Tell us about your weekend ride

Pull another fast one like this will neg.

WARNING: Boast post approaching: I'm not one to brag but...

Top 50 time for the Gran Fondo Dragon Ride, pretty chuffed, I was on my own or on the front of small groups a lot of the time too.
http://humanrace.co.uk/results-archive/2014/wiggle-dragon-ride/all-results

(*Braced and ready for abuse)

(*Braced and ready for abuse)

So you didn't do the 300km Dragon Devil? HTFU.

Also, it's not a race. :)

WARNING: Boast post approaching: I'm not one to brag but...

That's quite an achievement on a fixed or singlespeed bike. Well done you. Treat yourself to a dissolvable electrolyte tablet.

#abuse

Me and a friend did Fox's Going Nuclear #1 ride to Bradwell-on-Sea yesterday. Persistent headwind all the way, but a great ride. It's nice going so far in one direction that you reach the end of the land and all you can do is turn round.

Had aimed to do the whole South Downs Way, 100 miles off road from Winchester to Easebourne, yesterday, but things didn't work out that way.

Set off feeling pretty sluggish after 5 hours sleep and long week hefting shit around at the theatre. Hoped I would perk up after some electrolytes and caffiene. First few hills were nightmarish, thick mud, wrong tryes (heavy, didnt shed mud) My wheels actually stopped turning at one point due to the clay lodged in the chainstays and front fork of my new Croix de Fer stainless. My riding buddy Tom, who in the past has been a little slower than me on the climbs, was shooting ahead which was pretty demoralising. But even he, on his cotic soul with proper knobblies, was getting wheelspin and falling flat on his face. In the valleys there were 30 meter stretches of foot deep mud, I had to get off and push for the first time since I can remember.

Things improved around Harting, where the SDW hits the top of the downs, the tracks become drier and more rolling. The bike started to carry me along a little. But by this time every hill was damage limitation. I had to admit to Tom I wasn't going to make it.

The long climb up from Cocking to above Heyshott felt better, my bike being better suited to hard packed tracks. Passed a man walking from Plymouth with a pony and two dogs, we had a chat about the terrain and boots / tyres. A nice refreshing downpour cleaned some of the mud from my drive and we picked up the pace a little. Made it to Amberley, about half way to Easebourne, and went to the pub. Pack Pony Man turned up and we had a nice long chat about tents, the weather, blisters and doing very tiring, completely pointless things for fun. I had a wash in the horse trough.

After two pints my Dad turned up on his new 29er, so we decided to try one more hill. Up some incredibly claggy tracks, past some crazy fools trying to run the whole thing in 24 hours, and a wrong turn into a field. We found Pack Pony Man sitting, smoking a joint, the pony unloaded, looking knackered but happy. Doubled back and took a tiny track through some nettles which led us back to the south downs way. I did some bunny hops in a puddle and photographed a red admiral. The late afternoon light was beautiful.

Ride to Cambridge three pubs three pints. Ploughman, crumble and peanuts. No water.

Stanstead Abbotts
Furneux Pelham
Ickleton

Shameless boast, longest ride I have done 80+ inch fixed 158 miles https://www.strava.com/activities/153922120

Posted in bikepacking thread did 76 miles into & around Dark Peak with overnight bivvy at appx 40 miles. Great fun.

When searching for routes online that had elevation similar to next weeks 100mile Eroica route , I came across one called 'Purgatory of the Ashdown'.
It's nearly the full Hell of the Ashdown route (well it's actually longer with more elevation) and takes a straight direct route back to Westerham from the most southerly point.
Home now and fairly shagged and too tired to go to the fridge for a beer

It was a lovely route but my fitness let me down (what can you expect when you only get one decent ride in a week :)
Had a hearty chuckle the the 'KOM start' and 'KOM finish' lines that someones painted on Brasted Chart.
6/10 - Points deducted for fitness and lack of sun for tanning.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/521409288
http://www.strava.com/activities/153942661

Shameless boast, longest ride I have done 80+ inch fixed 158 miles https://www.strava.com/activities/153922120

Fair play on the distance but would it not have been a bit more comfortable if you weren't averaging 60rpm?

Nah, I was already spinning out on all the downhills, I need the gearing to keep pace with roadie riders I was with, only climbs were sub 80-90 rpm

nice reports all.
yeah I rode my bike today, to the pool and sauna.
worked at this all day yesterday, todays rest day #freelancelife
http://blog.sportsmassagebournemouth.co.uk/2014/06/home-based-riders-shine-bournemouth.html

Shameless boast, longest ride I have done 80+ inch fixed 158 miles https://www.strava.com/activities/153922120

Plan your audax season next year and you are in for the fixed wheel challenge. Well done. Good gearing I believe.

