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Despite endless miles in the Alps, the MTL, uplift at Innerleithen, hitting my max speed on a road bike of 46mph, etc etc the bike ride that gave me the most pleasure was perhaps the shortest and slowest I've seen for a while. The ride of the year, as far as I'm concerned, goes to my daughter, Lexie.
Her first solo (without stabilisers)
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Hmmm has to be the edge in Craigieburn NZ, monster climb but what downhill, super exposed high level rocky singletrack into the longest twistiest forest trail roots and loamy leaf litter to drift for 30 mintues!
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or may be it might be slovenia! velika planina, the sickest trail 40 mins of the steepest rockiest hikers track ever, or the mint bike parks!
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Hardly done any riding this year, but some pretty memorable stuff.
Glad jimmy put that photo up, as that was one of my choices - best overall ride of the year, especially after losing my Ginger Positioning System and having to ride that descent again 🙂
Most awesome single experience was seeing the sunrise over East Fife from the Pentlands:
[url= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/4906596035_73dc9f7429.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/gingerfox/4906596035/ ]2minsafter[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/gingerfox/ ]Ginger F0x[/url], on Flickr
But I guess ride of the year was my slightly epic 2 week, 880 mile, East Coast of Scotland road tour up to Sheltand. Sadly no photos online, but a great experience which I had all to myself.
I've not had a big riding year myself.
If i need to choose one, it would be a day on Dartmoor with mates during a stop from walking.
Not a specific one, as they all made me realise how important riding is too me.
All rides merge into one and become a ridelife.
NickyB - some of that looks terrifying....
These pics have been up on here before - not actually my favourite ride of the year, but didn't have a camera with me. Still a cracking ride apart from being a solo - Glen Sligichan;
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Snowdon. To me, Epic
I'm also one that hasn't been riding much this year (apart from summer commuting on the canal), so it was nice to have the bikes shipped down to the parents on the Costa Blanca this October.
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This is a summary of our summer road trip round the alps which consisted of us joining guys who did the mega then doing a 2 week trip in an LDV with a couple of cars tagging along
Video instead of pics
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Day 1 : Manc to Geneva
Arrive at the airport to find the flight delayed, which is probably a good thing as the word from base camp was that a land slide had occurred on the road from Huez, trapping Liam and red leader. Eventually arrive at Geneva and do some car park bike box re-assembly, red leader turns up about 1am looking a little bit worn out.
Day 2 : Huez and Vernosc
Head up the switch backs to Huez to hook up with the gypsies camp, things look mostly the same as every year although a lot of folk did comment about the volume of snow on track as well as some sanitisation of the mega track. Word on the street was that Trig had slept in a disabled toilet the preceding night, following on from racing the mega then racing Sue's mate Meg up the 21 switch backs on a road bike (which he lost for a bet!); have seen Trig look better truth be told!
After a few warm up runs on the bitch track we head down to complete the obligitory 21 switch back challenge, except upon reaching the centre of Huez we find a dh track snaking through the village and down the hill. A pretty sweet race off ensues through Huez down and along the hill besides the main road. The course is brand new and has a number of tight dusty turns before dropping through some wooded sections. Hit the road about 1/3 of the way down to the bottom and meet a French chap on a Yeti who claims to know a track running all the way to the valley bottom. A few of us set off on the leisure ride while the rest roll down the road. The track is amazing, kind of like the bottom woods on the mega but a lot less used. Flying through woods at full tilt on a bed of leaves and mulch makes for some interesting line choices, the french dude on the free ride Yeti hands all our assess to us on a plate with typical french no fear down the fast stuff.
Roll into the van and drive to vernosc, manage to find a sweet camping spot next to the river by the lift and have the first of many glacial showers! Hook up with Nick and George, two chaps from Cardiff who are doing a full season road trip. There tolerance to the rolling TS catastrophe seems to pay off and they decide to join us for the trip,
Day 3 : 2 Alps
Typical day in the 2 alps with lots of death cross down the super fast red run and vernosc track. I think most people loved the twisty red run with its flat out turns, although coming close to taking out a small group of French riders who chose to stop on the fastest section is something I would rather forget! Sorted a load of food and booze out and sent it down the lift to Vernosc before loading up and heading for St P.
Day 4 : St p
After the obligatory flan eating comp, which pitted Salford and Trig in a battle of whit and flan eating agility, we headed up SP for a blast. This place is rude in every aspect, a euphoric mix of UK style tech dh cut up with some smooth high speed alpine sections. Spent a good while doing massive skids around a burm for Andy and his camera, some pretty sweet shots came out. Packed up and headed on the long drive for Pila via Beaufortain and the first of many box wine van drives.
