Tell us about your 2011 riding

In March I was a commuter and a total novice at riding any further than 10 miles. Then myself and a couple of pals started exploring on our bikes at weekends. Went from a 20 miler in a pair of jeans with a spare inner wrapped round my waist (nearly killed me) to a couple of 75 milers (nearly killed me) and venturing out for a Christmas cobweb blower yesterday in my spangly new SPDs (nearly killed me).

I love riding my bike. I now feel really down if I miss a weekend ride. Shame I left it til I was 35 to start doing this stuff with any regularity.

This year's plan: Brighton. Several exploratory centuries.

If I'm brave enough: A couple of forum rides (I don't have a fixed - or even a ss at the mo, such is my stable) and I might even introduce myself to the TNRC.

Startes baseline, fuck all. Went further, went faster. Met people. Had fun. This is 2012.

Forgot to say drunker. 2011's riding was definitely drunker.

and lots of crashes, too many of them.

2011:
7223 miles commuting.
2138 miles "fun".
Longest rid: 140 mile loop around Kent.
Shortest ride: 50 yards, when the cat ran in front of me in the yard and I faceplanted.
Tried the velodrome for the first time: Liked it and go whenever weather/time allows.
1 new bike on the Cycle to Work Scheme: Genesis Day One Alfine (heavy but very good).
Best bit if new kit: Deal Extreme 1200 lumen front light.
Had no major crashes (for a change).

All in all, not a bad cycling year for me (shame the rest was shite)

Ignore pete, he clearly has sand in his vagina :D

I had sand everywhere after that track dropout and spybot mentioned ;)

It really wasn't meant to sound grumpy though - you know how happy doing your first fixed century made you, it would be nice if the forum could get more people to achieve that, is wot I meant.

In March I was a commuter and a total novice at riding any further than 10 miles. Then myself and a couple of pals started exploring on our bikes at weekends. Went from a 20 miler in a pair of jeans with a spare inner wrapped round my waist (nearly killed me) to a couple of 75 milers (nearly killed me) and venturing out for a Christmas cobweb blower yesterday in my spangly new SPDs (nearly killed me).

I love riding my bike.

I like this kind of thing ^. I did my first c.70 mile fixed ride in September 2010, and it also nearly killed me. I think there's something about taking the step from doing 20-40 or whatever up to 70+. I remember not finding it easy.

I had sand everywhere after that track dropout and spybot mentioned ;)

It really wasn't meant to sound grumpy though - you know how happy doing your first fixed century made you, it would be nice if the forum could get more people to achieve that, is wot I meant.

I did my first two fixed centuries this week actually Pete...late to the party!

Happy new year by the way.

I've had a tremendously enjoyable cycling year.

I'm bound to miss out a ton of good bits, but off the top of my head...

Any ride I've completed through the Peaks, the Dales, or the Pennines is worth a mention. All three locations I've found utterly mind-blowing, and I'd urge anyone who's yet to head North to do so, you'll not be disappointed. Cycling through the Alps was possibly the best summer holiday I've ever had.

I've enjoyed a clutch of marginally longer UK trips, tiny tours over two or three days. The sight of a friendly b&b at the end of each day (I'm not hard enough to tent it up), and the feeling of a hot shower, has made me smile on numerous occasions.

I've particularly enjoyed any moment during which I've felt on the edge of my seat (metaphorically), Climbing to the top of the Tourmalet was one such moment, as was losing a sidewall in the middle of a Northern nowhere, as was last Thursday's arrival to my bed for the night, frozen to the bone and wet through.

Fish and chips, takeaway curries, bottles of banana milkshake, flapjacks, and peanut M&Ms.

The TNRC is an A1 service, and I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to join along.

That'll do.

I opened last year's cycling account with a bit of a bad start owing to a pretty harsh period of winter. I managed to keep commuting but in the freezing weather that knocked it out of me and getting out at the weekends was nigh impossible to do any decent distance safely so I resorted to spinning classes. I mean seriously, paying money to ride indoors, it just ain't right. But it was all in aid of a goal so you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Somewhere around the end of Jan I managed to take the fixed out from Sheffield to Derby to see the Cyclocross National Champs. The route took me over a large patch of ice (cue comedy stack) and the Amber Valley. Not smart but hey, it's all for a laugh.

