Best rides of 2018

[Rickshaw Phil]

Lots to look back on with pleasure for me this year but a few that stand out were:

Taking on the weather when it brought 5 foot snowdrifts in March:

Riding from Shrewsbury to Barmouth to meet up with @gavgav, followed by a ride up to Llynnau Cregennan the following day:

Another ride with Gav was the Velo Salopia sportive. Enjoyed that and hope to do it again in 2019:



Probably the one I enjoyed the most was my August Imperial Challenge ride out to Lake Vyrnwy on a stunning summers day.

 

[Mrs M]

Enjoyed all my rides but ones that stand out are, fatbiking in Lanzarote (going back very soon)
Local coastal rides, very scenic and not too far from home
September SPCA pound for paws charity ride, met the challenge and raised a tidy sum for a very good cause

 

[Ian H]

It could be the three 200s three friends and I rode from S Wales to Anglesea and back in April. Plenty of food, beer, and jokes along the way.
It consisted of a 200 via Borth, Aberystwyth, and Tywyn to a B&B at Dolgellau where we finished just as a huge storm began. The following morning we negotiated flood-waters north, though only two of us made Anglesea. The others were distracted by a tempting microbrewery along the route.
We regrouped for a second night at Dolgellau and set off in the morning on the return via Newtown and Leominster. Photo shows the outward climb over the Black Mountains

Or it could be the fixed-centre tour a old friend and I did in Brittany in the Autumn. A gentle 110km from St Malo to our apartment, followed by three days cycling or walking in the area, with good food and perhaps a slight excess of alcohol.
The return was a similar distance. We coincided with the start of the Tour de Rhum at St Malo (so that was why accommodation was in such short supply): lots of music and food and fireworks.
Then a ferry home and back to normal.
The photos show Paimpont (home to many Merlin & King Arthur legends), and Dinan from the viaduct.

 

[Soltydog]

I've had some great rides this year, mainly solo rides, a few with @craigwend, & couple of forum rides.
My most memorable was the FNRTtC from York to Hull. A few days before the ride I collected my new bike from Enigma, I'd only had a couple of rides on before the Friday & had been tweeking the saddle position a bit, but took a gamble & rode that for the ride. Planned to ride from Home to York, do the ride & then home from Hull. The weather forecast wasn't promising & around 6pm there was a right thunder storm. So at 6:30pm I set off in the heavy rain to York. It hammered it down for a couple of hours, but was quite warm & I actually enjoyed the ride in the rain & the lightening over the wolds was pretty impressive. With the ride to York, the FNRTtC & the ride home I managed to clock up just over 150 miles, my longest ride to date.
Would love to do more of the night rides, but they often clash with my work shifts or other stuff & some are a bit of a logistical nightmare especially for getting back home
Another good ride was with Craig in May, over 100 miles out to Howden, & back along the south bank of the Humber. It was a great day for cycling, but Craig was concerned that I'd not even drunk a full bottle of fluid on the ride, so at a pub stop near home, I had 2 pints of beer (Melonhead IIRC) to his 1

 

[Ice2911]

It gets a bit choppy at times

Did you use a water cycle?

 

[HLaB]

Did you use a water cycle?

How did you guess

 

[Moodyman]

Looking forward to 2019, another April visit to Mallorca and hoping for more Friday night rides.

I told you they can be addictive.

 

[gavgav]

My favourite has to be the Velo Salopia, with @Rickshaw Phil in baking hot summer sunshine, which felt like my biggest achievement on a bike, yet.

 

[Moodyman]

Or it could be the fixed-centre tour a old friend and I did in Brittany in the Autumn. A gentle 110km from St Malo to our apartment, followed by three days cycling or walking in the area, with good food and perhaps a slight excess of alcohol.
The return was a similar distance. We coincided with the start of the Tour de Rhum at St Malo (so that was why accommodation was in such short supply): lots of music and food and fireworks.
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A group of us, inspired by your Autumn trip, did Brittany C2C2C (St Malo - Vannes - St Malo) in Spring. It, along with a Fridays tour of Normandy were my highlights of 2018.

I also did the York-Humber-York forum ride mentioned upthread - that was my only imperial century of 2018.

 

[Ian H]

A group of us, inspired by your Autumn trip, did Brittany C2C2C (St Malo - Vannes - St Malo) in Spring. It, along with a Fridays tour of Normandy were my highlights of 2018.

The previous year we did similar over two days to Vannes, then a trip to see the Carnac stones, then a return via Loudeac (for memories of Paris-Brest-Paris). Good cycling.

 

[Donger]

A fantastic week's rides in Snowdonia:

A great daytrip round the Isle of Wight with the club:

And a brilliant week in Alsace. Vineyards, villages and the Vosges mountains:

... but it could so easily have been our club ride in the Mendips, any of my rides in the Dordogne or a recent audax that went along the Wye from Simmonds Yat to Monmouth. It's been a great year.

 

[BrumJim]

8 miles to and round the park with my son.

The Snowdrop Audax in February was great - cold (sub-zero at the start), but dry, ice free and very sunny.
The Rutland Cicle Sportive was great. Stunning weather and stunning scenery for 105 miles.

However, on a rather coldish and damp June day, I told my son that I didn't want a Father's Day present, I just wanted to do something that I love, and he enjoys doing with me. He was 5- years old at this point. He said "I want to go on a bike ride with you and take a picnic with us." So we did.

 

[Pale Rider]

My favourite ride was one mentioned by a few others in this thread - the York Humber Bridge York forum ride.

Always a pleasure to ride with @ColinJ, who came up with an improved route this year.

For me, the ride was a good mixture of known and liked faces, and a few new faces who fairly quickly moved over to the first category.

Few things can be more agreeable than bowling along through the scenic but flatish Vale Of York in good weather and in even better company.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

My favourite ride was one mentioned by a few others in this thread - the York Humber Bridge York forum ride.

Always a pleasure to ride with @ColinJ, who came up with an improved route this year.

For me, the ride was a good mixture of known and liked faces, and a few new faces who fairly quickly moved over to the first category.

Few things can be more agreeable than bowling along through the scenic but flatish Vale Of York in good weather and in even better company.

I still haven't been to Aldi (or was it Lidl?) for some of that chocolate you shared, blooming lovely it was

 

[LarryDuff]

My favourite was the ride to the lighthouse at Formentor.