Your best ride of 2022

[roubaixtuesday]

Whilst it may be still to come, I suspect for most people, the best of '22 is behind us, cycling-wise.

So what was your best ride?

"Best" being entirely in the eye of the beholder - could be anything from your longest ever, your first after injury or illness, maybe a ride with your granddaughter after teaching her to cycle, the last day of that transcontinental tour, or just a perfect bimble to to pub to enjoy a pint in the evening sunshine.

 

[Oldhippy]

Without wishing to sound cheesy and glib, every ride out is a pleasure of sorts. Stand out rides though were the Pilgrims way in Kent and as I reached the end I was presented with a vista of Dover Castle back-lit by the sun. Looking forward to going Kent to Somerset next year and the Rebellion Way.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

And to get us going, here's the ascent of Grosse Scheidegg in the shadow of the Eiger, on the tandem and together with youngest sons.

It's a very challenging climb, topping out very close to 2,000m and a total climb of over 1500m on the day - so challenging I felt justified in an outing for my Marmotte souvenir jersey!

A rare shot of us together on the tandem at a short plateau around half way up, glaciers just emerging from the clouds behind:

The Monch and Eiger from the restaurant at the summit, where a well deserved slap up feed was had:

It's a great descent below the glaciers down to Grindelwald, here feat. son #2:

The top section is shut to cars, making it effectively a dead end road and correspondingly low traffic levels. Typically efficient Swiss busses are the only motorised transport to the summit and bike racks on the back mean a descent only option is possible if monstrous climbs aren't your thing. You'll also notice from the pics that the road surface is absolutely perfect, like riding a velodrome all day long.

We did about 50 miles, a grand day out, and quite the view of the sun setting behind the mountains surrounding the Brienzersee that evening to round things off:

 

[ColinJ]

I like the idea of the thread and it is obviously one that be copied every year in future.

I didn't do any rides remotely as spectacular as that one but it will be fun to look back over the year to find my favourite ride.

On checking, it turns out that, cycling-wise, this year was an even quieter one for me than I remembered. Most of my rides were short, solo, local ones. I did do a few longer forum rides though. It is hard to pick the 'best', but I will opt for the Dales/West Yorkshire ride - it was my longest ride this year, and the weather, company, and scenery were good.

 

[13 rider]

Difficult to pick nothing exceptional ,But my week in the peaks around Buxton in June was a highlight . The ride up the closed road Long Hill ? out of Buxton( funnily enough thanks to post by @roubaixtuesday) in complete solitude and absolutely no traffic takes a bit of beating . The descending was really fun

 

[Alex321]

For me, it has to be the first time I did the Bwlch climb. It was also my first imperial half-century (just - I had to take a roundabout route at the end to push it up that far), and my first ride with over 1000m climbing.

And it was glorious sunny weather - almost too hot at 32C, but I coped OK with that.

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/t...winter-challenge-chatzone.241349/post-6790486

 

[Sterlo]

Nothing grand but a 6 miler, my first in 15 months since elbow surgery, felt quite emotional afterwards.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Nothing grand but a 6 miler, my first in 15 months since elbow surgery, felt quite emotional afterwards.

This is just the sort of post I hoped to see - wonderful to read, and thank you!

 

[steverob]

While I've done much longer / hillier / more scenic rides this year, the most fun I've had on a bike had to be the 50km I did around Montreal in May on a rented hybrid. To be in a city that doesn't treat cyclists as second class citizens and provides proper infrastructure - cycle lanes going in all directions, criss-crossing the city, 95% of them completely separated from traffic, all of them well maintained and being used by all ages - was an absolute joy.

I'll admit that I was lucky that it was particularly warm that week and certainly with the Canadian climate, cycling is probably not as feasible in the winter months (though I'm sure some still do), but it was a really enjoyable afternoon riding between the City Centre, the Port, the Olympic Park, various other touristy sights etc. without having to worry about car culture.

And then also getting the chance to cycle out to the Formula One GP circuit and do a couple of laps there (for FREE, unlike say Silverstone) was great fun. As long as it's not race weekend, you can turn up pretty much whenever you want and ride round at your own pace, which I took full advantage of! This was about 2-3 weeks before the Grand Prix was scheduled and they were starting to set up the temporary grandstands as I was there.

 

[lazybloke]

Probably the Isle of Wight Randonnee in early May.
Grey, cold, wet, freezing, miserable, tiring - you can't do a hard ride against the odds and not feel a sense of achievement at the end. Fabulous!

But my perfect fantasy ride of 2022 would probably be full of mountain images like those posted by @roubaixtuesday above. They look spectacular!

 

[Jameshow]

I like the idea of the thread and it is obviously one that be copied every year in future.

I didn't do any rides remotely as spectacular as that one but it will be fun to look back over the year to find my favourite ride.

On checking, it turns out that, cycling-wise, this year was an even quieter one for me than I remembered. Most of my rides were short, solo, local ones. I did do a few longer forum rides though. It is hard to pick the 'best', but I will opt for the Dales/West Yorkshire ride - it was my longest ride this year, and the weather, company, and scenery were good.

View attachment 671406

Cracking ride!

 

[gavroche]

Without a doubt, the C2C I did last August with Chris from Whitehaven to Sunderland over 3 days. I had never done 3 consecutive cycling days of 40 miles plus each day in varied terrain and beautiful scenery.

 

[Jameshow]

Has to be my 400k ride to Dorset from Yorkshire on the hottest weekend of the year!!

Great to cover that sort of milage in 24hrs!

Despite the heat and a late mechanical I made it!!

 

[chriswoody]

2022 has brought some fantastic riding both near and far. I had an amazing overnighter in the Harz Mountains in perfect Autumn weather, endless gravel roads, a beautiful overnight hut and a cloud free ascent of the Brocken at 1142m.

In the summer I spent 4 amazing days bikepacking across the Jura region of Switzerland, in glorious sunshine, Day 4 and the ascent of the 1606 metre high Chasseral was a real special day. A mix of roads, gravel trails, steep hike a bike and bushwhacking through overgrown trails made for a real special day and the descent was just as crazy, a day that will live long in my memory.

The real highlight though was a day with my young son exploring a local Mountain Bike park we'd just discovered in the foothills of the Harz. A wonderful day on the flow trails and obstacles in the September sun, just having a blast on the bikes.

 

[ColinJ]

And then also getting the chance to cycle out to the Formula One GP circuit and do a couple of laps there (for FREE, unlike say Silverstone) was great fun. As long as it's not race weekend, you can turn up pretty much whenever you want and ride round at your own pace, which I took full advantage of! This was about 2-3 weeks before the Grand Prix was scheduled and they were starting to set up the temporary grandstands as I was there.

That sounds great!

I did a 2 hour MacRide at Silverstone once but there was a significant charge for doing so. Most of it did go to the charity though so it didn't bother me. I would like to be able to do something like that free regularly though.