Tell us about your weekend ride

I led a club run for the first time. Here is the route from my mate's Garmin:
[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/98155363[/ame]

Some of my favourite Hertfordshire roads and lanes.

Nice lunch stop at The Bell in Standon. They do full English for a fiver, half English £3.50 and all variation of cooked breakfast. Beer garden and walled garden. Recommended.

Must big up the passing cyclist who came screaming past our gruppetto in the Hadhams. Dawes touring bike with rack, mudguards and pannier, wearing shorts and T-shirt, he made us look lame for a mile or two. Either he eased off or we reeled him in and he rode with us a little way. He was "off to Cambridge on a jolly". Nice guy.

The Merlin Ride in Carmarthenshire a couple weeks ago; 114km with ~1,700m of climbing. Awesome route including the Breacon Beacons and the Towy Valley...just under 3hrs 40.

Perfik'

got a few weekends bunched together in the form of 6 days in sunny Cornwall. stunning part of the country, and rather hillier than I'm used to. only rode properly on a couple of days between towns, with walks on days between.

first, short ride just getting from the train station to B&B on the first night, had to walk up the final part of the only hill. between Mevagissey and Falmouth a couple of days later, walked in a couple of places. the next day, Falmouth to St Ives, no walking (admittedly fewer steep climbs).
I'm certainly better at hills than this time last week, and quite pleased with myself. also, kinda pleased that my partner (who has "only just" taken up cycling) has not yet overtaken me in speed/ability as I was expecting - it is still a nice relaxed pace. it's been a really ace holiday, the place was magical, the weather benign (mild sunburn on face/arms not withstanding), and the food excellent. most of the other cyclists we encoutered were german tourists - families and older couples, all laden down with stuff. Cornwall is a great scale for cycling/walking, it was fun on the last full day to walk from Penzance along the coast to Marazion and then from there crossing from south to north coast by foot back to St Ives.

this is sort of the route, colours for different days. we took a small ferry between St Mawes and Falmouth but I couldn't work out how to break the line...
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/315485

yep^ beautiful places with plenty grunt needed on the bike.
track training rained off this morning :(
need a rest anyway after another mental week of kids, riding, coaching,
swim and sauna looking promising

up on to the Purbecks this morning, Swire head wild and wooly, not a massive ride but a few hearts pumps makes it worth it.
watched Poole beat Newport E at Cycle speedway just now, some right mongrels on their team as well, riveting stuff .
anybody not done the Dynamo?

Is mention of the dynamo not allowed in here? :(

I dont mind a bit of cross threading...
well done btw good efforts all.

224 miles / 17.1mph / never again. Despite a forboding weather forecast, it really was a most excellent night, the tailwind elevating it from fantastic to blissful, and that's before you consider the company. You can't really beat 100 miles of flat lanes at the best of times.

224 miles sounds like there and back........

:)

Crikey it were windy today. Did 29.8 miles, but pushed as hard as I possibly could almost the whole way as I was in that kind of mood. Really surprised myself by averaging 21.2mph on a fairly rolling Berkshire route (geared).

Even though I just came back from a week downhilling in Morzine, it is days like today that make me remember why I also ride on the road.

Also; great to see a large number of cyclists on the road, despite the less than ideal conditions.

^^ The usual 50ml Surrey/Box Hill run - sneaked it in before the rain hit. Felt like an old man grinding against the headwind on the way out, but like I had a rocket up my @rse on the way back with the wind behind me. Would rather ride in the rain than all this f**king wind - feels like every weekend for the last 2 months now..?

2 hours of hill reps around Blackheath/Greenwich in the pissing rain yesterday morning and Richmond Park this morning for a windy bang on 60 mins 3-laps. Felt good man.

Did the Smithfields to Stoke Newington run today, so much pain.

I had a lovely 30 mile snatched trip into them hills. Took in the long drag when turning left off Skid Mark Lane south bound, Titsey, Chalk Pit and Bug. Almost got eaten by a Bull Mastiff at the bottom of Church Road, Woldingham....which was nice.

Croix de Fer

Alp d'Huez today. Was going to do Glandon in nice weather but can't be arsed.

Beats the fuck out of the Chilterns :)

^^ The usual 50ml Surrey/Box Hill run - sneaked it in before the rain hit. Felt like an old man grinding against the headwind on the way out, but like I had a rocket up my @rse on the way back with the wind behind me. Would rather ride in the rain than all this f**king wind - feels like every weekend for the last 2 months now..?

S/SW winds are a staple of the British summer from mid June to end of August. It's what keeps as warm, but also brings moisture from the Atlantic. It ties in with the SW Swithin's legend and why Wimbledon sees so much rain.

Sounds like you made the best of it, good fight out and then fantastic ride home.

Croix de Fer

Alp d'Huez today. Was going to do Glandon in nice weather but can't be arsed.

Beats the fuck out of the Chilterns :)

Jealous!

Did 32 miles around Salem OR today. Going to do 100km following the Peach of a Century route tomorrow:

http://www.salembicycleclub.org/filemanager/PeachMap-62&75.pdf

20 miles of dust and mud yesterday.

50 solo kent miles on the new bike. Avg speed 17.9. Was reading 18.0 until 200 yards from the end. Grrr.

Set off for the Isle of Wight at 2am from Norwood on Saturday morning, I had seen the forecast said heavy rain at about 1am, and since it rained at 12ish I thought I would have missed the worst of it. Anyway it was my last chance to test my new lowriders for a trip to scotland on tuesday. Started pissing at Epsom, quickly turned into a proper torrent. Soaked through and freezing I paused under a bridge and put my overcoat on top of my wet clothes, set off again as the rain eased off but I had to cane it to keep warm, was worried about running out of energy in the middle of the cold night with nowhere to go, it was quite a dark, scary few hours.

But when the sun came up in crawley I felt better, took a layer off and even dried off a bit. Another fucking downpour hit me on the way to Petersfield around 7.30, I thought fuck this and sat in Esso for an hour, drinking coffee half naked trying to dry some layers near the hot food buffet. Charming Indian staff were interested in my trip and didnt seem to mind.

Then the sun came out. I put 'Morrison Hotel' on my walkman (miraculously dry thanks to new panniers) and flew in caffine fuelled joy over the South downs, up tiny sun dappled lanes. Overtook a chap on a cervelo on the climb, he took me back at the top and then turned off, haha. Try it with 20kgs of kit, mate.

Rolled into the ferry port in portsmouth around 10, 2 hours late but happy. Last 10 miles on the island actually seemed shorter than usual, the 15% climb up Carisbrooke a peice of piss.
Got to the campsite around 12noon, everyone was duly impressed. I hugged my cousin and my godson and settled down to a guinness and a fag. Lovely.

p.s. 110 miles, average 15mphish not including long stops.

Had a nice ride out yesterday with only one tit in a van to ruin my day slightly.

45miles taking the long way to the bike shop, only to leave the bike shop empty handed. Looked at the computer and I'd managed a 30kph average somehow, I was passing road riders while I was out but not racing them. On the way home I decided to try and keep that average but the last 10 miles is a steady climb all the way so it dropped to 29kph. Knackered afterwards, mainly because of my attempt to keep the average speed up. I only ride 36x13 because of all the hills around here, I can still get 40mph down the hills fairly easily so it doesn't exactly hold me back

^^hardcore.