The Rides
The Ride. It is the cathedral of our sport, where we worship at the altar of the Man with the Hammer. It is the end to our means. Indeed, The Bike may be the central tool to our sport, but to turn the pedals is to experience the sensation of freedom, of flight. It is all for The Ride.
The world is overflowing with small, twisty roads that capture our collective imagination as cyclists. We spend our lifetimes searching out the best routes and rides; we pore over maps, we share with our fellow disciples, we talk to non-cycling locals all in pursuit of the Perfect Ride.
The Rides is devoted entirely to the best routes and rides around the world. Some are races or cyclosportives, others feature in the Classics and stages of The Great Races, while others still are little-known gems, discovered through careful meditation on The V. Be warned: these rides are not your average Sunday Afternoon spin; these rides are the best and most difficult rides in the word – they represent the rites of passage into La Vie Velominatus. It is to be taken for granted that these rides require loads of Rule #5, many of them Rule #10, and all of them are best enjoyed in Rule #9 conditions. They have been shared by you, the community. The Rides also features articles devoted to the greatest rides and providess a forum for sharing other rides for discussion.
If you’d like to submit a ride or an article about your own favorite ride, please feel free to send it to us and we’ll do our best to work with you to include it.
[rideitem status=”public” title=”Haleakala” distance=”56km” category=”Grimpeur” url=”http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/50412514″ location=”Paia, Maui, Hawaii, USA”]
Haleakala is simultaneously the longest paved continuous climb in the world as well as the shortest ascent from sea level to 10,000 feet in the world. Though not terribly steep, this is a long, grinding climb that will reduce a strong rider to a whimpering lump.
To put the effort in perspective, this climb is 60km long a an average of 6% with two pitches as steep as 17%. That translates to somewhere between 3 or more hours of nonstop climbing, usually in Maui’s direct heat and often into a whipping headwind that spins around into a headwind no matter which direction the switchbacks take you.
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[rideitem statuc=public title=”Liege-Bastogne-Liege” distance=”265″ category=”Rouleur” url=”http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/58053308/” location=”Liege, Belgium”]
Liege-Bastogne-Liege is not only La Doyenne, the oldest of the Classics, but also represents perhaps the most demanding course in cycling. The 280 km, 3000m vertical route starts with an easy ride out from Liege to Bastogne which lulls riders into a false sense of security; the hills are frequent, but none of them terribly demanding. Into Bastogne, and the story changes on the way back to Liege with 9 categorized climbs in the second half, including the fearsome Côte de la Redoute and the Côte de Saint-Nicolas.
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[rideitem status=public title=”Paris-Roubaix” category=”Hardman” distance=”265″ url=”http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/58052610/” location=”Compiégne, France” guideurl=”http://www.cyclingpave.cc/” guide=”Pavé Cycling Classics”]
L’enfur du Nord. The Hell of The North. The Queen of the Classics. This isn’t a ride over the stones from your local brick-paved roads. You think climbs are what make a ride tough? We’ve got news for you: this is the hardest ride on the planet and it boasts a maximum elevation of 55 meters. These are vicious, brutal stones; the kind that will stretch each kilometer to their full length, the kind of stones that you will feel long after the rattling of the bars has stopped. These stones will change you. Forever.
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[rideitem status=public title=”Mortirolo/Gavia Loop” category=”Grimpeur” distance=”115km” url=”http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/59027020/” location=”Bormio, Italy” contributor=”Joe”]
The Mortirolo is perhaps the most feared pass in Western Europe, and the Gavia the most storied. Given their proximity to each other, its a wonder why this isn’t the most talked-about ride in Italy. Maybe it is; its impossible to say without being Italian. The loop nature of this ride makes it feasible as a solo escapade, but any ride with the kind of stats this one bears – 3200 meters ascended in 115 kilometers including the viscously steep Mortirolo – is best enjoyed with a riding partner or support car.