Day 6 : Beaufortain
Arrive at one of the 3 resorts that make up the Beaufortain at some on godly hour in the morning, to the calls of "Roast Beuf" from the locals in the sleepy village bar. Drive the LDV up possibly the shadiest road to we have attempted that basically led to no where and involved almost reversing off a small cliff. Notice an interesting change in the LDV's passengers, they appear to have become a bunch of zombies. Pitch up at the wrong chair lift and watch Sue steal things from Alex.
Wake up and roll back down to the main town and up to the correct lift up the next valley (there are three areas to the resort, each of which open on different days). The track is brand new, quite free ridey but pretty rad. The lift on the other hand is nothing short of abysmal. This can sort of be forgiven as it was the first few weeks of operation as an mtb venue. Basically think of the french queuing system and lift assistants that are too small / weak to load bikes on fast enough. Track has some large gap jump at the bottom, one of the biggest things I have hit in a while. Chained Liam and Matt over it to check speed, Liam comes off mid air and I shit myself, somehow manage to not run him over.
After chatting to the lift dudes we hear of a dh track leading back down the valley to Beaufortain. Set off down the road and yoof crashes on a bend, causing a number of cars to complete an emergency stop. All is well in the end although apparently the drivers have looked happier. Another chain of death down the snyde track, quite similar to the one at Huez (i.e. flat out through alpine forests and mulch). Take part in a 5 person pile up on one of the bends (video to follow) and watch yoof go spannering off into the undergrowth down one of the faster bits. Have a ghetto wash under the town water pump and set off for Pila
Day 7 and 8 : Pila Rice
Pila is probably the fav for most on the trip, there is something quite special about riding actual WC tracks, especially ones like Pila. Best way to describe it is a mixture of fast sweeping turns and mega steep tech wooded sections. That said there is a lot of riding at Pila outside the WC track, a few red and blue tracks off the same lift as the WC track as well as some fully bad ass runs down to Aosta. The runs to Aosta were a highlight for me, they weren't really what you would describe as free ride tracks (similar to those we rode at Huez). They were actual DH tracks that went on for a good 15mins, truly amazing. To top it all off the runs finish in the actual city of Aosta, so after a 15 min badass dh run you roll through the city to the world biggest supermarket (probably not that much of an exaggeration). The chairlift then goes right back to the top at Pila across part of the city and over the main motorway, pretty cool.
We were ejected from our lodgings on the village green on the evening of the first night by the local fuzz, that said the officer did try to direct us to a suitable location outside the city limits. We ended up camping next to a church hidden in the middle of a forest, was a pretty nice spot actually. After another day smashing down Pila and Aosta we packed up and headed for Les Gets to ditch M.Winky
Days 8 and 9 : PDS
Am not sure if we brought a few too many preconceptions into Les Gets as the Zombie bus came to a drum and bass fueled halt outside Boomerang during the wee hours of day 8. It was good / bad to see nothing has really changed in Les Gets during out 4 year sabbatical from the resort. Boomerang certainly hadn't changed much, neither had Igloo for that matter. I have to put a shout out to Sue at this point, she spent the night stealing drinks from young boys. One group were seen leaving early bemoaning the fact they now had now money left between them because someone had stole all their drinks. In any other town we would probably have felt bad, but Les Gets is kind of like the bitch of Alpine MTB resorts and should be treated accordingly.
We were ejected from our lodgings in the car park by the lake during the mid afternoon by some rather angry looking police men. They gave us a lecture in french about not showing respect and told us to be gone shortly or else. The above may or may not having something to do with us rocking up in the early hours the night before blasting dj Hype, seemed a fair cop. Me and Andy bought a lift pass and managed two runs of les gets 1. I had thought I was running better forks these days than I did when we used to summer in Les Gets, that was why my arms didn't hurt. Turns out this was all rubbish, the main reason I no longer get arm pump is because we don't ride in Les Gets. You forget how big the ruts are, if anything they are bigger than ever before because so many idiots seem willing to pay to ride this shit. Fair play I suppose, keeps them out of the good resorts!
Drove to Les Linderes via an amazing lake (pics to follow), was nice having a bath for once rather than a ghetto shower. Rode Chatel the next day only to discover the Anne Caro track has been partially removed. That was a bit gutting as it was a personal fav of mine. Had a good afternoon hitting up the French Cup track, you could easily have a fun day on that one. By the end of the day we were all reminded why we never want to ride the PDS again. Packed up and headed for Val D'isere
Day 10 Val D'isere
Val D'Isere is probably the poshest looking resort the LDV has rolled into. Sadly, MTB doesn't figure that high on the list of activities at this resort. There was a red and a blue run marked out, probably the dullest tracks we rode in all our trips to the alps.
