[Closed] What’s the hardest ride you’ve done in a day?

La Marmotte, just rode the course, not the actual event - was pretty tough...

We couldn't skip AD as someone has the bright idea of renting a chalet in the village at the top for the week - rode up and down it every bloody day.........

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/2014/2741194258_3d9cdf3a23.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/2014/2741194258_3d9cdf3a23.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/5bekxY ]La Marmotte Sportif[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

That day I mistook viagra for paracetemol.

That day I mistook viagra for paracetemol.

I did all the trails at CyB in a day. All the Black/Red/Blue and Green ones. Took all day and hurt for a week after. Even the Green family trail at the end was a tough struggle 🙂

A gentle 82 miles from Leicester to Congleton. Not much climbing, traffic free route where possible.
Sounds idyllic but for one thing - Storm Hannah blew in about lunch time.

I have never been more cold, miserable and lacking in humour than the last 20 miles of that ride.

First time I did Manchester to London. I was not as fit as I should have been and didn't have enough miles in my legs. 220 miles is a long way, worse when you do a large part solo as you were too fat to stick with groups.

Vowed I'd never do it again.

Did it 3 years later, 4 stone lighter off almost no riding but loads of running and had a hell of a time. Never have my legs felt better than on that ride.

SDW. Just a long long hilly way.

I have never been more cold, miserable and lacking in humour than the last 20 miles of that ride.

Sounds like my wife after riding tandem down into Milau 3yrs ago, in my defence I didn’t expect it to snow in the south of France in mid May 😕

Every time I do a solo ride in the dark peak.

I'm not as fit as I could be, not as light as I could be, and always try to slightly out do my last ride in the dark peak in both elevation and distance.

Taking my bike and the ex's over the Thorong La Pass. Pushing not riding though.

103 miles from Mid Wales to Bridgened on a 1953 Claud Butler with insufficient gearing/training to keep up with the work charity bike ride peloton.

Closely followed by the Cardiff Velothon on the same bike

Probably a section of the NC500 on the West Coast. I was wild camping one night, pissed it down through the night and all next day when packing up and riding. I was cold, wet through and ready to just curl up into a ball at the side of the road and die 😂 Made it to a camp site just in time to see the sun pop out from the clouds before setting!

Beast of Llangollen

https://flattyres-mtb.co.uk/route-guides/north-wales-mtb-routes/cadair-berwyn-loop/

These two right up there. Wasn't in very good shape when I did them and paid the price. None particularly long rides but still tough.

Also this was not easy at all.

https://flattyres-mtb.co.uk/route-guides/peak-district-mtb-routes/glossop-cut-gate/

Kathmandu to Daman via the Tribhuvan highway. Only about 60km according to google but around 4.5km of elevation gain. Legs gave way about an hour from the end and pushed up the last 1km of climbing. All on a Pine Mountain with pace forks, 1997.

Today my answer would be SDW in two days, but ask me the end of next week as my current training rides are 70+ miles 6000'+ and have been bloody hard.

But .. next week I am off to do KAW so 220 miles and planning 4 days to keep it to 'just2 55 - 65 miles a day and a fair few hills :/

Like many others above I think it is all relative, 5 years ago I rode 20 miles and was knackered and now I'm a little more motivated, doing it for charity, and it is personal motivation is much much higher.

James

About 35 miles/7000 feet vertical off road from puerto andratx to banyalbufar in majorca on day 1 of a 3 day trip to cross the tramuntana mountains

Transvesubienne the week after a 24hr race.
55 miles in just under 11hrs.
20,000ft of downhill, most of which was terrifying, and 12,500ft of uphill, most of which was with the bike over my shoulder.
Proper alpine stuff, it was awesome.

Probably day 6 of the first Trans Provence in 2009. Utterly beaten up over the previous five days riding (on a hardtail, because Ash reckoned it might be the best bike for the job) and then a monster day of climbing, hike-a-bike and descending that covered some of the Trans Vesubienne route. While it wasn't that long in terms of distance, it was a 12+ hour day and we really felt it.

Would I do it again if offered? I'd be there like a shot, but probably on a full-sus trail bike of some sorts.

Tame to some others, but the Beast @ CYB  on a 170mm FS after a night on the charlie until 4/5am

It's all relative, but I reckon the 2006 Gorrick 100 (44 miles).

