What's your best cycling experience?

[Rickshaw Phil]

We currently have a thread running for your worst experiences but what about the best ones?

I'm sure I could write a big list of them but I think the moment that is going to stick with me was on a ride over the Long Mynd. I was on the path between Shooting Box and Pole Bank when a Red Kite took off from the heather and flew alongside me for a couple of hundred yards.

The local Red Kite population is mostly based over the border in Wales so I hadn't expected to see one here.

Seeing them from a distance it's hard to get an idea of how big these birds really are. It made the Buzzards I'm used to seeing look quite small.

It was a really amazing experience and one I doubt I'll ever repeat. So, what about you?

 

[Dayvo]

Too many to mention, really, but I suppose the best experiences I have had have been on either of the two longish, self-supporting tours (six-weeks each: one through Europe, one in Australia) I've done: with a friend and solo, respectively.

The good weather, new landcapes and cultures, fantastic scenery and, most importantly IMO, the freedom to go wherever I choose at a pace that suits me and ride a distance that I'm comfortable with, but also presents a challenge each day.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Too many to mention, really, but I suppose the best experiences I have had have been on either of the two longish, self-supporting tours (six-weeks each: one through Europe, one in Australia) I've done: with a friend and solo, respectively.

The good weather, new landcapes and cultures, fantastic scenery and, most importantly IMO, the freedom to go wherever I choose at a pace that suits me and ride a distance that I'm comfortable with, but also presents a challenge each day.

A proper tour is something I still haven't done yet. I think I'll have to organise myself.

 

[gavgav]

Any ride around the Lake District, finished off with a pint of Bluebird Bitter in the Black Bull at Coniston

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Any ride around the Lake District, finished off with a pint of Bluebird Bitter in the Black Bull at Coniston

Sounds good to me.

 

[derrick]

So many to choose from, i really liked our ride to Amsterdam got to be one of my high's,

 

[vernon]

The ten mile descent into Beaune from Autun which gives an overview of premier cru Burgundy vineyards that stretch as far as the eye can see. My first encounter was truly one of awe and wonder when I realised that the sea of green was not arable fileds but vineyards and that a descent could lastfor more than a couple of miles. My second encounter was exactly like the first encounter. I still couldn't believe that the sea of greem...yada yada yada....

 

[Dayvo]

A proper tour is something I still haven't done yet. I think I'll have to organise myself.

Just get out and do it! It could be the start of a new life-style!

 

[The Brewer]

Think I have a different one each week.

My current one is the two country, four county ride, which is about 65miles.

From Wrexham I head to Ellesmere, Shropshire then up to Whitchurch, nip back in to Wales for Lunch in Hamner. Back in to England and Cheshire to Malpas, lovely country lanes to Chester and home to Wrexham via Flintshire with a pub stop in Burton before getting home.

Did this last Thursday and saw lots of photographable sites and didn't have the camera again