Tell us about your weekend ride

I've just ridden to Melton Mowbray and back from my parents place in Nottingham. Naturally I bought a pork pie, as I'm tacky and predictable. Strong headwind on the way out and a challenging hill which went on too long. I had a can of coke and a Double Decker sitting on a bench when I arrived, then a smoke, as I watched a married couple sitting outside a cafe expertly ignoring each other.

No Garmin, pedometer tells me it was a 32 mile round trip. There's really some beautiful countryside around here. First time I've been on a bike in a week due to being oop North for a while without it. Thoroughly enjoyed today's jolly.

I've just ridden to Melton Mowbray and back from my parents place in Nottingham. Naturally I bought a pork pie, as I'm tacky and predictable. Strong headwind on the way out and a challenging hill which went on too long. I had a can of coke and a Double Decker sitting on a bench when I arrived, then a smoke, as I watched a married couple sitting outside a cafe expertly ignoring each other.

No Garmin, pedometer tells me it was a 32 mile round trip. There's really some beautiful countryside around here. First time I've been on a bike in a week due to being oop North for a while without it. Thoroughly enjoyed today's jolly.

If you're riding in that area, go to Old Dalby and visit the village pub, The Crown. The beer garden is great, the pub is very old with lots of small rooms and the food is amazing. The a la carte menu is worth the extra spend over the bar menu, but neither will disappoint. Do it soon though, the chef is moving on and the food will never be as good again.

There's also a microbrewery on the other side of the village. The beer's good but the bar feels a bit sterile. Apparently the tour is excellent value for money if you're having a piss up.

Talking of breweries... I cycled out to the West Berkshire Brewery shop today to pick up a few of their beers. Only a 20 mile round trip, nice quiet lanes, quite a few horses and a couple of other bikes about. Good to get out on the bike after too long without a decent ride, and it'll be good to sample their wares this evening!

Short, hilly and brutally fast 40 miles. I am in pain.

Rode to Tom and Laura's to finally return his lights after the 24hr. Thanks guys! #imabadperson

Of course I got lost heading there and hit lots of potholes trying to properly snap the Condor.

weekend track ride I set up for 11 women friends would have been the main event,
however we got rained off- gutted...

my ride- back a few miles on seafront into s/w wind on single speed, felt like high resistance on turbo trainer ride :/

Another 45-mile jaunt at 16.2mph around Hertfordshire's Little Switzerland. 7.30am start, softened by a spectacular breakfast: American pancakes, chipolatas, crispy bacon and strong coffee.

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Rode up to Harrow-on-the-Hill with Mal, took some photos, had a roast and a pint. Rode home.

sounds much more sensible than some of the other shit youve been doing the last few months.

Tired, broken, wishing I wasn't so shit at riding bikes. I think the wind has blown a hole in my knee, and deafened me slightly.

St. Ives:

Shaftenhoe End:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRadFidgoXU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIj-6fr2SlI

You're not shit at riding bikes, you're doing it wrong. 95 miles fixed at a 16.Xmph average should be followed by a rest day, not however many miles it was into a massive head wind.

Given your knee wasn't all that happy on the way up you need a recovery strategy after long fixed rides, not a back on the bike for more pain cave miles strategy...

If it makes you feel any better my ticket from Huntingdon was 17 quid, also quite painful.

had a lovely ride round the south east of london yesterday hunting out hills.
fox hill in crystal palace won it for the day though.
a great little downhill and an awesome climb back up.

Two rides on Saturday. Had intended to take my new PX road bike which I've just built, but snapped a spoke on the way to work on Friday, so ended up riding fixed. I rode a nice 22 mile loop through the countryside and later on I rode another longer 30 mile loop from Leamington to Stratford-upon-Avon and back. Furthest I've ridden fixed in any one day :)

Took the train to Swindon yesterday with a friend, then cycled out on a loop through the coutryside, via the Great Barn at Great Coxwell (stopped for some bread and cheese), the white horse above Uffington, and Waylands Smithy, then across the ridgeway and down a great road into Lambourne (stopped for banana, nuts, and chocolate milkshake) before heading to Newbury for a train home.
Nice relaxed ride, some great roads with hardly any other traffic, good weather and plenty of greenery.
[ame]http://ridewithgps.com/routes/708308[/ame
[/ame]

Another 45-mile jaunt at 16.2mph around Hertfordshire's Little Switzerland. 7.30am start, softened by a spectacular breakfast: American pancakes, chipolatas, crispy bacon and strong coffee.