Thankfully there French Championships had taken place the day before and the track they used was fully sick. After a bit of a leisure ride from the top the track cut down on of the steeper pistes in the resort with a collection of large hucks to off camber and bonkers loose dust steep sections. Was the sort of track that was OK to ride down but very hard to ride fast.
Packed up after the lifts shut and headed for Pra Loup across a 2700m col. The LDV was loving it!
Day 11 VARS
VARS VARS VARS VARS!
This place is amazing, we had a BBQ, that is all
Day 12 Pra Loup
Most have rode Pra Loup before, its a pretty sweet venue actually. The newer masters track seemed to get heavily sessioned, as well as the really steep wooded black run to the bottom of the free ride park. Trig, Bland and Andy went out for a meal after riding was done and drank a load of this funny looking desert appartife. This seemed to have a strange effect on each of them, it caused Trig to jump of a big bridge into a lake (circa 50ft high) and Bland to pass out on the floor unable to get up. Eventually we arrived in Les Ores where peoples hang overs took hold
Too many good memories.
Local trail above Aberdour November
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San Juans, Washington, with Mme Moonteresse in September
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Jock's Road with Sanny in August
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Carn Ban Mor with Italspark in July
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Orkney cliff ride June
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Burmah Road, Cairngorms in May
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STW C2C2C in April
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Lammermuirs in January
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McMoonter - was a grand day out the c2c2c
McMoonter - was a grand day out the c2c2c
Truely epic!
The picture above is a little misleading, it involved a little more than two traverses of the bridge.
i cannot pin my years riding down to just one.
the bikemagic group coaching session i did is up there.
riding with mc and gw in scotland
chamonix
and many many more
Not particularly epic routes, probably not even the most fun riding, but there are two days that stand out for me. Both just left me feeling elated.
First was Kentmere and Longsleddale at the end of August. I had the day off work and decided I was going to ride no matter what, no idea what the weather was going to be like (it had been a bit rubbish), no idea what the route was like, just picked it out of a VP guidebook and went for it. Turned out it couldn't have been more perfect, stunning day, great scenery, great riding. Can't help but smile thinking back to one particular singletrack section..
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Second was Stanage a few weeks ago. To be honest, the ride was crap, didn't enjoy the route much, the weather was crap, spent too much time pushing uphill. But then reached Stanage Pole and it was the most stunning sight I've ever seen as the sun began to set over the fog in the valleys.
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Andituk
Thats the thing the memorable rides are not always the best trails - there is an indefinable "something" on a great day out.
I think we need three things to make a great ride - good company, good scenery and a good trail. sometimes the proportions vary but you need a bit of all three
It doesn't have to be a gnarly techfest - but needs a little more than forestry roads all day. It don't have to be stunning scenery for the whole day - but endless conifer forest don't cut it, sometimes even your own company is all thats need 'cos that is what you fancied but sharing a grand day out with your mates is just great.
Someday it all just clicks and you have a great ride to remember.
Its those days we do it for.
very difficult to say, i've done more riding this year than i have the last two years put together but one highlight was riding on the beach in Northumberland, hardly a soul about 25ish degress and truly breathtaking scenery at time
[url= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/4894121119_fe599c44cb_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketdog/4894121119/ ]Velocake Beach[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/rocketdog/ ]rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr
every single ride this year documented here http://www.a-pic-a-ride.blogspot.com/
+1 Snowdon with the lads earlier this year.
Any more?
Hmmm... A few to choose from but not as many as in recent years.
I was tempted by the ride up a munro in the Cairngorms and the ride I did in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) through stunning scenery complete with picturebook German towns decorated for their Corpus Christi parades but in the end I opted for this...
7.5 hour ride from home along the local canal and the flat surfaced former railway line cycle paths.
It may sound an odd choice but after spend years of doing this ride as part of my winter routine and bemoaning the double digit temperatures and mild weather in January and February it was a great feeling to ride it in the cold and snows with the landscape looking again how I remembered it from childhood winters pasts.
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'Secret' singletrack on Fromme, North Shore. Amazing loamy goodness.
