Your best ride of 2023

[telstarbox]

For me:
Audaxes - tie between the lovely scenery on Suffolk Byways and the very fun Halloween Hundred

Non-audaxes - mostly been commuting this year, there were some fun rides but I can't remember them right now!

[Pingu]

This for the loooooong descent to cake 

This for the feeling of going back to normality and meeting chums after the pandemic 

[Wowbagger]

I suppose it has to be the 70% of the Dun Run I completed before bailing in pain. Doing that many miles off only very short rides is foolish.

I think the vast bulk of my riding this year has been utility riding, and I’ve only done about 16k in the whole of November and December, because of shit weather and being ill.

[D.A.L.E.]

Not many big 'uns or standouts for me this year, but the two that sprang to mind were an 80km ride across the Magical Kingdom of Fife in late summer to McNastys for a cup of tea or 110km down to York Rally across the moors.

[Mr Larrington]

Did an epic ride all the way to the West Bank* back in the summer

Fell off the Perfectly Good Gentleman’s Mountain Bicycle on the way home

* of the River Lea

[SteveC]

Very disappointingly, I appear to have had precisely one ride which was not a commute this year. All of 4km to the LBS and back to book the bike in for a service.
And only 75 commutes as well.
Hoping for better next year.

[telstarbox]

75 isn't bad at all!

[Pingu]

73 more than I did this year.

[cycleman]

The series of rides to and from the york Rally this year stand out for me and the the potters in Suffolk/Essex in the autumn. I have not done as many miles this year as last year. More a motivation problem anything else. I like to ethier ride with others or have a place I need to go  to. Although if I do force myself out after a couple of miles to warm up I quite often follow my nose till I get tired and go home 🏡.
Must do better next year 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Pretty poor choice for me this year, especially in the second half of the year. But I'm going to nominate riding the Not the Royal Corona Ting event in Surrey. Wet May weather but that affected the camping weekend more than the ride there, which was with JBB along some beautiful Surrey country lanes. Good riding in company and then meeting others at the site. 

[Kim]

Veloviewer informs me that I've mostly been riding around in circles this year.  Watlington and back, a Tamworth CC Randonneur Once A Year and a tour to Canterbury and back (which was a massive slog, apart from the final day where the sun came out as I rode through Northampton).  Oh, and I broke my bike.

So I'm going to nominate the little overnight camping trip to the Church Farm site near Alcester, which barakta and I did without the aid of either a CAR or a massive trailer.

[markcjagar]

non-audax: despite not finishing Trans Pyrenees Race

audax: Sla'wit 600 from Darlo

[JellyLegs]

I haven’t had a great year in 2023, too many family commitments and a few injuries / illnesses mean there aren’t many rides to choose from.  Audax highlight would have to be the 300km perm Rutland Explorer which I loved.  Non audax highlight would probably be the spin across to the edge of the Chilterns that I took one day in June.  Both rides involved empty roads, plenty of wildlife and a stop at a delightful cafe.

Here is hoping for a few more rides to choose from in 2024.

[IanDG]

I've struggled with PMR and bought an e-bike. I led a couple of local CTC rides but my best ride was less than 10km. The last session of a series of bikeability training sessions at Gretna. A short ride with P7 kids. I was at the back with the slow guy and the lazy girl coaxing them on. As we approached the school at the end of the ride they both said how much they'd enjoyed themselves and asked if we were doing the same next week.

[Ian H]

I wasn't exactly at peak fitness this year.  I was out of time on the Welsh 600 (first time that's happened), and squeezed inside the limit on the Flatlands 600 in merciless heat. The last 60k of that ride, when it cooled down and I found my mojo, might count as a high spot.  Otherwise it was the trip across to see the PBP riders going past, staying with friends, and being invited to ride with the local club.

[mzjo]

Undoubtedly the two night cycle-camping trip on the Brest-Nantes Canal with my daughter in may. 110kms (she did 120 finishing at friends in Nantes - but her preparation was 14kms COR and a week riding her bike to work, 2kms up a hill, whereas I had a club 100km the week-end before). Brilliant, we had talked about doing something like that for several years, I hope we can do another one before too long.

[The Family Cyclist]

Just had a quick flick back through my strava for the year, confirmed what I already knew that this years been very sparse on cycling other then commuting or utility riding. Have only cracked 50km once and that was an admitidly very beautiful summers eve with good company and a pub stop.

The lack of riding was mainly down to the below though when covered 100km on foot

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=126216.msg2819476#msg2819476

[rogerzilla]

Didn't ride enough this year, mainly due to shite weekend weather.  It must have been a record for that.

There were some memorable ones with very deep floods (well over the pedals). 

