Tell us about your weekend ride

First trip to the Santa monica mountains. Topanga / Las Flores / Piuma / Mulholland and Encinal canyons. Not sure how far but it was thoroughly enjoyable. Las Flores is a bit like a mini-Mortirolo....there's an 8pc bit towards the top that feels like you're going downhill. Not ideal on 39/25...

Had a few hours spare before taking the boy down the beach so headed out for a quick blast along the coast before heading in land and rolling through some lumpy countryside managed a nice 46 miles with 2600 ft of climbing at an average speed of 18 mph.

http://app.strava.com/activities/56338760

First ever ride to Brighton on Saturday. Pretty slow going as the three of us are, er, slow but at least I had the feeling of "I could ride back" when I got there.

Plus that's the furthest I've ever ridden in one go so get me.

Second top weekend on the trot. Two days alone in The Dales, followed by a takeaway curry, followed by a morning's guided tour of the climbs around Clitheroe. All in about 275 miles, 7500m ascent, and a veggie bhuna.

Buttertubs...

Nice.

BENJ:
I had just over three hours to get some riding in yesterday after a long and tiresome car journey to Devon, involving massive traffic jams and much back seat whinging

It was sunny and reasonably warm, but windy. I began the long drag from Exeter to Mortonhampstead into a stinker of a head wind, which got worse the further and higher I got into Dartmoor. The wind got so bad on the high moor that I found myself crawling along at a painfully slow pace. By the time I got to the point where I turned back I felt spent and was beginning to dread the thought of Widecombe climb.

This was my third ascent of Widecombe and it was as bad as I remember it being. Just over a mile of 10% average gradient with a few spells at 20% for good measure. I didn't have the legs to push very hard but I made respectable progress and once I crested the top I knew that the worst of the climbing was behind me. I now had a following wind and the anticipation of booze and dinner in my mind. I was able to crack on and managed to turn my embarrassing average speed into something a little more respectable.

It is beautifully sunny this morning and we will be heading out for a family ride to exmouth and back along the cycle path. Flat all the way - sweet!
http://app.strava.com/activities/56214231

SAINSBURYS ED
125km in the lake district, 2000m climbed, got to the hardknott pass at 100km - couldn't believe how steep it was!

Quads now ruined after 20km running on friday in the hills.

Hopefully find a suitable lake for a swim later :)

Awesome efforts to both of you. I'm planning on going to Exmoor in August, and will be in the Lakes in July, so these rides are quite prophetic!

Benj - I may need to hit you up for info about Exeter, most particularly where that fish and chip shop is.

Sainsburys - I'm planning on riding Hardknott and Wrynose in one short horrible session of pain - just how devestating is it? I heard that the road surfaces are absoultely terrible too - is that right? And was there much traffic? Last thing I want whilst in the deepest of pain caves is some berk in a car trying to force his way past me on a 30% bend...

Couple of rides for me this weekend.

A friend persuaded me to join him on his club run with Kingston Wheelers on Saturday. It was their 'fast' club run, and was flat as a pancake, but tough. There were 8 of us, with 2 or 3 who were on the front most of the time setting an absolute monster of a pace. They were the kinfd of sick f*cks who spend all morning staring at power meters. I managed a few turns on the front, unlike a few who just clung on for dear life, which is cool, otherwise I'd feel like I was cheating! Despite the savage pace and pretty intense atmosphere, it was alos fun and sociable, with everyone being cool guys and there being an ace cafe stop in Henley (think it was calle the Chocolate Cafe?) - Some fancy place on the Thames, ridiculously idyllic, and very middle britain / middle class / middle age.
http://app.strava.com/activities/56295165. Some of the guys got bacon sandwiches - looked very good, but sod having a big chunk of pork in my gut in the middle of a ride like that!

Did a route around Kent that I stole from the Kentish Killer sportive today, 73 miles with a fair dollop of hills. Was the biggest solo effort I've done since injuring my wrist, and I felt great. the sun was out, legs felt strong, the pain killers were working a treat on the wrist, and the countryside was looking truly stunning.
http://app.strava.com/activities/56564184

Feeling a little better about doing the Chiltern Hundred ride next Sunday with TTM now, and possibly even the Dragon Ride the weekend after with the Kingston Wheeler... but we'll see about the latter. Did it last year and it was seriously heavy.

Beer and chili now.

I couldn't face the bike today but just got back from a ride with gf on some canal paths. I didn't know you could loop around on the Grand Union out west. There were some arse-pounding rough bits but a lot of it has been resurfaced and there's some lovely bits near the locks where you could picnic. The Fox pub looked interesting too. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brighton/7616540948/in/photostream/

Nice ride in Northumberland on Saturday.. Always enjoy spotting the slightly older chaps out on their pristine Joe Waughs.

