Cycling UK Forum

With forty years of riding to choose from there are literally dozens of candidates.

I guess last year's Otztaler Marathon sticks in the mind, over 250km, 5500m climbed between dawn and dusk. I might not have been the quickest but I rode it all, within the time limit, I have the shirt to prove it! The weather was brilliant except the last 20mins, the Tirolean scenery spectacular, closed roads, brilliant organisation.

At the other end of the scale was the afternoon my tandem partner and I broke 20 minutes for a ten, not for the first time but we overshot the dead turn (remember those?) struggled to get around in the narrow road then had to climb all the way to the finish to record 19.17, certainly at the time the fastest dead turn ride recorded in competition (it was back in the early 90's in very rural Lincolnshire).

And then there was the day......

There was a flat 6-7 mile stretch of road in central France about 3 years ago.

Lovely smooth tarmac with long mild bends, strong tailwind, very short crops so visibility was excellent and of course, no traffic. A group of us riding laden bikes and we averaged 32mph on this section.

Geneva to Nice,2005.Everything thats best about cycling encapsulated in 7 glorious days.Still brings tears .

peetee wrote:Autumn 1984 . .. .
Full moon and a clear night on a rural dual carriageway with next to no passing vehicles. . . . . I took every opportunity available to switch off my headlight to get the full effect on a deserted road. . . . . overlying features in the countryside are sharply defined.
You really must do it at least once.

I did back in the late 80s. Saint Lo, Normandy to Ouistreham overnight.
A brilliant moonlit night. 80kms of country lanes with the Never Ready battery lights OFF for almost ALL of the journey.
A lifelong memory.

As it was a return journey from the "Concentration du Cidre" event, it must have been Easter (?)
Once arrived at the portacabin WCs, at the port, I spent a long time under a hand dryer to recover from a state of near hypothemia.

The most memorable for me was probably the time I went from Stevenage to Chelmsford and back one sunny bank holiday. Soon after the start, the road went down a slope, round a bend and through a ford, with a little wooden footbridge off to one side. I judged that with enough momentum I could probably coast through the ford with dry feet, so I went round the bend at a fair pace, mostly straightened out before hitting the water, and wiped out on the riverbed while my bike skidded sideways on a layer of algae. Thus came the first scratches on the only new bike I ever bought, and the best cooling system I've ever found for a hot day on the road.

The rest of the ride was pleasant and calm with clear roads through some nice countryside, and I was mostly dry within a few miles. Having grown up* in Derbyshire I found those flat, open plains unusually easy going. I opted for the bridge on the return, though.

Oh yes, the bike got its revenge on me that day - it took three days to get the feeling back into one part of my body, despite (or because of) the nice padded and grooved saddle.

*allegedly

With 30+ years too many to recall,candidates are;
An early spring commute on a sunday morning, everything just felt right, sun was up, birds were singing,clear blue skies, and just felt like I could carry on (to find it was an extremely quiet day at work and got to watch most of Cov City's semi final cup match did nothing to improve my sense of wishing I had skipped off to enjoy the day).

Many other notable times have been on Audaxes; seeing a Fox cross the road in front of me, coming across young Badgers playing in a lane and having one run alongside my front wheel, seeing dawn over Lake Bala, in fact seeing dawn on many of my morning commutes. Also watching a pair of Jays as I commuted past a copse for a few days running (I think it was their early morning foray for food because as the mornings drew out I ceased to see them after a couple of weeks).
The sheer magnificence of views in various mountainous regions after the climb to the top of a pass.

for me The Crane Valley ( "Walk") and Hillingdon Trail from Twickenham, aabout 25 miles that ends up at Rickmansworth. Every one in London who likes offroadish cycling & has a bike with wide tyres should try it, makes you realise how green London really is and how easy it is to get away from the concrete jungle. A real adventure as you traverse North London via tracks, platformed wooden walkways over swamps, paths,parks, openspaces, water meadows, nature reserves, lakes and real sandy beaches that imitate the seaside, tunnels & sides of fields, canal paths not knowing whats next, much more interesting than slogging away along roads. A combination of cycling and walking. I would like to do it again some time

My most memorable ride is probably my first 'long distance' one. I think I was 14 or 15. I'd tried some cycling clubs in my area and been disappointed. I'd ridden distances of 20 miles at a time, and ridden to school (11 miles one way) a few times.

I really wanted to find a cycling club because I'd read a cycling magazine article about how Greg LeMond started racing and I had a crush on him.

I knew that there were some cycling clubs around the next city to the south of us. Also, a couple of bike shops that were said to be better than my LBS. So, I talked a friend of mine into riding our bikes 38 miles (one way) to get there. I think we told our parents that we were going for a bike ride & would take lunches with us. We ate lunch about halfway there, so when we got there, we were hungry again. I had a little money, so we found a place to eat, and ate too much. I drooled over stuff in the bike shops. We didn't have any luck with the cycling clubs, but my friend was tired, so I rang my mother on a pay phone & said we'd be a bit later getting home, and asked to her to call my friend's parents, and then we set off for home.

I hadn't really accounted for the fact the my friend wasn't as cycling fit as I. We got about halfway back, and my friend decided she wasn't going to be able to make it. We'd used all of the money we had for lunch and the call to my mother, so she made a collect call to her stepfather, who agreed to drive down and collect her.

I was set to ride the rest of the way home, but he *insisted* that I should get in the car (a big 1970s American estate) and go back with them, so I did, and he lectured me the entire way, about how irresponsible it was of me to try to ride so far, and worse to take his stepdaughter with (in my idiocy). When we got to my house, he had a word with my mother, as well.

My mother was more upset that I hadn't told her where we were going than that we had gone.

A marvellous tour I did with my missus in Galicia maybe15 years ago or more. From La Coruna around the coast into Santiago, back to the coast and down to Vigo. In spite of its being Galicia, we had stunning weather, no wind, fabulous scenery, great food and wine and just a perfect tour. I still think about it and I've done 87 tours.