I got 5,000 feet+ of elevation out of sub-50 miles (mostly sub 35 miles due to hugging-the-coast ride home) in Dartmoor yesterday.
It was pretty.
Pretty painful.
The hedgerows were so high I was denied nice views, but knowing they were there was almost enough. The roads were so gravelly I was denied nice descents, but knowing they were there was almost enough.
No idea where I went, followed the magical purple line of navigational destiny, but would do most of it again. Need to improve my hillbility to make it a little more fun, but suffering is good for the soul.

is suffering really good for the soul Tom?
there was a dad shouting at his under 16 kid yesterday at Youth Omnium "bury yourself!!"
and I thought, blimey mate, hes only 14....

If I didn't keep telling myself that I would have turned back after the first climb ("fuck this") and had a bit of fun blitzing round the coast with a tail wind and missed out on all the lumpy prettiness! Resolutely refused to bury myself though, on a ride like that there'd be no fun at all.

Bit harsh pushing a kid that hard (suffering is maybe only beneficial to slightly older souls) but the track's the best place to find your limits (assuming your'e getting a lift home)

can bury myself quickly on running events/ training
yes you will quickly discover youre limits on flat out track racing.
anyway, enough with the digressions-
On with the ride reports!

Plan your audax season next year and you are in for the fixed wheel challenge. Well done. Good gearing I believe.

The plan is to get 400k fixed fit for next year so I can do 24hr rides

The final Morvelo CityCross in Leeds this weekend! So much fun!

Very technical course, had a mechanical half way through which lost me 5/6 places so finished 13th, seem to be my number these days!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjy33FKXTRE&feature=youtu.be

I was looking around the south west of berlin for some nice alternates to the 'to Potsdam and back' that I have been doing over and over. I found this on google maps that piqued my interest https://www.google.com/maps/@52.4738886,13.1431143,432m/data=!3m1!1e3

So I incorporated that place on a loop of about 80km through Potsdam. http://www.strava.com/activities/153920995
That route on the west side of the Havel (body of water) was super nice. Gently rolling hills, not much cars, through forests etc.

The museum place was neat too. It is basically a giant old airport where they put retired planes/helicopters/missile launchers etc. In addition there are two hangers where they have weather protected planes and exhibits.

The collection was a mix of early dogfighting planes, nazi scourge stuff (the rocket plane, some V2 parts, some fighters/bombers), MiGs from the 50s up through the top gun era, Weird old soviet helicopter-tanks, as well as half tracks and stuff carrying missiles or radar.

I don't really like to monger any wars but it was neat to see all of those old things.

A couple of pics are here http://instagram.com/josephjoaquinmartin with the hashtag #warmongerride

Spent three hours with VCL for a club session at Lee Valley track. First time on an indoor velodrome and I really enjoyed it - awesome to feel the bike get sucked into the boards when going through the corners at speed. I'm not fast enough to get that sensation at Herne Hill yet so that was great, but I have to say I prefer the outdoor track. I like the air and the weather and wind (well, I respect the wind anyhow) - and is probably the main reason I like cycling so much. I feel lucky that HH is so close, historic and outdoors.

I'm sure I'll change my tune come winter though.

~476k in the Newbury 12 and then rode home for about a 586k Sunday. So, bit of a short day for me.

A friend of mine is doing Ride London later this year and asked if I'd take her on a ride as she has done zero training so far. Sure, I said, I'll plan something that doesn't go on too many main roads.

So first we went on this cycle path:

And then we went on this path:

Luckily she saw the funny side.

I got my foot stuck in some extremely squelchy mud and had to scrape mud out of my cleats with a stick, which my friend said made me look like a horse and neighed at me.

She paid me in Mr Whippys for my excellent navigational skills. Ride London will be a breeze for her after this, given that at no point you have to pick your bike up and carry it.

Ride to Cambridge snip

Was supposed to be riding to Cambridge on Saturday but abandoned at Much Hadham and headed to Bishops Stortford thanks to mechanical fail on 'im indoors' bike.

Have to say, it's been a while since I've headed North East out of London and it's still as vile as it ever was. That drag from Lee Bridge Road to the other side of High Beech especially notable for utter c**ts who have no concept/respect for speed limits. How people regularly go for Epping spins after work is baffling. Who knew Kent drivers weren't that bad after all?