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[rideitem status=public title=”200 on 100″ category=”Grimpeur” distance=”330km” url=”http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/58052808/” location=”Vernon, VT” contributor=”cdelinks” contributorurl=”http://cyclowhat.com”]
“Dumptruck of Awesome” has become the catch-phrase associated with this brutally hard, yet strikingly beautiful 330 kilometer (200 mile) ride down Vermont Route 100. This ride was made popular during the summer of 2011 when Ted King, Tim Johnson, and a local amateur cyclist, Ryan Kelly, documented this ride on film. The ride starts on the Canadian border and finishes on the Massachusetts border. With over 2500 meters of climbing on this 330 kilometer ride, you will need to pack a few lunches to get through this one. Do this ride in the Fall, and the foliage might be beautiful enough to distract you from the horrible pain you will most certainly suffer.
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[rideitem status=”public” title=”De Ronde Van West Portlandia” distance=”76km” category=”Grimpeur” url=”http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/15276210″ location=”Portland, Oregon, USA”]
A ride that officially “never happens” each spring, this 76 km route charts a course through Portland’s West Hills, paying homage to the European Spring Classics. Approximately 1,800 meters of paved and unpaved climbs are spread throughout the course, with several sections reaching grades of over 20%. More information can be found at Ronde PDX.
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[rideitem status=public title=”Seattle Master Urban Ride” category=”Rouleur” distance=”130km” url=http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/57732282 location=”Seattle, Washington, USA”]
This is perhaps the most challenging urban route in Seattle, hitting three of the big hills that define Seattle’s topography. The route starts and ends on Phinney Ridge, but hits the climbs of Interlaken and Alder Street/Lake Dell Drive on its way to Mercer Island, before coming back to hit Queen Anne and Magnolia, weaving its way up each of these hills as many times as possible via the steepest route available before the finale to the north via Golden Gardens, Blue Ridge Drive, and Carkeek Park. Panoramic views of the Cascades, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, The Olympic Penninsula and Puget Sound makes this a standout Urban ride.
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@wiscot
The guy I spoke to was adamant the Sram chains were better and would give much better and quieter shifting.
I’m not going to rip all my Shimano chains off right now but next time I change I’ll probably try Sram.
@MangoDave
Yeah it’s a bit weird but I get blown all over the place on them way more than I do on other wheel sets.
@RobSandy
That ones a bit like put 12 experts in a room and you’ll get at least 13 different opinions!
@RobSandy
i’ve got a SRAM chain on my Masi. it does shift very well and is indeed super quiet, but i do get some front derailleur rub with the wider chain angles that i did not get with my ultegra chain. i never use those gears anyway, so it’s not an issue.
@Teocalli
I always keep my Group San all Shimano. It is a personal preference but I believe that the parts were manufactured to perform together. Therefore, introducing a foreign component, even if superior, is likely asking for problems.
I am very happy with my Japanese components. Shifting is buttery smooth, just the way I like it.
@RobSandy
A great read.
Merry Christmas everyone… by everyone of course I mean the few who continue to provide an occasional pulse here.
Have a cycle-filled holiday and if it all gets too much, get on your bike.
Cheers, Chris
Merry Christmas – some of this could be interpreted as relevant for this place……
Merry Christmas everybody!
Thnx Frank
@ChrisO
Hope you had a good one Chris. Thought of you today, did a 70km loop on roads which were icy as fuck.
I had one very slow speed off where I fortunately took all the force on my arse.
It’s a different game when you don’t trust any inch of the tarmac
Yeah, I got out just before Christmas and it looks like New Years Day might be OK. But all my rides are subject to a pitch inspection !
@ChrisO
With hindsight I’d have not gone or just stuck to the main roads. But I’m in one piece and the scenery was especially beautiful.
Couldn’t really test the legs out though. Already thinking about the first couple of road races of the season…
@RobSandy
@RobSandy
Well you could always just go zwifting away in London yes ? That’s the funny thing is here in states everyone I follow on Strava that likes to zwift seems to always be “riding” in London. Cheers and be safe out there !
