Tell us about your weekend ride

nice place Bennachie!
whats that square stuff in the bowl?
clotted cream ftw!

Nah, just butter!

^^Nice ride, good scone action.

I managed a last long run before the DD:
Lewisham to Cambridge, the B roads twisty way.
Met loads of people heading to Southend on the Charity ride a nice, quick, slightly lost bloke on a blue Ribble, looking for Viccy Park.
I pointed the way, natch:-)
Collected my mate from Leyton then kept on bumping into hoards of the charity ride all the way out through Epping.
Chapeaux to the elderly lady on the shopping bike with Hovis basket!
Loads of people on seriously heavy BSO mountain bikes, I hope you got there, that had to hurt...
Oh and the two plonkers on full carbon & ZIPP 404s, the drag out of Epping isn't a hill, hope you enjoyed the sight of my 16 stone mate's flapping mudguard and rack bag as we spun away from you...

Rest of the ride involved lots of short sharp ramps then headwind all the way into Cambridge.
Lovely day for it, slightly tired legs today and can seriously recommend M&S Belgian Chocolate milk, OMFG!
Smashed one in my face outside the the train station, heaven in a screw top:-)

A lovely ride yesterday with three of my favourite forum ladies (Nhatt, Fluff, Stix) panniers loaded, after a weekend in a Tipi in sussex, Rye to Tunbridge Wells - rather hilly, beautiful scenery, great company and lovely weather. Passed through lots of pretty villages, and a scarecrowe festival. Brilliant.

I managed to get the G/f to come out for a ride yesterday, only did 20ish miles at slow speeds, but had a loverly picnic.

Friday - Ladbroke Grove (home) to Putney and back. Chain failure.
Saturday - replaced chain, then home to Richmond and back.
Sunday - along canal from home to Camden, then back home.

Total fun.

Ealing - Windsor yesterday with Aroogah, my longest ride fixed. Took a slightly circuitous route, encountering dragon boat racing, the Walton Ferry and ridiculous houses in Virginia Water ... really enjoyed the ride, quite possibly will be organised as a forum pootle along the Thames.

Got to the top of Windsor Great Park's 'the long walk' only to see a lad being helped off the road onto the grass, blood everywhere. He'd caught air at high speed and had a nasty throw over the handle bars. First Aider training came into practise ... took one look at his knee - there was a hole about the diameter of a 10p piece revealing bone - and got the ambulance called. Poor lad had abrasions all over, but was doing ok. Kept him sorted until the paramedics arrived. He'll hurt for a while, but I'm sure he'll bounce back quick enough.

Did a wonderful fifty miler in blustery conditions on Sunday, taking in a couple of battlefields. First was Marston Moor, very atmospheric, especially with the battle position of Cromwell so stark and ominous on the horizon. We swept through Tadcaster (home of Samuel Smiths and John Smiths delicious beers!) and crouched behind hedgerows away from town to miss the sweeping wind as we powered over deserted lanes that undulated through maturing fields of wheat and imposing stands of mature beech. The air quality was excellent, and opened my feeble airways to great effect on the way to out next battlefield, the scene of the Battle of Towton, the most important battle of the War of the Roses and the bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil. We rode on without stopping, casting glances across the field of battle to our right. Like the jaded Lancastrians, we tired under the force of the Yorkshire weather, and eventually admitted defeat and turned tail for home.

[QUOTE=bounce back quick enough.[/QUOTE]

Oof! Bad pun!

Willesden to Weedon (Northants) Saturday.

Probably very few of you have heard of Weedon(I certainly hadn't until very recently), it's on the A5 a little way short of Northampton. The only reason for going there was that my other half was going to a course in the town and was happy to drive me home in her car.

There's really only one way to get to this place and that's straight up the A5. This might sound like pure head banging, and I must admit it was nice when it stopped, but I feel the need of some miles after a three week lay off resulting from a crash, and I thought having a roman road stretching out in front of me for mile after mile would be just the thing. It's worth mentioning that this road runs very close to the M1 and therefore does not carry as much traffic as might be expected. Also it is pleasant to ride in unfamiliar territory, and the area beyond Dunstable is pretty much *terra incognita *to me.

Milton Keynes is clearly what England would look like if our government manages to destroy the humanities departments of our universities.

