Doge

I know the ride and no. First bike in 2 of them, 1st mixed in one.

OnyxTiger

As millennials like to say:

"Dem wheels tho"

Scarbo

I can totally relate to this. I could list any one of a number of rides that look so challenging on paper (120 mile-plus, > 12000 ft elevation gain; hot/cold/rain) but once when I was doing a short training ride in southern California I bonked really badly. I don't know what happened to me; it was just a bad day and when I got off the bike I swore I was never going to ride again.

roadwarrior

Any race over 150 miles.

That's why you see pros rolling around on the ground after a race finishes. Ride for six hours, then sprint to the finish.

Secret Squirrel

Tour of the California Alps-Death Ride

TheKillerPenguin

Probably the first time I rode a metric. I was solo and woefully unprepared after having purchased my bike maybe a month or two beforehand, spent time pushing my bike along up a long climb I now have the KOM on because I simply couldn't pedal anymore, had to lay down a few times, went through the stages of grief maybe half a dozen times. I believe my watch read something like 4.5hrs not counting an hour or two of stops. Nowadays my normal training rides are both longer and far more intense than that day, as are the races that I do, but that one will stick with me until the day that I die.

Scarbo

My backyard!

FlashBazbo

It was the 2015 Dirty Kanza 200. That year was the "Muddy Kanza." Also, the year they only had two checkpoints -- so you had to carry more food/water than usual. 7 miles of carrying a fully-loaded gravel bike through ankle-deep mud. (The first 3-mile carry I was at above-threshold heart rate for most of it. That was before I realized I wasn't going to beat the sun.) Then, nearly 80 miles riding into a 20 to 30 mph headwind. It took me around 8 hours to make the first checkpoint. Before the day/night was over, I had a torn labrum (shoulder), a torn meniscus, and a shattered kneecap. And I was tired. But I never had a flat!

ravenmore

Hard is relative. I've done a ride here in Austin a few times called the Tour Das Hugel that is about 110 miles and 14,000 feet of climbing short but steep knee breaking hills. However I was really fit each time I did it and was within my comfort zone.

Compare that to the time I went on a fast group ride I wasn't familiar with one Saturday when I was really really out of shape, got dropped, got lost, and spent the next 6 hours wandering around trying to find my way home in 105 degree heat, finally found a familiar landmark, called a friend to come get me, and then LITERALLY passed out for a sec on the side of the road - THAT ride was f'ing hard.

(before you ask - technology wasn't as great as it is now and most of the time I was lost I had no cell coverage...)

Scarbo

My god, man--how many freeway overpasses did that take?

Couldn't help myself. Just being sassy. I know you're near the Hill Country Excuse the interruption.

dmanthree

Pan Mass Challenge, day one, 2014. The rain started to fall precisely at 5:30AM, our takeoff time. It rained for the first 70 miles, and absolutely poured for the last 41 miles. And with the wind coming off the ocean we had a nice, cold headwind, to boot. The ride takes place the first weekend in August, and there were 90 cases of hypothermia. In August. 9 riders needed to be hospitalized due to shaking. I wore a rain jacket and stayed reasonably OK, but RAN to the hot showers when I arrived in Bourne. We were all soaked to the skin with water logged and heavy shoes, and pants that felt like wet diapers, it was just miserable. It was the coldest and wettest day in the 35 year history of the event.

ravenmore

Ha! Yeah Austin is where the Hill Country begins so we actually have some decent climbs. I remembered I still have some pics from one of the Hugels in my Photobucket. I'm the one channeling Fabio. :

seypat

I think you need 2 categories. One is weather related and the other is just tough routes. I've been lost on a century late August in BFE VA heat/humidity. Did 139 miles before I got back to the finish. I was stopping at rural churches and other places filling my bottles from their faucets. Closest that I have been to being mentally broken on a ride. Early April same BFE VA, century started with temps in the 70's. A storm blew in. Temps in the low 40's, hard rain and gale force winds. The winds got so strong that volunteer tents were being blown over. They closed the 100 mile route and diverted everyone to the metric route. We were literally pouring/wringing out enough water from our shoes/socks at each rest stop to fill a coffee cup. Tough day.

