This might be back on....
Last night, I cleaned up the SS road bike after it's dousing of Cheshire Lane crap; once dry the filth actually just brushed straight off, helped I reckon by the fact the bike had started off spotless and polished. Kit washed and dried, everything recharged. Then I woke up this morning and, in contrast to the previous 3 days of grey murky drizzly fog, it was lovely!
So I just set off with no real plan - followed some roads I knew, a bit of an old Sportive route, a bit of an audax circuit I know, out through Delamere Forest then gradually looped back to pick up the audax circuit return leg (the audax goes off to the Welsh border, I didn't want to go that far). But basically I just kept riding! Stopped at cafe near Beeston Castle, had a nice tailwind on the return journey.
And I ended up with just over 100 miles! Which takes me to 4/5ths complete so 100km to do in 2 days and even with WFH on Monday and Tuesday, I reckon I can do that...
Made it up to 300km after today's ride in yet more grim conditions. The wind is on its way tomorrow and there's a planned MTB ride with mates on Tuesday despite the weather.
I reckon the only way to complete it now will be with a bit of Zwift, no doubt I'll do an hour or two tomorrow evening while watching the Superprestige race at Diegem. The rest I'll have to try and fit in whenever I can!
118km to go after today's ride, might just have to jump on the turbo later...
Broke the back of it doing PRL Full on Zwift yesterday, 65km to go after a local loop ending at the pub today 🙂 Weather is looking ok to finish with outdoor rides.
38km to go for me, 107 miles in the Dales yesterday + plus a 6am ride this morning broke its back.
Considered going out tonight but want to finish it in the daylight tomorrow.
First time I've attempted it, really motivated me.
Spare a thought for the 10 folk riding over 1100 laps of Herne Hill Velodrome tonight for the Festive 500 in one go thing that Rapha London have done for the last few years!
Spare a thought for the 10 folk riding over 1100 laps of Herne Hill Velodrome tonight for the Festive 500 in one go thing that Rapha London have done for the last few years!
They have my sympathy. Honestly, riding round and round a track for hours seems a bit tragic 🙂
gonna fail again............... lost all my energy.
got to 250km with a nice 3 day mini tour with the wife, got home yesterday with plans for a early ride today.
sat eating bacon butties and cant see me moving for a while.
will still ride today and tomorrow but short and fun.
well done if you manage it.
Job done
Good effort.
I’m up to 370km after todays ride, probably another 40-50km on tomorrows planned MTB ride so I’ll need to knock out another couple of Zwift rides to get it done.
gonna fail again…………… lost all my energy.
Sorry to hear that @ton . On the other hand, better to accept it than to slog around suffering just to get an arbitary figure!
I'm on 470km now, did 73km this morning, SS road bike again. Need to do a few hills to finish off tomorrow, I need 1500m of climbing to make the December Elevation Challenge too!
Weather is definitely set to get worse though, heavy rain and strong winds by the afternoon so hopefully I can get out early doors to finish it off. Even on today's ride, the wind was certainly stronger than yesterday.
Well I'm in an amber warning area for rain and snow tomorrow so the final 45km will have to be on Rouvy which I can squeeze in tomorrow morning.
I never thought I'd get close to completing it but have to say it's been a great motivator.
Well done to all who have attempted it, I think if it's got you more active than you'd normally be it's done it's job.
200 km to go and the last ride of the year will be my M25 loop. Bike is prepped (fixed enigma), food ready. Of course the prevailing wing means the last quarter is a headwind home.
Managed to get the Grapha 500 finished today. I always do a SS metric century on Xmas eve in memory of 29erKeith (formerly of this Parish) and that kicks things off nicely. Got the train out to Poole this morning and rode back which was glorious. Other than those two rides it’s been a bit of a battle of attrition and I’ve spent as much time cleaning the bike as I have riding it. Don’t think I’ll do this again unless I’m away somewhere sunny and road bike friendly in future.
Don’t think I’ll do this again unless I’m away somewhere sunny and road bike friendly in future.
That line of thought was what originally prompted our first trip to Gran Canaria back in 2017!
I think by then we'd had 5-6 years of Festive 500 trawling round in crap weather and the prospect of another year of the same was not appealing!
I wondered if I'd be able to manage it this year, but no, not a chance, managed my first ride this morning due to a combination of mechanical issues, overambitious projects and awful weather. I've managed 25km before work mostly on mywhoosh, with a quick shakedown ride down the road and back
.
And I'm done. Really quite pleased to have managed it as I'm normally lucky to get close to half that distance. Now for a rest lol
Every day a school day and all that, I hadn't realised it was 8 days!
Hat tip to anyone doing it outdoors in the UK, we were there over xmas, only saw one cyclist on the road all week. Grim.
I did a couple of 500km weeks before leaving, weather a mixed bag but nothing mudguards and gloves couldn't sort. Not sure I'd have ventured out in that fog, or the sheeting rain blowing off Morecambe Bay. Shivers...
Hat tip to anyone doing it outdoors in the UK, we were there over xmas, only saw one cyclist on the road all week. Grim.
Kent has had fine weather pretty much the whole time! Glorious day yesterday, sunny all day & a balmy 12 degrees - loads of cyclists out! Bit of rain this morning, but that’s stopped now & I’ve only got 8km to finish anyway. Might just ride to the pub & back 🙂
Done. 505km. Finished it this morning with a loop of my regular "WFH lunchtime" circuit with a stop for coffee. Was nice to be back on the gravel bike with comfy tubeless tyres and disc brakes after 3 days on the SS road bike with narrow tyres and rim brakes!
Actually not as grim as it could have been. One day where I was questioning what the hell I was doing slogging around muddy lanes in the thick mist but after that it was fine. The wind is getting pretty ferocious now, can tell the weather is set to change for the worst!
The weather up here in Moray was mostly fine and I managed 380km outside before rain, sleet and a lack of time meant I had to turbo for the rest. I did pick an uphill route to finish today though.
To be fair we were in Manchester and Cumbria!
Should have stayed out and completed it yesterday but left 24Km for today - can I be bothered 🙂
540 km and about 100 of that into the mother of all head winds today. A hard 8 and a half hours on too big a gear. If you go to the Rapha store, they’ll give you a real badge! Someone has in the VC funding has heard the naysayers.
I managed 3hrs47mins on the turbo over the challenge dates, a bit less than normal these days with long covid, but not bad considering I dug myself into a bit of a fatigue hole in the previous two weeks.
Rapha have shops? Who knew? Thought it was a SportPursuit own brand.
Well done any who managed it.
