Machka 

Happy First Day of Winter!! Well ... it's officially winter here in Australia. However, I suspect that some of you are getting some nice spring/summer weather now and are out logging lots of kilometres (or miles as the case may be). Tell us about your rides this weekend. Post pics if you've got them.



Saturday - so far, in the last 48 hours, this area has been celebrating the beginning of winter by having some of the wildest weather we've seen since ... ??? The spot we're currently visiting has had 100 mm of rain, and it isn't the only spot in this state with those conditions. The wind is howling and the rain is pelting down ... and we're hibernating.

On a cycling related note:
We're spending the weekend on top of one of the mountains in the area. It's a prize package we won for completing the 7 Peaks Alpine Ascent Challenge in 2011. We cycled up 7 Victorian peaks, put our names in a draw, and Rowan won a weekend here ... accommodation, meals, etc.

We were hoping for snow so we could go snowshoeing, but the weather warmed up just slightly (it's 5C out there) and the rain moved in, washing most of the snow away.

On another cycling related note:
On the way here yesterday, we stopped in at a couple bicycle shops to have a quick look around and to pick up cardboard bicycle boxes. We don't have bicycle shops where we live so it's interesting to visit them sometimes ... and we needed the boxes. Among the pile we got, we managed to score a huge box (which contained a downhill bike) which might be large enough for our tandem!


7 Peaks Challenge Photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/machka-...353695/detail/

Machka 

So ... who's riding this weekend?

We managed to get a walk in, which was quite nice. It would have been nicer to walk longer, but the cold rain really started to come down and we weren't entirely prepared for that.

stilltooslow

Today (Sat)....a hot, hilly 49 miles. Felt longer and the hills seemed steeper due to the heat. I won't even talk about my average speed.

Tomorrow (Sun)....A 34 mi fixie jaunt, some mild hills, but 34 fixed miles is equal to 51 on a road bike due to the standard fixie 50% mileage bonus.

gc3

June 1 - 60 hot and humid miles with 2600 feet elevation. Ended around noon today and the temp was 99.5 degrees while moving. Felt like my blood was starting to boil. I had been traveling for a couple weeks in much milder climes, and this was only my second ride. Weak effort...

...there was a guy on the roads and trails riding a fat tire all terrain bike, I passed him a few times, he was riding 65 today...much bigger cajones than me...

kenji666

Longest ride of the year, 48 miles with some good climbs. I'll sleep good tonight.

caloso

Met some teammates. We rode to the ride, rode the ride, and then rode home from the ride. 93 miles. Wiped out.

https://app.strava.com/activities/57564677

valygrl

^^ 1100' in 93 miles, wow.

I pre-road the course for next week's hill climb race, plus some, for 5500' in 56 miles. Lots and lots of >10% dirt. wow that is going to be hard.

Today I am riding about 100 miles & 7000' with some friends, we are going to have lunch in Estes Park.

calgary_jim

80 km through the foothills of southern Alberta. Lots of rolling deceptive hills, cow dung, but an excellent ride. Although, the last 10 km almost killed me.

CALE262

Went for a ride with the wifey yesterday, put on 80km...it was a personal best for her. Wont be long now and she'll do her first metric

SnowJob

I rode 67 miles yesterday. The weather was quite nice, but at the end I did get rained on. The Tour de Cure (diabetes charity ride) was going on, so there were quite a lot of people cycling. As I got into the country it was a bit quieter. Today I am going to ride some hills and practice my 'cross skills at a local park.

generalkdi

Rode 25 km hard with some climbing saturday morning before the rain. https://app.strava.com/activities/57486028

Rode 67km today under the rain during an easy group ride. https://app.strava.com/activities/57748958

caloso

Did you see the profile? Just one big hill. Here on the valley floor I can easily do a century with 100 feet of elevation. Pancake.

Jakedatc

Sun: 54mi with the group. hot and super windy. almost got blown over from a big gust from the side.. not fun.

cuda2k

Short ride yesterday, over slept, constant threat of a downpour, and the wind was just beating me up too much solo to do much more.

Today I ventured north up to Gunter Texas for a ride with some friends, 45mi of rolling hills, once again the wind picked up more than forecasted but at least this time I had a wheel to sit on when needed. Kirk rode better than I did, as usual, climbed as well as my legs out allow and went exactly where I pointed it when going back down.

Gladius

Elephant Rock today, only did the metric; would have done the Century but the wind was fiercely in my face the first 30 miles.

Crappymonkey

Did the Ride For Heart here in Toronto this morning. The city closes two major highways for 13,000 cyclists. I did the 75km route and with the ride to the start and back home after the ride it was a total of around 90km. I should have just done another ten to hit the metric.

Not my picture but an idea of what it looks like..

sloring

110 miles, Babylon to Montauk in the Ride To Montauk. It was flat, but we hammered it out at 18mph average speed, which I would have never thought possible 4 months ago.

valygrl

Perfect day to ride in the mountains in CO. Rode to Estes Park with two friends. This is from the descent in lower S. St. Vrain canyon.

StephenH

Saturday, four of us did the West Out and Back 254k perm. The small town of West, Texas, got in the news several weeks ago when a fertilizer plant blew up, killing 14 or 15 people. On our ride into town, we couldn't tell anything was amiss.

We stopped at a field of sunflowers on the way out for pictures. This is my stoker, Sharon, posing with me.


And here's the four of us at the end of the ride eating ice cream. This was a 2-tandem ride (because that's who showed up, not due to being planned that way.)


By the way, Sharon did that same route again today on her single bike. And that completed 100,000 RUSA miles, earning her the RUSA Galaxy award. I think she's the 6th person ever to achieve that, and the first female to do so.

roninguy

20 miles today through hilly terrain felt terrible and sluggish average speed 12mph. I am blaming the heat/ family stuff to do kept me busy stepped off at 3PM rode 1:30 felt slow the whole ride was passed by everyone it seemed. Temp at departure 89 according to my weather app. Overall not good ride

bikecrate

Saturday I got in a 35 mile ride and then spent the rest of the day cleaning up the house after a bathroom remodel (that counts as exercise...right). That night it rained really hard for a couple of hours which meant Sunday was super humid with massive unavoidable puddles. Still managed to do 40 messy miles. My bike required a good wipe down when I got home.

fuel0707

My wife, two friends and I rode 75 miles on Saturday from South Charleston to Cincinnati, OH, mostly along the Little Miami Scenic Trail. It was the longest ride for any of us. One of my friends had little opportunity to train for it between the crummy "spring" here (we didn't really have one) and some kidney stones. He almost dropped out at the 62-mile mark but after a short break, he decided to continue onto the end with us, albeit at a lower speed.

We didn't hold a high average speed (we were just a tick over 14 mph) but it was great to set a personal distance mark for all of us. And dinner was terrific - it's amazing how good food can taste when you are famished.

On Sunday, after we all got home, I rewarded myself with a shorter session on the trainer in the basement.

Clipped_in

I rode the Alpine Loop which is a popular ride near my home. It's a good climb and very scenic (not my pic, but that's how it looked).