Longest cycle / 24hrs

[ExBrit]

What's the longest distance you've ever cycled in a single day, and what did you learn from the experience?

302 miles on a Grand Tour triple century. I learned you can be so tired you forget you have NoDoze. I also learned that if you stop at 3am to answer the call of nature in the middle of nowhere, someone will show up and try to start a conversation with you.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

158 miles, took me 9hrs 41 minutes. Solo ride that I did for a Strava challenge. After 63 miles I was only a couple of miles from home:

 

[Sallar55]

Used to do York rally with Glasgow ctc, 5 or 6 am start and usually in the racecourse for Midnight on Friday . If we were lucky others took the gear down if not it was carrying a bivi bag mat and a summer sleeping bag. 😵 About 240+ miles as I had another 14 miles from Dumbarton.

 

[davidphilips]

Not sure if i have posted this before, A few years ago i got a lift to Bushmills in the north coast in N/Ireland.
Cycled around Portrush and Portstewart then on to Ballycastle, ferry across to Rathfriland island cycled around the island then ferry back to Ballycastle and just cycled to Portrush to get the train home to Bangor really great but tiring day solo cycling or so i thought.

When in Portrush to my horror my saddlebag with my phone , money and spare tubes etc must have fell off, Having to avoid motorways etc when really tired i then cycled approximately another 100 miles to get home, never been as tired in my life and the last 20 or so miles where the most painful miles i have ever cycled.

Theres one cyclist i know a member of a cycling club in Belfast who actually cycled solo with no back up over to and around Russia, he still joins in some of our club runs, most of our club are in Majorca and last Thursday apart from myself he was the only cyclist to turn up,
He had already cycled 38 miles before the club run that was somewhere between 50/60 miles and had to cycle back to belfast after the run from Bangor.

 

[Jameshow]

Anyone fancy a long one this summer whilst the days are long?
Any ideas?
Lon las Cymru

 

[Dogtrousers]

413.7km (actually took me 25 hours)

What did I learn? Not to do a 400k audax again!

It was The Kingdom of the East Saxons audax in 2017 The route was remarkably similar to @presta 's route in this post https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/longest-cycle-24hrs.291445/

 

[Dogtrousers]

‘Inspired’ by Steve Abraham and Kurt Searvogel (who were attempting to break Tommy Godwin’s world record from 1939 by cycling 75,065 miles in a year - which works out at an average of 205+ miles every day).
I thought a good test would be to ‘try’ the 205 miles in the summer of 2016.
I did it, and enjoyed the experience, but wouldn’t willingly do it again, not to mention that I probably couldn’t do it if I had to.
So, if you’re up for a personal challenge - just do it.

I remember this, as I did the same (well, similar) and we discussed it here at the time.

Mine was one of my favourite ever rides. Everything went well, the weather was lovely, I only felt really terrible for about one of the 18 or so hours that it took, which isn't a bad ratio.

Like you, I don't think I'll try it again though.

Edit: Here's the thread https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/205-6-miles-in-a-day-but-just-the-once-summer-2016.185409/

 

[Twilkes]

260 miles/420km - getting very good sleep the few days before, and eating regularly during the ride rather than powering on because you think you'll lose time, were the two main things I learned. Ended up lying by the side of the road in Torridon to get some naps, Strava tells me the longest was 20 minutes.

Oh and don't schedule riding through Torridon in the dark, what a waste that was.

 

[matticus]

Chapeau sir😎 I like Canal Towpath running ( and cycling), you can't ( usually) get lost, and if you do take a tumble you'll be sure of a soft landing 😄

Friend of mine (whom I met on Audaxes) did one of those - possibly Grand Union Canal race? - and being a day-night job, inevitably she managed to fall in the drink ...

 

[matticus]

‘Inspired’ by Steve Abraham and Kurt Searvogel (who were attempting to break Tommy Godwin’s world record from 1939 by cycling 75,065 miles in a year - which works out at an average of 205+ miles every day).
I thought a good test would be to ‘try’ the 205 miles in the summer of 2016.
I did it, and enjoyed the experience, but wouldn’t willingly do it again, not to mention that I probably couldn’t do it if I had to.
So, if you’re up for a personal challenge - just do it.

Occasionally when I'm party to a "How far ...?" conversation, I drop in the Tommy Godwin record stats. If you haven't cycled 205 miles in a day, seeing Godwin's numbers is pretty humbling!

 

[johnblack]

I'm going to do a few extra long ones, now I'm older and have a more spare time. Longest so far is 187 miles in 10 hours down to Exeter on the roadie and about 120 miles off road. Although the hardest was 100 miles off road in 10 hours doing the South Downs Way Winchester to Eastbourne, that was a tough day.

I've learned that your body is able to cope with a lot more than you think, don't listen to the voice in your head telling you it's ok if you just want to get off and just keep eating.

 

[Alex321]

Anyone fancy a long one this summer whilst the days are long?
Any ideas?
Lon las Cymru

Looks nice, but on the cycle.travel website they are not suggesting it be done in less than 4 days, preferably more.

Though I do remember a pair of GCN presenters doing the whole length of Wales North - South in one day.

Personally, I haven't yet even done a metric century, although that is a target for this summer. Most I've done in one ride (or day) is 55 miles.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Friend of mine (whom I met on Audaxes) did one of those - possibly Grand Union Canal race? - and being a day-night job, inevitably she managed to fall in the drink ...

Yes, a couple of people I know have completed it. It starts at Gas Street Basin in inner city Brum ( my original home town) and finishes at Little Venice in London iirc.

 

[Mburton1993]

172 1/2 miles to hull and back.

I learnt that that was too long for my satnav, that a persistent 20 mile headwind is annoying and that there appears to be a huge mountain between Wakefield and Huddersfield that no one seems to have noticed.

 

[Sharky]

In my youth, club runs between 80 to 140 miles were not unusual, but in my mature years the longest rides were:-
- London to Brighton (But riding to the start from home, near Gravesend, then riding from the finish back home) Did this four times and on the first attempt, hit the "wall" at Tonbridge and had to call out the rescue team. But the next three goes refueled better and got home.
- The "Castle 100" ride, a charity event starting from Tonbridge. Again did it four years running, one on a fixed!

Now a 2 hour ride would be a challenge, but I still ride our club's 10 mile TT's when I can.