Have to give it best. 300k to go and no time 🙁

BadlyWiredDog – Member
I’m slightly amused by observing myself clocking up miles and pondering the differences between riding the bike to ride the bike and riding the bike to score comedy brownie points on an online challenge

You do realise it’s a cunning ploy to turn us all into audaxers?

Hat to those who’ve completed in rubbish weather. Kid in my feed (19yo) finished with a 260km solo schlep through frozen Cambridgeshire at 30kmh…

I’m hoping to get it out the way today with a 5hr ride up the Basque coast (dry but blowy) so I can go out for a proper ride tomorrow.

All done now. Prob some of the worst conditions I’ve ridden in all year. Ended up doing 8km laps & calculating on the fly how many times I needed to go around to complete.

Good luck to all those clocking up the final km in what’s left.

Hiurrah, all done. 6 punctures in total, ridden in rain, gales ice and frost, dodged fallen trees, bonked once, suffered with the previous day’s excess of beer and wine once and probably neglected my family duties on too many occasions. This badge had better be a good one.

Well done all. Some ice under a bridge saw me take a flyer and a hospital visit so no more riding for me for a while. Bugger.

http://app.strava.com/activities/102706442

Really wanted to complete it this year as I hit 490k last time.

However due to work/not feeling to good this year I have only hit 250k.

Think my last ride of the year is this.

42 miles left, hoping to get them done tonight. Charged my front lights last night, but typically forgot to charge my rear, so waiting on that to go out and get started.

Looking forward to having a few well-earned G&T’s when I get back if I finish!

Another 48ks for me sandwiched between Dearest Mothers arrival and a shopping trip to Waitrose…
It looks like I’ll fail to reach the 500, trying to do it off-road in this torrential rain and blustery winds means I’m fer king freezing and aching..

Hey ho. 😆

And that’s that – a meandering 53km on the cross bike with 1280m of ascent gives me 522km and 10,889m of climbing. I may buy a flapjack to celebrate. Amusingly the hardest ride was the shortest, off road, on a singlespeed with savage headwinds.

Not something I’d normally do tbh, but good fun and my general policy of never taking a flat road or trail when there’s a lumpy one instead , erm, was amusing though not to my legs at times. Mix of road, cross and mountain bike.

Anyway, hats off to anyone else who’s been out in today’s nastiness and good luck if you’re tapping out those final kilometres 🙂

Done.
Finished off with one of those “get your head down and just get on with it” style rides. Sprinting at 12mph into the wind, freewheeling at 25mph with a tailwind, all the while getting pelted by supersonic rain.
With any luck my shoes will be dry by May :-/

Kudos. #doffs cap to all those racking up the miles. 🙂

Well done to those that have finished.

We are nearly done now.

Have you ever been riding and all of a sudden it goes very dark?

for tomorrow if i can fit it around work.

11miles gets me 9000miles for the year
50miles gets me 1000miles for the month
65miles gets me Rapha 500.

direct commute is 17miles each way.

hmm…

Finished it today, 100km round the Lake District. Some of the lakes and rivers had stopped being where they were supposed to be and had flowed out onto the roads.

515km done in 6 days of riding. 🙂

BadlyWiredDog – Member
522km and 10,889m of climbing

Blimey, do you live in the Andes?! That’s about 2000m per 100km. And I thought it was rugged here.

Finished today in 4 rides, a trip to Bordeaux and a stomach bug (the two are related…) meant I missed three days. Couple of hours on the mudplugger to round things off tomorrow.

Blimey, do you live in the Andes?! That’s about 2000m per 100km. And I thought it was rugged here.

Peak District combined with an odd liking for hilly routes/appalling route planning capabilities. I wouldn’t mind living in the Andes, but the sanitation is often questionable. Nice views though.

Blimey, do you live in the Andes?! That’s about 2000m per 100km. And I thought it was rugged here.

Pretty similar number to what I get in Wales… but thats when I pick “hilly” routes.

