[Closed] What was your ride of the year?

Mtb
Been quite a few great rides this year, mainly due to the fantastic weather. Did all the rounds of the Pmba gravity enduros which were really good, coming 5th overall in vets
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Had several rides in the Lakes but two that stand out are a ride around the Dunnerdale fells and walna scar at Easter.
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Helvellyn at the end of September was also a great ride
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Road
Since getting my first road bike August last year I've embraced the roadie culture big time, in fact I'm spending far more time on the skinny wheels than the fat ones 😳
As for memorable rides three stand out for me. My first 200miler in a day that involved riding from Garstang, south of Lancaster, through Cumbria up to Gretna in Scotland then back down through Cumbria and Yorkshire. A big day out that involved over 13hrs in the saddle.
My first Fred Whitton was also another cracking day. Set off nice and steady then slowly built my pace up over the course. Culminating in somehow kinging a couple of strava segments near the end.
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However the best ride of the lot for me was doing the Bowland Baddass. A ride round the Bowland Fells of Lancashire taking in the best hills that North Lancashire has to offer. A lot of people say the Fred is hard (which it is I hasten to add) but it nowt compared to the Baddass. 12hrs in the saddle doing 168miles and 18500ft of climbing. One hell of a day out 😉

Was going to nominate September the whole month spent on dry trails in glorious sunshine. Just epic.

One standout ride for me this year (and in my life) - the Highland Trail 550.

Without a doubt the best mountain biking I've ever done, stitched into a week-long journey, most of which was spent alone. Waking up with the sun at stupid o'clock in the morning, riding your bike until it's dark again, and only then looking for somewhere to bivi for the night. Seeing places most people will never see, and fewer again will ever take a bike to. Pushing through the pain barrier, waking up unable to walk properly, discovering tendons you didn't know existed only by them creaking. Finding your limits of endurance, then keeping going beyond them, realising it was all in your head. The ribbon of truly sublime single track that appears at the top of a horrible push that makes the whole day worthwhile.

At the time, a lot of it was horrible, I had to dig deeper than I thought possible, but I look back only in a positive way, and I'm looking forward to riding it again next year.

Sept was brilliant!

My "ride of the year"? Hmmm let's see now...

Now that I am approaching 'old git' status, I have not ridden as much on trails as I would like to. I did manage to complete a good number of laps at the Bristol Bikefest this summer before my knees started to make more noise than my disc rotors...! Not bad for a old git like me!And on a hardtail too! (For those of you not familiar with Ashton Court near Bristol, it is not hardtail friendly territory).

A favorate ride may not be due to just the route taken.... dare I suggest a beautiful days ride in May around The New Forest when 3 stunning dutch girls who crossed my path at a cafe stop, joined me for the rest of the days ride (being part dutch myself, we all got on very well!). I was beaming all the way around the trails!

One more that stands out for me, was all on tarmac lanes, but it was such great fun to downhill!! I visited East Devon in Sept, and discovered a great zigzagging route from Honiton golf club (summit) all the way to the coast at Beer. It was downhill all the way, with some sudden dips and stunning scenery, it was an eyeopener! Overheated my rotors twice, but it was worth it - especially as I got to do it twice, thanks to a farmer who gave me a lift back to the summit that evening (just for buying his mate a beer!)... it felt more exciting to do in twilight second time..!

GBR.

2 to choose from so far
First was a 1 day trip in NZ
http://nzbybike.com/regions/lake-taupo/regional-mountain-bike-rides/moerangi-track-whirinaki-forest/
The Moerangi was awesome, 35km point to point through a bit of everything.
Second was 4 days on the west coast of Tassie
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Riding/racing over mountains, forest & beaches to finish much better than I ever expected.

The Mega was a hoot, despite the weather in the preceding week
http://www.andrewhowett.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/megavalanche-whole-soggy-saga.html
But I think the best was the European 24hr at Finale, 2nd time I've been there and it's still my favourite ever racetrack
http://www.andrewhowett.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/sun-sea-scorpions-and-smashed-sumps.html

Israel, N to S with Paul And Ricky. Green in the north, amazing singletracks along the way, then it turned into an ass-kicker once past the dead sea. Memorable for many good reasons.

