Please share some of your favorite bike rides. It's getting harder and harder to get on that trainer. So help me out, tell me why I want to build my biking skills again? I'm sure there must be some pretty good stories in here.... Most challenging? Funniest thing you ever saw? Best scenery? Most satisfying? Thanks

Please share some of your favorite bike rides. ... Most challenging? Funniest thing you ever saw? Best scenery? Most satisfying? Thanks

Hi Chenille, pretty quiet around here lately. Lets see, most satisfying...a 50 mile organized ride, which I made 65 starting from home. It was in Jan and called the Polar Bear ride sponsored annually by our bike club. The roads are mostly rolling hills and back roads. We had about 200 riders which was great to see this huge mass of riders flood out of the parking lot. I hooked up with 15 other riders. We had a rotating paceline going and finished with a blistering average. Most challenging/memorable...just this past Fri! A friend picked me up and we drove to Marion NC, parked at the Wal-Mart and rode hwy 80 and the Blue Ridge Parkway up to Mount Mitchell. The 5800 feet of climb was not half as bad and the decent. "How can that be?" your asking. As soon as we got to the top and circled the parking lot it started snowing. About 10 min into the decent it was raining and 38 degrees. So we're doing 30-35 mph in the rain, down winding roads, freezing cold, I'm shaking uncontrollably but were up here by ourselves and need to get down. We stopped once inside a tunnel, where it actually felt warmer, for a short bit then continued. After about an hour of this we had descended enough for it to actually get warmer. In the end we made it back to the car, soaking wet, covered in sand and grit. Changed into dry clothes and went home. A ride I'll never forget. I told him I'd like to do it again when it's warmer and leave out the rain. The rain was forecast for much later in the day but I learned the hard way how unpredictable it is up there.

Cheniile you asked for so here it is ! A very disappointing event, let me just highlight the major points, My bag went missing so I had to replace all my kit ( very expensive ) only for it to turn up just before the cross country race on Wednesday. The first hotel room had no water. The second hotel room had no water. There were gales which rattled the scaffolding ( did I mention the builders were working on the hotel? ) all one night. My right thigh was sore before the cross country race and 10km over sand dunes didn't improve it. Had the half been in the UK I would have scratched but I was entered in a Dutch team as their guest so I had to race. So I dosed up on Ibrufen, got my darling wife the rub a carton of Deep Heat into my thigh and went for it. My leg was stiff and it was crowded for the first mile or so but as I got to around 8 miles the leg really started hurting. But I worked on the theory I had to get back to the start so I might as well carry on running as I would get back quickerthan walking. It freed off a bit but then in the last couple of miles it kicked in again and I ended up running with my left leg and swinging my right leg forward. What was really odd was that my heart rate dropped down to my normal medium training pace as I couldn't move my legs quick enough to get my heart beating. Here are my stats as you can see I got slower and slower. Startnummer 2928 Naam Jules2 ! Woonplaats Nederland Afstand Halve marathon trimloop Categorie M/V Totaal plaats 764 / 5765 Categorie plaats 764 Snelheid 12,490 km/uur 5 kilometer 22:43 (22:43) 10 kilometer 46:07 (23:24) 15 kilometer 1:10:27 (24:20) 20 kilometer 1:35:53 (25:26) Bruto tijd 1:42:45 Netto tijd 1:41:21 The team didn't put me in the correct age group so I don't appear in the 55 - 60 age group but I would have come 33rd out of 980. The only concilation is that the winner ( 1.08.00 ) said he was slowed down by the wind on the seafront, by the time time I got there the wind was the least of my troubles. The course / world record is I think 58.35. Finally the plane was two and a half hours late on the way back. Next year I'm going back and giving that course a serious kicking as its the world record course and ideal for a PB. So now all I have to do is recover and aim for the "Dog and Hedgehog" on the 11 May. As far as bike rides last year my friends were doing a hill race but I had a bad leg ( a different injury than the current one ) so off I set only to realise that there was a strong headwind. Now normally we all do "out and back routes" so eventually it evens out. Not me I did 125 miles heading South into a headwind, my friends had my kit and I knew they would get in the pub early so they wouldn't be able to pick me up so 9:30 or so later I arrived. At some times I was down to 10mph and it was quicker up the hills as I was sheltered from the wind. Rereading this posting It seems I don't have much luck running or cycling do I ?

Two years ago I did a ride called the RAMROD, Ride Around Mt Rainier in One Day. It's a 154 mile ride with 10,000 feet of elevation gain. That being said, it's also a 10,000 foot drop, so lots of fast coasting. This ride is a entry by lottery drawing. My three friends and I put in for the lottery with only my name being drawn. There goes my pace line, this turned into a solo ride. 70 degrees full sun, very pretty ride. The best part was finding a shady area under a tree so I could get out of the sun for a little rest. The little rest turned out to be half an hour, I fell asleep. This was the hardest ride of my life, but one of the most enjoyable.

Its helps if you have riden motor bikes, just remember keep your inside pedal up, put your weight on the outside pedal and I always stick my inside knee out. Some of the passes I have gone down in Spain seemed to go on for ever. Next weekend I have a two day mountain bike event in Wales( http://www.polarischallenge.com/) with a self supporting overnight camp so you carry all your gear. I shudder to think what would happen if I stacked up downhill on a rough track with a rucksack on. The worst was hitting a bump on a fast but rough downhill which lifted my rucksack up which then hit the back of my helmet and pushed it over my eyes all I could see was a few feet in front when I lifted my head right back. I was too scared to take my hand off the bars as it was that rough. Quite often you come to a sharp bend and see skid marks radiating out where people have hit the bend too fast.