Awesome efforts to both of you. I'm planning on going to Exmoor in August, and will be in the Lakes in July, so these rides are quite prophetic!

Benj - I may need to hit you up for info about Exeter, most particularly where that fish and chip shop is.

Sainsburys - I'm planning on riding Hardknott and Wrynose in one short horrible session of pain - just how devestating is it? I heard that the road surfaces are absoultely terrible too - is that right? And was there much traffic? Last thing I want whilst in the deepest of pain caves is some berk in a car trying to force his way past me on a 30% bend...

It's wasn't that bad in terms of road surface, there's quite a bit of ribbing where cars braking has caused ripples in the surface but you can pick your line/ you have to snake round the outside of corners anyway in order to get up!

All the cars we experienced were polite and or encouraging.

There were a couple of slightly antisocial motorbikes who cut my friend up...

The road surface on the way down from hardknott on the west was a little sketchy but we were descending from this side and it wasn't too bad.

It's also worth taking in Honiton pass as well, no where near as hard but enjoyable, a better road surface and a much more fun descent (I.e. not just holding onto the brakes for dear life!)

i went on a 23 miler and managed to average 18 mph :D

what are you selling toby?

nothing of significance, searching out asphodel on heaths, beachfront rolling, dropping in on tracksessions to speak to people.

Bristol to Totnes on Saturday. Got a bit lost after Exeter and ended up doing 201Km instead of 167.
Garmin confusion. Great ride all-round apart from a couple of the A38 sections.

Quck 10 miles with Nancy on Sunday, beach, BMX track, ice cream and home.

Got chatting to an old timer who is here for TT, he'd cycled from Manchester to the IoM via Bournemouth, on a Brompton.
His smile when Nance said she loved his bike was worth a million pints, we treated him to one.
Chapeau old brompton man.

He seems a little directionally challenged. Perhaps a map rather than a pint might have helped him.

Plus that's the furthest I've ever ridden in one go so get me.

Get you indeed! Nicely done!

In a similar, may not seem much but I'm pleased/think it's an achievement theme, I cycled up Box Hill this weekend, up Zig Zag Road (have done the easy way a couple of times) and it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be/my mind had built it up to be. I think my hill hating days are officially over.

Took this route: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1354381
and it was pretty nice. Drivers in SW Ldn (with a few notable exceptions) seem to be a bit kinder to cyclists than Kent drivers and the route pretty nice taking me to lots of places I've never seen in Surrey. Ranmore Common and the descent into Dorking was worth the grind up Crocknorth Road and after Box Hill it felt pretty much downhill and with a tail wind all the way home. Beautiful views over Epsom Downs too.

Also cycled through Richmond Park for first time in an age and even more confused why people want to do laps of it. Witnessed some atrocious cycling and the Lower Richmond Road is like some sort of lycra roadie haji route. Also: if you are the blokes on time trial bikes who like to fist bump at junctions, don't.

Best ride I've had in ages - legs didn't exactly feel fresh when I got home but I felt so much happier and confident in my abilities than in recent rides which at stages I've plain hated. Feeling much happier about going cycling in Italy now for hols too.

Second ride of the weekend was my first outing with tomx15w.

Nice ride up to Hetchin and back. Really quiet roads on the way out and not too bad on the way back.

My chain snapped on the way to meeting him and I couldn't fix it despite my best efforts so I had to turn around, go home and get my fixed bike. Tom has a rad Cervelo with Dammit's old Zipps, and he is damn quick so I felt like a bit of a muppet chasing him on my commuter!

Lovely weather though!

http://app.strava.com/activities/56667096

Two days, 340 km total, mostly flat.
Saturday: From Nairobi to Tanzanian border (Namanga), 170km, 640m climbing, about 6+ hours including stops.
Sunday: Back to Nairobi, same route (the only route) so 170km, 1000m climbing, about 7 hours including stops.

Saturday
I rode with Enzo (Italian) and Steven (Kenyan). Steven is very quick indeed, and was riding single speed. He's been training Enzo daily for the last few months, so Enzo was pretty quick too! Mama mia! (He actually says that with sincerity.) Enzo managed to average 30kph on a heavy bamboo MTB, so he'll be dangerous once he gets the road bug. I was clearly the only one boring/sensible enough to use a rack rather than a backpack.

.

