Tell us about your weekend ride

I should have ridden to Bristol on Saturday morning, just to make the circle complete

London->Norwich->Leeds->Newcastle->Carlisle->Liverpool->Birmingham->Bristol would make your circle complete :)

You say that... I've been half planning London -> Oxford -> Hereford -> Cardiff -> Bristol -> Exeter -> Poole -> London for ages. So long, in fact, that all the sofas I had planned to crash on have long since moved on.

I have also been thinking about a week-long (or two) ride around England with B&B stops. Maybe next year.
Well done once again, impressive ride.

not very epic, but I took the single speed kids out along the ridgeway nr Uffington, 7 year old managed about 20ks before melt down. healed with chocholate and camp fires.

...around England with B&B stops.

Worth a quote, this.

Blimey Tom, good work!

Somebody must have changed the thread title to 'Tell us about your week ride' to accommodate that. Never used the term before, never will again, but chapeau Tom.

My weekend ride was the challenge copenhagen bike course. 180km in 5:08 preceded by a 3.8km swim and followed by a marathon. Lovely country to ride bikes, even the taxis have bike racks.

the lads setting the example on this thread, good effort Tom.
Exmouth is beautiful hey, road approaching Bridport is shite but that bit past ours is pleasant too.well done again.

Tom, how was the Winchester to London stretch?

If it was all fine to cycle I'll nick it and ride it the other way to see my parents.

6pt did that on a Giant crabon (TCR?) with Mavic Kszryrm wheels and had the very GALL to head straight to South beers for double burger action on crossing the city limits.

First time over Rhigos and Bwlch here in sunny South Wales...not that bad? Saves me paying/queing for the Dragon Ride!

http://www.ukimagehost.com/view/d4db8e76bd846a87.jpg

Exmouth is beautiful hey, road approaching Bridport is shite but that bit past ours is pleasant too.well done again.

The run in to and out of Exmouth was glorious. I had a lovely route back that avoided as much of the A35 as possible, took me through Loders/Uploaders, north of Dorchester and then a run in to Wareham through Clouds Hill, but I was so out of it I just couldn't be bothered. Everything after Lyme Regis pretty much didn't register, so A-road or lane made no difference.

Neil, I would be hesitant about using my Winchester to London stretch. My route was based on braker's rather lovely one (originally by tommy the brick I think), but I thought I'd be clever and try to be more direct on my path in to town from Leatherhead onwards. An error; the route was confusing, stop-start and very much what you don't want at the end of a long ride. Next time I'm finding an A-road, putting my head down and getting on with things. Pre-Leatherhead, all lovely though.
(honestly, use braker's instead. much nicer. here
)

Legs feel almost back to normal today, so if I can push some miles tomorrow and Friday I should be in a position to break 500 miles before 10pm Saturday, which'll be my second megaweek of the year. My last was in April, so it'll book-end the season quite nicely.

...and had the very GALL to head straight to South beers for double burger action on crossing the city limits.

The only thing that kept me going through Surrey. Combe Lane was the hill I was going on about btw, just east of Guildford. Not really what you want with that many miles in the legs.

Took part in one of the Evans RideIt events at the weekend in the south lakes, only 55miles, but lots of brutal climbing and 3.5 passes (Ulpha, Birk fell, Hardknott & Wrynose), was the last in off the course but not the slowest by a fair margin, though in my defense I was stopped talking to people for over an hour of it :p
Really nice weather and well organised, though had a visit from the great north air ambulance on Wrynose pass, a young lad (on the ride) had taken a pretty nasty tumble, possibly breaking shoulder, arm & collar bones :/

Just been out again today, was supposed to meet up with a local club, but either the weather was too bad (see photos) or I was in the wrong place to meet, failZ. Instead did a mini tour of the western lakes probably about 45/50miles didn't have computer, but stiff by the end of it.

Loweswater

Low Lorton's brand new swanky bridge. Replacing a 150yr+ old sandstone block job (hump back and really nicely featured) that was completly wiped out in the nov2009 floods. This is a bridge that a villager parked his brand new land rover defender on top of (to protect from the rising water already in his house) only for the bridge to collapse and be swept away overnight O_o

geared. crabon. lycra. helmets. lights.

london to normandie this weekend, approx 230 miles.
friday 17:00 ride london dover (mostly A20)
midnight-ish ferry to calais
ride calais to village on D roads.
hoping to reach the village by late afternoon, 16.5mph ave.

216 miles in the end.
departed london 1700 friday
arrived approx 1650 saturday.
45 mins sleep on dover/calais ferry.
headwind from calais, heavy rain from boulogne sur mere till the end.
tough going but fun.

yeah man, weekend rides going international. top work.

cheers dude. amsterdam last weekend of october. join us if you like.

I'm planning an Amsterdam trip in October.

What route are you taking? If you haven't planned it yet the coastal cycle path is superb!

I think I'll probably get the Friday ferry, take the direct route from Hook of Holland to Amsterdam and then come back via the coastal route or something.

Tom, you're mad.

Awesome work.

we're doing london dover/calais amsterdam but still not 100% decided on the route from calais - cheers for the tips about the coastal path, could be a winner.
think we'll return via hoek van holland/harwich ferry and a train to london. just a one way trip we can wrap in a weekend and i reckon we'll be trashed after attempting london to amsterdam in a single stage at 300 miles plus.

Tom, that ride was only 50mi shorter than mine to Cumbria and not that much less hilly.

Now I definitely feel like a pussy for doing it in 21 hours over three days.

yeah man, weekend rides going international. top work.

The beautiful Ahr valley last weekend.

[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/106458356[/ame]

mao - holy crap! You would win the Paris-Brest event at that pace. Taking weekend (or even day?) rides to new levels there.

In Wales for the next couple of weeks. 60k yesterday and 80k in the hills and mountains today solo - quite tough, up and down non-stop but great.

Have you gone up to Efyrnwy? Its only about 30 miles from where you are