Crazy amount of elevation! I just got invited to a similar nutty thing in Spain for 2026, coast to coast through the Pyrenees. https://transpyr.com/en
More elevation every day than I've ever done in one day. My buddy said "you have 68 weeks to train"

Ooh, I love the Pyrenees! Quieter and more intimate than the Alps. And they do luggage transfer for you -- what luxury!

Maybe next year.

Jasper Verkuijl has a series on YouTube on ride the Haute as well as Dave Rides Again. Fun to watch, and more fun to do.

I watched some of Jasper's videos. Ouch, that is a tough series if you're racing for time, but the support looks great (luggage transfer included!). If I were to do it ("if" is doing a heavy lift there), I would just ride it at my pace. 60k feet of vertical is serious business.

I find Jasper quite likable but also driven. He also has a training camp in Majorca for your warm up climbs.

There's the post prime rando years, when people cheer just because you're alive.

Well I had to go and say that, didn't I?

I received an invitation to register for Seattle to San Francisco brevet aka Space Needle to Golden Gate Bridge, 1700k in 145 hours. Also 18,000 meters. Why did they invite me? Because I sent an email indicating interest, that's why.

Cost is only $95 because there's no support between the start and the finish. The FAQ is hilarious. The answer is No, what's the question. Some food at the start, probably a beer at the finish, a cue sheet and a GPS trace. Audacious is the point.

Well ****. I'm too old and fat for this sport. And it's a month after London Edinburgh London, which I'm also too old and fat for, and also signed up plus paid.

So, you’re doing it, right?

A friend just invited me to ride the NYC Century ride on Sept 21. I've done it a few times and had a lot of fun. The organization that runs that ride stopped running it, and they just revived it thanks to a grant. They have shorter distances than 100 miles, and that sounds wise for me. Hmm, decisions!

It's a good time of year for this sort of thing, giving time to build up one's condition and to focus on a goal.

If you've ever been curious about the Five Borough Bike Tour (5BBT) which is held in May, I feel that the Century ride is much better for folks like me anyway. The 5BBT is shorter but it has tens of thousands of participants. Too many for my taste, and there are too many inexperienced cyclists. Then again, it gives you vistas you can't get any other time of year as they close the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge just for the ride.

I'll sit on the fence until almost registration deadline, hoping someone talks me out of it, then register.

So yes. It will be amazing.

Very cool, and Transportation Alternatives is pushing to keep congestion pricing so I kicked in a few bucks and joined. I will probably do the century, I enjoy the big NYC rides a lot, 5BBT too.

I've been a member of Transportation Alternatives for many years. I've also volunteered for them.

They used to run the Tour De Bronx. The Bronx Board of Tourism has taken it over and kept it alive. It's the most fun mass ride of all. I highly recommend it. It's usually the third Sunday in October, so dress warmly.

noglider, continuing our digressgion, I recently rode to the Van Cortland park start of the Empire State Trail for the first time. So cool, starting at the VC Park golf course clubhouse, then winding through the golf course. Last year I missed the TdB, I'll try this year. Stinkin Queens should have one too!

My husband and I want to ride some trails here in Florida. And there are some great trails here. Part of the Coast to Coast trail is about an hour away from us. The historic Jungle Trail is near Vero Beach. That’s just the start. And get up to at least 10+ miles per ride. Seeing Florida by bike….

It is with a bit of regret and shame that I state that my bike never had its' tires aired up last year, and I logged maybe 100 miles in 2023. This year, it's changing. My Canyon is refreshed and road-ready, and I've already done the work commute (7.5mi) a couple times, only awaiting a little bit better weather (minimum 60F, I'm a 65yo wimp) to begin recreational riding again. There's a new bike in the works, just awaiting arrival of the frame from China, my first drop bar since I left the Army in 1983. Expecting it to finish around 6.5kg, and with it I intend to see if (after conditioning) I'm up to B-level rides in my city.. And finding out how my body likes drop bars after 30 years of riding flat-bar road bikes. One N+1 is done, there's a 1978 Schwinn Paramount P13 frame awaiting next attention. The goal? 2025 is the year I remember why I've ridden bikes for almost my entire life.

I have decided I'll do the 75 mile route of the NYC Century ride in September. It will take some effort to get into condition, and the conditioning is really the point, not the final triumph.

Good, finally, I have a goal. It's hard for me to make goals.

I’m looking for a couple of tours this summer, and what I’m looking for is turning out to be hard to find.

i want to do 75 or so miles a day, sleep in basic hotels, and have them carry a bag for me. That’s it. I can get my own food and water on the route, and need minimal road support.

Most tours I am finding are expensive low mileage luxury tours or camping tours.

Would like to do something similar starting in Southern Oregon and following the coast to Santa Barbara. Stay in motels, live off a credit card and have my soft goods transported. Could always get a bag to fit in the diamond to hold a change of clothes and jacket. Maybe a small ruck-sack or fanny pack in addition. Logistics of getting the bike and me to the starting point and then flying back would be interesting

Well, there is the 7-day Haute Route Alps. They give you a bag at the start to fill with your gear, and they transport it for you daily. They also deliver your bike bag to the finish. All you need to do is ride.

