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Just about to head out for my final ride of 2011 - nothing epic, just an easy spin of my favourite local loop (not feeling that well, but I'm b*ggered if I'm not going!)
A chance to reflect on and celebrate that I have been lucky enough to have a great year of cycling 🙂
Anyone else fitting in a last ride before the close of the year?
Yup, going to head out on a new local loop that I've half ridden and the other half is mapped out in my empty head, fingers crossed!
Going out for a couple of hours on road bike with a friend at lunch time.
I have only done solo road rides so far and my mate is an amateur world champion triathlete so I am slightly apprehensive.
Since all the local trails are waterlogged I'll be heading out for a couple of hours at Carron Valley trails
Yup, last spin round Brickhill woods while the ankle biters are asleep later.
Mine was a short and slow muddy slog yesterday. Today we are taking the dogs to the beach.
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slainte 😀 rob
Yup - been out already this morning. Just a quick loop from my house, round Ashton court in Bristol, and back.
Started at 7:20 in the dark and finished when it was light. Night / dawn rides are ace. I saw more deer than people until the very end. One even ran parallel to the trail for about 20 yds.
The wind and rain was less enjoyable, but the mist made it cool for a while
chakaping - just peddle very hard and very fast, and try not to be sick 🙂
chubby_monk - that's a really special way to start the last day of the year
Right - bike is calling so I'm off. Enjoy your end of year rides folks
Blazing sunshine here in Maribor so I am off out up Pohorje.
i'm going to ride the singletrack i have been cutting at herts. fast and flowy 🙂
Time crunched, so going for a run instead.
*heads off to RunnerTrackWorld*
Just been out for a ride, minus degrees, loads of frozen puddles, but the sun is shining. Fantastic to be out there not worrying about HR zones and times but just riding 'cause its cool to do so.
road ride, 35 mile loop in the golden triangle. And the ham bone, leek and potato soup I've just prepared (and on the hob at minimum temperature) as recovery meal.
Around 45 minutes on road. Haven't got time to drive anywhere to ride the mtb.
This evening my usual 1hr30m, SS, arse-ripping climb to the pub on the hill for a pint then rattle back down to my local for a few more.
If I can be arsed to do another climb there's a new-to-me descent I want a crack at.
just done 24 miles on the road bike as a pre ride to 31 in 31 for Jan ..........................hopefully
Around 45 minutes on road. Haven't got time to drive anywhere to ride the mtb.
Is that even worth it, Tom? 😉
Been out for the last couple of days on local rides around Halifax. On the tops so weather was pretty wild (especially thursday) but really enjoyed it. No riding today though.
any ride is worth it!
Sadly already had the last ride of 2011. Building girlfriend's bike today so its ready for the new year. So out riding tomorrow. Happy riding everyone
My wife is off to bingo this afternoon so I'm with my son (8 years old)... We will be going to the BMX park near us so he can show me up then when the wife gets back it's night riding at 4pm. Local loop, well, it's 7 miles before I get to the loop but it's like my own private trails centre, always empty and absolutely great lines... pretty sure that it was all made by motorcross bikes some times ago, now it's not that rutted but it still has great roughness to it and the hills up and down are the best I've been on. I'll be blasting the Trek Fuel around.
I can't wait. Everyone else, enjoy what you're doing on the last day - Happy new year!!!!!!!!!
Glentress yesterday was my last ride if the year, wasn't expecting to get properly snowed on! Ended up ****ing freezing!
BigG, a couple of hours at CV? I'm bored to tears after 1 hour
I have got 16km to do today to meet my 4000kms for the year target. I shall do it as I have done many of them in the local forest on awesome trails with axl the awesomely fit lurcher alongside. He's in a huff recently because I've been doing longer Puffer training rides without him.
One more commute and that's it.
Over 9000km on a mountain bike this year and half of it on a single seed. 😀
I was out yesterday (Fochabers as it happens, had to keep going to get pastall the ice here).
Too knackered and the bike stuff is still clarted from yesterday. Plus been out more on the bike in that last week than in the previous 4-5 months... 😳
Planning a 100 miles tomorrow so heading to the gym today instead of riding, and then heading to the sofa for the rest of the day. My last ride of 2011 was a mtb ride on Thursday. Strange to end the year with a mtb ride, given I've only mtb'ed a handful of times this year...and almost all of those rides have been wet/muddy/snowy!
Epic last ride of 2011:
300m to the shop, newspapers for me and FIL, delivered, another 500m, then back up the hill home, 5minutes (including time chatting).
Have a good 2012!
I was out on the roadbike yesterday,did the local loop before going to work,2nd time this week,doing the local loop that is,been working mon-fri.Sue I know what you mean about enjoying the "unspectacular" local rides,I love how everything changes through the seasons.
First ride of the new year tomorrow.
Happy New Year all 😀
i'm riding to the shops for groceries! hope to get a proper ride in after too. and without further stalling for time, good bye!