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Swinley, lap of the Green route

chakaping - Member
This one. Wilds of Kintail with a 7km singletrack descent dropping 550m to sea level.
I have bookmarked this for the future, looks really nice. How does the technicality compare to Annat descent (as you mention that in your post)?

Annat is rockier and faster but I thought it was all relatively straightforward, the Kintail descent is narrower, more exposed and the switchbacks are made tricky with the waterbars positions, I found it harder anyway.

There are 2 unridable climbs on the Kintail loop which the Courage to Annat route doesn't have.

I'm counting this as a rolling year as I haven't ridden much MTB thia year.......

Nov 2013 - BPW - had an awesome day with great company
June 2014 - Edinburgh to Aberdeen tour on my CX bike
Sept 2014 - Alps trip on the road bike but riding up the Galibier is the stand out ride.

If I had to choose one, it would have to be the Galibier. We had great weather and the scenery was just beautiful.

2015 will be more devoted to my mountain bike!

Would be impossible to choose one or even several. Apart from a handful that started off crap and deteriorated, every ride this year has been a cracker

For me 2011 and 2012 were write-offs due to to injury at the start of the year and 2013 was something of a consolidation year although still cautious. This year however has been a stormer. As anyone who's been injured will tell you it's a wonderful feeling to be back at 100% again so whether it was a mid-Wales epic or an evening blast around the local loop I've really enjoyed every one

Good times

Thanks Mr Hoppy, good info.

🙂

For me it's either a big loop of the Purbecks back in July with a finish at the famous Square and Compass or doing the Bonty 24/12. Did the 12 hour solo and it was proper hot and dusty. Looking forward to doing lots of different rides next year as am having a year off work.

Atherton experience day at Antur Stiniog back in May.
Drove the 4hrs there not quite knowing what to expect (being a fatish trail mincer heading to a gnarcore DH venue), came out the other side having had my best day on the bike ever.
Massive progression, awesome trails, Excellent set-up from GT / the Athertons. The sun shone from the moment I hit Wales until the moment I left (Its normally the opposite :-)) and after a horrid time at the first Enduro1 race at FOD it properly revitalised my love of bikes. My Intense even waited till the final drop on the final run to snap a pivot bolt.
The XL Burger king meal on the way home was just icing on the cake.

Not much to choose from but probably my first ever road race, in which I came 7th 🙂

Any day from our first trip to the Alps this year (with The White Room) would be candidates but the day spent banging down the Pila-Aosta trails was immense fun... nothing like we normally ride.

Had a few good rides this year.

Various races with friends have been great fun.

Quali race for the Mega this year was brilliant, a break in the weather for the week meant the sun came out & it all clicked.

The EWS @ Whistler was a standout. For good and bad reasons.

It's been quite a good year for riding.

Not many windows for epicness this year due to moving house, having a toddler and the arrival of MiniHatter V2.0 but one evening spin back in May does stick in the mind.

A pretty standard 2 hour loop round Ashridge after work but everything just clicked, the conditions were perfect, the company good and I just felt ace, pinging with energy, flew round, grinning the whole way.

I've done a fair few longer, harder rides with far more bragging rights but that evening was just a perfect distilled slice of why I ride.

I think out of our [b]Scotland[/b] trip, my fav was Devil's Staircase Lollipop.
I loved the technical climb back out from Kinlochleven to top of the staircase. All doable, all took max concentration.

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[b]More locally[/b], loads of amazing rides this year including my longest ever and many windless, dusk descents in my favourite craggy rocks.
My fav though, was when we did a ride that took in a new decent off Win Hill to Ladybower and turned it into a figure 8 with a dusk descent down Cable Ridge which for some reason I hadn't done before!

I've ended up doing loads of racing this year, so haven't actually done much in the way of normal rides.

The stand out one for me was the national series at Cannock. Loved the course, and that must have helped - my first national podium in the juniors.

I wouldn't say D2D was the most fun race I've ever done, but it was a really good experience, and another good result.

Other than racing, the week spent in Shropshire after the national champs was pretty special, despite getting quite hopelessly lost somewhere on the southern end of the Long Mynd.

epicness

The correct term is 'epicity'.

So many good rides this year!

