Tell us about your weekend ride

Roads barely clear of yesterdays snow dump.
Hill repeats.
1.5km at 8.4% gradient.
race to top in 6 mins.
repeat.
Brutal.

Should be mile munching around the coastal roads. I'm not cut out for this proper training stuff.

Weekend trip was rained off (big storm) so I thought I'd punish myself today.

2.4km of average grade 11.3%, maximum grade somewhere around 30% (according to Strava, anyway).

What the fuck was I thinking?

Cherry blossoms made up for it though...

Fair play Jadias. All your rides look great and you've come a long way from pooping yourself from sheer exhaustion.

Yesterday I did the Ronde Van Calder, a bit of a tribute to the Paris Roubaix to some degree.

The most difficult sportive i've done to date, probably the most difficult ride i've done to date infact. about 13 climbs all in all, all pretty steep, 7 or 8 cobbled.

Strava details here for anyone interested.
77 miles with over 10,000 ft of climbing!

Stunning route though!

Ouch!

Also - sideways pics = vertigo.

Thanks for sharing Tp88.

Thanks for sharing Tp88.
It's a pleasure. Always find it interesting to see where everyone else's routes take them etc...

This was such a killer course, my thighs have never experienced pain like it!

A little over 200k off criss-crossing the Chilterns yesterday as punishment for getting wasted Friday night and putting a dampening on Saturday's training ("just a couple" so often becomes getting a minicab home at 5am). Thanks to the beer induced dehydration and minimal fluid intake yesterday I'm at race weight (ha!) 3 months early. #spew

TP88s pics still = vertigo!

@Tp88 did you have the Hovis music playing in your head at any point on that ride?

Sounds great!

^^^ Sounds brutal, hippy. How long were you out for?

TP88s pics still = vertigo!

@Tp88 did you have the Hovis music playing in your head at any point on that ride?

Sounds great!

I climbed all but 2 of the hills... there were only a few that managed to reach the top of some of the climbs, hats off to them! Trooper Lane was the worst... Pure hell. I still feel like i'm shaking now!

No hovis music though... I can only sympathies with the kid in that advert, I hope it was a one take shoot!

^^^ Sounds brutal, hippy. How long were you out for?

About 8hrs. A bit too long at this point in my build up, probably. The Garmin took me a longer route to the start point than I expected and I got lost a few times so it wasn't the smoothest of rides, navigation-wise. Still, I saw a lot of places I either don't remember or have never been to before so it was pretty enjoyable I guess. Was pretty fscked by the time I got home. Need to stop trying to ration my drinks and just face facts that if I'm on the road for x hrs then I need to be prepared to buy and/or carry x litres of drinks.

Went out today and cycled from Staines to my folks place in Brize Norton (kinda near Oxford). Used the route from hard day in January as far as Wallingford, then went round didcot and onwards. Awesome day- permanent tailwind meant I did it in 4 hours dead, and even managed to get up the hills on stupid track gearing. Also, a huge thanks to whoever it was that wrote up the instruction for Hard Day- made life so much easier. Didn't need to get the map out once.

It's a pleasure. Always find it interesting to see where everyone else's routes take them etc...

This was such a killer course, my thighs have never experienced pain like it!

Looks brutal / ace! Chapeau sir

http://www.reactionsnet.com/Article/3189056/Search/Results/Lloyds-Cycling-Club-London-to-Paris.html?Keywords=O'Connell&OrderType=1

A good write up, Clive. Having had to abandon a ride I'd been focusing on for 6 months due to appalling weather conditions, I can empathise with how you feel.

But doing 125 miles in Saturday's weather is something to be proud of, as is the large amount of money you raised. Well done.

Nice report Clive and a good effort mate.

2x people running a marathon after that lot........

Wray that has a scarecrow festival.

Worth a visit, went a few years back... there's lots of scarecrows, a few stalls selling home made chutney and we found a nice pub too.

Yesterday I did the Ronde Van Calder, a bit of a tribute to the Paris Roubaix to some degree.

Nice one, did it cost?

A blogger/tweeter called Crossjunkie runs a freebie Flanders tribute each year... Ronde Von Oost Lancs. That's similar and was great fun. Includes a tasty little climb up a cobbled alleyway from Hebden Bridge to Heptonstall

A good write up, Clive. Having had to abandon a ride I'd been focusing on for 6 months due to appalling weather conditions, I can empathise with how you feel.

But doing 125 miles in Saturday's weather is something to be proud of, as is the large amount of money you raised. Well done.

+1

I left a comment, but no idea if it stuck.

That's similar and was great fun. Includes a tasty little climb up a cobbled alleyway from Hebden Bridge to Heptonstall

I know that climb. Tried it once on a heavy mountain bike when I lived in Hebden Bridge.

Didn't try it again.

Stll need to upload Garmin stats but Friday afternoon did a hilly ride throught the Yorkshire Dales, was killer....

Finally got round to uploading from Garmin...

[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/296320045[/ame]

41.1mph on 70.9 gi and a flexy steel frame was a little scary

Decided to set out this morning and basically climb every climb in northern Kyoto (bar one exception, because it is brutal and I'm not stupid), in order, from east to west. No idea why, really, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

http://app.strava.com/activities/48262137

Started raining on and off at around the 1/3 mark. Got caught in a good shower on the steepest climb. At the top of the second to last climb it started raining torrentially and when I couldn't feel my extremities on the descent, I figured it was time to pack it in. Only one on my list left to go - such a shame.

Still, apparently managed 3155m in 95km, and I set PRs on the two hardest ones (somehow!). Happy with that. And quite tired.