I'm seriously considering it, and teams of three can ride as a group. Hint hint.

Hey all just getting back into the party after 4 years of no bike. Both of mine were stolen in 2021 and finally I’m back in the saddle. I just picked up a Giant Defy Advanced 1 brand new old stock and I’m glad I still have all my gear. Bikes got really expensive, lol.
Any way my goals for this year are to get back into the groove of riding and since this is an endurance bike I am guessing my fit on the bike will change a little but nothing like my race bikes from before so getting that dialed in is a solid goal also. Enjoy the ride people and I hope to keep possession of this one, ha ha.

My goal is to ride further that I did last year and increase my average mph a little, lose 20 lbs. I figure dropping 20 pounds will make the other 2 a little easier.
All very doable goals. I have already dropped 10 lbs over last year but I'm not counting that it's 20 lbs from where I am today, that will have me at 180 lbs.
I figure dropping that 20 lbs will do more for my cycling than just about anything else I'm likely to do.
And it's a lot cheaper than buying a lighter bike.

I’m not going to pretend this was a goal, but the reality is I’m biking a lot more this spring than last. The weather got nicer a month ago and I just started riding often and all my rides have been at least two hours. Saddle comfort was starting to be an issue again like last year, so I bought a basic padded saddle (Jones spec saddle) and now I don’t have a painful spot over the sit bone contact point.

At this point, my goal is simply to keep doing long rides often throughout the week for volume and then two or maybe three hard runs per week. Plus doing 15 minutes of body weight work most days and a bit of strength work.

Otto

My return to cycling will be two years this summer. I rode a lot as a kid 40 years ago and very little as an adult. I’m 56 with two young kids (9&11). My inspiration to getting fit came from a friend 4 years younger than myself during a joint family camping trip. We were swimming with our kids. He looked like a super hero without the costume. Me, not so much.

Starting that summer I cut my sugar intake by a ton and bought a bunch of bikes. I wrenched a lot and rode at least three days a week. Eleven months later I was 40 pounds lighter.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I was a competetive long distance runner. My last go at racing I was part of an “elite” racing team sponsored by a shoe store. That was 25 years ago.

At some point in my quest for fitness a switch in my head was flipped on. The urge to compete became a thing again. In my days of running I never ran for the sake of fitness or weight loss. I always trained for competition. Now I want to do it on a bike. I want to race in a cycling event.

I hesitated posting in this thread because my abilities on a bike pale in comparison to all the posts thus far in this thread. Reading through them all kind of puts my goal as a delusion of grandeur. Maybe.

I think I have a firm grasp on what my body can and cannot do at my age. I’d like to believe I could do well in my age bracket. With exceptions. Such as; there is likely to be a substantial number of male riders in their fifties with decades of experience. I have a ways to go to be “on the wheel” of those folks.

My shortcomings for participating in a cycling event are a long list. I’ve never ridden in a group and my weekly mileage hasn’t been over 50 miles. Those two are the big ones.

I don’t own a modern bike is another concern. I have two older Cannondale’s to choose from. An ‘04 R500 which is a minty all original bike. And a ‘01 R400 that I’ve completely gone through and upgraded to NOS or near to it components. Plus new cables, cassette, and Kool Stop pads and of course tires n tubes. The 400 originally was to be the training bike. But has turned out to be my favorite bike.

A charity event is on the horizon May 17th. The three distances are 10 miles, 25 miles and a metric century. Of course I want to do the century. But I’ll see where I’m at May 10th. A realistic goal is probably the 25 miler.

If anyone is still reading this long and wandering diatribe I thank you for doing so. I am truly blessed to have the wife and kids I have. This website has meant a lot to me these past two years.

I shall include a picture of my favorite bike from yesterday’s 11.5 mile ride. It was taken at the end of a dead end road. I was trying for a scenic picture.

Brett, I'm a couple years ahead of you, I started cycling and getting fit 3.5 years ago, but with the advantage of being retired and the kids all grown up. I used (use) events as training goals and it really helps me stay motivated to train.

Too bad there's not a 40 or 50 mile route on your May event. I'm guessing 100 is too much and you can do more than 25. A good rule of thumb for taking on a big one day ride is you can ride as far as your regular weekly average.

Thanks for the reply! I now remember the big one day ride distance since you mentioned it. I don’t recall from where I read that but it’s familiar.

The May event is a “metric” century. Plus a tad. The course is 62.7 miles. If all goes well in the next 6 weeks it should be finish-able. If not, riding the 25 would be a new experience by itself.

I too think having an event in the future is a motivator. It was back when I used to run.

Further out is the Idaho Senior Olympic Games in August. To qualify as a Senior one must be 50 by December 31st. I’ve got that covered. There’s a 25 mile event. As long as this summer isn’t like last summer; Western wildfire smoke filled air. I’d like to enter that event.