Tell us about your 2011 riding

+1. I hope you did that 30% climb on gears blue fleet.

@Hoefla - Getting your partner to do his first longer ride in 10 years is hardly downbeat! And I am planning on rerunning both Essex rides this year. As well as some new ones...

+2. blue fleet, I'd love to see some of those Welsh routes if you have any gps files. They sound amazing and I'm planning to ride some of those hills this year. Cheers.

Just discovered the joys of cycling late last May and by last Saturday I'd done 5,300km give or take 10 or so..

Every penny spent, all 5 crashes, possibly even having my Specialised knicked... it's all been a pretty amazing, strengthening little journey. No real memorable rides to speak of but met countless great people with one key thing in common :)

Aiming for far far more miles this year, get some regular return trips to Oxford and one-ways to Bournemouth under my belt each month I think. Just can't wait for the days and rides to get longer!

To continue from the last page, sorry for continued waffling, but in answer to the responses:

@Spybot, excellent, if anyone is inspired to go there from my ramblings thats great. Do it you won't regret it, but maybe not at this time of year unless you really like cycling in the wet and cold, it looks like you guys have had enough of that recently, at least there was no sand on the sections I did :)

@ Fox, haha yes definately, not only did I have gears but I was very glad I had a compact as at one point I looked down wondering how many more gears I had left and realised I had none, I think my next cassette will have a 27 or 28 rather than my current 25-12. I did cycle it all but stopped to take some pics and to re-insert a lung.

Wiki says it was regarded as the hardest climb included in the Milk race in the 70's and 80's and maximum respect to those guys who road it on a traditional double chainset, I am in awe of anyone that could do that. I would hazard a guess a few cyclists have invented some new swear words on that climb. It is the first hill on the first GPS below, and as you can see its a bit of a wall but in truth the last climb of the day was the worst as it just seemed to go on for ever and there was lots of corners so I never knew where the summit was, and I guess as I'd already done the other climbs already.

For anyone bored enough I had put the descent from the top of the Berwyns on Youtube, a lovely easy descent at the end of the day, check out the outrageous traffic on this main road.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyP094EYgLw

Sorry for shit sound, one day I'll figure out how to add music. I have got a film of the whole 20 minute bwylch y groes descent too and tried to upload it to youtube but at over 2gb and over 20 minutes its too long.

@TTM, I use my phone for GPS rather than a dedicated unit and as a result I did'nt use it for all the sections of my trip for fear of draining battery and having a incident. The epic Bwylch y groes and Horseshoe Pass ride I did use it as it was is this one:

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/436736

But I have since mapped the other routes:

[ame]http://ridewithgps.com/routes/709899[/ame
[/ame]

Connah's Quay to Llandudno, mostly cycle routes all the way, at the top of the climb at about the 10 mile mark there is a great pub at the top of the hill that has good food and some amazing caves out back if you have time to visit. It was supposedly in the Guiness Book of Records at one point for having been in the same family for over 400 years, the pub that is, the caves have been there much longer. CSB.

[ame]http://ridewithgps.com/routes/710125[/ame
[/ame]

Llandudno to Portmadog, including round Snowden, mostly cycle routes to Camarthan then I got lost and had a horrible section on the main road but this was round Bank Holiday in August so was busier than usual .I came down the A487 and turned off at Penygroes just before Llanllyfni for the mountain section and then up and descended back into Camarthan, according to the interwebs this was the best way to do it. As its a mountain it often has its own Pink Panther style cloud and rain when the surrounding area is fine so take a decent rain jacket even if its nice.

[ame]http://ridewithgps.com/routes/710154[/ame
[/ame]
[ame]http://ridewithgps.com/routes/710169[/ame
[/ame]

This is in 2 sections as I walked across a toll bridge which ridewithgps cant comprehend. (can't remember think the toll was about 1 pound, extortion!) The second section includes the wonderously named Happy Valley. It ends at round my mums so you may not want to go there haha. The A470 is a busy road that I'd normally avoid but the section where it turns off the A470 is another little gem of a backroad, it has a short brutish 20% climb to start but if you keep on that road and dont turn off like I did then is about 10 miles nearly all down hill losing about 1000ft to Llanfair Caereinion with no traffic.

[ame]http://ridewithgps.com/routes/695773[/ame
[/ame]

Adfa to Cardiff, don't trust the last section as coming down into the valleys I again went off route and ended up on main roads I'd have preferred to avoid, but the first sections and the bits over the Beacons are awesome.

If you are in Mid Wales I'd also highly recommmend some cycling in the Elan Valley and around Devils Bridge, its bite the back of the hand beautiful there.I did'nt have time on this trip but am definately going to go there in 2012.

And also in the Mid Wales area, home of ex tour legend Barry Hoban, there is one of his rides, it goes up Staylittle and round Clywedog damn, more details here.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/routes/wales/345650/mid-wales-with-barry-hoban.html

Those are just some I know but to be honest the whole country is a cycling paradise when its not raining and you can turn off nearly any main road and have amazing riding. Enjoy.

Anyway hope all those links work as I'm a bit of a techy luddite fingers crossed
I'll shut up now so back to your stories please.

