The 2026 Half Century (50km or 50 mile) a month challenge chatzone

[Domus]

West Pennine Moors in the October sunshine and the Col de Belmont has smooth tarmac ready for Le Tour. The surface after the summit is less smooth, it is very fast. I do hope it’s sorted before July. Still in shorts this morning but went with long sleeves and thin gilet. Another one pointer.

 

[sevenfourate]

6.00am out the door. And that after walking the dog and trying to get a feel for clothing of the day 🤷‍♂️ Decided on Bib Shorts (Felt marginal at cool but supposedly 9 degrees C) if only because they have the best padding I own; with long sleeve base layer ontop - and a short sleeve Summer jersey over that. And fingerless gloves. Which turned out to all be inspired choices ! My fingers only getting a little cold at the end after a photo stop 🙄

So - my [Completely dry-tarmac] route was basically a complete long loop / circumnavigation of all the far-flung boroughs of Lowestoft. “Getting rid of an hour” in darkness inland - in order to end up coming in down the Coast at Sunrise 😁☀️

Wind was off the West mainly; which meant it was mostly side on, some into and a tiny bit helping. But despite saying 15mph - it felt pretty light.

If this is October - count me in ❤️

Fluid stop with Wind Turbine to the rear:

Sunrise and a Peanut Bar @ Kessingland…..

Did I feel tyred at this point ?? 😉🤷‍♂️🤣

Lowestoft Seafront with the Sun on my back 😍

Today’s vitals:

 

[ColinJ]

October banker done, simple out and back to Arnside on a chilly morning that turned into a glorious autumn day.

Arnside viaduct with train from Barrow and some artwork on the pier.
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I just checked to see what progress has been made with the proposed cycle/footpath along the side of the viaduct**. Plans are progressing but no firm date yet... Details HERE.


** For those of you unfamiliar with the area - it is currently a 25 km ride between Arnside and Grange-over-Sands. The proposed path would cut that to about 5 km.

 

[Pgd]

Uh-oh. Went out yesterday for my planned October 50km ride, but had to cut it short due to wife being involved in a (low speed, everyone Ok) car accident. The rest of this month was already looking pretty busy, plus we're now a car down. Looking like I'm going to have to scrape by with an early-morning ride on 30th or 31st...

 

[Pgd]

Bit of a "life gives you lemons, make lemonade" situation here
Was meant to be flying to Spain on Sunday morning, but flight was cancelled due to the storms over there. Rebooked for 24 hours later -- which meant I had an unexpected free day. So October ride is ticked off after all!
(and it was a beautiful autumn morning, as a bonus)

 

[Jenkins]

Took advantage of one of my last free days this month and (mostly) dry weather to get my personal sub-challenge 'Ride Outside Suffolk' done today. Wasn't planned as it was a grey & gloomy morning, but just chucked the bike in the car after breakfast and headed up to Diss and made the route up as I went along. Unfortunately I guessed the distance wrong heading back from Snetterton so had to do a loop round he top of the town to make certain of the 50k

 

[Spartak]

Elongated commute today for a meeting that went on longer than planned.

Into Bristol passing thru' a few new Tiles on Squadrats then out via Long Ashton for the climb of Providence Lane, which I'm sure has got steeper since the last time I climbed it, also included a short walk of shame as the elevation beat me.
Thankfully then all downhill via some more Tiles and into work. Ride over the Avonmouth Bridge and back into Bristol [ Inc short train journey to avoid two further hills, hence the dead straight line on the map, although distance isn't included in total ].

My second October 50K ... 🎉

 

[bluenotebob]

You can put me on your “nudge list” if you want @13 rider – but I am well aware that I haven’t done a qualifying ride in October.

I had a 65km ride planned for 1st October but, in the event, I did 93km and posted it as a Lunacy Distance ride instead.

I have had a reasonable month – 617km cycled so far in October – but I’ve not come close to doing an uninterrupted 56km ride (I’m not interested in doing just 50km).

I would love to go somewhere “new” and do some exploring – but this involves driving and I’m fed up of putting 50 euros worth of diesel in the van and then noticing that the fuel gauge has barely moved. So … I end up doing variations of the same old 55/60km circuits and I find it really hard to get motivated by the prospect.

There are four (hopefully) decent cycling days left on October – 28th/31st – and I may do a qualifying ride then. If I do, I’ll make sure that I do rides in Nov/Dec too. If I don’t, then I’ll drop out of this year’s challenge.

I always intended sitting out the 2027 challenge anyway and I read @kapelmuur ’s comments upthread with interest about reaching the age of 80 and finding himself limited to “only” doing 50km rides. Sounds about right … maybe I should plan on returning to the challenge in 2032 …