In feb I managed to get out on my first 200k in Feb for the Kennet Valley Run. It was a shocking performance and I wondered if I was really going anywhere this year. Later in March I had a crack at The Dean 300k with a definite cut off time of making it back in time for the last train home. I managed it by 10 minutes to spare. Still not a great performance for what I thought my riding should be like but satistactory. I took to spending weekends ripping around the Peak District in search of some hill climing muscle.

The 400k didn't bode well with a brilliant opening leg being wiped out by a dose of heat exhaustion. I rolled into 300k looking close to death and after an hour's sleep rolled out looking only slightly better. Managed to get to the finish in roughly the same time as the previous year plus a little bit so beat myself up over that as well.

The 600k in May was to be my toughest challenge, tackling the near legendary Bryan Chapman Memorial. In short, I almost completely fucked it up by over-reaching, holding some unfounded expectations and not thinking through things properly. Almost on the limit at 39hrs I was close to calling the whole year a write off and taking up philatelism. I put on a brave face but internally my fears were eating at me. My salvation came in another attempt at a 600k in June. An easier ride more simliar to my goal of Paris-Brest-Paris in terrain, if not support. Despite starting half an hour late and kicking it hard off route to pull back some time it went fairly well. The northbound leg into the wind was gruelling but I found I was handling it better then I thought I would. On the return leg I pulled up to the 520k mark having already gone over distance and pulled back a time disadvantage. As it started to piss down I huddled under the petrol station shelter and considered my options. a) ride four hours south to the finish, get back to the station, train to Sheffield, an hours ride home or b) turn west and ride two hours home, get some sleep and still manage to get to work in a decent state the next day. I bailed but at no detriment to what I knew I was capable of and some valuable lessons that I had learnt on the way.

In July I ran the tough challenge of riding the Dunwich Dynamo from Sheffield. A big solo effort to give me one last practice night ride before the big event. I kicking myself over time/distance progress for a bit until I realised I'd miscalculated and was doing fairly good. I reached the destination in good spirits. I followed it up with my first ever sub-10hr 200k so went into PBP in good form and with a healthy dose of optimism.

PBP itself was a wonderful experience, highs, lows, serenity and beauty. The love of the French for cycling events is at it's pinnacle and you spend up to four days hailed as a legend and a hero. You fast learn that in this country we're piss poor at celebrating extrordinary endeavours and suffer for it. Even cyclists are pretty shoddy at supporting their own kind. It's one of the highlights of my life although I vowed never to do it again.

Following that things got pretty dark. Such a comedown was always going to be hard to manage and I hit some pretty severe low points through and after recovery. I took up polo but had little to aim for, nothing to challenge myself with and was pretty despondent for a couple of months. I finally took it on myself to get back to audaxing so if nothing else I wouldn't turn into a useless lump resting on paltry and fading laurels. I rode fixed from Swindon to Rugby over the Cotswolds and then reverted to riding fixed for commuting. This has made me really happy so I entered the Winter Solstice 200k and out of 73 entrants was one of 2 finishers (admittedly only 18 signed on at the start). I'm not really "dick-swinging" here but it's nice to know that I'm not only doggedly determined enough to not give up in the face of a few difficulties (snow, rain, freezing fog, ice, crashing etc) and reckless enough to give it a go when I know better.

It's been a hard, challenging, beautiful, rewarding, painful and maturing year. Cycling has bought be some wonderful things although I still have some nightmares about the harsh lows on PBP. I'm sure I'll be over it soon so I reckon I'm going back. I look at those that found it even harder than me and suffered more and still persevered to get to the end and take inspiration. One of these days I might just believe that I'm not a shit cyclist whose luck is about to run out and expose him to be the fraud he thinks he really is.

tl;dr? I rode a long way. I'm still a bit of a twat. I mean really, look at me, what the fuck do I think I'm doing.

cambridge
brighton - twice
avebury

all great rides i thoroughly enjoyed riding and leading.

st margarets
cambridge re-run

2 rides i set up and didn't quite make.

i promise to re run those this year and turn up.

massively enjoyed the tnrc overnighters.
bath was awesome and amazing to end up in a spa, the best end to any ride.
isle of wight was also a great run and had the cheapest train ride ever.
thanks to jonny and tim for those.

coast to coast was incredible.
a great route and very fun fixed.

looking forward to this year.