Trying to do more distance than usual pootling and so quite a few long ones on the road, cx and mtb

No particular order:

BB200 on the mtb (220km route with 5600m of climbing in just over 24 hours on the hardest route they have ever put together made it especially sweet!)
Carenafon (sp) to Cardiff castle on the cx bike (planned 200 miles but had to scratch at about 140m due to daft weather but learnt more about myself, planning, bike, set up etc etc than ever before so actually a very positive experience - albeit in hindsight),
150m C2C sportive on the road bike with 5000m of climbing on my 40th was amazing (superb party to celebrate both afterwards helped sooth the legs!)

A handful of 100 milers also should make this year a real step up from normal - 4500m year which is a new PB for me! With planned changes to training and being coached properly, 2015 should be even better.

Speaking of which, time for a lunchtime ride!

Life is good! 😀

Getting up before dawn on the 21st June, for my Birthday ride.
I love the summer.

But lovely crsip Autumn rides are good too.
And frigid Winter night rides.
And those "first bit of warm sunshine" Spring rides.

In many ways, my best ride was taking my not really into cycling kids on the green routes at Glentress, hearing them whoop and laugh and demand to do it again.

More personally, did my first 200k audax in September, relatively flat, relatively quick, relatively painless. Want to do more. And a 300....

Most of my miles are generally pretty samey, but some highlights from this year include:

A sunny lap of Walney island with an out and back tail wind.

A 12 hour Audax round the Lakes with a mate; it involved more climbing than we'd bargained for. He had a bad cold, I had IT band pain, but we managed to make it back for the BBQ.

A fasted 80 miler at a fairly reasonable average speed. I never bother taking food with me and forgot my money. Legs felt good though so I just carried on.

A lovely summers 100 miler round the Lakes with my brother. His front shifter broke so we big ringed the ride.

Wish I still rode MTB's looking at some of the pics above though!

Johnny, that's an awesome thing to say. Cheers

Jedi- nothing but the truth, it was as great day for me, but also for my pal Chris, it meant a lot to him.

Also because it made me realise that I can get so much more out of my local trails- riding them faster, take the harder lines, get the technique right.

Another vote for the swinley green as best ride of the year- doing three loops of it with my 5 year old daughter!

Coast to Coast over four days at the end of May; too many great moments to go into detail, but the Walna Scar and Borrowdale descents were probably the highlights. Some truly awful weather, very long days and some of the most technical and brutal climbs i've ever done, but also an amazing experience seeing the landscape change as we rode across the Lakes, Dales and Moors. Has to be some of the best natural riding the UK has to offer. Thoroughly recommended. 😀

Doing the Enduro World Series at Tweedlove. OK that's 4 rides, if I had to choose 1 it'd be the last day, it wasn't the best day's riding of the 4 (though still brilliant- just not the brilliantest) but I reckon I'll remember it for as long as I live tbh... Just being part of something that big is pretty ridiculous, riding back into Peebles like a conquering hero with cheering crowds, highfiving kids 😆

My milage this year was less than some people managed in 4 days on the highland 550!

Still had a couple of nice rides though.

Definitely my trip from the UK to Slovenia (even if it was 20 day rides strung together 😉 ) -Some of the most amazing riding I've ever done, even if it did include towing a trailer up some brutal climbs, in the pouring rain and blistering heat.
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If I had to pick a single ride it would either be the final day I was in Switzerland on the trip, doing the pass up over Amden towards Austria (sorry about the bad photo!)....
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.... or once I got to Slovenia a 70km epic ride I did with 1700m climbing and about 20km of singletrack and views of the Mediterranean!
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Not one particular, but highlights so far:

Ullock Pike solo:

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Beach riding with the family on North Uist:

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And the North Pennines MTB Marathon, even if I didn't ride it, but sent 120 people over Cross Fell on my behalf

It's been a good year for exploring on the bike. Hard to pick any one ride in particular. So having said that, any of the Glen rides I did this year......
And lest I forget my first "Tour De Nevis". Great day out, cracking weather, good trails and wall to wall fantastic scenery. 🙂
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A cheeky lakeland epic, similar to last years ROTY 🙂

Nice weather, good company, excellent trails and my riding mojo being on top form, all aligned to culminate in a rather spiffing day out.

Fuelled by Tebay's finest too!
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I like that D0NK and Arachnidlover have posted basically the same photo, just in 2 totally different places 😆

A valley down to a lake is photogenic tho innit?

😉