@Randy C
I use Zwift a lot – it’s probably about 40% on the London course. A lot of it is roads I know very well and it can be really weird to either be sitting inside on a trainer looking at clear skies outside while it rains on Zwift (it doesn’t last long) or to then be riding down Whitehall or across Lambeth bridge in real life, having just done it a few hours earlier on Zwift.
It’s very cool though. Great way to get trainer time done. Much better for very precise workouts and training sessions.
@RobSandy
Dude – Be careful out there!
@ChrisO
When I think of zwift I can’t help but think of Mathew Hayman. And that’s a pretty good association there if ya ask me.
When I was last in London with family I so wanted to rent a Santander bike and cruise around the city early in am but may have been an issue with US based credit cards not being accepted at the stations (?) I never could sort it out regret and I ended up just going for long runs. I’ve often rented the Divibikes in Chicago and have also rented Citibike in NYC. I really want to rent a capital bike in Wash DC as that would be super way to get around that town and see the sites.
Cheers for the New Year !
@chuckp
I’m always careful. I’m actually quite a cautious cyclist – my wife thinks it’s only her reminders that keep me from having a huge accident every time I go on my bike but I’ve had enough near misses, proper crashes and injuries to be quite careful.
That said, I don’t find many conditions which stop me riding, rain, snow, dark, even a bit of ice – they just modify what riding I do and on what roads.
@Randy C
I just can’t bring myself to Zwift … or even put my bike on an indoor trainer. But, then again, I’m never going to win Paris-Roubaix either.
@Randy C
I use Citibike in NYC for interval training in the winter. I don’t like to take a real bike out when the roads are covered in salt and/or ice. I hop on a Citibike, for which I pay $15.00 for unlimited monthly rides, warm up for a bit and blast as long as I can. The lights and traffic provide natural recovery. I ride very hard for 30-45 minutes and park the bike.
I live in an apartment so the turbo is not an option. The Citibike workouts may not be the best, but they are better than the gym or not riding at all.
I think Zwift is great – some don’t like the ‘gamification’ element but but it’s all down to what you do with it. A bit like Strava I guess.
Some people find the challenges and kit unlocks motivating, so if that gets them off their arses then great. Personally I don’t care much for that sort of thing but as a way to do very exact blocks of interval training I find it much better than staring at a wall or a graph. Even the races I just do as part of my training but again, others take them quite seriously.
And in case anyone thinks I’m going soft and should ride outdoors… today I started the year with a 100 mile ride which featured a glorious sunrise and a lovely dusk punctuated by five hours of unrelenting rain at an average temperature of 2 C. :-)
https://www.strava.com/activities/1336186048
@ChrisO
What a great start to year for sure. Cheers to that ride ! Something tells me that you weren’t downing champaign at midnight last night eh ?
Here in deep south of USA the temp never reached 30 deg F at highest late in afternoon. And with wind gusts would have been looney tunes cold on a road bike ride. Crazy stuff. I know some folks that jumped on their mtn bikes. I settled for a long run on trails.
I did a wahoo kicker challenge not long ago. Was at a bar and got my butt kicked by some dudes I know and I was huh ?? And that’s when it dawned on me that they were probably more than a little optimistic on their weight they provided the guy setting up the little efforts (a little TT chasing Froome). And I’d guess that the zwifting races are much similarly open to some fudging ?
@ChrisO
There’s a bit of a rift in my group of cycling buddies between those who Zwift and those who don’t. There’s actually only a few of us now that don’t, and one of those never trains indoors anyway.
It’s turned into a bit of a joke between us, and it culminated in someone asking what they needed for a indoor training setup (thinking, I’m sure, of Zwift) and I replied that you just need a turbo trainer, an ipod and a black and white photo of Bernard Hinault.
Now whenever there is any discussion of Zwift the same photo of Hinault gets posted up. I think everyone thought I was taking the piss – but I wasn’t This is my indoor training setup and has been for some time!