I'd only started riding the year before at 40 y/o. I finished last and up to then I'd never ridden more than 20 miles offroad - barely able to walk up the stairs when I got home...

Butties Brid trip 300km Audax. 16 hours. killed my nerves in my right hand.

Yorkshire Dales 200km offroad Audax. 14 hours. i cried with 2 hours to go.

Polaris NYM 1 day special event. 100 miles. 16 hours of pain.

these 3 stick in my mind more than ton's of other proper killers i have done.

On a wee tour of the West Coast with my cousin we stopped over at the Sligachan Bunkhouse. After a few pints and drams at the bar we headed back to the bunkhouse, where the owner got chatting to us. Apparently it was her birthday and she was having a bit of a party at the big house and we should come up! The party turned out to be just three couples and one of the receptionists (I really don’t know why we were invited). What was just going to be a showing our faces, not to be rude, ended up with vague memories of drinking cider from a rams horn at 2am.

The 96 miles to Kilchoan the next day were truely horrible 😂

200 miles on a road bike sat, I don't think my arse will ever forgive me

Louise

One of the stages in the Transrockies.
We were high up, it was cold and my teammate's chain kept breaking, so there was a lot of faffing. Then it started raining, then hail, then thunder and lightning. At every food station they had those big gas heaters that they use in paint shops, but we just could not get warm. Finally, just to finish us off ...3 river crossings (waste deep).When we got to the tents, we stripped, put every bit of clothing we had on then crawled into our sleeping bags. It was brutal, the camp looked like a war zone.

My answer is the same. 105 miles, first time I'd done a hundred miler. First day of the tour of wessex. I'd done loads of 70, 80 and 90 milers but for some reason everything went wrong after about 35 miles and it was just unbelievably hard from then on. Told my mates to go on and I did the next 70 miles on my own.

Only time I've ever properly bonked.

Milford sound to te anau on a bag of peanut m and ms and a tin of beans between us….. the Milford shop hadn’t had a delivery for a few days and was pretty much cleaned out by the time we got there .

Purden lake to Mcbride…… to find the only thing open was the gas station……….

Next day- Mcbride to jasper via dunster which wasn’t very much fun either

All on fully loaded tourers . Great type 2 fun.

All harder than any of the many 24hr races I’ve done….

Only last Wednesday.

Had struggled a bit all week in Majorca on the hills (puig major almost killed me) so decided to do a flat ride with smallish climb to randa half way round. After the climb I was ruined, 35 miles back in 27 degrees temp I kept on having to stop and with a mile to go I got off the bike and curled up in a ball by side of road. Pushed bike back last mile in my socks

Tested positive for covid 15 min after arriving home

Not pleasant..

Ben Macdui loop. Started at the skiers car park,cycled, pushed and carried to the summit. Descended down past Loch Etchachan to the Hutchison but. Then pushed to the Fords of Avon, pushed up Bynack More where my prayers were answered and I found a forgotten mars bar and then descended over a million waterbars. Of course we got a puncture and the midgies attacked, I nearly abandoned my mate to them but we still had the climb back up to the car park. I think I had the KOM for a bit as nobody else had done it. We spent the rest of the evening eating and arguing with campsite managers.

The first ride I did that got me into mountain biking back in the 90's. It was the loop around Sugar Loaf in the Black Mountains. We had the wrong bikes, not enough water (for a change it was stupidly hot) and no idea what we'd let ourselves in for. we set off at about 10AM-ish after a night at the pub and camping, and got back to the tents at about 8PM after getting totally lost, walking up a mountain, broken bikes (several times), dealing with blisters, sun burn, mild dehydration, and some serious chafing.

I was hooked.

I did the ride a few years ago on the Enduro with the route in a GPS and I think it took me a few hours. In my head it was still a monstrous epic 🙂

Builth Wells Merida Marathon in 06.
Baking hot weekend.
Smashed in a pub in town the night before after meeting some cider drinking mentalists from Stroud.
Sick on the first climb, riding a singlespeed, the organisers had missed a water station, everyone had run out of water and it was closer to 120km than 100.
My internals hurt for a week after.

I'm going to say Day 3 of the 2018 BEMC. I never made it, quit and took the short way back after 45 minutes. I was not fit enough nor done enough long rides on my MTB, and two prior days totalling near 200KM of Ardennes was enough for my body especially as the temp dropped and it started raining on the start line.

