rough 25 - 30 mile route up through Strines, but the first hill of the day put me to reconsidering that plan, as it’s immediately apparent that 5 weeks is enough for my fitness to have absolutely shit itself. Mentally remapped my route down to more like 20 miles. Smashing it down a hill, front wheel starts pissing tubeless goo all over the place, and I have to take 20 minutes out of my day to fail to plug the hole and end up throwing in a tube. Hit the next hill, struggle my way to the top, by the time I make it there I’m a wheezing mess and my heart is exploding, and I’m already revising my route to get me home asap.

12.5 miles, 1500 feet of climbing. Bullshit. I hate bikes.

I’m a wheezing mess and my heart is exploding

= Tubeless Ready

Great ride today. 40 miles on the North York Moors, me on my
1989 Muddy Fox Roadrunner, and my
pal on his 1989 Rockhopper (clearly a good year for steel MTBs). Really varied terrain, some non existent paths, some borderline rough stuff that probably wasn’t that sensible, 20 miles into a headwind, some absolutely fantastic cinder paths.
Oh, and we accidentally went up Rosedale Chimney Bank, 30% in places (image nicked off google).

We knew we’d be into a headwind for the outward leg, but hadn’t quite anticipated what exactly the terrain would be like. The first third or so also has the meat of the climbing to get established on top of the moors from the valley. Unfortunately the tops are where all the wind is. We had a couple of stretches of pushing due to the marked paths disappearing back into the heather. The sandy and rockier paths were just rough enough to make life hard going, and a 13mph headwind made sure of it.

Fortunately at the turnaround point we joined the old railway path, which is this incredible cinder surface that’s really smooth and level (I guess that’s pretty necessary if you want to lay train tracks). And we also gained a tailwind. So after slogging away on rough undulating stuff, we finally got rolling at a decent pace for a good few miles. We had a slight change of mood when we came upon a fairly necky descent that was decidedly more like MTB territory. A bunch of MTBers at the top even advised us “it’s pretty gnarly down there you know?”, and they weren’t really kidding. I decided to try and descend in the drops as clinging to the hoods means you’re only really hanging on if you’re squeezing the brakes. It was definitely better in the drops with a decent grip on the bars, but hammering down a technical rocky section on a rigid bike in a very aggressive position tested my nerve somewhat. Fun and stupid in fairly equal measure tbh. Some more railway and tarmac followed along to Rosedale Abbey where we had a much needed caffeine stop
Unbeknownst to us, the next climb was actually the famous Rosedale Chimney Bank. It’s not very long - less than a mile - but has an average grade of 18%, and hits 30% at its steepest. Super chuffed to have battled up it (and thank god for granny gears). An amazing fast and long descent on tarmac followed, and then it’s just back another 10 or 12 miles to the start.

No real mechanicals other than a couple of punctures for my mate due to thorns, and my jockey wheel nut came loose, which appeared a lot more serious that it was at first glance.

Super buzzing really, although it was a genuinely hard day in the saddle. Pooped!

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Few more. Absolutely banging sandwich from the Deli in Helmsley market square - a must if you’re ever there. The pecan slice thingies were critical ride fuel as well. Probably the densest concentration of calories in the known world.

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