I too was on cumcum hill, and cucmber lane/hill, makes me smile every time.

TL; DR 85 windy fixed miles along the welsh border.

My ride this weekend was one of those self-gratifying trips down memory lane. I decided as I was going back home for the weekend, I would ride around some of the dull welsh border towns I used to spend all my time in.

I started the route on the fairly flat route out to wales, marvelling that I didn’t have to spend the obligatory 40+ minutes of fighting through city traffic to get to the country lanes, as I was already in them!

First 30 miles were fairly flat and set a decent speed out to my friends house in Meifod, enjoying lots of little quick inclines and descents. Arrived at my friends house at midday, to be told that some soup and bread had just been made! Ended up sitting around chatting and eating for two hours.

Left the house stuffed full of food with sleepy legs. And then got in to the hilly bit.
By this point the wind at picked up, and I started cursing not having brought gears, each incline seemed to take massive effort and slowed to crawl on quite a few. Luckily I brought my mp3 player with me, I never usually listen to music, but putting on some punk gave me the energy to continue and got me pedalling in a rhythm that carried me through the rest of the ride.

Along this part of the route I went past friends houses and a river we used to swim in, and a realised that life was pretty idyllic. A lovely area to grow up, and probably bring kids up one day.
Got in to my next stopping point of Bishop’s Castle, one of those bizarre hippy towns dotted round the country that the world seems to have passed by. Had a pint at the awesome http://www.threetunsbrewery.co.uk/ and set off quickly as I was running late.
The rode to Church Stretton, but by the time I got there, my legs were too tired to attempt riding over the Long Mynds (sorry pete!) and I had to blast it along an A road back to Shrewsbury to get home for a family meal.
This ride made me regret having wasted the opportunity to ride this lovely area every week, any of your rural people really should appreciate what you have!

[ame]http://ridewithgps.com/routes/701522[/ame
[/ame]

NOT invitational, Me, Arvy, Dan, Alby and Tim did a slightly longer variation of this route:

[ame]http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Surrey-Epic[/ame

Ended up at about 125k and 2000m. Pretty close to the definitive w.surrey route methinks.

^Looks like a 3 year old's drawing of a knight on a horse :)

I can't not see that now!

Damn I need a garmin so I can follow a route like that without stopping every mile to check direction..

I'd be happy to own a nice garmin. It would just show me up for my lack of pace/distance though :)

Did a triathlon as my first comeback race after breaking my ankle in May.
Had a really good swim apparently and was out of the lake in 30 mins (dodgy timing?)
Jumped on the bike ready to dishout some pain but was probably too eager considering the damp conditions, unknown course and pisspoor marshalling.

Went into a righthand bend and went down almost straight away sliding along the tarmac.
Got some nice roadrash.. attempted to carry on but 20km in my rear derailure hanger gaveup and shorn completely off (almost taking out my carbone wheels)

A great end to a great season! my luck continues

My friend Ian and I met up in Ipswich on Friday to do our near-traditional September 200, him (more or less) fresh from PBP and me fresh from riding about four or five rides above 50 miles this year. A lovely route and extremely suitable, if mostly overcast, warm weather, great choice of stops, and a memorable blast back into Ipswich along the A1071 in the dark (almost continuously slightly downhill except for some bumps). Being very unfit, I nearly bonked twice and had to take it easy for ten minutes, eating energy bars to get back on track. Ian kindly dragged me round most of the way. There are some small inaccuracies in the route below, which I drew up from memory, but it's close enough to what we did. About 240km total. It felt wonderful to do some proper riding again.

http://www.bikemap.net/route/1245013#lat=52.05661&lng=1.14103&zoom=13&type=1

NOT invitational, Me, Arvy, Dan, Alby and Tim did a slightly longer variation of this route:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Surrey-Epic

Ended up at about 125k and 2000m. Pretty close to the definitive w.surrey route methinks.

what hell is that thing!?!

what hell is that thing!?!

Hehe. It started off as that 6 hills ride that we did with Tex last year.

Except now there are 12 hills. It's the daddy.

If it makes you feel any better my ticket from Huntingdon was 17 quid, also quite painful.

Trains are luxury price, but without the luxury interior. Always fancy just getting off the train whenever they get round to announcing whatever price they ask for.