I’ve done loads of really hard mountain routes all over Europe. But last November going through a divorce, not in a great place mentally, decided I’d go to North Wales where my winter training used to be when I was younger and fitter. Decided to do a small 35 mile ride, it’s hilly but I’ve done it hundreds of times. Weather in the valley was nice. On the second climb, only about 400 feet up the weather closed in. I was frozen, hands were soaked and frozen solid. The clouds were really low, felt pitch black. I then had a really hairy descent with frozen hands. Really was a huge mistake, I’m mister organised so to even consider going up that mountain wearing what I had on was utterly bonkers.
I think that was the only time I’ve actually hated being on the bike (but that was more my state of mind at that time).

Probably the 58ish mile Moors and Shores adventure cross/gravel thing. I was unfit to begin with and I'd done minimal training. 95% off road gravel tracks with a lot of little ups and downs on a CX bike with crap gearing and crapper brakes. I was a mess at the end of that. The first day of the C2C is similar but as it's a lot of road it's much easier and sets you up nicely for an easy second day into Allenheads.

That or the day me and a bunch of mates did the Edale Classic route in 2015 (I think) but from Hope so we had the Mam Tor climb as well. It was the hottest day of year and there's no hiding from the sun once you're out. The pint in the pub at Edale was most welcome, the ride back to the campsite after was not

Comfort: My inaugural (and only) bike packing trip was from Stroud - Machynlleth - Stroud via EWE route out and GBDuro back. The last day was day 5 on a Surly Krampus with 3" rubber, 120 miles & 10000', my derriere had become unconditioned by that point and I wasn't very comfy...

Food: Actually,scratch that, that's just physical comfort, a good few years ago I got invited on a road ride with some old skool mile munchers out of Brucie's bike shop in Kendal. I arrived for the 40 mile ride on my GT Zaskar with slicks. We rode from Kendal to Keswick and I felt ok, had a cup of tea and a tea cake. A splinter group asked if I wanted to do a couple of "hills"... we did Wrynose and another killer that escapes me, I thought we were part way back but oh no, we were Keswick, they then set up a chain gang where the one at the back had to sprint up front and take over.... I went backwards and they disappeared. I found myself bonking riding on the wrong side of the road. I limped into Windermere and got the train back to Kendal. I suffered greatly that ride. It taught me to eat.

Cold: Also, decided to cycle from Stroud to New Milton in February, forecast was cold and dry. I set off with no rain gear. At Frome the heavens opened with freezing torrential rain & sleet. The roads iced. I was soaked to the skin, I couldn't brake, hypothermic. I got to Verwood and had to phone my dad to come and collect me. I sat in a Nero's and just leaked a huge puddle of icy water over the floor that they had to mop up around me.

The 20 miles we did on Friday was up there!  Yes, it was only 20 miles with 1200 foot of climbing - but after 2 bigish days bikepacking and a 40-50 mph headwind the whole day, and horizontal rain, we were both trashed!  My legs are still a bit sore!

Like said above, its all relative.

That time I took my bike over the Fenetre d'Arpette is up there. Not exactly riding though.

was wild camping one night, pissed it down through the night and all next day when packing up and riding. I was cold, wet through and ready to just curl up into a ball at the side of the road and die

That is the exact reason why there’s not a chance in hell of me EVER bikepacking.
I saw some folk last year up in Durness, obviously doing the NC500 & the weather was horrendous, me & the Mrs were tucked up in a nice warm cottage & I just thought, ‘you poor bastids’.
Bet that was a hard day for them!

I did all the trails at CyB in a day. All the Black/Red/Blue and Green ones. 

More details needed to quantify this 😃:
1) do you mean: i you cycled all the named trails separately one after the other, or that ii you cycled all the physical singletrack of the CyB trails?
2) how long ago?

If i and < 8 then much respect🤑

Marin Rough ride maybe 2007? Hot, hot day. Never ridden that far before. Terrible cramp about 3/4 of the way round. Then somehow got lost and added another 45 mins on. Came in pretty much dead last I think @nickc might have been there (Chilterns club, me on my old Kona HT) having had to push for the final two hours or so.