Great thread and great post Oli :)

Like lots of other people on this thread this is my 1st year of "proper" riding despite the fact I come from a family of non-driving cyclists. Got my Charge Plug in Dec 2011 and joined here not long after. A mate of mine decided in an attempt to lose weight in Jan she was either going to cycle or walk everywhere and I followed suit. And kept on riding.

Thanks to this forum I've ridden further and longer than I ever have, planned rides, started track (which I love!), started riding fixed and made some awesome friends. Some of you rock.

Stand out rides for me was The London Classic, the furthest I'd cycled at the time and my birthday Brighton ride. Beautiul weather, lovely riding and awesome company. The ladies of this forum rule.

As for this year, I want to ride moar! Iwant to get cracking with track, do my 1st century fixed pref with the ladies of the forum and get a couple of tours in. I'd love my fitness levels to improve to te extent I could do TNRC too.

The only things I write worth reading are on thehippy.net. The things I write not worth reading here on lfgss.com. ;)

I shunned the forum rides and instead did just a few miles on the TT bike this year coming very close to beating the club 24hr record, set PB's in 24hr, 12hr, 25mi and 10mi events. I retained the Willesden hill climb cup for the 3rd year running, nabbed the Grupetto HTFU award, cycled in Poland leaving Henner's old CX bike there for my return, spent a great couple of weeks cycling in the French Alpes whilst watching Cadel win yellow for Oz. I didn't die. Successful year on reflection I guess.

Good thread, spybot (and good epic long post, too).

It's been a good year for me, cycling-wise - got my Langster in March and retired the shitty hybrid I'd been commuting on previously. Loved every second of being on the new bike. I would not have gone single speed if I hadn't encountered LFGSS and I'm really glad I did both. Fondly remember taking the langster out for a test ride at the shop and coming back in pissing with sweat and grinning like a fool going "I MUST OWN THIS BICYCLE" with such starry eyes the dude in the shop burst out laughing at me.

According to my cateye velo I've done just over 1300 miles since I started recording which isn't really that much compared to others here but is a decent amount for a chubby fuck who only took up physical activity in 2010.

Did Epping, Cambridge and Brighton as my only 'proper' forum rides this year - it's taken me over a year to grow the balls to actually come out and meet you people and I'm glad I did. I'm a more confident and stronger rider for doing it and it's given me the yen for doing more, harder and faster.

Like others I've also joined AudaxUK and hope to see some of you on some of those rides as well as forum ones throughout this year. 2011 gave me a little more of a sense of some of the things that I might want to achieve with riding, so 2012 will be my opportunity to try them out. Am looking forward to it.

And I swear I'll flip that flip-flop hub to fixed soon. Soon.

Far too much serious riding this year mentioned in the above thread. #smileyface

2011 was when I discovered the true joy of riding a Boris Bike between stations to save 10 minutes walk, why, 'cos I could... And the single speed would sit in my flat gathering dust, cos I didn't want to take it out in case someone knicked it.

Cycling is cycling, and we should celebrate it in all it's forms.

So, yes, good post Oli, I enjoyed it so much I read it twice :)

2011 was a really good year for me.

The Shaftsbury Spring 100 audax (where I got told off by Buffalo Bill for half wheeling..!) was a good start. Although it was meant to be 100k I actually ended up doing 84 miles that day, which I wasn't prepared for at all really that early in the year, but it got me going and it went through some beautiful countryside. I definitely want to do more audaxes next year.

As with a lot of people, the London Classic at the start of April stood out. It wasn't just the hills, it was a beautiful day - I still have a love/hate relationship with Canobie after the South London hills ride in 2010 which went up it twice...

The Isle of Wight randonee was fun. I enjoyed camping in a tipi, and the hilly route was just the right side of challenging. I made a mistake in agreeing to ride back to London with spybot, I was too tired and we had to bail somewhere in Hampshire. I think he could have continued, and I think now I'm a lot tougher and I could have made myself carry on. Maybe. I regret that bail anyway.

