Top 5 rides in 2013?

nearly another year over, sad times!!

just curious on where you guys like riding the most over the last 12 months?

Loads of good rides this year, had a lot of fun.
I was lucky enough to race in Oz in October, love it there, great riding and the locals are really friendly http://www.andrewhowett.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/i-need-other-rear-wheel-and-piece-of.html
My first trip to IOM in July was great, the Manx 100 was a great event, and much hillier than I was expecting http://www.andrewhowett.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-manx-100-and-bit.html
I had a slight mechanical problem at the Big Dog and didn’t get a very result but it’s still a great race http://andrewhowett.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/tough-weekend-saturday.html
The Gorrick 100 was dry,my first dry race in well over a year, I had forgotten how much fun dry trails are
http://www.andrewhowett.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/i-have-waited-14-months-for-this-moment.html
Can I include a road one as my fifth? Just for the sense of satisfaction http://andrewhowett.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/you-wait-all-year-for-win.html

Mmmmmmm. Best single “section”- stage 2 of the Dudes of Hazard enduro at kinlochleven, on practice day in the pissing rain. Like riding down a river. Makes no sense but it was just perfect riding. The whole weekend was great but that was perfect

No Fuss Endurance Downhill- maybe best day on the bike, it’s impossible to explain this event, 6 hours on the same course should get old and 13 times down the track should get plain unpleasant but… Nah. Stunningly good, 3 years in a row, nothing else like it.

2 days at White Rooms 😆 Day doing La Varda then jumping in a lake was sublime, day at La Thuile as ever was near perfect.

And about a million days in/at/around Innerleithen, couldn’t pick a best day. Probably the uplift-enduro-downhill day we did- gorgeous weather, all sorts of riding, good mates.

My big weekend in Rotorua, rode most of the marked trails over 2 days.
50KM day at Bike Buller
Tassies Blue Tier 18km variety box of descending trail
Recent trip back to Forest cleaning up all the trails there
Racing down Hobarts North South track (until I broke my hand 3m before the line on my final race run…)

Apedale Road with Mrs S in November – beautiful day, wonderful scenery, daft jokes, excellent trail, nice cake.

Local ride with xherbivorex and his partner in the summer – great fun showing off your local trails.
Nice people.

Hit The North – best one yet. It always is.

Pennine Bridleway over to Wycoller from Gorple Road – another local one for me and Mrs S.
Great cafe and sweetie shop at Wycoller – could become addictive.

Velodrome with Mr Overshoot, Ninkynonk and associates – a very pleasant night out with some nice people.

“Locals Only ” in Andorra when on holiday there with the boys, and we saw Cedric!
” Lagan Wolftrax” red and black when working my way home after a job in Ullerpool
“Innerleithen” red and black on the same trip home
“Route 66” in Andorra, not especially fun but as it was my mates first foreign descent, it was amusing for us at least.
“Around the block” by my house with the daughter on Christmas Day on the road bike Santa brought her.

andrewh…Am thinking about doing the manx100 and been wondering what travel fork to run? would you think 120mm would be the way to go?

For me probably the best was Gawton’s ProperJob and SuperTavy. Loved both and well worth the drive. Other than that any ride with mates and giggles.

I went to Sierra Nevada with Ciclo in May 2013.I have 5 days of riding there that are the best of the year, and indeed my life.

stages 3 and 6 of the Alps Haute Route

Riding Table Mountain in the sunshine in April, left the UK’s grey skies, sleet and drizzle and arrived to 27 degrees and sunshine with some of the best road and off road riding I’ve ever known.

Roll on next time we’re there 😀

Bones76, 120mm probably fine. Check out http://www.manx100.com. Nigel

Thanks Nigel, Have been on website and mulling it over but i am getting swayed towards doing it!! Be a epic ride/race but something i know i have in me!! And i have never been so what better way of seeing the island.

Due to lifestyle synesthesia, my top ride was a rock climb. Ciclo (see scienceofficer) was ace. I think the Mondraker gravity Enduro at Porlock slightly edges it though.

My top ride was here… (OK that thread was a little premature, but that ride is probably still top)
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/your-favourite-ride-of-the-year#post-5492990

2,3,4,5 were probably… in no particular order… well it is alphabetical order… Burma Road, Cairn Gorm (but that was on foot), a ride up Melibokus (actually the ride back down was the good bit), and one other that I can’t decide (edit: probably one of several rides to “Frankenstein’s Castle“, but I’ve been there so often, that all the rides “merge” in to one).

Pila bike park, once I’d got up to speed – had a couple of near-perfect runs from the top right down to Aosta with loads of loose, dusty corners.