But so many more I'm sure. Funnily enough trans Cambrian in 2017 in a storm with three days of sideways rain, gale force headwinds and SO MUCH mud and water didn't feel as bad although probably physically harder

Done the Marmotte, and the Maratonna - oof. The hardest days I've ever done were the first 2 days of Tuscany Trails in 2016. It was epically wet. We rode only 85km (I think) on the first day but did 2500m climbing. Started at 8am finished at 10pm, slept in a shed with 40 other people. The next day started at 6am, rode until 3am the next day. Broken....

Fist day of a coast to coast ride.
Set off fairly early (9?) All fun and gentle paths until black sail pass. From then on carnage. Hike a bike, bogs, river crossings got to winlar scar and it looked like the cloud above the ghostbuster skyscraper so the "easy" alternative was taken.
Got to first yha in the dark an easy 12hr day, totally broken and had to do it all the next day.
Was awesome, once I'd had some food 👍
Still my best experience on a bike.

Not really all that hardnin the grand scheme of things, but for me a loop around Bealach Na Ba.

It was a 45 mile ride, at a time when I'd been riding for a few months max and the longest ride I'd done was 20 miles. And it had a big old hill at the end of it, because for some reason my mate thought it'd be good to start with the traverse of the coastline and save the climb for the end.

The day started inauspiciously, with kid-related circumstances at the YH we were staying at conspiring to leave me no time to get ready, and a banana and handful of fruit and nut for breakfast.

Halfway round the coast, seemingly with a headwind all the way, I was fairly cooked and pretty much out of water but my mate wouldn't have any of it and I pressed on. We reached the iconic sign at the bottom of the climb, and I thought, well, maybe this won't be so bad.

I was wrong of course. The climb was utterly relentless. About a third of the way in I was sure I was going to die right there in the road. Two-thirds of the way in and I was quite happy for that to happen. I had given myself up to the void when I realized there was no more "up" to be had, and that we had in fact made it.

There was then the small matter of the descent to attend to which weirdly didn't worry me at the time. Looking back, zipping down crappy tarmac on thin tires wearing next to nothing and with canti brakes was by far the most terrifying aspect of the whole endeavour!

Glorious ride though. In retrospect.

I have NO idea, Far far too many potential contenders.
Most of what I remember are simply bad days on the bike. Pissing it down, caught in snow / mud / rain etc rather than being "hard" as such.

Moab was tough - the altitude, the heat and the unrelenting technical nature of it but we kind of had all day to do it, no pressure etc so it was mostly fun. Bloody tough, but fun.

Various 24hr races spring to mind but hard to pick one over another, they all sort of blur into one and I can't remember if it was SITS or Mountain Mayhem...

I remember climbing the Swiss side of Stelvio in the baking heat, on my own and having to stop twice to dunk my base layer in a mountain stream and put it on again plus at least twice more for gels. KOM up there is 45 mins (set by a WorldTour pro at the end of a 200+ km stage of the Giro, after 10 days of racing in his legs). It took me 90 mins riding time, about 2hrs total.

Torridon lollipop in a heatwave...

Followed a close 2nd whiteness pike in a heatwave. It was brutal no shade used 4x litres of water and was absolutely shagged

I drove 2 hours to Torvor in the Lakes , rode partway and carried up the Old Man , across the ridgeline to Brown pike. Bad round Stephensons ground in to the bottom of Walna scar where I proceeded to have a chat with myself how the car was only 10 miles away. Spent the next 30 minutes trying to keep the front wheel on the ground. Returned back to that car after a measly 24 miles and 6000 foot of climbing. Perhaps a bit of toast wasnt the best start to the day. #bonked!

Ask me after June 11th!

100 miles road ride around the Chilterns and out towards Didcot on my MTB. I did have slick tyres so it should have been OK, but it was the furthest I'd ever ridden and was on the day Germany knocked England out of the World Cup - 27 June 2010. 29c and humid. I drank everything I had and stopped at every drink station. I was so glad to get back to the car in Henley and turn on the aircon!

Trying to squeeze a round trip to Cardiff in before lunch. It was 207km and I set off at 05:00 and made it back at 11:57.

My first Exmouth Exodus was into the teeth of a storm blowing in from the south west. I remember descending Cheddar Gorge into a tunnel of white steaks and cyclists falling off everywhere captured in strobes of lightning. That was a tough 107mikes in the wind, rain and dark. Proper type 2 fun.

The kjulor in Iceland. The wind nearly broke me

260km Friday Night Ride to the coast and back again, out to Whitstable.