I actually don’t have a problem with Zwift and I can imagin ehow it keeps training fresh if you spend a lot of time indoors. I just can’t bear the thought of getting all the technology. I have a hard enough time keeping all my Garmin sensors working and having enough charge on my ipod without trying to have a screen set up etc.
@ChrisO
Out of interest, Chris, what was your glove strategy? I’ve done a few cold, wet rides in the last 2 or 3 months and the (supposedly) waterproof outer gloves have let me down, meaning my hands getting wet and very cold. Is there a truly waterproof glove (or liner)?
@Steve Trice
I think Marigolds are probably the only truly waterproof option. Though I have a pair of Sealskinz that are pretty good but mostly you seem to end up with the wet suit principle to keeping hands warm.
@RobSandy
That;s a great “motivational” picture of Hinault. Riding a TT and looking at you with a snarl on his face. “Fast? You think that’s fast?” he seems to be saying, “non, monsieur, I go fast.”
@Teocalli
Sadly I have to concur with Teocalli. I found myself today glancing at the Rapha sale in the hope they might have some big discounts on their Deep Winter gloves.
I have a pair of heavy gloves which are fine for dry and cold or even an hour or so of wet. I also wear silk glove liners beneath them. But after a couple of hours it started getting wet inside so I’m afraid I have yet to perfect the glove strategy.
Between the third and fourth hour my thumbs were going numb but I had just enough feeling to jam into the small ring when we came around a corner and suddenly faced a 15% wall out of nowhere. It was only 200m long so I hadn’t spotted it on the profile but I just managed to grovel up in 34×25.
By the fourth hour I’d lost the ability to shift gear except by using my whole hand to bang down or wrench the lever across. Thank God the last 30 mins before lunch was rollers – I just span down them and ground up in a middle gear.
Then the bloody cycling cafe in Tunbridge Wells was shut. I nearly cried. Luckily there was a pizza place a few doors down – it was a takeaway but they had a fire and let us sit in. I don’t normally have more than a light snack while riding but I downed a whole pizza (salsiccia). The guy felt so sorry for us he brought out a fan heater and even made us coffee from their own supply and the staff mugs.
My feet were OK though with neoprene overshoes above Belgian booties. And credit to Rapha – I was wearing a 10 year old softshell jacket and when I took it off my base layer was just a little damp around the wrists but otherwise completely dry. So really the gloves were the only weak spot.
I’m part of this fun and silly winter riding competition called Freezing Saddles. The whole point of it is to encourage and motivate people to ride their bikes through the winter. The first mile of the day counts for 10 points and every mile after that is 1 point, so there’s an incentive to ride even just a mile. During the week, my riding is either a pre-dawn patrol in my neighborhood (it’s kind of serene riding in the dark with no one else up and about yet) or an the same after work. Usually ~5 miles or so. Not really training, but since I’m not training for anything and just ride to ride, it doesn’t really matter. My “go to” bike is my old Bridgestone MB-2. I have two sets of wheels for it. Knobbies for if there’s snow or the streets are wet/slick. Pure slicks for dry road conditions. Depending on weather conditions, I try to get out on my road bike for “longer” on the weekends.
@ChrisO
Wet, and ultra-cold, hands top the cycling discomfort chart (other than, perhaps, oxygen deficit when death seems certain and imminent). My main cycling goal for this year has just become to perfect a glove strategy for heavy rain/ sleet, at close to 0°, over 3 or 4 hours.
@chuckp
That’s a great basis for a competition, Chuck. I really must get round to resurrecting my MTB and doing some shorter rides in really bad weather, just for the hell (and joy) of it.
@Steve Trice
Me and my 6 year old have got into the habit of taking our bikes out in the evenings, just to ride around the block. Just because. It’s wonderful.