Metric half century just completed for me pre boozing 🙂
went out this morning for a 25 mile road loop. it was very nice, though a bit windy. dark when i set off, followed by a beautiful sunrise as i was going over waterloo bridge. lovely stuff. 🙂
100km beasting on the roadbike yesterday, pushing like hell. One too many vodkas last night so missed my recovery ride by 5 hours. Fail.
Just a spin the legs ride around Cannock, now having a roll from the cafe 🙂
Turbo time zone 2 of 4 whoop whoop
That was an ace final ride of the year ... my favourite coastal road route, stunning scenery out to sea, virtually no traffic, and best of all blue skies, sunshine and riding in just a t-shirt!
I'd just like to say that again - biking ... in a t-shirt ... on the 31st of December - Fan-bleedin-tastic 🙂
I feel so lucky to be me!
Done it - an hour on the road bike. The wind and rain was so strong I was blinded at one point. Got a tailwind on the way back though!
It's gonna be a nightride tonight to see the year in on-top the hills 🙂
Short, Hilly road ride testing out the new cadence sensor. Ignored everything but trying to keep a faster cadence and be as smooth as possible. 2 mins quicker than my best time. Result 🙂
CwmCarn tomorrow, back to proper bikes 😉
Might be an hour on the roadbike this avo
or
a quick local one on the [cough]Footpaths[/cough] around the vilage.
Tha later will be bloody filthy though 🙁
was yours up the Mountain Sue?
Across Salisbury plain yesterday, not too muddy!
Vortexracing - no, not up the mountain. Along the estuary, skipped through the junction, skirted round Penrhyn Bay, and through Llandudno, and then up and round the Great Orme - love that part of the ride, and the descent from the Rest and Be Thankful cafe is a blast 🙂
Will be heading up the mountain for midnight tonight, but will be on foot.
Enjoy your ride!
will do
Ta
must make a pint of trying a ride up the great orme next year. There appear to be loads of tracks when you lokk down from the cable car.
There is, the Orme is a little world of fun cheek 😉
Looks like my last ride of the year was on Christmas Eve! A frankly insane ride in central London dodging lemming pedestrians. It was quite good fun once I got into the flow of it but mentally draining...
Not been on a bike since then which could be entertaining when I start my track racing early in the New Year. Guess I'd best go prepared for a thrashing!
Just back from my local loop - quick spin around this end of the Hope Valley, bit wet but the weather makes it moody. Valley bottom - Great Hucklow - Windmill - Bradwell Moor - back down into the valley - mixed road and trails, just enough before tonight climb up Mam Tor for Midnight. Couple of pics:
Great Hucklow towards Ashford in the Water
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Windmill's infamous junction:
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Bradwell Edge from Bradwell Moor:
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Have a great New Year!
It's gonna be a nightride tonight to see the year in on-top the hills
That sounds good, think that'll have to be my plan for next year, this year I will be cycling over to a mates to party! 🙂
Sufferfest 'A very dark place' about an hour ago, I did a mini sick at the end of the third interval.
Rode the local woods on my spangley newly built 29er yesterday 😀
Just ridden out the front with the kids before it buckets down with rain....Nice
already had mine.. easy local loop with my G/F to tip me over into four figures and 1005 miles for the year 😀
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/spodhopper/6601430941/ ]Dec 28[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/spodhopper/ ]spodhopper[/url], on Flickr
gentle little pootle discovering what extra carnage the orks from the FC have left across the chase, another 3 brilliant trails gone, so we'll wait for them to ****off and go and build some new ones.
did re-discover a cracking old trail, was a wee bit slippy in places and had cake and coffee and met another sillytrack forumite who came for a spin with us today and has an invite to come back and play for a proper big one when it all dries out a bit.
Classic road ride with my club mates
Ivinghoe Beacon, Ashridge,Amersham, Aylesbury,Stewkley and home.
Just off out for a gentle pootle along the Exe estuary with the GF. Quiet way to end a good year.
chakaping - just peddle very hard and very fast, and try not to be sick
I managed surprisingly well, though I didn't spend much (ok, any) time in front. Felt a bit queasy on the home stretch but kept my breakfast down.
Worryingly, I think I could get quite into this road riding lark.
(I unwittingly lied before btw, think he is/was only European champ)
A quick run up to the Carneddi, around Moel Wynion, a dash through the local woods, and back home for me. Annoyingly on getting home I realised I put a small gash in my knee. How? By falling over clambering up slippery rock. The infamous one last run!
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65k's of Yarkshyres finest moors near Grimwith Res, i'm foooooked that's 2011 over with... I've a feeling 2012 will be even more exciting.
Just got back in from a solo blast round Grinton & Reeth, last of the year but i suspect it will be the first of the new year too.
Peace & love folks:)
Out with the roadies this morning for a final Saturday Chain Gang ride. 44 miles in 2 hours. Whatever happened to the suggestion we 'slow down' the winter rides???