Didn't really know the way back, so was semi-winging it, also made the mistake of putting sunscreen on my face, which then dripped in my eyes after melting in with my sweat.

Squinting my way along for mile after mile until I came upon a village shop where I could buy some water and rinse my face...

Marin Rough ride maybe 2007? Hot, hot day.

@alex, holy shit; either forgotten or wiped from my memory....eurgh, slog of a day

Club weekend away to Exmoor. Porlock Weir at 0m above sea level, Dunkery Beacon at 519m, and pretty much everywhere in between. The ups were up, the downs were loose, rocky, and hard on arms, knees and fillings. The last bit from Porlock back over the hill to Pool Bridge camping, I just bonked so badly I nearly phoned my mum to come and get me...... from Reading.

I got fitter and lost 2.5st before the following year and enjoyed it way more, despite a nasty off on the way down into Porlock.

SDA course at Glencoe, circa 2010. Savage.

The original ‘Crankzilla’ was mine. It was the 2014 EWS in Whistler, the one everyone complained about as it was such a massive day. It was stupidly hot & they basically picked some of the hardest trails in the valley.

It was nearly 80km long & 3800m of vert. Only one stage was lift assisted, so we actually climbed about 2800m. Over an hours worth of racing, the whole thing was ridiculous.

Almost certainly from the days before good digital mapping when I had a somewhat optimistic attitude to route measuring. And no sense of a need for preparedness.

Maybe taking our commuter bikes over Bealach na Ba and Applecross peninsula round to Torridon whilst carrying rucksacks. I'd never heard of BnB and the map I had didn't quite show how much of a hill it is. I've done the same route as part of bigger rides since and it's been orders of magnitude easier.

Builth Wells Merida Marathon in 06.
Baking hot weekend

@singlespeedstu - ha, ha, I was there as well and that sounds very similar to the day we had on the Saturday. Although ours was getting smashed watching the infamous England Portugal world cup game, then jumping in the river.

Remember Sunday being rediculously hot, we didn't get a very good time, then had to drive back to Leeds....

I did the Isle of man end 2 end race tears ago and took my on one codeine instead of the hardtail...
Ridiculously over biked.

Mountain Mayhem 2010? Never seen so much mud.

Any ride where I've bonked. The worst of those was a section of the Wales C2C "Dave Buchanan" route from Maentwrog to Ponterwyd, linking up CyB, Climachx and Nant yr Arian. I remember stopping at the petrol station in Machynlleth to take on as many calories as I could. Still had to climb over the top past Nant-y-Moch to descend into NyrA. So knackered by the end, I didn't have enough energy left to eat an evening meal.

Typing that has got me thinking about doing the whole WC2C again, maybe in less than 3.5 days next time?

Big loop in Mallorca on a scorching hot July day - Puig major, Coll de Soller, climb to Orient all ridden with ease. Stopped for an ice cold Fanta and food at the cafe at the foot of the Coll de Sa Batallia then had a total shutdown in the heat halfway up the climb. I still had to get all the way back to Puerto Pollenca. Every pedal stroke felt brutally hard. Even had to stop for shade on the flat just a few kilometres for the end. Classic case of heat exhaustion. I was absolutely ruined. Sweated for Scotland, heart was racing, totally lost all power, kept burping up which resulted in me being on Omeprazole for a couple of months. It was not a highlight. I reckon if I had gone easy on the food then I would have been fine.

The ride was one I had done before and really enjoyed but the impact of the heat on me was utterly savage. It was high thirties / low forties so not a huge surprise that I felt rotten by the end of it. Still managed a nice Italian meal that night though…..

Cheers

Sanny

La Marmotte 2015, the year the route was different.

I’m fine with long rides, big hills and heat - I’ve done plenty of riding in the alps, Dolomites, Pyrenees etc, but this was a cauldron.

It was ridiculously hot. I know they over read, but my Garmin said. 45 degrees at the bottom of Alpe d’Huez, and 42 at the top. My car had said 38 degrees the previous evening.

Coming back over the Glandon I went from going for a decent time to ‘shit, I might not finish this’. Massive attrition rate of riders I believe. Alpe d’Huez had bodies strewn all over it in ever stream and bit of shade.

Oh and a three summit ride in the Lakes with Nick Craig where I came down with the lurgy at the top of the old coach road near Keswick. Went from feeling great to a bit ropey then full on shutdown in the space of a few minutes. I felt utterly wretched, did not eat a scrap that night then woke up ill the next day.