Since I wasn't in any sort of hurry I took my hack bike with its 66'' fixed gear and found it perfectly suited to the 70 miles, which took me about five and and half hours, including a half hour stop in Stoney Stratford. I still feel convinced that at the end of a ride like this I'm less tired having ridden on a moderate fixed gear that I would be if I'd been on gears. I can't really explain this, but I think it may be because if I were on gears I'd feel some how compelled to use the big chain ring and hurry. I suspect I would have arrived a few minutes earlier if I'd been hammering along the downhill stetches on a big gear.

If I'd posted this ride on the 'Last minute Rides' thread would anyone else have been interested?

Willesden to Weedon (Northants) Saturday.

Probably very few of you have heard of Weedon(I certainly hadn't until very recently), it's on the A5 a little way short of Northampton. The only reason for going there was that my other half was going to a course in the town and was happy to drive me home in her car.

There's really only one way to get to this place and that's straight up the A5. This might sound like pure head banging, and I must admit it was nice when it stopped, but I feel the need of some miles after a three week lay off resulting from a crash, and I thought having a roman road stretching out in front of me for mile after mile would be just the thing. It's worth mentioning that this road runs very close to the M1 and therefore does not carry as much traffic as might be expected. Also it is pleasant to ride in unfamiliar territory, and the area beyond Dunstable is pretty much *terra incognita *to me.

Milton Keynes is clearly what England would look like if our government manages to destroy the humanities departments of our universities.

Since I wasn't in any sort of hurry I took my hack bike with its 66'' fixed gear and found it perfectly suited to the 70 miles, which took me about five and and half hours, including a half hour stop in Stoney Stratford. I still feel convinced that at the end of a ride like this I'm less tired having ridden on a moderate fixed gear that I would be if I'd been on gears. I can't really explain this, but I think it may be because if I were on gears I'd feel some how compelled to use the big chain ring and hurry. I suspect I would have arrived a few minutes earlier if I'd been hammering along the downhill stetches on a big gear.

If I'd posted this ride on the 'Last minute Rides' thread would anyone else have been interested?

I really liked this story. A proper 'old school' fixed wheel ride like I used to read in Cycling World.
Good work clubman.

I agree about the A5. I rode a lot of it years ago when I decided to ride to Stoke to see my brother. Early in the morning, it was very peaceful.

Took a spin out into the Amsterdam countryside with the lovely people at www.joyridetours.nl

We were there for the weekend and fancied a pootle in an organised fashion. Barely 10 miles at best, but strange hold/cold/wet/sunny weather did not dampen the spirits.

Got engaged, next to a canal, later.

Took a spin out into the Amsterdam countryside with the lovely people at www.joyridetours.nl

We were there for the weekend and fancied a pootle in an organised fashion. Barely 10 miles at best, but strange hold/cold/wet/sunny weather did not dampen the spirits.

Got engaged, next to a canal, later.

aw, Im a sucker for a romantic post, congrats.

wont be online much as Im doing stage 5 of this next week:-
http://www.thegreattour.org/route/
waas going to do a blog and all that but cant be arsed, want to be living the Scotland moments rather than spending all the time mediating it,
will check in here occasionally so keep posting your rides and have an awesome summer, shred the knar.

Good luck and enjoy it.

Just signed up for my first ever sportive.
http://www.ellanvannin.cc/Info/index.php?info=67

100k.
[URL="http://ridewithgps.com/routes/new"][/URL]

[ame]http://ridewithgps.com/routes/127690[/ame
[/ame]

^^makes my 65k ride through Kent look like a streak of piss ^^

We'll see how I get on with it next weekend. Did the middle (hilly) section this morning. I hope its dry next weekend.

Mixed bag today. I was very tired right from the off, and the wanker bus driver that tried to swipe me off the road on purpose twice in Elmers End didn't help. Stuck with it though, trudged round the usual route, mildly hating every minute of it. Eventually rode with a small group from DP for a while, before going off into a knee-grinding headwind for 5 miles on my own. Got caught by the same group on Anerly Hill and was cheered-up to get a chapeau for holding them off that long, and had an interesting chat about bikes with a guy on a bling-a-ling Parlee.

Looking at the stats I was a bit faster than last week, which is a nice surprise because I mostly rode like crap.

the Dulwich lot are real nice guys.
without them I'd never have finished Dunwich.

@konijn me, Jaygee and Spaghoops were out on the Paragon route this AM too; left the Cafe at 9.05-ish. Rob appears to be a natural born climber. The bastard.

Also did Herne Hill yesterday morning and am feeling nicely fatigued.

Oh, you were probably just 15 mins ahead of me then, I left home at 9.

Finished my first 100 mile TT today.

Well done!!

Time for Apple Pie.