Following the ‘Longest ride’ thread, what’s the hardest you’ve done?
2 for me, the 1st Summer Polaris I did was only 58 miles but being a MTBer I didn’t see the massive advantage of doing road miles, so me & my mate flogged our arses off mainly off-road. I was so dehydrated I replenished my fluid levels with 5 cans of McEwans Export, then rode 5 hours the next day too.
2nd was a loop we did from Lagan Hostel up to Ft Augustus & over the Corrieyairack, down to Inveroy, Spean Bridge & back along the Great Glen Way. Only by the time we’d got to Spean Bridge we were all paggered so we sacked the GGW & stayed on the road to the hostel, into a bastid of a headwind. I’d measured it out with my (not so) trusty map measuring wheel at 54 miles. Wrong, it turned out to be 63, according to my trusty (?) Cateye computer.
That definitely turned into an Epic.
What’s your hardest?
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!
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.