Finally, a ride through Glen Ample in the snow. Ended up so cold and soaked through that I remember wanting to go for a long sleep in the slushy snow banks by the side of the road as I shivered uncontrollably. Probably a sign that I was not in the best place at that moment in time………

Glasgow to Ayr return. Return leg I felt like giving up most of the journey. About 1/2 of the way home I was questioning my reasons for needing to visit the beach,  This was obviously 20 years ago when my stomach was flat and legs a lot more muscular than today, and i'd working lungs.

I'd been inspired by a couple of roadies talking about the Glasgow to Oban run. I thought if i could at least get there I would have the option of the train home.

Today I'm doing tops maybe 40 miles round trip and totally knackered to the point I fall asleep on the settee.

La Marmotte 2015 oh my god it was bad.

2014 I missed the cur-off by 7 minutes, so back for another go in 2015, problem was it was effin hot. Marmotte normally runs the same route every year, this year due to a tunnel moving they closed the road back to off the top of Galibier so the route was shifted for a year. So Le Bourg-d'Oisans, Glandon, Lacets Montvernier, Mollard, CdF back to Bourg - through the cut-off and then... up AdH

Distance/climbing was 185k/5100m and I think it took me 15hrs.

So third climb which was Mollard by 10 in the morning I was thinking it felt hot, checked my Garmin and it was showing 38. The top of Mollard there was a bleached village with zero shade and a food stop. Melting squigy hairpins. Then up CdF again but from the other side. I Was getting cramp right at the top so was struggling. Got to the top and was thinking I might miss the cut-off again so threw myself off the top to Bourg. I was doing over 80k at points and made a lot of time up.

Through the cut-off no problem at the bottom of AdH, a third of the entry binned it at this point I was told after, I then fell apart on AdH. Its was so hot, it was in the 40's for most of the day and topped out at 47 I think.

So back on the hill... Threw up on turn 3 and again on 5, walked for hours and rode in the last bit to the finish. I was so slow in the end I was the official Lantern Rouge on the wiki page. Well I was for two weeks until they gave it to a dude on a Brompton who came in hours after me nabbed it.

We were saved by the locals spraying us with jet washes, all the fountains to completely soak yourself in, and be dry as a bone in what seemed like minutes after. Oh and the Germans offering 'Car Washes' on the way back into Bourg. I think I drunk over a dozen bottles of fluids. The lady who stopped in her car half way down AdH and gave me a can of coke needs a mention.

I went back again in 2017 and did it under 10 hours. I quite fancy it again tbh....

In '98 i rode from the bottom of Madagascar to the top of Madagascar. Overall it took three months.

The end was supposed to be one day - from Diego Suarez up to the lighthouse on Cap d'Ambre and back.

We got lost using maps that dated to the 60's, had to drag ourselves through thorn trees like you wouldn't believe, suffered more punctures in 48 hours than we had done in the previous three months, got to one village and asked if they had any water only to be directed to a hole dug into a dry river bed, reaching arms length to scoop up cupfulls, then having to rig up a mosquito net underneath the bivi when we had to admit defeat on day 1.

Then we had to pick ourselves up - now not well provisioned we had some biscuits and quite probably no other water at all.

That second day, that was the hardest thing i have ever done.

A couple stand out. The second particularly because I wasn't used to the distance.

One was a 9.5km 540m vert 'ride' on remote fire trails that had to be cut short from the intended 16km. I'd done the full route on a motorbike previously as part of a big day out and stupidly thought it might work on an mtb. Started ok, dropping down into a valley, but turned into a nightmare, with the steepest climb apparently 43%.
The two guys with me brought ebikes, but couldn't get close to climbing most of the hills. One of them was a pretty solid singlespeed rider, but the other I thought was going to pass out, so i was having to ferry my bike then his bike up the hills.

The other was in the same area, 77km with 1500m i think. I wanted to keep light ... bad move, I had an apple too big for my bag so i ate half of it before I left. So all i had for the whole ride was 750ml of water and half an apple. Halfway down a big descent my rear mech got smashed and I was restricted to about five gears. I stupidly decided to carry on with my intended route with a load of difficult climbs on rarely used tracks. I completely bonked and the last 8km were so painful I thought I wasn't going to make it! No phone reception and I ended up home about 3 hours behind schedule.

