Tell us about your weekend ride

Has anyone else ever spotted a texting horse rider?

Rapha ride for me this weekend. Great fun, even if it exposed my lack of fitness from a winter of sitting down.
Must ride more. Must train more. Must drink less.

^ Good to see you getting some decent miles in Al x

Thanks Alex, I have a more meaningful relationship with my bike than I do with my mrs :(
So tempted to buy that vintage mapei c40 road bike as my summer mistress ;)
Hope you are okay x

Rode out to Beaconsfield to hit the lanes today. Only made it back as far as Denham, but lucky with the weather, approx 80 miles in total and 2200ft of climbing.. Forgot how bad some of teh minor roads were condition wise, the amount of roadkill, sky full of red kites and also forgot how steep some of those climbs can be, like white pit lane, meh. But Polish doughnuts featured again, two up riding ftw.

I'll post route when we've worked out where we went. Recall places..
Kilburn, Shebu, Uxbridge, Beaconsfield, Marlow, Frieth, Hambledon, Frieth, Land End, West Wycombe, Naphill, Charlfont St Giles / Charlfont St Peter / Denham

I'd be interested to see your route, my parents live in Chalfont St Giles and my brother and I were looking to ride out there for lunch at some point.

Rode out to... Charlfont St Giles / Charlfont St Peter

Chalfont St..., unless deliberately putting a Lloyd Grossman twang on it? Interested in route please.

^ speak of the devil eh?

Hah!

Hah.. I fricking can't spell.. Chasfrank St. Peter lol
Not sure I'll do that again.. Things go a bit meh after nappyhill

I had a fun ride with Catford CC once where one of their time triallists dragged me down an A road at about 28mph and then rode in circles barking guidance at me while I panted my way up an incline. It was mildly brutal but extremely useful.

You are nails Bendix. I once did a yoga class that made me want to cry and was distinctly not fun and fairly put me off the class. The above sounds exactly the same sort scenario. I clearly do need to HTFU.

And thanks for your clear and insightful advice BMMF, Tenners and T.V. I feel way more knowledgeable.

Reckon I'll go with j.m.f's suggestion of getting a helpful, non shouty, non 28mph up a hill type instruction.

Hah.. I fricking can't spell.. Chasfrank St. Peter lol
Not sure I'll do that again.. Things go a bit meh after nappyhill

This was the original plan.. http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/173616368
We didn't stop for long at Beaconsfield or Hambledon. Or cross over at Marlow going south..
Instead made our way to Denham. Some stretches of the A40 are grim after uxbridge..
As is the A404 and A413 heading back towards Denham.

Train out and back to beaconsfield next time.. So we have more time in the lanes..

Feeling a little tender after another century ride on the 69.6" fixed, but a bit different from last month's Regents Park multiple lapper. Hell of Ashdown, ostensibly, plus there and back.

This. 101 miles and ~6500ft of phixeh climbing.

Fucked off with snapped spoke in front wheel going along the Pilgrims Way on the outward leg. Seeing as the sun had come up and the caliper QR could be opened to avoid the wobble and provide moderate braking, I pushed on, but erred on the side of caution on descents. The mist/fog was thick as shit in places - going down the steep side of Toys, it got to a point where I could only see about 20m ahead of me, if that, and it's not the sort of descent where you can casually wipe the condensation off your spectacles, especially when half expecting the front wheel to explode.

Anyway, I didn't resort to walking up any climbs, so fuck you Kent, fuck you Sussex, and fuck you South London.

^good

Pfft, not really any point mentioning my half the distance and geared yet still knackering ride.

Awesome work again BMMF

Just under 90 miles out to the coast yesterday. A bit on the slow side, but good to get some proper miles in, haven't ridden that far in a while. Here's my route

With Mrs Stew away for the weekend (at a hen weekend in Brighton, no less), the weekend has been guilt-free cycling time - amid other activities which we won't go into here...