I did some riding in Cornwall in early June which was great. I wish I'd done more while I was there, it was hilly and windy but mostly sunny and always beautiful - very satisfying road riding. I was glad to have gears up some of the hills and it improved my climbing no end. This was shortly followed by Avebury in late June, still the furthest I've done fixed at 134 miles for the day. Plus a deer ran out right in front of me, and I saw a badger.

The M25 ride should have been the furthest I went fixed, but unfortunately I hurt my right leg in July overdoing it riding out to Bradwell-on-Sea for the reccie of the first 'Deepest darkest Essex' ride. I just pushed myself harder than I should have done, and when I did the Dunwich Dynamo a week later I really regretted this. My leg suddenly started hurting somewhere near Stansted. I thought about bailing by getting the train from Stansted, and with hindsight I should have done. I carried on but I had to keep stopping and getting off the bike for the last 10 miles. I was in quite a lot of pain and properly broken.

So, being careful, I decided to do the M25 ride on gears. By the end I realised I could have done it fixed, and I wish I had. Oh well. Next time.

I really enjoyed my Essex rides, the Bradwell-on-Sea ride went exactly to plan - we even kept to time - on a forum ride! And the only rain was when we were lunching in the pub. Although I hurt myself doing the reccie, the church of St Peter on the Wall and the empty countryside around it were really beautiful.

I'm also quite proud of the Foulness ride really. It was definitely something of a coup. I never thought I'd be dealing with a community liaison officer from QinetiQ to organise a ride, but the welcome (and tea, cake and grandma's undergarments!) we got at the heritage centre was well worth it.

The St Margarets ride was a good, tough end to the summer. It was so warm for time time of year, and the hills were brutal, but riding across the cliff tops from Dover with the lights of ships on the Channel made all the climbs worth it.

I was also a part-time TNRC attender, and really enjoyed the ones I turned up to. I must do more turning up and less bed wetting in 2012...

Overall though I do really feel like I've upped my game - I now think of a 'proper' ride as being at least 60 miles, have bashed out a trip to Cambridge in a morning, done 70 miles of Kentish A roads after work, and have managed to keep up some reasonable miles over winter so I'm heading into 2012 in a much better position than I was heading into 2011. I now know I can do 40 miles without stopping if I need to, and I've definitely pushed myself harder and further than I thought I could.

So that was 2011 - over 2000 miles of proper fixed rides, 3 badgers spotted with my own eyes, lots of perfectly timed cake, an Anthony Gormley figure in the middle of nowhere, Swains on 86", Morden, home grown tomatoes, deer, Magpie's Bottom, sleeping in a tipi, mangel wurzels, tea rooms...

Many happy memories :)

Oh and a big thank you to everyone who made all that possible. Especially the people who just keep turning up. You know who you are :)

Year started off well, I'd got the fittest I'd been in some years in 2010 and had held the fitness well. February I was hit from behind by an idiot that hadn;t seen me - damaged my back. lost my mojo and ultimately lost a lot of fitness and took a few months to get back on track.

1st june, I started a job in Hatfield and as I was still in Hackney and my g/f lived in Stevenage it's not hard to work out that my mileage went through the roof. Annoyingly although I was doing plenty of miles, I was rarely getting in any long rides. 2010 I was regularly doing 50 mile rides after work and a few century rides, 2011 I think I only did a handful of rides over 50 miles.

I raced again, no specific training saw my comfortable in the B cats at Welwyn and a few respectable 10 mile tt's. I also did the 3Peaks cyclo-x. With hindsight I suspect I'd come down with a bug before it. in Auguat I was flying both running and cycling but come raceday I really struggled, it has taken me 3 months to feel right again so something wasn;t right.

I've done lots more off roading since moving out of London, the g/f loves mountainbiking and there are plenty of trails out here. Watching my g/f compete in triathlons and just riding with here has undoubtedly been the highlight of this year.

Far too much serious riding this year mentioned in the above thread. #smileyface

2011 was when I discovered the true joy of riding a Boris Bike between stations to save 10 minutes walk, why, 'cos I could... And the single speed would sit in my flat gathering dust, cos I didn't want to take it out in case someone knicked it.

Cycling is cycling, and we should celebrate it in all it's forms.

2012 I might finally give one of those Boris bikes a go.. :)

the forum does a lot of leading people to their first centuries and that kind of thing.