By around 2010 I used to be into long distance XC riding. Was comfortable doing 100km routes at a good pace, and then decided to attempt a 180km one that a friend did the week before.

Solo, on a rigid single speed.

Managed to complete it, but the last third or so was so bad I barely remember it. Everything hurt, head, eyes, teeth, even my nails hurt. Slept for a hole day after it

Just over half (the hilly half) of the round the isle of white route earlier this year 55 km with a big but. A chunky one year old on the back (little over 10kg) towing a 5 year old on a follow me tandem plus bike (follow me tandem is about 3.5 kg plus bike) plus weekend gear for all three of us and some of my partner's gear plus I didn't realise the child carrier had caught one of the cantilever arms and was pushing on the rear brake. I was pedaling downhill bit thought it was just the strong head wind.

This ride was harder that +200km hilly rides on a fix wheel. Harder than off road touring Scotland (before it would be called bike packing) with cheap heavy gear and bike.

SDW. Long...hilly....really boring.

Probably a prep/training ride in February 2013, getting ready for a long distance race. Wasn't related to the route but the conditions. Loaded MTB with slicks on, 100 miles each way on road over 2 days. Not a particularly hard route but the return journey was just above freezing with sleety rain and a headwind. It was proper grim. I was howling in pain at one point and really not having a good time. Was too cold to stop as hypothermia would probably have set in. I got more prep than I wanted but it was valuable!
Lessons - always take better gloves and foot protection than you think you'll need if there's a chance of cold wet weather. Take spare dog shit bags or similar for added protection. And Primaloft rules.

Hardest ride for me was the first Kona 100 I entered, think it was Builth Wells. Hadn't ridden that kind of distance before and set off a bit keen. I think it took me 9 hours to get back and it felt like half of that was running on empty. Certainly the last 10-15 miles were a bonked-out blur. Would have been 2003-2005?

Mountain Mayhem 2010? Never seen so much mud.

You weren't there in 2012 then 🙂 Not a particularly hard ride tho, just 4 laps/40km carrying my bike up and down the Eastnor hills!

Hardest ride for me was the first Kona 100 I entered,

Some of those early Merida 100 / Kona 100 rides were really tough.

I remember one that finished in the rain, we were trudging through some MOD land high up on a moor, in a cloud, in the wind and the trail was just uphill enough to make it all just a grinding slog. Any traces of lube had long been washed off the drivetrain, disc pads were down to the last shreds, everything was grating.

Visibility was a few feet in the cloud and rain and the Landy track was littered with puddles - some were an inch or so deep, some were far far deeper and it was impossible to tell which until you actually rode into it. A guy in front of me went in past his hubs.

The distance showing on computers was already 100km, we were high up on the moor. People (including me!) were nearly in tears thinking we'd gone off course, the pace was just SO slow until eventually the trail tipped downwards and we came out onto the road and the finish (think it was about 110km). There was zero fun in any of that, it was simply a slog for the sake of it.

Some of those 12/24 races were mental. 2008 Dusk Till dawn stands out as it started in the rain at the satrt, and it just got worse and worse, about midnight it was sideways and didn't stop, I even took the tent down in the drizzle the following morning. I was in a pairs and my partner just bailed. Left standing at the start finish line after my laps had finished, I went looking for him, and he was in the tent having basically (quite sensibly) mutinied.

Type 3 fun

Some of those early Merida 100 / Kona 100 rides were really tough.

They were. Out of 4 I did there was only one where I felt it went fairly well, good pace etc. John Lloyd's routes were class.

Devon coast to coast, Paignton to Ilfracombe, 164km 2.7km climbing mostly off-road and a nice stretch across Dartmoor. 16 hours. Grand day out.

Hardest ride for me was the first Kona 100 I entered, think it was Builth Wells. Hadn’t ridden that kind of distance before

Yep Kona 100 started from the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth. The year before was the Shwinn 100.
That was the first marathon I did too.
Furthest I'd ridden before that was 30 miles.

Did anyone do the Tomac Marathons that Roy Beavis put on?
Rhayader and Knighton from memory.

I'm going to have o say the Jenn Ride I did down at Tang's place several years ago now. It was an easy ride, not too long, not too hilly, great company...

BUT. I slept really badly the night before and did not know i was coming down with a cold. Three quarters of the way round all the energy and strength I had just went. I was ruined.