Mega practice and riding below Alp D’Huez – particularly the cheeky footpath down to Oz and nailing it over all the roots on the lower section of the mega track.

Passportes Du Soleil – livened up immensely this year by the terrible weather the day before, which had left some of the woody singletrack descents very challenging. The descent to Torgon was a belter.

Revolution Bike Park – Loved Antur Stiniog on the same trip, but this day was more my cup of tea, great to see myself getting better at slithering down the hill through the day – stood me in good stead for that PPDS ride above.

Skiddaw, Ullock Pike & Back Of Skiddaw a month or so ago, first big ride back since breaking my arm. My riding was diminished quite a bit but had a great sense of achievement to have completed the ride – throwing myself back in the deep end.

And the Bonus Ball is – Any one of three or four perfect early summer evening rides round Rivington, riding my fastest ever with the backdrop of a glorious golden red sunset.

All my riding this year been done in the Tweed Valley, while great days they all blend in to one great ride.
The highlight of the year must be when I dusted off the DH bike and spent a day on the Aonach Mor DH track, followed closely by the previous day on the hardtail round KKL.

Best trails of the year have to be the new ones (to me at least) in a lesser travelled part of the Tweed Valley, I’m sat here thinking about going out for one last ride this year on them but the incessant rain is putting me off…(I know, what a pussy)

Coastkid’s Fat bike weekend in May

The bike section in me Ironman

A point to point Dumfries – Edinburgh

A 40-miles-on-a-Brompton day in London & Oxfordshire

Been doing too much running to have any more!

Torridon in April, the most amazing place I’ve ridden, blue skies, no wind, mirrored lochs, and just me and the missus on the most awesome descent.

bones76 – Member

andrewh…Am thinking about doing the manx100 and been wondering what travel fork to run? would you think 120mm would be the way to go?
I did it on 26″ full suss, 3.75″ at the back, 100mm at the front (nice mix of metric and imperial there) and that felt about right for me.
I would say 100-120 would be about right but I would put more more emphasis on reliability than anything else on a ride like that.

PS Seeing those pics I now want to go to Torridon!

It’s hard to remember all the way through the year but some of my highlights include all those below. COming over to NZ for 4 months at the start of December means next years will likely be even harder!

Queenstown – Last day of lift opening running the big bike until the lift was closed due to rain. Getting the pace up on Grundy and getting a few jumps dialled.
Rotorua uplift evening – A couple of marked trails but mostly wild locals off piste stuff.
Pila/Aosta – 2 days here in the wet during our alps trip. Running the long trail between the 2 as the top lift was shut. About 15 runs over the two days sliding everywhere on the big bike!
Les Carroz – Another day from the alps trip, rain the previous day made it fairly slick and again the off piste/unofficial trails on the big bike. So steep but so much fun.
Any number of rides from my house in Sheffield in the peaks. I guess the single best was probably for my leaving weekend just for having loads of mates out for a spin.

Spaceman, any chance you could point me in the direction of some of this tweed valley stuff?
Obviously a lot of potential there and would just save me some time if I knew where to look 🙂

1. Garda. A week riding some fantastic trails. Best one would be 601 trail – loved the technical lower sections so much that some of us went back to repeat them the following day in a downpour.
Wet limestone techy trails! 😈
2. Fort William – just looping round and round the DH course, getting progressively faster and maybe a bit braver. Made a weekend of it and did Devil’s Staircase and Cairan Path which are both also v good.
3. Four Passes (Tour of Gable) – highlights would be the descents from Honister and Sty Head
4. Blencathra and Skiddaw – some good oldfahioned hike-a-bike.
5. hmm, have to think now, maybe Snowdon.

Nothing as glamorous and far flung as some but…

1. Quaraing, Skye – rocks views and absolutely stunning geology all mixed with great riding.

2. Tour of Great Gable

3. South Downs Way and Friston Forest – its not big, not abroad, not that gnarly but riding where I started out mountain biking on the South Downs where I grew up has a nice homely feeling to it.

4. Dyfi Enduro – really enjoyed the riding with the slate tunnel down through the forest a favourite with the wild shouts of the man at the bottom to brake and turn right!

5. Anything that involves Ullswater shore and upper paths, Angle Tarn Boredale Hause – so much good riding. Oh and I’m doing it Wednesday night – yee har!

After breaking my arm twice I probably only managed 5 rides away from home!

Off the top of my head, a nice dry loop of the Peak District mid may, and really enjoyed Cwm Rhyadder in July. Handfull of nice sundays out on the road bike.

I think this is the first year in ages I’ve not even done an (imperial) century!

My top 5 rides:

1. Bike Park Wales (uplift)
2.
3.
4.
5.

That was my only ride 🙁