Saturday: not trusting the suspiciously good forecast (I've been fooled by that trick before), nor the quality of the Kentish roads, I took the crosser out for a 50 mile spin in the early dawn light. A lease of life with a new chain and cassette (with a 27t gear) had made the shifting crisper than it had ever been on a bike that normally gets the Fritzel treatment (abused and then locked in a dark shed). It felt good to get out there before the world woke up, and it was only really on the way back that I saw many other riders out. Some highlights: spinning up Chalkpit Lane with a new fancy gear; Pilgrims Way - I love that road (bar the fly-tipping); and stumbling across a herd of dear casually chilling in the middle of the deserted road
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/273950398

Sunday was a casual stroll around Surrey with a couple of mates. Got back on the proper road bike for the first time in 3 months and boy does it feel fast/light/twitchy/fun. One downside was discovered relatively soon into the ride when the back wheel punctured on Priory Road but I was busting for a wazz so badly that I had to limp to the toilets on the rim before doing anything about it. My Michelin Pro Race 3s had decided to glue themselves to both the rim and the tube, which made the change slightly arduous, but much cursing later I was on my way.

As the day got progressively warmer, the fog lifted to reveal a smorgasboard of weekend riders - some of whom had even learnt that a nod or a wave is the appropriate response to the loon to bellows 'morning' at every passer-by. This was a day for shooting the breeze - and, with the exception of a half-arsed attempt at speed up Box Hill, much breeze was shot. A friend of a friend runs a cycling cafe in Ashtead (www.bikebeans.co.uk) which we visited for the first time. They serve very fine Kingdom coffee with locally made cakes and lashings of smiles. Plus they have an outdoor sun-trap terrace which was bliss. Definitely worth a trip if you're in the area, and infinitely better than the National Trust fare you get at the top of Box.

Garmin says over 6000 calories burned, and a top speed of over 60mph. Wishful thinking, possibly, but I'll definitely take it
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/274344840

Lovely weather today so headed out to just have a pootle got a bit carried away ended up on nice but rather epic ride
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2069214
- 80 miles, 6000+ ft
Great fun though exploring different routes and places.

Top view today, from the turning to Goyt Valley after Windgather, we turned the other way (as pictured) towards a climb known as "The Dead Man"

Gnarly, BMMF. Chapeau.

BMMF is champion.. Some great ride posts..

This was the original plan.. http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/173616368
We didn't stop for long at Beaconsfield or Hambledon. Or cross over at Marlow going south..
Instead made our way to Denham. Some stretches of the A40 are grim after uxbridge..
As is the A404 and A413 heading back towards Denham.

Train out and back to beaconsfield next time.. So we have more time in the lanes..

Thanks for that. Yeah, I don't think it's the nicest stretch of riding, getting out that way. Trying to work out something that involves as little of the A40 as possible.

Train out is best, unless you're planning a very early start. and i always find it hard riding back into town late in the day..
The chilterns 100 sportive picks up alot of great roads. Have a look at the gran fondo route and crop your ride to suit.

Al

Sam, my favourite pubs on this route are The Olde Bell or The Flower Pot, both with gardens on the river.

http://app.strava.com/activities/1827055

Excellent stuff Ludwig,
had hoped your route went out as far as Streatley Hill B4009..
a climb no one ever forgets, in fact I feel ill just thinking about it..

Feeling a little tender after another century ride on the 69.6" fixed, but a bit different from last month's Regents Park multiple lapper. Hell of Ashdown, ostensibly, plus there and back.

This. 101 miles and ~6500ft of phixeh climbing.

Fucked off with snapped spoke in front wheel going along the Pilgrims Way on the outward leg. Seeing as the sun had come up and the caliper QR could be opened to avoid the wobble and provide moderate braking, I pushed on, but erred on the side of caution on descents. The mist/fog was thick as shit in places - going down the steep side of Toys, it got to a point where I could only see about 20m ahead of me, if that, and it's not the sort of descent where you can casually wipe the condensation off your spectacles, especially when half expecting the front wheel to explode.

Anyway, I didn't resort to walking up any climbs, so fuck you Kent, fuck you Sussex, and fuck you South London.

Nice work

^^I did 6 reps of Streatley when reccying it before a hillclimb (not the same day!). It's pretty vicious. Ended up doing about 2m35s, but was annoyed that I undergeared* in the end and went 'lactic' too quickly. Should've been about 10 seconds quicker (based on the couple of people who hit the 2m25s mark). Robert Gough broke the course record with a 2m16s that day and threw up for about 20 minutes non-stop afterwards. All I had was a migraine, so clearly plenty left in the tank :D

In other news, discovered I had a solitary spare spoke in stock for my front wheel, and furthermore, the 3 year old alu nipple hadn't seized, so I could fit it without even removing the tyre - hooray!