Thanks for those routes. Bring on Spring!

Built my first fixed conversion.
Built my first road bike.
Bought another fixed bike.
Rode my bikes.

Now have 5 bikes!
How the hell did that happen?

2012.... must ride more and further.
and with new people too!

It really doesn't feel like i've done much riding this year, and i've definately become less fit, but the following were good fun from what I can remember...

• Meeting some of the Track Droputs guys on a ride to Bristol
  
• Smallest ever forum ride down to Bournemouth
  
• Dunwich Dynamo
  
• IOW Randonee with a great bunch
  
• Overnight to Bristol with the TNRC
  
  

Need to lay off the pies if i'm going to do LEJOG in the spring

@bluefleet: cambridge ride was Skully's although skive did a lot of the leading and was the week before the London Classic :)
your Wales adventures do sound amazing, great photos too

^whoops well big props to Skully and his lovely Dave Yates for the Cambridge ride then. See I told you my memory was useless I can't even remember the order of the rides. I think i definately lost some brain cells at that pub which you led us all too in Cambridge so I hold you at least partly responsible for my condition :)

Been a year of firsts for me too.
I got my first proper bike since I was about 10 years old in Jan 2010 in a Fuji Track. Rode that and a couple of different bikes around for about a year never really going over about 30 miles. I remember struggling at the end of the Marathon ride in 2010, which as it sounds, was about 26 miles long.
Built my first road bike around christmas of 2010 then had to sell it pretty swiftly to pay rent. I did some longer rides but still nothing over about 50 miles.
I guess my cycling in 2011 really started when I got the BMC in April, which was fucking ace, although slightly too large for me, but it allowed me to actually get some good miles in. I did my first century ride with Fox, Stonehedge and Chainbreaker. We went at a good pace into a considerable headwind and I loved it, although was glad it was CB's first century too so I didn't feel like the only one suffering.
The Dunwich Dynamo was great fun and I was at what felt like my peak of fitness despite nearly bonking at 4am, probably due to lack of experience of when to eat/drink.
Since then I have still only done a handfull of rides over 70 miles mostly due to working constantly.
Despite doing longer rides this year, I have done less forum rides than 2010, so I hope to change that in this coming year.
All in all, I feel in a good position to start trying to get faster and fitter and actually getting out on my bike more often. And it all would have been nothing without you assholes. Organising shit way better than I could and being great company on rides. So thanks.

For anyone now thinking about heading to South Wales in 2012, one possibility might be a two-day event run by Pendragon Sports, two summer rides that you can clump together for a top weekend. One ride is Tour of the Black Mountain, the other is Iron Mountain.

I had a bash at them last year, and I thought they were excellent. S'too early for news of 2012, but here are the routes from 2011.

I'm definitely on for another journey down from Prestatyn in 2012, speaking of Wales, the knot of ups and downs around Horseshoe pass is as hard as I've hit. I must get back out to Exmoor, also, which was absent from 2011. Then there's the Lakes, which I've just been reminded of.

So much to do in 2012, so little time.

A year of firsts.

First century
First night ride
First time trial
First 1000 mile month.

Met more lovely people than I can count.

I regret my curt and drunken post earlier now.

2011 contained:

First fixed century
First 200mi+ in two days.
First 400mi in three days.
First forum rides.
First night rides.
Ride leader for a forum ride for the first time. (Thanks Skive!)
First time riding in real mountains (Pyrenees) + first time in the Lakes & Peaks.
New PBs for 10, 25 & 50mi.
First <6hr 100mi.

Riding aside, 2011 has seen me meet and get to know a load of awesome people who have supported me through some crappy life stuff and made it easier to keep a smile on my face. Not to mention grateful for the wisdom of the more experienced riders I've been out with. I've learned a lot this year. Thank you.

Finally, I apologise anybody who has had to suffer my company on long rides (particularly at night). I just can't help singing. Its what I do.

I just can't help crashing. Its what I do.

ftfy

:)

2011 was all about the tarck for me
was doing weekly night mtb rides but let them go as spring came on.
did a few long rides dartmoor classic etc etc but not much really other than all local journeys to/ at work.
rode loads at calshot early on,
got qualified as track coach,
got confident at racing in groups and all the adrenaline that comes with it-
continuing with that in 2012 as mountain running will take all weekends until after Easter.

Rode a fixie for first time last summer, cannot imagine riding anything else now!

Had a brilliant time on the bike.

Suffering from knee pain meant I had to spend a few weeks/months recovering . I still have niggles in my right knee but the pain is much more manageable. The downside to this is that I can no longer ride fixed great bikes.

This of course meant a lot more geared miles and becoming much fitter than previous years, may have been helped by the running too.

Had a great 2 and a half days of touring around East Anglia - 330 miles in total, a route I'd recommend to everyone.
Rode my first (and by no means last) Dunwich Dynamo - Seeing all the red rear lights is something I still can't really describe.

So 2012 begins with a rather lazy December mist still looming but I've got a new bike on the way and can't wait to get started. I'd love to join Audax UK this year and increase my mileage on last year. This will be helped with my soon to come 40 miles a day commuting, I'll be happy if I can do that 3 times a week.