I suppose despite not coming on many forum rides, frequently walkengering to beers and so on, it's been my most sociable cycling year, entirely due to the forum. I'm no faster, no better at hills and no fitter. Indeed I recently found I've been gaining weight over the second half of the year to be my heaviest in a decade :/ But then, I'm not really in it for improvements.

Well in 2011 for the first time in my life I own two bikes. And I went to Cornwall and did some hills, cycling up all but 1 on a luggage-laden MTB with no foot retention and discovering my smallest chainring in the process. Like others, the London Classic was a happy memory, although starting out late I only saw the forumengers going the other way en route to the start, and then at the pub where we got the dead last prize. It was the first proper ride I did with my partner, and the first ride of any length he'd done in probably over a decade. We walked most of the hills. I think the quirky pubs ride was the first forum ride I went on, it would be nice to follow it with a second edition at some point.

There were several rides I avidly and enviously followed but couldn't make, most notably Fox's essex rides, and the M25. Some night I'd like to do Dunwich and Avebury. I still feel quite ambivalent about group rides, I don't really like riding in big packs and I'm a little slow. Riding solo or with a few friends is what I'm used to and I'm not sure if the Year of the Forum has really changed that.

hmm that was kinda downbeat and boring...

No it wasn't.

As far as riding a bike was concerned, my year was largely fail, owing to a curious combination of a lack of time, sometimes being unable to be bothered, and other stupid factors. The highlight was the Dunwich Dynamo, but less for the riding and more for helping at the feed (all my riding was in the daytime, too), and I also did CC Hackney's 'Round Chelmsford', which I always enjoy. Apart from those I did a few short rides scattered here and there, including a solitary TNRC, but overall very few forum rides. In September I did a DIY 240 with my mate Ian. That was about it. I expect/hope to do a lot more in 2012.

7712.11 Kilometers ridden
207 016 Calories destroyed
41 667 Meters climbed
rode in germany/spain/south africa/vegas
Countless hours in the saddle to even think about it.

plan to hammer 10k this year

Thanks for this thread, I am joining the tl;dr camp on this I'm afraid. I'm taking the opportunity to roughly record my cycling year as my own memory cannot be relied upon, so when I'm old and in nappies again I can look back at 2011 and be reminded of the good times I've had.

Like others here 2011 was my first proper year of riding road bikes after years of mountain biking. I've mostly been unemployed for 2011 so though cash poor I have been time rich and I've been able to do loads of riding, every cloud has a silver lining and all that. I joined the forum in January and my first forum ride was the London Classic which I thoroughly enjoyed, it was a brillinatly signposted ride for useless navigators like me, there was a great atmosphere, great people and lovely weather, perfect.

I then did Skive's Cambridge ride which was my first long ride on my singlespeed and again this was great fun, it was my first experience of riding in big groups in country lanes and I was a bit nervous at first but it was a great buzz and the atmosphere felt like a school trip without the teachers. I stayed a bit long in the pub afterwards and have no recollection of getting home from Kings X after getting a late train back but the next days sore head was worth it.

Next came the epic Avebury ride to the stones, my first centuary. I've ridden in the dark before but have never done an overnight ride, always assuming they'd be boring as its dark and you can't see anything. How wrong I was, you eyes get accustomed to the low light and there are all sorts of critters lurking around those lanes. And it is so quiet, I honestly don't recall encountering any cars for most of the route, it was bliss. I will never forget the eerie feeling of the gang riding through deserted, deathly quiet villages having great fun whilst everyone else was tucked up in bed. It was a shame not everyone made it to the end and that we could not stay there a bit longer. The race to find a train for the retrun added to the excitement and all in all it was a great adventure.

The only other forum rides I did was the Herne Bay ride and the Chrimbo waifs and strays whcih were also good fun and I plan to do more in 2012.

Doing your first centuary is a liberating experience and gave me the belief I could do these sort of distances on my own. My sister lives in Bristol and I've always hated trains and buses so after that ride I now always cycle to Bristol and have done there and back 3 times since. I also tried to cycle to my mums in Wales, which is 200 miles from my flat in Vauxhall, I did 150 miles and made it to Shropshire but it got dark and I had no lights so aborted in Bridgenorth, but this ranks as unfinished business and in 2012 I'm going to go the whole way.

