Your longest ride into a headwind

I did 76 miles today, point to point, with 2500 ft of up/down.

Man, it was grim! Only swore twice and didn’t cry. It was a pretty lump road (A701) and even the slightest incline had me in a looooooow gear.

Birmingham to Reading, about 90 miles, but not as windy as today.

Any riding today is a good effort but 76 miles!?
On a 36 mile loop i’ve had the wind change direction on me. So was always in a headwind.

Blimey. No ta!

But thank you for putting my fast-approching ride home into perspective: 6 miles into a 18-35mph headwind, snow, -2, some hills. Doesn’t seem so bad now. Can’t claim I’m not putting it off, though!

I do remember the demoralisation of heading out on a long ride, feeling fit and strong, loving life and cycling, then turning back and realising how much help you were getting on the way out, and how much longer it’s going to take to get back.

All the way through the Outer Hebrides! Oh – and the time I dragged Spey across Sutherland 🙂

Bloody well done today though.

206 miles! No kidding. Last year a few of us organised a charity ride from Edinburgh to bolton. We picked the end of June for the most daylight. Unfortunately it was raining with a southerly all the way. It blew us to a standstill coming down shap!!

No doubt about the longest headwind here: tried to do 240 miles in one go, from Penzance home, which would ordinarily have had a nice gentle tailwind. As it was, we got hit by what was probably the hottest day of last year and a major headwind all the way. Not sure how strong it was, but it was strong – sailing boat masts were going well past 45 degrees and when we did some climbs in the lee of the wind we reckoned it was equivalent to at least a 1 in 10 gradient. Other than on the steep climbs there was no let-up, and after getting to the top of Dartmoor and staring blankly over a pair of lasagnes we conceded we had to stop in Exeter Travelodge overnight. Woke in the morning to more blazing sun (nice, though by christ we got through a lot of water bottles that weekend) and the same bloody headwind (not nice at all).

Suppose at least it’s an excuse to go back and do it again. Other than taking a duff bit of dual carriageway out of Plymouth, and the bell end drivers on the roads just to the east of Exeter, it was a lovely route…

Half of last years’ Fred Whitton. The stretch over Cold Fell nearly broke me!

I went to see a talk by Mark Beaumont (the round the world chap) He went east, and timed his ride so he would be in Perth to catch seasonal tailwinds for 3500 miles across Australia. He knew Central Asia and India would be slow going, bitty with lots of delays and hiccups and things outside his control. He always had in his head the idea that the real racing started in Aus. That’s when he could get hs head down and start getting some miles done on his terms.

And spent the whole 3500 miles riding into a relentless headwind, at times not being able to go much faster than walking pace.

206 miles! No kidding. Last year a few of us organised a charity ride from Edinburgh to bolton. We picked the end of June for the most daylight. Unfortunately it was raining with a southerly all the way. It blew us to a standstill coming down shap!!

Why pick Bolton ? 😉

Seriously though, did you guys have trailers and a Scottish flag ?

I remember seeing some guys coming into Bolton last summer 8)

Last years Isle of Man End2End, so about 47 miles. Had to pedal down the hills at some points. Character building stuff.

Why pick Bolton ?

We live here :D, we didn’t have trailers, we all had help for heroes tops on though.

Not the longest but by far the worst.

42 miles, Abbey St Bathans to Melrose.

Woke up in the morning in the most grim hostel i have ever seen (Abbey St Bathans). And thought “it’s a tad windy oot”.

Headed out with a tail wind for the first couple of miles.

Then we turned into it.

Had to pedal down just about every hill.

Got peed on by a cow at one point ( it was about 30 yards away in a field, wind just carried it horizontally. The Pee, not the cow !)

Threw up on reaching Melrose.

Average speed 7 mph.

Headwind?? Headwind in the summer or winter?? I mean, that’s gotta make a difference right?

Today was 45 mile roadie and it was horrible, thankfully I’d planned some hill climbing in rather than a rouleurs route..

It’s been quite some time since I’ve worn quite some much clothing.

Five feet, then I turned around.

Is Melrose that bad?

Bez how long was your ride?

Why pick Bolton ?
We live here :D, we didn’t have trailers, we all had help for heroes tops on though.

Must have been another group then.

I live in Bolton as well. Where do you ride ?

115 miles from Liverpool to Penrith while doing LEJOG last year. Wet, cold day, grey and horrible and with a bastard headwind all the way. Had to pedal down Shap, it’s a descent normally good for 45mph, we were doing less than 30. Utterly soul destroying.

A couple of days later we had a similar wind doing 135 miles from Glasgow to Fort William except it wasn’t headwind all the way, it had its moments of cross or tailwind. The last 10 miles into Fort William was bliss, picked up a tailwind round the shores of the Loch.

Kansas, Wyoming and Montana.

Almost forgot, that hellish day on the Columbia River gorge in Oregon.

I live in Bolton as well. Where do you ride ?

Local mainly on the mtb, rivvy, winter hill darwen , Rammy etc. road is usually wherever the mood takes me 😀

All my rides feel like they’re into a head wind, does that count? 😳
Well done on getting out today btw.

Haworth to Ramsbottom, all off road mostly by way of the Mary Townley loop. Certainly character building, although I did have a little cry when the others couldn’t see.

