Tell us about your weekend ride

Nice report, hats, and kudos for getting back on the bike so soon after the crash.

I want to do a similar tour of the UK on my return from Kenya, stopping to see friends along the way. Is Tom camping?

He's wild camping in Scotland, he has a hammock and a tarpaulin. Apparently he has been destroyed by midges. I really want to do a tour like this too!!

4 yumyums or 4 sausage rolls for a pound is standard in yorkshire. It's one of the perks.

I did not know that - yet another reason to love Yorkshire!

I just got back from a week in Ireland, while there I decided to do the Ring of North Kerry, gorgeous scenery and a great day on the bike. It's a sportive and is in it's 3rd year running and was my first time, very happy with the result (4h 55m), I will be attending the same event next year as it ties in perfectly with my mothers birthday.

http://www.bikemap.net/en/route/2279110-ring-of-north-kerry-ronk-120km/#/z11/52.47274,-9.60343/mapquest
#/z11/52.47274,-9.60343/mapquest

He's wild camping in Scotland, he has a hammock and a tarpaulin. Apparently he has been destroyed by midges. !

I would love to tour Scotland, especially the North West coast and islands, but I would not do it in the summer. I would rather brave the cold weather and shorter days of the spring than the midges.

NW coast == awesome. 2011 we did roughly this:
http://goo.gl/maps/7tB70
Only a wild camped the once cos I like a hot shower after a day;s ride!

Switzerland speaks for itself.

NW coast == awesome. 2011 we did roughly this:
http://goo.gl/maps/7tB70
Only a wild camped the once cos I like a hot shower after a day;s ride!

That looks fantastic, I've spent a fair bit of time in the highlands rock and ice climbing, but that tends to be inland. The coast up there is truly stunning.

Since I am on holiday in France every day is a weekend. This week we are in Provence, and the family gave me a day to cycle. So I decided to have a go up Ventoux.

Luckily for me, the most accessible gateway was from Sault in the east, which I would later learn is the easiest route. It was also fortunate because Ms. Pharoah loves lavender, and this village is the centre of the lavender trade. Our day here was even the annual Lavender Fete, when they cover the streets with the stuff. The whole village smelled of lavender.

But I was here to ride. So off I went into the beautiful morning, a perfect 15 degrees and sunny. I hadn’t done much research so had no idea what to expect. Turns out that by going this way the first 20 kms of the 26 kms total are a pretty steady 4% to 6%, across newly resurfaced tarmac. I kept thinking, “Am I really going the right way? Where is the suffering?”

Then I reached the Café Reynaud, where the route joins the D974 from Bedoin for the famous final 6 kms. This was the Ventoux I was expecting all along. I just kept grinding through the final sting of 11% or so until I reached the tower. The day was perfect, sunny but not hot, a gentle wind. Would ride again. Will try another route next time, but this was a good introduction.

Very jealous.

Bigpaintbrush and I joined cycleblog type Blazin' Saddles and his brother for a social trip to Brighton via what we assumed would be Ditchling Beacon. I was actually a bit nervy as last time I had a pop at London - Brighton I was solo on the hottest day of the year and ended up walking up the damn hill. We met in Clapham and fueled up on espresso then set a steady, chatty pace over the rolling bumps and humps South towards West Sussex. The rain subsided but the roads were greasy and sketchy although I loved the route on the whole. Never been out in that direction before and really enjoyed it. One of our number was pedaling through a shocker of a bad back and couldn't push up even the slightest hill without enduring agony. He was our navigator / routemaster and gamefully fought on despite passing many a commuter belt train station which could have relieved his suffering.

Notable was the inevitable p*nct*re stop to pull a piece of flint from 'Saddle's' tyre at which point our navigator made a user error with his compressed gas pump and it exploded across a pub car park into a fence, narrowly missing his groin. It was certainly the fastest moving object of the day.

As we begun picking our way into the bumps north of Brighton it became apparent that our Garminised route had never been set up to tackle the Beacon and so we swung up and over Devil's Dyke as a compromise stopping briefly in the fog at the top. Conscious that we'd be unable to take bikes on the train after half four we gunned it down the hill into town.

Great day out with pleasant, chatty pit stops, ace company and evocative, atmospheric, Wuthering Heights type elements. Mixed feelings at the end - weird to be that close to The Ditch but end up on The Dyke! I love those lanes and will be heading back soon as I have to get that monkey off my back and drag my ineffective legs over the proper hill this time!