[Pedal Castro]

For me it was Oundle to Landvetter (Gothenborg) last week in July. I'd booked the train to Harwich for the night ferry but train strikes made me plan to ride down. In the end the trains I needed were running but decided I'd ride anyway. Landed in NL and Dutch border guy asked "Purpose of visit?"
Me: "visiting family"
BG: "Where?"
Me: "Sweden"
BG: "oh!"
Me, preempting the how long question: "I'll be in Germany tonight".
BG was suitably impressed and sent me on my way with a smile.

I'd registered the first 3 days as DIY 200s and apart from a little rain on day one these were excellent weather riding days. Day 4 through Denmark was also excellent as was the morning of day 5 in Sweden but then the rain came! After 3 hours of Cats & Dogs with added Stair rods I started shivering and stopped in a town around 15km short of my planned campsite looking for a bar/cafe to warm up in. Checking Google maps, no cafe/bar sprung out but a hotel just round the corner did! Then a nice steady easy last day to meet my 7 month old grandson. 700 miles in 7 days my longest cycle camping trip ever.

[T42]

^^^ Grand.

My year, like a few others upstream, was mostly meh. Highlight was LWAB & HK visiting in August, but apart from that an unplanned week in hospital in June and another lost week in early August buggered my training "schedule" and I didn't get round to doing my sole 200k of the year until September. The canicule didn't help either.

No great adventures, then, just loops I've already done a hundred times before. Ended up with 1500 km fewer than last year.

[Blodwyn Pig]

Well, it’s a toss up for me really , one of two,

A) First ever FNRTTC, to that Whitstable, where I used to live and not really been back for 23 years, cafe was next door to my ex abode. Been meaning to do it for years, but I always seem to have an excuse. This year I bit the bullit, ( nervous for many reasons) and it was truly wonderful, and I’ll definately do more next year, only about 110km with a bit of a wander over to Herne Bay, but some what liberating for me.

OR

B) We purchased a sh Tandem in September, and took it with us in the car on our trip to Blois on the Loire. Many good rides in the week, and my lovely ( an non cyclist) seems to absolutely love it. On the way home we stopped off in Amiens for a couple of nights, and on the only full day, we rode from Amiens to Abbeville , found a wonderful quirky bar, and then rode back, having mini adventures all the time. 112 km in total, but a truly magical day, that without the Tandem , just would not have happened. There is a limit as to how far one can walk, in one direction if walking back the same way is the only option, but being together, on the Tandem, she feels safe, we cover a very large area in comparison, see so many many things that you would not see without being there (sounds daft I know, but without a bike, points further away from base just would not be seen, as using a car limits your accessibility to tracks and canal/ river paths) and she enjoys it ‘a lot’, I know this for a fact, as she keeps playing with my bottom.   

[JonBuoy]

I did LEJoG back in October.  To make it more of a challenge I took the MTB and plotted a route that was as off-road as possible.  The weather was good and, although there were a few truly unpleasant bridleways, there was lots of decent off-road riding.  Towards the end I was running out of time and my legs were shot so I reverted to the road 




I didn't get a photo of the Long Eaton sign.


Deano's 600k was great too!

[Cudzoziemiec]

So I'm going to nominate the little overnight camping trip to the Church Farm site near Alcester, which barakta and I did without the aid of either a CAR or a massive trailer.

Gosh, I was there too, a week or two after the Surrey Corona Un-Ting, and would probably nominate it as my second bestest ride of the year. Despite the ford being too high to ride through. The stay itself was... soggy. Oh, and I think we broke a slat on the bench. 

[Kim]

So I'm going to nominate the little overnight camping trip to the Church Farm site near Alcester, which barakta and I did without the aid of either a CAR or a massive trailer.

Gosh, I was there too, a week or two after the Surrey Corona Un-Ting, and would probably nominate it as my second bestest ride of the year. Despite the ford being too high to ride through. The stay itself was... soggy. Oh, and I think we broke a slat on the bench. 

I cautioned barakta against the ford, on the basis that the electrickery wouldn't appreciate immersion, and that her banananana bags aren't actually waterproof.  The footbridge was just about trikable.

Our stay was hot and dry, until about 30 minutes from home, where we got a proper stuff-your-hearing-aid-in-your-pocket-and-keep-pedalling soaking.  Barakta jettisoned a water bottle, but I was able to retrieve that the following day.

My overwhelming impression of 2023 was that summer never really got going, and that wind chill and unpredictable heavy showers made cycling far from home unappealling.  The Silly Bike Racing events were mostly free of actual Weather though, which was greatly appreciated from a timelording perspective.

[Rod Marton]

I was fortunate enough to have a chance to go cycletouring this year (though this was actually as a result of misfortune, as all my other plans were cancelled due to a major injury in the summer). The best part of that was undoubtedly the couple of days I spent cycling in the Outer Hebrides, from Castlebay to Lochmaddy. The worst part was that I had to curtail the ride due to incoming weather, so I still have unfinished business there. Next year, maybe.