Tell us about your weekend ride

OGERocks film-clip candidate ^^^

OGEROCKS - AC/DC Tribute - YouTube

They're very unlikely to do any Professor Green numbers, though.

Any closer to a real hairpin then the crescent at the top of Holly Lodge Gardens?

http://app.strava.com/activities/65353997

70+ Miles in the sun.
Populated by one dude who spent most of the time overlapping my rear wheel, and his mate who thought that playing club classics through a speaker in his bag was going to make him everyones favourite chap.
Spent some time racing a recumbent who cut across a car doing 50mph on an A road (WAC). Overall, got home and hurt a lot.

scorchio! - YouTube

Dulwich Paragon Open racing at Herne Hill on saturday
First proper race since the rolla one a couple of months back. Great to see some improvement, instead of constantly being dropped, was pushing close to the front, and managing to some "tactics"
Still find it hard defending my line, and my lack of sprinting abillty definitely lets me down, see lots of interval training in my future. Great fun and a well organised day,

Well done to dimi and joseph on getting some prizes/moneyz!

Done 200 miles in the last three days up near my folks' in Cheshire. Today was the longest of the lot but I still had 78 miles in the legs from yesterday so was taking it steady. Went up Horseshoe Pass above Llangollen and Wrexham. Worth riding out if you're ever near. Alpine style feel to it and never too hard.

http://app.strava.com/activities/65589125

My absolute favourite moment though - and the sort of thing that keeps my cycling - was the point when an older chap pulled alongside me on Saturday evening. Gnarled old legs like pipe cleaner and Weaver Valley CC shorts on. Had a quick chat and he was talking about racing the next day. I asked him for some tips on racing and he shared his wisdom.

Then - almost with trying and still seated he dropped me like a fucking stone. It was like when Cancellara dropped Boonen in the RVV a few years ago.

I was riding with Weaver Valley the next day and it turns out it was Alan Kemp, national veteran's road champion. Apparently he still wins under-40s races at the age of 63.

Done 200 miles in the last three days up near my folks' in Cheshire. Today was the longest of the lot but I still had 78 miles in the legs from yesterday so was taking it steady. Went up Horseshoe Pass above Llangollen and Wrexham. Worth riding out if you're ever near. Alpine style feel to it and never too hard.

http://app.strava.com/activities/65589125

My absolute favourite moment though - and the sort of thing that keeps my cycling - was the point when an older chap pulled alongside me on Saturday evening. Gnarled old legs like pipe cleaner and Weaver Valley CC shorts on. Had a quick chat and he was talking about racing the next day. I asked him for some tips on racing and he shared his wisdom.

Then - almost with trying and still seated he dropped me like a fucking stone. It was like when Cancellara dropped Boonen in the RVV a few years ago.

I was riding with Weaver Valley the next day and it turns out it was Alan Kemp, national veteran's road champion. Apparently he still wins under-40s races at the age of 63.

#csb

Seriously fucking cool story.

You know you've had a long day when you can't be bothered looking at your bike computer for your mileage and don't even get to dessert..

I'll make up for it today though, my oath I will...

My friend lost his 18 month old daughter to a rare form of leukaemia a couple of years ago and he's since set up the Amber Phillpott Trust and organised a free festival in the town I grew up in to raise funds to support a research into a cure. I offered to ride to and from the event to encourage donations:

Out on Saturday:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/339621117

Back on Sunday:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/339621232

Loved it and it gave me the perfect excuse to roll out the steel tourer, but it was tough going in the heat.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/AmberCyclists
http://www.amberphillpott.com

Sorry for the shameless Bob Geldoff moment. By way of apology here's a pic of my lovely bike in the sun with about 50 miles to go:

The virgin giving link is incorrect, pls be to fix. Nice bike, though, and good work.

Dos this link work for you?

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?charityId=1005437

It does work, but may mean that he loses the ability to see how much his individual effort raised :(

However, your efforts have led me to find the correct link instead. High-five!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=ambercyclists&isTeam=true

It does work, but may mean that he loses the ability to see how much his individual effort raised :(

However, your efforts have led me to find the correct link instead. High-five!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=ambercyclists&isTeam=true

That's the one. Thanks everyone. Didn't know if I was going to get the dreaded chevrons for posting the link to the virgin site. Thanks for being cool!