I want to try to explain the remote emptiness of the countryside. The chunk of Kenya I rode through is about the size of East Anglia, except hotter and with herds of cattle instead of herds of chavs. In that entire space there is just the one road going from Nairobi to Arusha, Tanzania, endless savannah with nothing resembling civilisation outside from the 5 or 6 little towns on the way. The "restaurants' in the little towns serve mainly beans and rice, which I suspect gave me the squits. It's all Masai land - a Masai man even cycled along side me briefly, dressed in the traditional red-check blanket and carrying a big stick & long sheathed knife, his earlobes drooping with beads. We exchanged rudimentary conversation and big grins. Probably every 5km I saw a herd of cows being bossed about by a Masai kid and at one point the road was completely blocked by a mass of cows and donkeys. Later I had an Oh Shit moment with a pair of donkeys…

Little metal signs counted down the kms to Namanga - good for morale.

The last 30km were painful, but we arrived in good time. From Namanga you can see Kilimanjaro, it's 70km away but looks close because it's bloody massive. Half of Namanga town is in Tanzania, and you can walk around without passport silliness, so I got a holiday to Tanzania! Kind of! It's a funny little town and I imagine truckers support much of the economy through paying for rooms/food/booze/miraa/sex. We stayed in a simple hotel with concrete rooms at £3 per night. Upon arrival I had a cold shower, tea of beans & rice for 75p, a nap, a second tea of beans and rice for £1.50 (oooo posh), I turned down what I suspected was an offer from a prostitute, then I slept deeply whilst the mosquitos treated me as a blood buffet.

Sunday
Up and cycling before sunrise, with strange stiff feelings in the right leg. On the way back we faced some relatively long, sapping 2-5% climbs and some fun gently rolling hills. Saddle pain forced me to stand often, and I developed a good technique for lifting off without losing speed: I bargained with Steve & Enzo so that I'd lead on flats/climbs if I could tuck behind them on downhill stretches - with my pedals still, bum in the air, drafting at 30-35kph. Then I'd sit, take the front, let the bum flare up again, and pray for the next downhill.

When halfway home we bumped into more and more cycling chums until our group of three became seven. There's a lack of decent bicycle here, so among us we had two MTBs, two 70s gas-pipe Raleighs and more than one pair of chromed steel rims. Still we averaged 28-30kph, and I'd love to see what the guys could do on modern road bikes. Now we had the muscle to return to Nairobi at speed and our two-two-two-one formation commanded respect from the other traffic. I helped lead this express train down the highway but quickly tired - it was heroic but silly to lead a group of super-fit Kenyans. So I mostly clung to the back and winced.

Here's a collection of GIFs from Enzo's GoPro. I wish I had footage of the seven man group, but the SD card was full!

. .

Rad ^ Rad :)

Fahrrad.

Every f*cker was in Richmond park yesterday.

Get you indeed! Nicely done!

In a similar, may not seem much but I'm pleased/think it's an achievement theme, I cycled up Box Hill this weekend, up Zig Zag Road (have done the easy way a couple of times) and it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be/my mind had built it up to be. I think my hill hating days are officially over.

Took this route: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1354381
and it was pretty nice. Drivers in SW Ldn (with a few notable exceptions) seem to be a bit kinder to cyclists than Kent drivers and the route pretty nice taking me to lots of places I've never seen in Surrey. Ranmore Common and the descent into Dorking was worth the grind up Crocknorth Road and after Box Hill it felt pretty much downhill and with a tail wind all the way home. Beautiful views over Epsom Downs too.

Also cycled through Richmond Park for first time in an age and even more confused why people want to do laps of it. Witnessed some atrocious cycling and the Lower Richmond Road is like some sort of lycra roadie haji route. Also: if you are the blokes on time trial bikes who like to fist bump at junctions, don't.

Best ride I've had in ages - legs didn't exactly feel fresh when I got home but I felt so much happier and confident in my abilities than in recent rides which at stages I've plain hated. Feeling much happier about going cycling in Italy now for hols too.

Oh glad someone else witnessed this... I took the car and the kids, but there was some awful cycling knobs out.... seriously annoying, why cycle where everyone else is ?!

nothing of significance, searching out asphodel on heaths, beachfront rolling, dropping in on tracksessions to speak to people.

Lycra-Lout

With Fox to the Blue Egg and back on Saturday. Predicted headwind N/NW never really materialised. Was confused by Stansted take off to South, but of course they would with N/NW. So after two hours and more then 34 miles I kind of set the goal to keep going at this speed. Still too late for poached eggs, breakfast had stopped mid day.

BLT and after Victoria Sponge, as Fox insisted on cake. Very nice sitting in the sun. Still no headwind on the return leg so kept on dividing 17 by 2 and 4. From Roydon we took the lea valley A roads, which deconstructed the ride as well as helped to keep the Garmin at 102 miles in six hours plus three hours cake. And a question: why have even the lanes white road markings in this part ot the world?