@wiscot
It’s an amazing picture – the expression on his face is unreal. And for motivation, if you’re going well his snarl looks respectful, and if you’re slacking it’s a look of pure contempt. Here’s the picture in all its glory:
I’ve done a bit of Wiscot-esque research and suggest this picture was taken during the 1982 TDF. He won in 1981 so would have come into the race with Nr#1 on his bike and was riding for Elf at the time.
That year, Phil Anderson wore yellow for the first couple of weeks, but Hinault took it with a strong ride in the Bastille Day ITT at Valence D’Agen (although Gerrie Knetemann won the stage). He then defended his lead in a Team Sky-like fashion, keeping close to his main rivals in the Pyrenees and the Alps, and winning the next two Individual Time Trials, at Martigues and Saint-Priest (this picture must be from one of those stages).
In typical badger style, he responded to criticisms that the race had been boring by sprinting to victory on the Champs Elysees, taking his total stage wins that year to 4 (he also won the 7km prologue). This made him the first cyclist since Merckx to take the Giro-Tour double in the same year (and joined Coppi and Anquetil as the only cyclists still to have done so – and it’s looking like this will remain the case for the time being…)
Sean Kelly took the points jersey and Phil Anderson wore the white jersey for Best Young Rider into Paris, and the Frenchman Bernard Vallet took the mountains classification.
@RobSandy
@RobSandy
We get a bit blasé about distance don’t we, so it’s good to remember the days when “round the block” was about freedom and great adventure.
@chuckp
That is the most gloriously stupid / stupidly glorious idea for a competition. My old club in London had a very competitive Strava league—top 3 riders got an honourable mention in the weekly emails in the Longest Ride, Most Climbing, and Most Overall Distance categories, and there was some kind of award at the annual Christmas do. It was all very well, but for people with jobs there was no way of coming close to the top.
@RobSandy
That photos never gets old. The gear ratio he’s pushing makes me want to cry.
NB: My last post sounded like I was really down on @chuckp’s Frozen Saddles thing. I’m really not! I think it’s a fantastic way to do a competition; much better than the shitshow from my old club that I described.
I think calling Hinault “boring” was about the worst thing you could call him. A summary of his palmares does not do the quality of most of them, justice:
Grand Tours
Tour de France
General classification (1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985)
Points classification (1979)
Mountains classification (1986)
Combativity classification (1981, 1984, 1986)
Combination classification (1981, 1982)
28 individual stages (1978–1986)
Giro d’Italia
General classification (1980, 1982, 1985)
6 individual stages (1980, 1982, 1985)
Vuelta a España
General classification (1978, 1983)
7 individual stages (1978, 1983)
Stage races
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (1977, 1979, 1981)
Tour de Romandie (1980)
One-day races and Classics
World Road Race Championships (1980)
National Road Race Championships (1978)
Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1977, 1980)
Giro di Lombardia (1979, 1984)
Paris–Roubaix (1981)
La Flèche Wallonne (1979, 1983)
Gent–Wevelgem (1977)
Amstel Gold Race (1981)
Grand Prix des Nations (1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1984)
Other
Super Prestige Pernod International (1979–1982)
Just to take three: the finish into Paris in 80 – just him and Zoetemelk riding alone on the Champs Elysees. Can you imagine that today? The 1980 LBL win in the snow. The 1980 WC road race win at Sallanches. in both races he utterly destroyed the field. His Roubaix win – a race he hated – and he outsprinted the cream of the crop. His retirement at age 32 was possibly premature, but his pride meant a gradual diminishment of power was not going to be put on public display.
Oh to have a rider of Hinault’s panache again. Sagan is good, but not a GT rider. and Sagan has great palmares, but he’s 27. Hinault was 27 in 1981. Look at the list above and see what Hinault had won by that age.
@Steve Trice
I think we’ll all be keen to hear the outcome of your noble Quest !
@mulebeatsdrums
For me, that’s the Nr#2 to that incredible photo of the prophet with his bike. The more I look at it the more I find you look at. I mean, just look at his fucking socks.
