Best or worst? I'm not sure. Friend Richard & I decided to catch up with AUK events and ride my Exeter-London 400 at the beginning of October. It turned out to be the wettest weekend of the entire year, utterly non-stop. Mid-day start, we rode NW to Wells and West to Durrington before turning North to follow the Avon towards Swindon.
At Stow-on-the-Wold we turned towards Buckingham. There was a flooded ford to wade through, clinging to the barrier to maintain balance. After Buckingham & Aylesbury there were some final rural lanes to negotiate.
In a flooded village I hit a pothole and swerved into a parked car, wiping the wing-mirror off and collapsing in an undignified heap in the water. We were invited into the pub opposite for a cup of tea, and sat with our feet in 4" of water. Left details to pass on to the car owner* and continued into the urbs, past Watford and on to Watling Street/the Edgware Road, to the finish at Marylebone in 25hrs
We were too cold to stop, so rode straight on towards Waterloo and the train home. We were later than intended, and the London Marathon caused us some delay as we had to find a way around the closed roads.
Once on the train I finally started to warm up again, and, by the time we reached our destination, I was almost dry.
Unsurprisingly, there are no photos of that journey. Two weeks later we made an abortive attempt on the Kernow & SW 600 (an extremely hard, hilly route, curse the organiser). We got about 300k in before deciding our legs, or possibly our minds, were not quite up to it.
Photo on the Polruan ferry, heading west.
*CTC insurance settled in full with the owner