Hey bothwell! MASSIVE thanks for your generosity. I don't know you and you don't know my friend, but you've just put a huge smile on my face. Thank you so much!! I debated posting this on here. I love the forum but kinda wasn't sure if it was appropriate. My view was that people can ignore it and if people want to donate a pound or two I'd be happy. Your generosity to a stranger has left me open mouthed. Thank you so much!!

You're very welcome. My brothers' baby girl suffers from a rare and ultimately fatal form of epilepsy so I know how devastating these kind of childhood illnesses are, and will never hesitate to put money forward to support attempts to find resolutions. It's easy to look at rides like this and only see a nice journey in lovely weather, but there's a real, personal story of support through hardship behind it, and for that you should feel proud.

^^^ good cause. Good riding. Donation made.

The final day's overspill from the weekend's riding proved to be the most enjoyable of the three featuring the journey from Glasgow into the highlands, and then from the bottom of Ben Nevis to the top of it.

Best bits overall include the Snowdon Pyg track, any 24 hour garage with a Starbucks/ Costa vending machine, finding somewhere that sold jumpers at midnight, the final push from Glen Coe to Fort William, and having a view from the top of Ben Nevis (a rarity, apparently).

Low spots? Running out of comfortable ways to hold my handlebars, and a long spell without caffeine (often the only thing propping me up) during the wee small hours of yesterday morning.

All in this one took me 57 hours, and I was pleased that the plan came off as I'd intended.

^ Oh my - that is something else. Amazing work!

^^^ good cause. Good riding. Donation made.

Definitely. Chapeau yetidamo!

(And a lovely bike too!)

^^^How many miles is that?!

460 on a bike, not sure about the walking bit. 16-18, possibly?

I'll have a dig around for a pics to post in a bit; though I was a bit disappointed by the photos I took.

Fucking melting out there. Went out for a poke around on the Grubaix Special to stretch my hairy meat pistons and shake off an inordinate amount of form filling and existential distress and have come back coated in piss crystals and stubbornly milky factor 50 that sooks up flies like a Dyson-designed frog.

Despite the heat I put in some ok times on sections and others that I'd felt like I totally cracked actually weren't that bad-just goes to show how the heat makes you pant like a dog even when you're not suffering too badly. 1000m of ascent of 60k, which is my favoured training route now as it's out and back the same way avoiding any A roads and bagging every steep lump in the viscinity. Wind was like a hair-dryer and invariably against but did bring the delicious scent of pine trees that made me imagine I was suddenly transported to the Pyrenees.

Comedy moments (read, actually a bit depressing/tragic) of being forced to dismount to get over a slippery ford at the bottom of a descent and getting gang-banged by horse flies that seemed to have a fetish for my sweaty TVM jersey, but being unable to take off because my gear was too stiff to give me the momentum to clip back in on the hill. So pro.

I fucking hate strava though-even if you get PRs on bits you still get some dirty chiselled fitness obsessed bastard jamming his metaphorical sweaty chamois in your face by besting it by half. Fuck all of you, I'm trying, even if I am sitting here eating leftovers from yesterdays BBQ and chugging it down with a cold beer...

As the sticker says...

From Plymouth up onto Dartmoor today. Basically 12 miles uphill - then 12 miles back down. Hotter than the sun. Loads of nodders saying hello like some kind of community and sheep ignoring me. Worth it for this view.

Done 200 miles in the last three days up near my folks' in Cheshire. Today was the longest of the lot but I still had 78 miles in the legs from yesterday so was taking it steady. Went up Horseshoe Pass above Llangollen and Wrexham. Worth riding out if you're ever near. Alpine style feel to it and never too hard.

http://app.strava.com/activities/65589125

My absolute favourite moment though - and the sort of thing that keeps my cycling - was the point when an older chap pulled alongside me on Saturday evening. Gnarled old legs like pipe cleaner and Weaver Valley CC shorts on. Had a quick chat and he was talking about racing the next day. I asked him for some tips on racing and he shared his wisdom.

Then - almost with trying and still seated he dropped me like a fucking stone. It was like when Cancellara dropped Boonen in the RVV a few years ago.

I was riding with Weaver Valley the next day and it turns out it was Alan Kemp, national veteran's road champion. Apparently he still wins under-40s races at the age of 63.

among the other good posts on this thread, this one does sum up some reasons to be cheerful.