In late August I did my first centuary on my singlespeed, 108 miles round Essex. The next day I got train up to Liverpool on the geared bike for a 3 day ride with landlord and his other half from Liverpool along North Wales coast to Machynlleth. This first day ended in Llandudno. The second day was to be my first ever day cycling mountains as I left the other two at Camarthan and cycled up round Snowden on the Llanberis Pass. It was amazing and the views were the best I've ever seen from the saddle. I've never cycled up hills like it and had some tour de france type moments as cars drove past past beeping and even some people hanging out of the windows cheering, I'll never be a competetive cyclist but that day I felt like a pro. I got a massive sense of achievement at the top. It rained most of the way up and down,I did'nt care. I arrived at the top in shorts, the only biker surrounded my ramblers in full waterproof kit, I must have looked a right state. I wanted to tell the world I'd made it but there was no phone reception. The descent in the rain and mist was like a descent into Mordor. At the end of day 3 I'd decided I wanted to cycle all the way back to London to make it a proper cycle holiday, stopping off with people I knew along the way.

I spent about a week in Mid Wales at my folks. During this time I did what I class so far as my most amazing day cycling ever. Bouyed by my conquering of Snowden I'd drawn up a route with some hills, thanks to ridewithgps.com which I found thanks to this forum. It was a solo 103 mile route from my mums house in Adfa that took in Bwlych y groes, a famous 30% climb near Bala, the Horseshoe pass and then up and over the Berwyns, a total of over 12,000ft of ascent, the most I'd ever done by some margin. In summary the descent from the top of Bwych y Groes stands out as the most amazing road i've ridden down so far (at 13.5 stone I will always prefer going down to up), it had a brief climb in but was otherwise downhill for 20 minutes, I've not done anything like it before or since. The Horshoe Pass is a nice (sic) climb but the road surface the other side is awful and really badly pitted from the harsh frosts of recent years so I would'nt bother doing that again. I then had an epic climb of over 6 miles to get to the top of the Berwyns but it was rewarded with a 5-6 mile descent with virtually no traffic where I only touched the brakes once for a cattlegrid. With all the heather and gorse in bloom the hills were pink and yellow, it was pretty spectacular. This day alone made me fall in love with Wales all over again, I was brought/dragged up there but not lived there for nearly 20 years. There are some the quietest roads you will ride in this country and the rolling hills are beautiful, I'd recommend it to any cyclist.

I was pretty shattered after that but my hardest days cycling ever came on the next leg which was cycling 114 miles from Adfa to Cardiff, over the Brecon Beacons. On the Beacons the Army were training so as I cycled along there was sounds of gunfire and big booms from mortar shells going off all around, I felt like a moving target. I also saw some red kites on this section. This was just after a hurricane in America and our weather was affected by it as it was wet and windy, well more so than usual for Wales anyway. And though it did not have as much climbing as the above epic it was into a minimum 20mph south westerly headwind all the way, so much so that I could'nt even freewheel down some of the hills, I've not done such an energy sapping ride and was a bit of a wreck on arrival. I then came back to London via Bristol and Cheltenham and upon arrival back home had done 932 miles on that holiday and it cost me next to nothing, proving you can have epic ad-hoc cycle holiday adventures even if you're unemployed. And not a pannier in site, everything carried in my ruksak.

I've also done some mountain bike trips though not as many as I'd like and can again confirm that Wales is a truly amazing place to go for those that like off-roading. I did the Coed-y-Brenin trails in Mid Wales and also Brechfa near Camarthan out west and my personal favourites CwnCarn and Afan Argoed in the South, both of which are truly world class trail centres that I can't wait to get to again. My next dream in the n+1 cycle is a titanium hardtail but as doley scum that is just crazy talk for now.

So all in all I have thoroughly enjoyed my cycling in 2011 and cycled more miles than I've ever done before. For 2012 firstly I need to get a job, then if thats achieved I figure I need some decent lights for night riding. Like others on here I am keen to do some audaxing. I also plan on cycling out to see a family friend who lives on the Paris-Roubaix route to watch that this year. I've greatly enjoyed reading of other peoples rides on this thread and across the rides and races section so big love the the forum for that. I'm a shy retiring soul but hope to meet more of you in 2012 so happy riding one and all.

Wow. That sounds amazing. I want to go to Wales now...