Tell us about your weekend ride

my first proper ride for 2012 saw +70 glorious miles today with the hoffmeister, chatty chatfield and a gaggle of newbie flies.. set off for crystal palace cafe saint germain.. kitted out with new pro winter jacket, sleeveless base layer, HH termal top, belgian winter hat and ancient rapha winter tights, over shoes and early winter gloves.. the garmin packs up before i reach brixton (it doesn't like the cold).. i arrive at 0900hrs quick cappucino and we are off with promise of bacon sarnies in chiddingstone.. the thought of icy roads and frozen hands made me feel apprehensive. but the countryside looked stunning covered in frost even the trees and hedgerows sparkled in the bright winter sun. we were joined / past by three dulwich paragon squads.. the descents around the north downs were cautious, but the climbs were fab today, as was pilgrims way and the back roads nr sevenoaks, everything clicked despite recent flu and a road bike which had little attention since november.. grateful to stop at condor just to warm up and use their loo.. and brief chat with maxl.. a few more rides like that then bring on the 'hell of ashdown'. the rapha jacket and hat were both great investments for winter riding.

Plan A for today was 50mi of Toys-Cudham-Ide on a road bike but an explosive puncture before I had even left the flat and noticing a grinding headset put paid to that.

Hour on the turbo and the SE London hills route fixed instead. Lovely day for it.

i need a nap

Cudham / Toys / Ide /Starhill.
Great day for riding.

Riding fixed along the National Cycle network route 1 from Mile end to Rye House via the Lea valley regional park. Suffered 3 punctures along the route. Only a short 25 mile route.

32 mile loop out South-East from Sevenoaks this morning. Amazingly quiet country lanes and almost totally traffic free. Just lovely. Also the fact the map looks like a dog amuses me.

[ame]http://ridewithgps.com/routes/885100[/ame
[/ame]

Rest day yesterday, quick run out today- had cross tyres on, which buzzed like a Landie on the road.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141802989

I got dropped on the club ride today.

:(

Out with a few tritons today. We planned on the Bexley Reliability Ride, but icy roads meant that we wanted to stay away from shaded lanes. We rode slightly more main roads than we would like, but it was just about perfect. Smashing weather and tons of other riders out and about.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141845064

A day out with the Greenwich Tritons.

This little ride out to Epping to do some hilly loops today. It was beautiful out there!

http://runkeeper.com/user/196517928/activity/66529709

The notable bit was braking on the descents - having to brake on the patches of road with some sunshine on them and being proper ginger through the shaded areas which played host to light ice.

Also notable: I'm depressingly slow. Admittedly the beginning and end of my ride is urban and so quite traffic affected and I spent the main middle part of the ride trundling up and down hills but my rolling average was a lowly 15.3. (geared btw)

I was hoping to do some forum based riding (TNRC and the like) this year, but that type of pace will make me a burden I'd imagine. Bit annoyed about that. Why did I have to leave it so late to get into this stuff?

Oh and a hello (if he's on here) to the chap with the black Rapha long sleeve who I trailed from the A406 flyover to Chingford (where you dismounted and I asked whether you were ok) and then saw again on the hill from High Beech.

Others wiser than me may tell you different, but I'm sure you would find the pace fine on TNRC, as that looked like a lumpy route. At a guess, you were following STE5 in Epping forest.

Spotted loads of groups out riding today around the Chilterns. Is it like the official day you're allowed back on bikes or something?

just had a bash at this one.. http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Hackney-Essex-Circuiyt-64km

took pretty much three hours with breaks for checking phone. some lovely single-lane roads about halfway through, might become my regular sunday spin

Me in Surrey yesterday. Wanted something with not too many hills in that was about 50 miles. Succeeded!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141645040

To you and Unjurt (apologies, I'm new so don't know anyone),

Nice to see some others on this forum are making the most of the rollong Epping countryside - Essex isn't as flat as people think! I di 60 miles through the more nasty climbs of Epping Forest then round Coopersdale / Abridge etc yesteday. Went out again today and my legs felt terrible so only managed a few of the climbs in the forest before limping home...

I may have seen one of you guys - I was in a black and white jersey and on a red Specialized

This little ride out to Epping to do some hilly loops today. It was beautiful out there!

http://runkeeper.com/user/196517928/activity/66529709

The notable bit was braking on the descents - having to brake on the patches of road with some sunshine on them and being proper ginger through the shaded areas which played host to light ice.

Also notable: I'm depressingly slow. Admittedly the beginning and end of my ride is urban and so quite traffic affected and I spent the main middle part of the ride trundling up and down hills but my rolling average was a lowly 15.3. (geared btw)

I was hoping to do some forum based riding (TNRC and the like) this year, but that type of pace will make me a burden I'd imagine. Bit annoyed about that. Why did I have to leave it so late to get into this stuff?

Oh and a hello (if he's on here) to the chap with the black Rapha long sleeve who I trailed from the A406 flyover to Chingford (where you dismounted and I asked whether you were ok) and then saw again on the hill from High Beech.

There are some great rides out this way...

This little ride out to Epping to do some hilly loops today. It was beautiful out there!

http://runkeeper.com/user/196517928/activity/66529709

The notable bit was braking on the descents - having to brake on the patches of road with some sunshine on them and being proper ginger through the shaded areas which played host to light ice.

Also notable: I'm depressingly slow. Admittedly the beginning and end of my ride is urban and so quite traffic affected and I spent the main middle part of the ride trundling up and down hills but my rolling average was a lowly 15.3. (geared btw)

I was hoping to do some forum based riding (TNRC and the like) this year, but that type of pace will make me a burden I'd imagine. Bit annoyed about that. Why did I have to leave it so late to get into this stuff?

Oh and a hello (if he's on here) to the chap with the black Rapha long sleeve who I trailed from the A406 flyover to Chingford (where you dismounted and I asked whether you were ok) and then saw again on the hill from High Beech.

If you're doing a similar ride again and want some company I would be well up for doing some medium paced, not too long miles.

I may have seen one of you guys - I was in a black and white jersey and on a red Specialized

If you had a white helmet and stopped at a coffee shop in Chingford then Hai to you sir!

If you're doing a similar ride again and want some company I would be well up for doing some medium paced, not too long miles.

You Sir are on!

You Sir are on!

That route is pretty similar to what I do (but I start from Stokey) - I'd be game for getting involved. What kinda milage were you thinking?

Seriously out of shape...

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/899033

Stopped for coffee half way :) (freezing) Good ride with a few local forumgers.

^^ Jim. Generally get out there once a week with my pal Bigpaintbrush. If doing a short hilly one we do Epping and loops and it's about 34 miles give or take. If we go further we've been anywhere between 50 and 75 miles. On the hilly runs I average 15.5 as you can see. We're generally quicker on the longer flatter runs. But no records are challenged believe you me! Hope to get a few more shorties in before ice kicks in for real.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141618017

Went to the boat / bike show, with a little detour to the South East.

Anybody ever climbed Fox Lane (between New Addington and Bromley)? Fuck me. Not doing that again.

I was winding through some back roads on the way home the other day, and inadvertantly found myself going up and over Canonbie, how I laughed when I got to the bottom again.

What's wrong with Canonbie??

#genuine