2013 Storming Of Thunder Ridge.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/2442798

The ride is hard enough, but with the rain, fog and other conditions it was an Epic Hardman day. Descending down from the climb was scary. This year's Yeungling Shamrock 1/2 Marathon/Full in Va Beach was the toughest conditions I have run in. Temps around 40, steady rain, strong North winds gusting in the high 20s, sleet, and snow. Rough day.

seypat

Of course, nobody has ridden as hard as these guys. Look at how serious they are:

Gladius

- Triple Bypass
- First day of Ride the Rockies 2014: Boulder to Winter Park, only we hit snow on Berthoud pass and they stopped us at the top, stood shivering in the cold for an hour before they got busses up to us. 72 miles and over 10k feet. Then 5 more days of long rides after that.
- Mt Evans from Idaho Springs. For some reason the altitude hit me really hard the last 2 miles.
- Old Man Winter rally, Lyons-Rowena-Linden-Lyons. (February, weather was good this year but it's early in the year, metric century, with ~5500' climbing on a CX bike with 38mm tires). I was lucky to have a buddy's wheel to suck the last 5 miles.

curtism

Two come to mind for me.

First, the Ultimate Challenge. 113 miles and 12,700 feet of climbing with last 6 miles being a climb up Little Cottonwood Canyon (average 9%) in Utah. This is the amateur ride of the Tour of Utah queen stage.

Second, Lotoja 2015. 202 miles and 8,800 feet. I went out too hard and began cramping about mile 70. The rest of the day was miserable. I wouldn't have finished but some riding friends found me along the way and encouraged / pulled me home. (Thanks Craig!)

aplcr0331

Riding up Mt Lemmon with a head cold after 200 miles and 10K of elevation the previous 4 days. I averaged about 4mph or less that last few miles. I was spent, my gpos auto paused a few times as I almost fell over. That was absolutely miserable.

zymphad

Was a short ride along the shore, the route went by a lot of beaches and shoreline, a few days after a hurricane, the wind was still monstrous. I underestimated how difficult it would be.

caloso

2011 Sacto Grand Prix M123. Ex-pros and stars and stripes on jerseys. Strung out from the gun. Never saw the front of the race, just stupid hard to stay attached. Luckily, it only lasted an hour.

bikemig 

It was on a tour across the US in western North Dakota along the Missouri river. The terrain was hilly and the wind was unrelenting. Nothing like doing north of 80 miles into a serious headwind. Plus there was nowhere to get more water so supplies were very limited. This was N.D., pre fracking, and there was little or nothing out there.

I was fit. I had being doing all the local training races before doing the tour and we had made it all the way to N.D. from Seattle by bike along the ACA northern tier route. So I must have had a few thousand miles on my legs before we hit North Dakota.

It was my toughest day in the saddle.

cthenn

I don't ever do "hard/epic" rides, but I did do Haleakala once, is that considered hard? It's just long, really.

zymphad

I'm amazed at the fitness and abilities of so many in this thread!

Scarbo

Haha--the bidon guy. Well, we're all a bunch of poseurs and pretenders compared to these gents.

Seriously, though, Whitney Portal is a really tough climb.

seypat

Any climb is tough for me!

Doctor Morbius

My hardest was definitely my first and last century. This was done solo. Due to a couple of breaks I managed to finish in just under 7 hours. According to my cyclometer, my ride time was 6:15. At the time I was 44. I hurt for days afterward.


September 20th, 2004: (2004 Specialized Sequoia at Eagle Creek Park)
Total Ride Time = 06:15:43 (cyclometer)
Time in Zone (134 - 153) = 05:18:27
HR above 153 = 00:05:29
HR below 134 = 00:51:50
Distance = 100.03 Miles
Avg Speed = 15.9 MPH (was 16.1 until 80 miles and 16.0 until 90 miles)
Max Speed = 21.1 MPH (going down a hill)