@RobSandy
It’s not just the carefully folded-over socks, it’s the early skinsuit, devoid of logos bar the Le Coq Sportif emblem. The crochet-back gloves are old school as are the all black, all leather shoes.Also, no computer, no sunnies,
What’s funny is that he’s going as areo as he can with the frame, the cables, the clothing, the bidon, but riding what look to be 32 spoke wheels. In other iterations of this bike, the brakes were mounted behind the fork and in front of the seat stays.
@RobSandy
You can add Roche, Indurain and Pantani to that list.
@mulebeatsdrums
No worries. I didn’t read your post as such. Freezing saddles is gloriously stupid/stupidly glorious. That’s the whole point! :-) So much better than all the people Zwifting IMHO.
@RobSandy
Indeed! I enjoy my “rides to nowhere” in the ‘hood. It’s a reminder of why you rode your bike when you were a kid. Riding for the pure fun of it.
@Steve Trice
The majority (vast majority?) of people who play Freezing Saddles are just “regular” riders. Many of them commuters. But there are also some “ironman” riders who rack up big miles (like several thousand during the competition). A lot of socializing is involved and it’s fun to meet and sometimes ride with all these different people. Actually, it’s a hoot!
@Steve Trice
@RobSandy
@mulebeatsdrums
What y’all and the rest of my Velominati brethren will appreciate about Freezing Saddles is that everyone who participates — regardless of what kind of rider they are and what kind of bike they ride — is, by definition, a badass. For the most part, they are “regular folks” doing #9 rides. Outdoors braving the elements instead of “comfortably” indoors Zwifting. But not necessarily because they’re training for anything. But because they love riding their bikes.
@MangoDave
Oops.
@chuckp
Getting my little boy to like riding just for the fun of riding, either us both on our own bikes or us both on the tandem is something I’ve been hoping for. Of course, as he’s a stubborn little so-and-so he only went for it when it felt like his idea, not mine.
He’s currently learning to ride out of the saddle, it’s awesome to watch.
@wiscot
Don’t forget the awesome headband channelling unadulterated badassery directly from his brain to his mighty guns…
Were the 32 spoke wheels for stiffness?
By the way, was I correct in my assessment of this photo, in that it was one of the last 2 ITT’s of the 1982 Tour, and he won it?
@chuckp
There’s a lot of people sitting on Zwift instead of sitting on their arses or simply waiting for the weather to get better – it’s not like they all would have been outside.
And a lot of others would have been inside on trainers anyway going slowly insane.
That’s great that you’re outside riding but why do you have to put down someone else?
Having broken my hip on black ice I don’t really want to do it again. But if you want to make comparisons… I’ve still done 770km outside in the last month, as well as 20 hours on Zwift.
Being able to use Zwift makes me also ride more outside. It”s not a zero sum game.
@ChrisO
Agree with this. I can’t imagine myself using Zwift (I don’t train enough indoors to make it worthwhile) I don’t have a problem with it per se. The only problem I have with it is people talking about it a lot and people who jump on Zwift the second there is a bit of mist in the air.
I also wonder if we’re going to start seeing strong Zwift riders turning up in road races with loads of horsepower but no knowledge of group riding.
And for indoor training I can see it’s the way forwards. There’s a guy in our club who rides TTs and he does 7-8 hours training time, indoors, every week – all following trainer road. And doesn’t ride outside. Ok it might might you fast but the mind numbing tedium of that would put me off cycling.
@ChrisO
ChrisO – Sorry if my comments were interpreted as a put down. Not intended. Meant as a fun poke. I have a lot of friends who Zwift (or turbo training indoors). They are getting great workouts. And riding when they otherwise wouldn’t. That’s better that sitting around doing nothing. Although I’m also a big fan of sitting around doing nothing and drinking a good glass of wine. :-) I make fun of my Zwift friends and they make fun of me. It’s all good fun between mates … until someone loses an eye, of course. Zwift away, my friend! Many happy miles … inside and out. Cheers!