Nothing to see here performance wise but you might want to cast an eye at our route: http://app.strava.com/activities/75119434

Found this guy near the end of some hill training:

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2627573/cenis.jpg

Quite a nice ride today from Susa in Italy to Lanslevillard in France via Moncenisio and back. My motives were apple cake and Orangina.

http://www.podiumcafe.com/2013/5/17/4332964/mont-cenis-from-elephants-to-emperors-to-evans

After the shopping I thought I have a look and ended riding up the Finestre from Susa to where the strada bianca starts.

Awesome, if somewhat eventful, ride today. With light, and weather, running out. A mate and me drove to Valldal. Its a slow 30 odd km climb from there,ending at the top of Trollstigen, via the back door if you like. Which is one of the big (well it looks cool, its quite short really) climbs around these parts. We planned to ride over the top, do the desent, then the climb proper, drink coffee, eat cake, and roll back to the car.

Amazing weather, and a nice quiet road. The mountains 'loomed' somewhat though.

Properly in the valley now. No way a mobile can captor the beauty of the place.

After while the gradient increased. My dicky tummy hadnt allowed a morning hydration. So I was guzzling water at this point. At the top of that hill I violently protectile vomitted it all up again. Feck.

Feeling a bit dizzy still, I chase my mate down the desent. The view just after I took this photo is amazing..........sorry.

No king of the hill performance today. But the effort felt real enough, and the short punchy climb was as amazing as ever.

At the top I had a quick lay down, and managed to get some water to stay down. Feeling loads better I headed back down (well to a bridge halfway). To put in a better climbing effort.

A nice rest at the cafe at the top, gave my riding buds seatpost a chance to give mine a complex.

The short climb from the cafe saw me snap a gear cable (I hope. Could be a fecked lever). Managed to jam the bike in 50:14. Seemed as good a gear as any. Its pretty much downhill for 35km. But the wind coming up the valley was brutal. Got as low as I could in the drops and span a bonkers cadence all the way. The single speed back to the car is one of my best ride experiances to date.

Total of 6000ft of climbing for the day. Not to mention cheesecake. Great day.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/360466231

Why does the sign say "Low Gear" and not something in Norway language?

That 10% sign is just a something I carry around to make for impressive ride photos.

Its a massive turist attraction. I guess they just figured it best to put the sign in English.

Awesome stuff Smallfurry. Some big riding on here of late.

I had a horrible ride today. Absolutely new/random lower left abdominal pain made me ride the slowest box hill loop i've done yet; mamils overtaking etc. Bad ride.

http://www.strava.com/activities/75584213

I am wondering what the pain was, its much less now;

Wind?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/352531223

Stole croft's route above and moved things around a wee bit. Gave me a few hours of lush green views in Essex.

First time I have taken someone else's route off the web and used it on the Garmin app on my mobile.
So far I haven't managed to copy other people's Strava routes to my phone. Is that possible? Any tips on how to make do with just my iphone and not have to buy an actual Garmin would be very welcome. I'm not blown away by the user-friendliness of the Garmin app. Kept having to move back and forth between that and the phone's native map app. Perhaps there is a way around this?

I went out this morning with the Mrs for a few miles in the lanes.

We'd got up way too late to catch the Brixton train so we went out on our own to do the ROTFL course.

Made it to around mile 26 and with a loud bang all the air fled my rear tyre pretty much at once:

Messed around with Pitstop for a bit- but as you can see, the hole in the inner tube was not going to submit to that easy a fix.

Stripped the tub off, stuck my spare on, rode the couple of miles to Edenbridge and jumped on the train home.

Stole croft's route above and moved things around a wee bit. Gave me a few hours of lush green views in Essex.

First time I have taken someone else's route off the web and used it on the Garmin app on my mobile.
So far I haven't managed to copy other people's Strava routes to my phone. Is that possible? Any tips on how to make do with just my iphone and not have to buy an actual Garmin would be very welcome. I'm not blown away by the user-friendliness of the Garmin app. Kept having to move back and forth between that and the phone's native map app. Perhaps there is a way around this?

Much obliged. I guess if they made the app any good then nobody would buy an actual garmin?

We met in Clapham and fueled up on espresso then set a steady, chatty pace over the rolling bumps and humps South towards West Sussex.

i think I saw like, 3 of you in Clapham this morning just after 9, was that your brunch? (lots of them within the vicinity of CS7 attempting to find the right way).

Today we rode Susa Sestriere and back.

Yes it was the weekend
Yes I rode several k.m between run event, pool and sauna, coffee cake and home.
In fact the next six months of Sundays will take that format.
#celebratelife
Great photos last page. Ill try and get a photo on this weeks riding in Slovenia.
On way to Lovelyjublyyana right now.