I got to the top of Archway tonight and actually shouted out as the full force of the wind coming down the A1 smacked me in the face. thankfully I headed East at that point and only had to lean into it rather than push against it.

No idea about the longest, but some ride stand out:
Durness to Thurso, but I gave up for the day in Tongue when the wind kept blowing my lunchtime rice-pudding off the spoon. At some points that morning I’d reached 3mph on the flats.

I was also out on my MTB on Jan 3 2012 when the jetstream touched down. Was at the Wallace Monument lying on my chest, holding onto my mountain bike as if it was a kite. It was only breezy when I’d set out.

Salter fell return leg on the road, early in my “away fixture” riding carer, me and my mate had taken little or no food, no warmer clothes, we were already knackered after the outward leg, turned cold and headwind from hella started. Proper sufferfest, it’s gone down in history as our worst ever ride. mrsparkle mentioned possibly doing a salter fell ride a couple weeks ago and I got a shiver of recollection, so badly is it etched on my soul.

A few years ago a friend and I joined up with a Geoff Thomas (ex England footballer) and some other cancer survivors who were riding the whole of the TdF route. We offered to join their longest stage (155miles) and ride on the front for them to help them along. It turned into a 20mph block headwind across northern France. Quite a day but you absolutely couldn’t complain since some of the guys we were riding with had just finished chemo and ride the whole of the rest of the TdF route. Ian Wright joined us for the day (mate of Geoff Thomas) and we had to push him up the hills from about 75miles in. He got off a 100miles.

I once did 100miles on the NYM’s, I swear the wind swung round when I got to Scarbrough!

Worse than that heading north it’s all wedge shaped hills with really painfull drags up then cliff edges down!

“Bez how long was your ride?“

Can’t remember exactly – something like 200 miles in the end over the two days, rather less impressive than the 240-in-24h we’d been aiming for, but we had to cut a bit off because we’d just lost so much time to the wind and a few other factors.

mcmoonter – Member
Almost forgot, that hellish day on the Columbia River gorge in Oregon

Ditto. 70 miles into steady 35 gusting to 45 mph headwind. There wasn’t much left of me after that day. Luckily, the preceding ~3500 miles meant fitness/condition were optimal.

5 hours grinding into a headwind @ 8mph in North Dakota, while touring in the US.
Nothing changed for 5 hours. There was no shelter. The headwind was consistent. My speed did not vary. The road was dead straight and level. There was no alternative route. I was reduced to staring at a point a couple of feet in front of my front wheel and trying to recall every detail of my trip, day by day, up to that point, in an attempt to distract myself from the grim process of forward motion.

A few days before I’d had a cracking tailwind and had knocked out an effortless 50 miles in a couple of hours.

Family weekend away,and I suggested that I cycle ahead and they drive out later.
50 miles of grovelling into a solid headwind ,made worse when I saw some riders that I knew,doing about 35mph the other way.
As I went further, I kept thinking “I will turn out of it soon and get a break for a bit”.
No chance,and as I heard txts on my phone now and again,I knew it was the family wondering where I had got to.
Took me twice as long as I had planned 😥

I think I can win this one:

FIVE EFFIN DAYS
About 400 miles
singlespeed
With touring gear
Le Havre to somewhere in Belgium……

Every bloody day. The climbs where you are out of he wind were easier than the flats where you were exposed to the wind.

Well I thought I was going to have some hellish headwind on a munro jaunt last Saturday. I nearly allowed myself to be put off by the forecast on the Friday night (40 – 50mph wind at munro level) and changed from my original plans (Meall Chuaich or Monadhliath) to try Bynack More with the bail out option of riding around Rothiemurchus.

I’d paid for my train ticket and was going to make the most.

I kept thinking that at some point I was going to be beaten back but managed to ride up to almost 3000ft. Where I had to turn back due to lack of crampons. Foolishly I had approached what was effectively a glacier, equipped with a bicycle. It was fair blowing on the north side of the summit approach though.

I rode up the Allt Mhor path to the funicular completely in shelter of the wind though the funicular itself was closed for that very reason. I missed out on my complimentary ride on it – which I wouldn’t have taken over a hack around the forest before dark and the train home. Sheltered there too.

Nowhere near as epic as some of the tails here…

A few weeks back I was doing my first 100 miler on a road bike – local club reliability ride. Miles 70-90 were into a tough south easterly. Man that hurt.

140km. Almost all on very rough corrugated dirt roads, alone during the Crocodile Trophy. I almost cried several times.

I have actually cried on a ride. I was pushing my loaded bike up a loose scree trail/climb in the rockies to a 12,000ft pass, it was taking forever as I just kept slipping back.

I thought “at least I’ll get a good descent”…the other side was worse and unrideable…I’d cheered up by then though.

Rode 98 miles on a laden touring bike from Hook of Holland down to Middelburg via The Hague, pretty much entirely into driving rain coming off the North Sea.

JOGLE.
First 350 miles were into a savage SW blast.
Totally grim until we saw the funny side.

from invercargill to westport.

constant horrible headwind – made the ride back from milford great though – tailwind did the whole route back to te anau in a day on loaded cross bike tourers

was a horrible fortnight riding up the west coast though – sights were worth it though.

Darum, Denmark to the German border along the coast. Relentless headwind for 70 ish km