The Rapha Festive 500

Amazing, massive respect

What to say about this apart from 'an exceptional effort'!!!!!. That puts almost everything and everyone in the shade so to speak.

I can only claim that its taken me 5 rides, mainly, in the company of @mespilus to do my 500km.

Thanks also to @HarmanMogul who joined me on a ride from West London to Windsor and return today to get me finished.

Woah - massive kudos!

I've got 40k to do... hopefully will bash those out tomorrow...

32km left.
Mechanical today means I currently don't have a useable chain. Could get interesting.
@veganjoseph awesome as usual.
Well done to finishers.

Nice one!

You can always lower your saddle and finish it by walking

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Allegaert going for the Festive1500 https://www.strava.com/athletes/28383545
Weather is also shit here

After a slow start to the week I did my normal 70km club ride on Tuesday, 190km on Wednesday out of Jakarta and into the nearby hills, then finished the 500 this morning with 140km of solo city laps. All three rides this week involved rain, although it's still short sleeve jersey conditions here even when its raining. Pictures are after today's city ride - dirty streets since there is so much traffic here.

Chapeau to everyone who finished it and especially @veganjoseph for that monster ride!

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Job done - very wet and windy 40km to finish this morning with not one but two bastard punctures... looking forward to staying in tomorrow!

I'm done too!
I used this as a goal to get in shape again and I'm very happy to have finished it:) Glad it's done and I'm excited about spending more time on my mtb again.
Congrats everyone who finished!

Is that Bill Gates?

Well done!

Good work all, I'm leaving it til the last day to finish off, got 40km in today and then 70 to wrap it up tomorrow, its been nice having the enforced time on the bike - some good fitness building over a decent block, have enjoyed it!

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Nice photos, especially that last one 👌
Good luck tomorrow!

Thanks also to @HarmanMogul who joined me on a ride from West London to Windsor and return today to get me finished.

I was only there for the lunch at Artefood! How you fellers all get up in the darkness to go ride I just don't know! Most every morning under the duvet feels the good place to be.

It was a 31-hour ride with no sleep, one gear (50/18) and 12 Christmas themed roads.

Chapeau! Poetry in motion!

Where was this? I was out kitesurfing yesterday around Worthing & Lancing, 32 kts gusting up to 40 kts. Spicy conditions to be out cycling in, let alone fixed/ss! Chapeau!

Wait, 140km in Jakarta? Do tell.

It's in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. Definitely better conditions for kite surfing than for cycling haha

Hehe. Jakarta's a big city (over 30 million people) so you can do some really long rides within the city. But the traffic is bad so it's not that much fun after about 630 in the morning.

I'd actually planned to ride out to the coast yesterday but heavy rain made that less appealing. So did my club's usual 60km chaingang route twice with some extra bits. A fair bit of repetition and not the most inspiring ride given the rain and traffic. But tapping out the last Festive 500 kilometres with some 90s electronic music was enjoyable in its own way!

Some great riding to be had in the hills nearby:

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Nice. My reaction came from having lived in São Paulo and imagining there's lots of similarities to Jakarta. I can't imagine doing a ride like that there. Well done!

All done this morn, 505 all in - ridiculous wind around Margate and Canterbury to wrap it up, forecast said 30mph but at points it must have been more, I've turned back in lighter wind on previous rides but had to push on for the miles! Anyway, glad to get it all done finally after years of wanting to, good fun overall 😊

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Well done💪

Cheers!