Tell us about your weekend ride

Took the new bike up north for a bit of a spin. Someone gave me a cap, which was nice.

No hills though. Did you wimp out?

Need to write up this years 18 day tandem jaunt into Bavaria and back (including gatecrashing a Belgian road race and legitimately racing a TT) before the memories fade :/

this

A figure 8 loop over the North Downs today with Brixton Cycles.

Around 40 miles, but 3,000 feet of climbing, which was tough going for me due to maybe overdoing it a bit this week.

http://app.strava.com/activities/70403999

Nice to have a good turnout, Corny turned up along with a load of the Rapha crew (who went out on their own, but ended up back at CSG at the same time as us).

Yesterday I mostly sat on my arse. Today I have mostly sat on my arse.

A trip down to Ashdown forest this morning. It was breezy out, and the first 45 miles or so were into a head wind, but it was a nice ride. A fair few hills.

http://app.strava.com/activities/70408652

Then I drank beer in the sun.

Yesterday I mostly sat on my arse. Today I have mostly sat on my arse.

Rode to Birling Gap, thanks Oli, a very good tip. Probably inspired by hippy I made it nearly 150 miles. Navigated the route from memory.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/349782289

2 Attachments

London to Whitstable for the Oyster Festival. 140km through beautiful Kent lanes then a wee high speed burn along the coast to cider and seafood heaven. Highly recommend the route - could be a bit sketchy in winter due to small and gravely country lanes but as a summer ride, it's second to none. I now have ridiculous jersey-oval-gap-in-back-of-mitts sun burn. Braw.

http://app.strava.com/activities/70462404

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2706283

Bit late, and not exactly a weekend ride, but here's a rough write up of our tandem tour to Germany and back:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/tandemtimetwo

Wonderful stuff. Really well written. Just read it all in bed and now I want to buy a tandem and follow your route.

Awesome ride report, tricitybendix!

At a rough guess, how much weight were you guys packing on the tandem? The thought of you keeping pace with the club guys at 30mph is very smile-inducing :-)

Good question. I guess probably 25-30kg including food. I'll have a look at the kit list later and do some maths.

Also! I filmed that bit with the club run. I'll sling it on YouTube once I'm somewhere with a capable connection.

The best bit was when you spontaneously decided "let's do a time trial after cycling over the entire world, since one happens to be on nearby" on the way home!!

I saw you two had done the TT but assumed that you'd... done the TT. Not that you'd gatecrashed it on the way home from something entirely different.

Yes, good write up TB, although I always think that website looks like it's from 1998..!

Did you actually have any original spokes left by the end? And did you have any Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte while you were in the Schwarzwäld?

Im Schwarzwald.

Probably not, and possibly better in my local Conditorei. Like I had Bakewell tart in Lewes yesterday.

Did London to Paris on thursday night / friday, riding down to Newhaven after work.

Thursday evening was a lovely time to be out riding, though it felt almost early autumnal at times. Arrived in Newhaven just as the mist was rolling in off the sea and the temperature dropped quite a bit.

Didn't get a cabin on the boat which was possibly an error (though there weren't any available when I booked anyway). The reclining seats are pretty hard to sleep in but managed to doze a bit before getting kicked off the boat in the dark in Dieppe.

Got straight on the Avenue Verte which was great fun initially but a) I flatted twice on it, b) there was a thunderstorm and c) it's fucking tedious after a while, so I was glad to get to Forges les Eaux and get some brekky.

But then the sun came out so took another stop in Gournay en Bray to dry all my kit out.

The rest of the day consisted of lovely rolling roads and hell of a lot of wheat

Before a really shitty 30 odd mile into Paris. I was planning on the Donald Hirsch route but the forest tracks looked like a MTB was required and I really didn't fancy them after two flats earlier in the day.

Finally landed under the Eiffel Tower approx 24 hours after leaving work the evening before.

http://app.strava.com/activities/70506345

From Copenhagen to Prague via Berlin in the beginning of July

It was wonderful

The last stage - just south of the German border, following the river Elbe 144km aaallll the way in to Prague city center - its worth pointing out as SO SCENIC and wonderful.

DO IT

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1544502

Chilling in Berlin

3 snake bites simoultanesly (hitting river bed stones at high speed, at the end of an asphalt strip). Last 20km was with a total of 8 punctures due to nature of cruising a single track

Get some decent training tyres.

Conti Grand Prix. Puncture proof.

Lots of awesome summer adventures happening. Well jel. Keep up the reports.

Thinking of riding from Calais-Siena in September... 1600 km taking in some of the Alps. Not sure if leggies will support me on this endeavour though as I've only been doing c.80 km rides this year.

Also! I filmed that bit with the club run. I'll sling it on YouTube once I'm somewhere with a capable connection.

Chasing a club run in Belgium on a fully loaded tandem at 30mph - YouTube

There was a bit of a delay in me switching from holiday mode to chase-the-pack mode :/

The last stage - just south of the German border, following the river Elbe 144km aaallll the way in to Prague city center

I don't want to quibble, but from Mělník onwards you would have been following the river Vltava--the Elbe doesn't flow through Prague. :)

Chasing a club run in Belgium on a fully loaded tandem at 30mph - YouTube

There was a bit of a delay in me switching from holiday mode to chase-the-pack mode :/

Why didn't you leave the cycle path to draft them better?

Belgian drivers didn't really like us being on their roads. It's a hard mentality to switch off once it's been honked into you.
(To quote friendly Belgian guy "like you say cycle touriste, we call them cycle terrorists. They ride in the road, sometimes abreast and in big numbers, and you can't overtake them so you have to drive slowly behind them. They should be in the cycle lanes". This attitude repeated all through Netherlands and Germany but not in lovely lovely France)

I don't want to quibble, but from Mělník onwards you would have been following the river Vltava--the Elbe doesn't flow through Prague. :)

I was hoping for someone to correct me, since I didn't knew when the named of the river changed and to what name :D