Tell us about your weekend ride

just back from a lovely ride in the kent lanes. used the TNRC Kent 1 route (Sam, can't thank you enough for this beauty). this is probably the sixth or seventh time i have done this route and it gets better every time. even exedown hill.

pleasure to ride with shinscar, slamm and plum.

pecan whiskey tart was pretty rockin too.

+1 jonny - was a beautiful day for a ride with some amazing scenery along the way. Just the right amount of ups and downs with exedown thrown in there to get the muscles really burning. Looking forward to clocking some more miles in, thanks for the coffee and cake - my shout next time!

last weekends ride - Paris Roubaix, thunder and lightning thro the forest of arenberg, aces

Did the Great Kent Ride today. 60 superb miles out from and back to Ashford. An incredibly well organised ride and a perfect day for it too.

not heard of that. do you have a route link?

@MrSmyth - how much is 'not cheap though'? Some groupsave4 action might make it easier to swallow…

Had a wonderful day with a small group doing a Garmin free recce for Ladies London to Brighton ride on Saturday. Thank you Oliver for that litte sidestep you recommended; we found it well and it helped.

We got lost a couple of times and were always able to go back unto the route until we headed east along the A272 from Lindfield to Newick. This allowed for an improvised very good stretch on some small carfree roads towards the eastern end of the B2112 which we took into Ditchling.

@MrSmyth - how much is 'not cheap though'? Some groupsave4 action might make it easier to swallow…

it costs me £20 with my network card for a return. may be slightly cheaper for a day return.

Nice. Wish I could have ridden to Brighton today.

Might happen again next Saturday.

Ludwig this^ post is cool, but then don't moan to much with me.

not heard of that. do you have a route link?

There was no official map on line but I found this one that looks fairly spot on. The start and finish were along bike paths but the rest was on roads which were very traffic free for the most part. Ride was mostly flat with 2 short hills so good average speeds are possible.
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Great-Kent-Bike-ride

Organisers - http://www.bike-events.com/Default.aspx - have a few more good looking rides coming up.

400k ride this weekend. It started from Alfreton north of Nottingham and headed north to Helmsley, over to Scarborough and back via the Humber Bridge. The first 180k was really good. Excellent scenery, good weather and I even managed to turn out the forst hundred in three and a half hours. I did have a plastic bag of something thrown at me but as it missed I didn't let it affect my mood. Even a broken spoke didn't perturb me too much as it only took a couple of minutes and led to a nice chat outside a pub with a guy who used to do a lot of cycling many years ago.
Alas after Helmsley the ride took a bit of a turn downhill and unfortunately that's only figuratively. The night temperatures dropped a lot more than predicted and the controls (this being an audax) didn't offer anywhere to get in and rest and get warm. Therefore resting meant getting cold and no important little recovery periods. Not resting meant more fatigue and a marked decline in performance. Only at 60k to go did I get to sit inside and eat some proper food that hadn't spent a couple of days in the fridge wrapped in plastic and from there things went much better as well as the weather warming up.

It's good to know I can endure such things but 200k on a massive sense of humour fail is not a place I'd recommend anyone to be in.

Ride over to Richmond Park 6 laps and back110km Saturday morning and track training yesterday morning at Herne Hill.

Well done, Andrew. The next one will undoubtedly be better! I'm sure after you've got your 400 out of the way, everything else is a doddle. I'd meant to ride the Brantham 400 this week-end just gone, but I'm still not in long-distance riding shape. Having not done any 100s or 200s, it wouldn't really have worked, anyway. :<

400k ride this weekend. It started from Alfreton north of Nottingham and headed north to Helmsley, over to Scarborough and back via the Humber Bridge. The first 180k was really good. Excellent scenery, good weather and I even managed to turn out the forst hundred in three and a half hours. I did have a plastic bag of something thrown at me but as it missed I didn't let it affect my mood. Even a broken spoke didn't perturb me too much as it only took a couple of minutes and led to a nice chat outside a pub with a guy who used to do a lot of cycling many years ago.
Alas after Helmsley the ride took a bit of a turn downhill and unfortunately that's only figuratively. The night temperatures dropped a lot more than predicted and the controls (this being an audax) didn't offer anywhere to get in and rest and get warm. Therefore resting meant getting cold and no important little recovery periods. Not resting meant more fatigue and a marked decline in performance. Only at 60k to go did I get to sit inside and eat some proper food that hadn't spent a couple of days in the fridge wrapped in plastic and from there things went much better as well as the weather warming up.

It's good to know I can endure such things but 200k on a massive sense of humour fail is not a place I'd recommend anyone to be in.

Uber Epic!

Well done mate. Bet you felt like shit afterwards!

~250k for the Rapha Gentleman's TTT yesterday. 5000 calories to replace, stat.

Uber Epic!

Well done mate. Bet you felt like shit afterwards!

Still feel a little ropey now. Should add that to cap it all, the ride was nicely timed to coincide with shifts in the weather that meant that I had an absolutely glorious 23 hours of headwind. That didn't get old at all.

Just checked my computer, somewhere along the line I clocked a 69.1kph descent. The worrying thing is that as it was getting properly dark I checked through the readings and had only done about 61. There's nowhere on the next morning's riding that I would have been going that fast on so apparently I did that in the dark, when I couldn't see what was coming.

Nice

Well done, Andrew. The next one will undoubtedly be better! I'm sure after you've got your 400 out of the way,

Second 400 this year. The first was the Severn Across which has more climbing including Yat Rock and the Somerset Monument and a traverse of the Ridgeway. This one still seemed harder though. Probably shouldn't have done 3.5 hours on first 100k though, it can't have helped.

my first ever sportive, the 127 mile magnificat in andyp's backyard, the Hampshire lanes. A hilly start got my legs rolling nicely, as did some wonderful bunch riding. The emergent, unspoken organization of sharing the work in a group of strangers is a brilliant feeling.

Unfortunately, the day did not end as well as it started. Just before the psycholigically important half way point, my riding partner unclipped out of the saddle on a short sharp uphill ramp. He went down like a felled tree and snapped his collar bone.

We got a lucky lift to hospital with a passing camper van, and pent the rest of the day sorting out the logistics of fixing him and reuniting ourselves with cars, bikes, and homes.

Happy to report that he is OK and should be mended swiftly. I am still to complete a century.

Rats.

Mashton and Don Bradman. forever marooned just shy of a century.

Lolz.

I'm not sure if 60 miles counts as "just shy" though.

For what it's worth were holding a pretty steady 17mph average to this point.

17 mph average? james will be proud.

IT WAS FUCKING SHIT.

So...

Second 400 this year. The first was the Severn Across which has more climbing including Yat Rock and the Somerset Monument and a traverse of the Ridgeway. This one still seemed harder though. Probably shouldn't have done 3.5 hours on first 100k though, it can't have helped.

Oops, the second, then. Ride tracking failure on my part. Still a cracking effort!

I meant my weekend, not my weekend ride. Didn't read all the thread title.

I saw a Bugatti Veyron on a tiny lane near Epping Forest. Don't see those every day!