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I'd like to say it's been easier doing it in Gran Canaria and, weather wise it certainly has given the weather the UK has had. But it's bloody hilly out here. You'd struggle to do a ride with less than 2000m of climbing a time!
Yeah, you hate climbing. It must have been awful for you... 😕
Done. The forecast sunshine didn't materialise so had to do 50 miles in strong winds and intermittent drizzle. At least I could feel my feet this time. Now to undo all the good work by drinking and eating more than is good for me over the next couple of days.
42 miles of some of the muddier bits of the north downs and I'm left with 29 miles in what looks like pretty horrible weather tomorrow. Think the cross bike may be coming out on a swift trip to a bike cafe that will sympathise with me turning up muddy and bedraggled
Completed it but weather has been pants in the NW, did 50 mile last saturday so done a bit more, cant be bothered to ride tomorrow even though it looks decent weather
So its back on was at 175km with two and a half days to go icy rain coming down ice on the roads and ready to give up.
Then the clouds opened up and I decended into the valley to escape the snow. Cue more snow donw there(temperature inversion??) 55km and ice water running down my legs I hopped back into the car.
Yesterday I woke up 20 min from the spanish border planning to do a metric century leaving me with a mile century for today hard but not impossible. Got lost and eager a bit yesterday and chucked out 145 km in the Spanish sunshine(I feel a bit like a cheat 😉 ).
It seems windy today but if I repeat yesterdays effort then I am done lets get dressed and ride.
Congratulations to everyone who has finished and good luck to everyone finishing today. A hard going 110 km yesterday, leaves me with 60 km to do today - but it sounds wild out!
Out at 05:25 for a 105km ride for a bus. Missed it by 8min, so sat waiting for the next one in an hr. Only 125 headwind km to go on 78" fixed. Can't wait! Oh and the endura raincape is earning it's way. As are the new mudguards which smartened up the Paddy Wagon. Back by 2:30 hopefully and then down to Southampton with Son1 for uni.
Annoyed of Dartford! 👿
Good luck everyone riding today. It a definite day for picking the correct route.
So glad I'm sitting coffee in hand it's 60mph winds and rain here. We're debating a ride at Glentress later.
PS. like a saddo I have just calculated my ave mph for the challenge-18.05
Also 12,174 ft Elev Gain.
Finished here as well here. A carefully judged 65 km today leaves me at 501.9 km!
The fords were a bit deeper than usual...
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feet deep! That’s why the road was closed![/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/107347896@N06/ ]Richard Picton[/url] - [url= https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dariogf.flickr2BBcode_lite ]Flickr2BBcode LITE[/url]
508km here. I may as well have worn a wetsuit today. I realised that the riding is the easy part, it's everything else - finding the time, washing clothes, cleaning bikes etc - that makes it a challenge.
and that's me done, another 85 for 520.
All done. 223 km today and about 530 this week. Second half of the ride was slow. How often does one get shot peened by hail whilst riding down a river into a 30 mph headwind with no gear options for 40 k ? Was a full 30 min slower than normal. Last 10 km on one leg, as I fractured the crank with all that fixed grinding power! Maybe.
Highs: Essex lanes, exposure Joystick (full beam over the Surrey Hills, still flashing at 8 hrs). Endura race cape is properly waterproof. And of course the mudguards to leave a dry derrière.
Lows: gets a bit dull doing lots of distance in the dark to accommodate family. And I need a new crankset. And Watford. Was held up at every traffic lights.
Managed to finish - when i was getting ready to go out this morning i thought it may be a bit reckless going out with the wind so strong, but it was ok for the most part - largely because the lack of ice meant i could use some quiet roads again. Total grind into the headwind on the way out much more fun on the way back.
Finished, just. 74km today for 507km.
Absolutely brutal weather in the middle. Blizzards,ice,hail,lots and lots of rain. Also no shortage of wind.
I'm going to say 'never again' but that is mostly due to central scotlands adverse weather.
Maybe somewhere sunny and warm.
Also finished today, up in NE Scotland. Weather was wet and relatively mild today, but a bit of a wind - luckily only needed to do 45km to finish.
Started off with a long (133km) ride last Sunday in 10 degrees and some rain, and looking at the forecast at that point I thought it would be relatively straightforward to fit in the 60km a day to complete the challenge. Managed out early on Christmas day for a quick 30km, and then 60km on boxing day was also fine.
Things started to get a bit more complicated as of the 27th. Frosty roads meant I headed into Aberdeen to do a few loops of some cleared roads (not the most exciting!) and then woke on the 28th to 3 inches of snow. Decided to do something, so jumped on the MTB and headed along the old railway line past Newmachar. Struggled on for 17km, which was a real slog.
29th was another frosty one. All minor roads were covered in snow, as were some of the main roads, so ended up going out first thing (we had family staying) and did some loops of the clear roads in the local village - only 20km worth, but my fingers didn't defrost for a while after getting home.
A slight easing in the temperature overnight meant the main roads were a lot clearer yesterday, so headed into Aberdeen and then out the North Deeside road to Aboyne for a coffee, and then returned the same way. Some ice patches on the road out Deeside, but there was always a clear track where the cars had been, and not much traffic about. 135km for the day meant 45km left for today.
If the weather hadn't been bad for the 2 days, I think it would have been easy enough to keep fitting in the 60km first thing in the morning, to balance with family commitments, but I guess it makes it more of a challenge fitting it round everything else.
Thanks to everyone who put tips on here, and also for sharing how you were getting on - certainly helped to motivate me to get out on the bike.
Made it left it a bit late as stated earlier so I had to go big in the last weekend and Big I went. Had planned for 5 hours yesterday and 7 today, chuked out 6 yesterday and almost 7 today as I ran out of daylight. Got to 315k and 3900 m of climbing which got me past the 500 mark with some margin. Never thought my winter legs where gonna cope might hurt tomorrow so will just go for a spin. Must say sunshine and nothing else to do helps a lot, the wind early on almost got me today was dodgy when it blow from the side. But I found a quiter valley with a better angle and later on it died down quite a bit.
Somehow managed to get in the required mileage today to finish the challenge. But I don't half like making things hard for myself ! Due to other commitments over the festive period I only had three days available, namely Boxing Day, yesterday and today. Boxing Day was a nightmare, after going up a road with freshly cut hedges both sides resulted in a double puncture then a slashed tyre meant that I had to cut short the ride (all be it 20miles or so) That meant I had to get in two big rides that I did on the TT bike. Yesterday it rained nearly all day so after a miserable 120miles in it I was in two minds weather I was going to have the motivation to knock out another ton today. Got up this morning and told myself to mtfu lol Glad I finished it but my arse now resembles the back end of a baboon though 🙂
Well done and mega kudos 😉 to all those who've completed this. There's been some seriously adverse conditions around.
Well, I got remarkably lucky on my final day- decided to take the cross bike out for the remaining thirty miles. Expected to be very wet and muddy so thought I might as well get it over with quickly!
As luck would have it the rain stopped just after I left the house and didn't start again until I was cleaning the bike when I got back. I'm taking it as some sort of sign. Still got very muddy though- had to take the rear wheel out at one point to free up the brakes as a load of mud had got down the back of the pads and somehow stopped them from retracting. New one on me. Definitely need new pads all round too.
Congratulations to all who have pushed on through much nastier conditions- I've largely managed to get lucky this year!
Wrote a few words to go with the pictures I took.
I can highly recommend a Mallorca trip over Xmas. 😀
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