I’m having a nightmare trying to get this finished. I have 146km to go and my plan was to do a 40k (ish) ride after work this evening when the wind died down. However, I’ve had to fix another puncture (my 5th of the week!), my front light has died, and the spare isn’t charged. So now it’s almost 10pm, and I’m waiting to go out for a couple of hours in the pitch black and do laps of a local business park. And I’ve turned down a MTB ride with friends tomorrow to do the last 100k alone. Remind me again why I’m doing this…?

Well done to those who’ve finished.

I’ve got 78km to go. Weather looks pretty wet tomorrow and I’m really really saddle sore, this is the most mileage I’ve done in a week.

I’m tempted to just blast up and down one of the TT runs in the forest. Straight forward flat 5.5 miles out and back, headwind one way, tailwind the other.

10 runs / 3 hrs should do it. Is that cheating?!

legolam – Member
…laps of a local business park. And I’ve turned down a MTB ride with friends tomorrow to do the last 100k alone. Remind me again why I’m doing this..

Doesn’t sound very festive. Turbo rides count, why not do a couple of hours tonight with a bottle of sherry and some Dad’s Army 😉

Static rides don’t count- otherwise I’d have been sat on the rollers instead of getting drenched in the dark this evening…

46 miles done tonight, Festive 500 finished!

Best of luck to everybody finishing up tomorrow, I’m very relieved that I’m done.

Oops… hope Legolam reads this before he gets on the turbo 😳

Don’t worry, if this challenge had been possible on the turbo, I’d have shut myself in the garage with a bottle of port and a few DVDs and it would have been completed days ago. I’m genuinely starting to fear for my sanity…

So glad I don’t have to ride today, the weather is vile. I mean, yesterday’s 100km was wet but most of the water was on the ground – flooded roads in places etc and that was quite good fun, I find that entertaining and the floods give the landscape a whole new look.

Rain like today, especially when combined with wind is just horrible.

61ks and I’m done, all out of fun.

I had to follow the lanes in the Downs to link some Bridleways together and there’s me thinking they’ll be all hard chalk n stuff, but full of sloppy muddy gear munching grime.. It’s been raining since 4am and I started riding at 0930, I’m very sodden, have cold kidneys and a new TCX that looks 9 years old 😯

Failed the challenge, but fek it, I enjoyed most of it, 98% of it but came short by 78ks… 😛

Finished it this morning.

Really enjoyed the last few miles once i already had the distance in the bag and thinking back over some of my favourite rides of the year. And there have been many to choose from – in total i spent about 22 days on the bike this year!

my 3 year old son has done more miles on his bike than me in december. I write this with another beer in my hand 🙂

All done, chuffed to have squeezed in 200km in the last 2 days, despite working both days (half day today) – on Sunday I was convinced I’d not manage it.

Minipips wins the Festive500 imho. 100% effort, 0% cocky

Well done all!

Finished! Not sure I’ll ever go on any of my bikes ever again…

Minipips wins the Festive500 imho. 100% effort, 0% cocky

+1. Top lad although at least he can claim experience – he did it last year and also completed the Rapha Rising Challenge (that climbing one held in summer). 🙂

Completed it today 521km, after failing at every previous attempt, twas starting to annoy me, no longer shall my failure ruin xmas, now for a two day bender.

Done as well – 102%. Last 55 miles up and down the same airfield strip in the forest. Dull as dishwater but I only had a short period between torrential rain and when friends come round for NYE.

Thanks Simon and James.

The fat lady sings.

finished with a 48mile ride home from work. that got me the festive, 1000miles for december, 9000 for 2013, and a desire to sleep!!

Minipips is awesome. Pity the fool who lines up against him at his sports day!

A little ride report from me: http://www.dbpharrison.com/general/rapha-festive-500-2013/

So do I win for the most boring ride?
http://www.strava.com/activities/103041130

Anyone else buying the tshirt then, I know it is a bit of a money spinner for them but as I’m not a premium user I don’t mind

Well I am super disappointed. I was all set for buying the tshirt (sad I know).

Its $40

plus +$25 for postage

plus customs and most likly parcelfarce handling charges.

Thats alot for a tshirt with a snowflake on it.

ill just save my money for one of the Castelli jerseys. $65 is too much for a t shirt. and the castelli jersey i had last year came from italy so no customs charges, and i am hopeful?

I didn’t seem to get the email despite being opted in?