Hard to choose one, but here are some highlights:
Stuartie-no-mates ride in teh Lomonds in February:
[url= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4372884685_cca5ed534f.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartie_c/4372884685/ ]51/365[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/stuartie_c/ ]stuartie_c[/url], on Flickr
The Ullapool C2C2C:
[url= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4510803505_9750be6b8d.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartie_c/4510803505/ ]TJ worries the sheep[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/stuartie_c/ ]stuartie_c[/url], on Flickr
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartie_c/4510836181/ ]100/365[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/stuartie_c/ ]stuartie_c[/url], on Flickr
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartie_c/4511448606/ ]R1013690[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/stuartie_c/ ]stuartie_c[/url], on Flickr
Cairngorm Loop with Shortbread:
[url= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4589473969_be4f440462.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartie_c/4589473969/ ]R1013818[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/stuartie_c/ ]stuartie_c[/url], on Flickr
Also some memorable races:
10 More in Moray - perfect weather, lovely circuit, great atmosphere.
Kielder 100 - stunning misty sunrise
Relentless 25 - usual NoFuss brilliant event but with perfect weather to boot.
And the Cairngorm Sportive circuit with my mate Neil:
[url= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/5031195480_507eb92ca9.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartie_c/5031195480/ ]Neil[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/stuartie_c/ ]stuartie_c[/url], on Flickr
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Its only a short ride but I really enjoyed messing about around The Storr at mid-summer.
Bhutan road trip, trip of a life time 🙂
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Some great days & pics 🙂
Mine was the day I hit the roadgap which I bottled 12 months before (didn't bug me for 12 months....)
Was drunk that night 😀
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Looking at these photos reminds me what a rubbish year of riding I've had. Got to change things next year.
mybike that takes some balls
From a week on Skye in August.
We also rode the Duirinish peninsula from Dunvegan but unlike the route in this months MBR we pressed on around the whole peninsula which was utterly gruelling and completely epic! Unfortunately I didn't get any decent photos that day.
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"monarch crest" trail on the continental divide colorado. Stunning epic scenery, endless singletrack, the highlight (literally in terms of elevation) of 2 weeks there.
I keep being drawn to pictures of Colorado singletrack. I think I'm going to have to go next summer.
For my ride of the year? Way, way too many to even begin to pick one. This is the year that started with an amazing group of riding buddies at home, riding several times a week all over the South West. Then the summer involved moving to Whistler and riding the trails all along the sea to sky.
It's certainly been a top year for bikes.
Verbier for me
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Welsh Coast to Coast
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trickydisco do you have a route profile - looks awesome.
I've had some brilliant rides this year taking Thud out and about on the bike - and the highlight would have to be the day we got three toddlers on to the top of Dumyat. Grins all round!
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Thud before tackling Whinlatter
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LOCTs on Dumyat
For me, it has to be GT and Inners...
Catalogue pose #1
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Some of the best I've done have been with you good people on here. The bizarrely popular [b]Peaks Pootles[/b]....
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But for me, as ourkidsam has said earlier, the stand out ride by a long way was Snowdon in June. Awful weather, but a cracking trip out and weekend overall.
Grim as grim can be, but brilliant.
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and if you're interested - there's [url= http://www.vimeo.com/13904646 ]a video![/url]
Incidentally, regarding the Peaks Pootles, I fully intend to get back into organising them again in the new year. There will be more!!!
Parvis - Member
Looking at these photos reminds me what a rubbish year of riding I've had. Got to change things next year.
+1
Although the club trip to GT and Inners back in may was good, had some memorable rides there with a couple of mates daring each other faster down the descents. Think the blue route down from buzzards nest will stick for a while, comedy crashes and plenty of laughs.
Probs the IoM e2e, I don't think I have any pics though.
freeridenick > StevetheBarbarian off here organised the whole thing. I'll grab the gps profile off him for you.
There have been so many, but this one took in many of the best parts of other rides in one week.
A week riding some of the best trails in Switzerland I've discovered so far with good friends.
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ir12daveo> epic photos!
i want to go 😥
some awesome pics / trails 😀
trickydisco - that would be great. thanks 😛
ace thread.
For me it was [url= http://www.flattyresmtbroutes.com/ABigRideForLittleLives.html ]A Big Ride for Little Lives[/url] another Welsh Coast to Coast but this time from the West Coast to the North with as much off road as possible. 8-9 hours a day in the saddle, 30C+ temp for the first three days.
Day 1 Aberystwyth to Mach
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Day 2 Mach to Llangynog
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Day 3 Llangynog to Llandegla
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Day 4 Llandegla to Prestatyn
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This thread is giving me plenty of ideas for 2011. Switzerland looks great.
ir12daveor - cracking pics. Any details of where you went etc?