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.
My hardest day on a bike was a completely innocuous local ride in Somerset that I'd normally have knocked out with my eyes closed - but my partner at the time, who fancied herself as a nutritionist, had me on a low carb diet as an experiment. I totally bonked on the way home - could hardly push the pedals round, collapsed on the pavement when I finished, literally could not form a sentence. ****ed that diet right off.
That reminds me of a 30+ km run I did once. Bonked about 8km from home and was in all sorts of trouble. An old fella walking his dogs said I looked like I was going to die as I stumbled past him with 2km to go 🤣
I used to do the Flintshire Challenge every year. One year we had recently moved house , and the night before the ride we went over for a bit of a housewarming/meet the neighbours. One neighbour had made Sangria and the next morning a woke with a hangover from hell, but decided I'd be ok and the fresh air would do me good.....oh no.
Halfway round the 50 mile route I threw up, purple/red vomit and collapsed in a heap. I had enough to get home, which was local, showered and changed then went back to the event to let the organisers I had quit.
I was surprised I made it as far as I did.
Ben MacDhui features in many of the harder rides I've done over the years, and a couple in particular stand out.
One, starting in Aviemore, riding up the ski road and then climbing up via Lurchers ridge to Cairn Lochan, out to Big Mac, down the Etchachan/Hutchison trail to Derry Lodge. Lunch in the sunshine there, before heading west to ride then clamber through the Lairig Ghru leg-break boulders to head back to Aviemore. That was about 11 hours in the end and an awful lot of carrying.
Another time, starting the same, before continuing south from Derry Lodge and out past Linn of Dee, west out to cross the Geldie, over the pass and down the Tilt to Blair Atholl in time to catch the chipper. My buddy was absolutely hanging by his chinstrap coming down the Tilt track. stunning day though, with loads of superb singletrack.
One with a different flavour was in October some years ago, when I rode out from home in Angus to Dunvegan on Skye, on what would now be called a 'gravel bike'. The NC7 sections were then grit surfaced, the Corrieyairick to Ft Augustus a lot lumpier than now as this was before the Beauly-Denny powerline track improvements. It began to rain when I was in the cafe at Laggan, was hosing down, cold and the burns high going up over the pass. I was properly chilled by the time I'd descended into Glen Shiel past the Kintail munros and I remember that it didn't seem any warmer down at sea level heading onto the Skye bridge. I think it took the whole of the next day to get my core temperature stabilised. Long day.
I rode into work once in heavy snow on the MTB (must have been 2010, harsh winter).
It was towpath the whole route so safe enough but even in town, there was still substantial snow - too much to drive in, trains weren't running either. Naturally there were very few people in the office.
Did a day's work, rode home, 15 miles through the fresh snowfall. It's mostly uphill all the way through a lot of canal locks, it was heavy snow so very slow going and it was incredibly cold - so cold that the canal had frozen solid in places and there was snow on top of the ice. Obviously it was pitch dark by then as well.
I absolutely died a death about 5 miles from home on the longest of the lock flights. I was in bits, pushing up some of the slopes, feet sliding in the snow. Got home, collapsed in front of the fridge and just ate whatever was immediately edible. Opened a tin of rice pudding and spooned the lot in cold.
I've blown up badly before - I recall one embarrassing ride very early on riding road bikes where a clubbmate had to push me up the final hill home - but that snowy one was just grim.
The Whole Enchilada. It’s mostly downhill and I got the uplift but easily hardest and at the same time best ride ever
I also underestimated it a bit and was so thirsty by the bottom I was drinking from the rocks as soon as I hit the bottom of the valley and consumed a whole pack of energy gels at the first bikeshop I found rolling back into Moab
Also impressed a mountain rescue lady by fixing a bent mech with a rock and getting it from completely broken to getting 10 out 11 gears. Got me all the way to the bottom as well, no way I would have survived the walk out
The Whole Enchilada. It’s mostly downhill
Apart from the rubbly track from hell towards the end (when you already knackered, right?) before the last D/H. Uphill enough to be a pain in the arse, not steep enough to be actually worth getting off to push, deep sections of sand, small marbles under your tyres, ledges that are just a bit too tall to grunt your way up and over..., Did it once in just tremendous heat (middle of the day in the desert), and remember thinking: "just kill me now"
I mean; it's an amazing track...but that section...
Yeah it’s intense! And even the push to the top from the uplift drop off is pretty nasty, fair bit of altitude
That desert heat though…..
2017 Bontrager 24/12. It started raining on the first climb and just got heavier and heaver. Destroyed all my brake pads, left with one working pad in the rear in the darkness. My riding buddy sensibly bailed after hours and hours of grinding slog. I battled on but around 11:30pm my brain just gave in and ended up sitting under a tree with rain pouring down my neck. I self sabotaged so I wouldn't cross the line in time to start another lap. Finished 9th overall I think...
The DrP Brighton - London - Brighton spectacular. Started it twice, finished it the 2nd time, 163miles, proper day out. The first time I didn't finish. Unbeknownst to me I had set off with a bout of Norovirus in the system. Started struggling more and more, did that, 'you go on and I'll get the train' routine and for only time in my life all my riding buddies agreed. Apparently I looked like death. Minutes after they left I spectacularly projectile vomited my soul away into a London park hedge. Took an hour to walk the mile to the train station. No idea how I didn't soil my bibs on the train. Got home, and spent the next 48hrs 'sleeping' on a towel on the bathroom floor.
Both tough for different reasons.