A pity our usually coffee shop at the end was closed tho'
Here's to more in 2012 🙂
tazzymtb -
had cake and coffee
Bet that was at Mammoth 🙂
As per my thread the other day I went up to the borders as my old man has just moved back that way. Despite being advised to go to some other places, I did end up going to Newcastleton yesterday as a) it was nearest b) I was hungover and c) I could pop in and see my cousin who lives there and who I had not seen for 21 years. To be fair the trail is a bit dull except the first bit of red and maybe the end bit but on the plus side I did get to freak out my cousin by turning up on her doorstep and asking for a cup of tea (I did have to ask in The Local Shop for Local People where she lived though, my memory is not that good).
Think I am going to head up Gisburn on Monday as its just up the road but for some reason I have never been. Will see if I have recovered from new year enough to enjoy it.
Just got back from a 20 mile loop around Surrey Hills. Very boggy in places compared to Wednesdays ride. Then had a "bonus" 5 mile road ride when my cheeky short cut went horribly wrong!
Note to self: Be more careful when copying GPS marks for car parks.
Had a nice little local bimble - I gate crashed a girls ride and had an ace time!
3 hrs on North Shrops roads and they can consider themselves well and truly owned.
Happy New Year to everyone (and that includes the numpties who don't know how to overtake, and a special mention to the dude who had the courage to threaten to get out of his car 😕 )
¡Feliz Año!
My last ride of 2011 was with a mate on Bodmin Moor. The conditions were less than ideal with lots of standing water, mud that you could lose a tank in & very strong wind to the extent that we had to pedal on the downhills.
That being said it was my mates first ride up there & we had great fun. Roll on 2012 & even more riding 🙂
Been laid up with a bad back most of this week so last ride of 2011 was Sherwood Pines on Christmas day. Only other people there were a few surly rogue dog walkers wandering along one of the singletrack sections.
Yep just about to leave, did a fairly long one (for me) yesterday slippy slidey, dog faster than me on the down bits, but even in the rain and wind sloggin across some single track mid field I remember reflecting that there was no other place I'd rather be at that moment just as the right tune came on.
So I'm off now and I shall further reflect on what has been the sh1test year of my life to date, lost a mill, buried my mom and my best man, heard a couple of days ago my riding mates 14 yr olds throat cancer has returned..
Hey ho can it get any worse?
Was over Swinley for a couple of hours earlier, very sloppy. Just shy of 2000 mile for the year, so that's next years target mileage sorted.
red blue and green routes linked at Brechfa yesterday on new Gryphon build,
Not long got in from a nice 3 hour ride in the Forest of Dean with two lovely young ladies for company. Took a lesser used route out to Dowies, plenty of fun, slick singletrack and an unusual amount of mud for the FoD 😯 All followed by the last bacon butty of the year 😳
Here's to many more in 2012 (rides, that is, not just bacon butties!)
first ride in months (that's changing I can assure you) and last of the year was a 6 mile local pootle, proper muddy/a bit rainy/a bit.
On the plus side the wife met me half way round so we could throw a ball for the dog, that made it so much more worthwhile 😀
Now going to Sainsburys to buy a bike mag and some mixers for my rum
Yesterday was the last ride of 2011 for me. A cracking 20 miler round The Long Mynd with a few friends, yeah we got wet but it didn't dampen our spirits at all.
Monday will be the first of many for 2012
Hamsterley black route was yesterday's last ride of the year for me. Frozen in places- boggy in others! Well worth the slog up to the transmitor though! All the best for 2012
Cycled from home in Hazlemere to favourite viewpoint in the Chilterns, Whiteleaf Hill, then did many slippy slidey downhills off it before meeting wife and daughter in Princes Risborough.
I've done my first ride of the day but my last ride of this year will also be the first ride of next year. Heading out about 10.30-11 for a couple more hours on the mtb and start 2012 at the top of a great descent. Did it solo last year but have company this as so many folks were jealous of my last new year.
Just back from 17 miles around Leeds. Went to try and find the new offroad trail from Temple Newsham to Roundhay Park.
Last one of the year for me today. Heres to loads next year. 🙂
A sloppy Bringewood.
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It is done. 18kms around the local woods. Good to run into 3 different groups of kids out biking and found some of them building a gnar trail which I'll check out next year. 4001.38 kms for 2011 and 40650m elevation gained. All in my own time, for fun. No commutes here 🙂
Muddy one in Wentwood forest yesterday and an hour's blast around town this afternoon. Good to see the local outdoor skate park packed with kids on bikes/scooters . . . why Newport City Council have seen fit to demolish it (just a couple years after it was built) next year to make room for another football pitch I have no idea 👿 . . . the adjacent pitch was virtually empty in comparison 🙄
eye, yep, had a muddy ride yesterday over Summit area at Littleborough and around Blackstone Edge...nice loop with a good grassy downhil decent closely followed by my sons running Husky dog ...just kept on running.... 😉
Had a muddy slog to QE park this morning then spent an hour with the QEPC trail builders mid ride felt really good giving a little back to the trails I have ridden for years