diphthong

your fave ride of 2021? longest? strongest? best company? best moment? personal best? best scenery? first ride post injury/recovery? whatever? combination of any?
what ride stirred you for what ever reasons(s) the most in 2021?

i'll start. an epic, must-do regional climb with oodles of scenery along the route. finally finally hit mt. lemmon, az. scenery on point and performance not great but waay
better than expected after a late night beforehand:

https://www.strava.com/activities/5121837109

and yah, we've got less than a dozen days left in the year. if you don't have a previous ride that jumps out to you, go get it and post.

noimagination

A late afternoon/early evening ride this summer with my wife on our tandem. We took a ride after work, and hit the sweet spot when it seemed that everyone was at dinner. There was little traffic, and we climbed up through some woods in the late afternoon sun. The weather was perfect, warm but not hot, little noise, low angle sun through the trees so the woods looked cool and mysterious, it was one of those zen rides when everything seemed to work out well. We did a more challenging climb that I'd been hesitant to do on the tandem and it was easier than I'd feared, we made it without gasping. Then the descent around the other side of the loop, and back home. It was only about 1.5 hours, strenuous in spots but not close to our limits. We looked at each other after and agreed that that was a good ride.

The Chemist

Longest ride ever, first ever double metric. An epic ride in every way.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6153831388

exercion

Mine was a three day/two night trip from Cumberland, MD to Pittsburgh, PA on the Great Allegheny Passage trail. 150 miles total. The scenery, trail conditions, trail towns and people I met made it a wonderful trip and completely worthy of the GAP's reputation as a bucket-list type trip.

Eric

mstateglfr 

In early June I was riding 65mi with a large group of teens I help mentor when at mile 45 my front wheel hit a frost heave in the road, the wheel turned sideways, and I slammed to the ground. Ive ridden over that bump dozens of times over the last 5 years, but apparently I connected with it at a bad angle this time. I was going a little over 20 at the time and landed on my left shoulder, hip, and knee. Besides the chain falling off, the bike was perfectly fine.
I was behind my group at the time and couldnt yell loud enough to get their attention so I crawled to the side of the road to steady myself and got back on the bike. The next hour was slow and rough, but I wanted to finish. I caught up to the team and we rode the last 30min together.

I hurt, but didnt realize the extent- I broke 2 ribs, separated my clavicle, and my hip hurt for the next month.
Kinda dumb to have finished, but also oddly proud that I finished.

I will call that my most memorable ride of the year.

mstateglfr 

My favorite ride of the year-

I ride RAGBRAI each year and my oldest daughter wanted to join for a day this year so we spent the 6 weeks leading up to RAGBRAI doing some training rides here and there. She loves to ride and is plenty strong enough, but other activities take priority so I just wanted her to get some saddle time mostly.

She had a blast of RAGBRAI and loved all of it- the camping, the overnight town food and activities, all the outfits and costumes along the ride, the communities coming together at each stop thru town, etc. Seeing a wedding take place in a pass thru town of a couple local cyclists and getting Beekman's ice cream towards the end capped off the great day. She is pushing for a few days this coming year.

Nachoman

My favorite ride every year is always Kitchen Creek.

indyfabz

St. Albans, VT home to Philly self-contained over a two-week period, with a day off in Burlington after going sailing for the first time ever.

indyfabz

I've done the GAP from Pittsburgh to Cumberland twice during cross-PA tours and once up and back from/to Cumberland to have dinner with a friend in Pittsburgh.

Definitely a great ride.

Did you visit Buffalo Bill's house from The Silence of the Lambs a bit off the trail in Layton, PA?

rumrunn6

long ride, in the woods, in high heat & humidity, on trails I had never been on & finding water to jump in

tcs

Vail Pass

mercator

July, Canmore to Lake Louise and back (roughly a century). Parks Canada had closed part of the Bow Valley Parkway to cars so we had the road to ourselves.
We had planned to turn left at the junction and head in to town for lunch, but it turned out they were giving away free beer at the ski hill so we went there instead.
Got the T-shirt.

exercion

Those sound like great trips. I'm not familiar with the movie enough to have heard of the house, but maybe next trip. I solo'd this one and now am trying to scare up a small group of friends to ride it next year.

Eric

indyfabz

The house is about a mile off the trail, in Layton, PA:


It recently sold again and has been turned into a "stay experience" place:

The Silence of the Lambs film location: Buffalo Bill's House (buffalobillshouse.com)

cb400bill

Due to some health reasons I didn’t do any Epic rides this year. However, one ride does stick out. Our normal riding group consists of both men and women. One Wednesday night I was the only guy who showed up. The ladies started referring it Bill’s Harem Ride.

N2deep

I’m jealous, the Mt Lemon ride is definitely high on my hit list. Best ride of the year for me is the Concur the Coast which circles Corpus Christi Bay. Its the only day of the year that we can ride across the bridge on the north side of town. The view from the bridge is breath taking and the entire Corpus cycling community gets together so its a huge social meeting for us also.

kahn

My favorite of the year and also the longest was a 52 miler with about 3,000 feet of gain over rolling and steeper climbs. It involved two ferry rides and lots of water views.

Hiro11

I have so many great memories from this year, but if I had to pick just one ride: 90 mile mixed surface mess of a ride on a drizzly, blustery day with a group of badass adventure riders and racers. It started out way too fast, we kept getting lost, a couple of light crashes occurred, we wound up in people's backyards, horse trails, fast road descents, on fairly techy singletrack, farm tracks, highways etc. Both my bike and myself were covered in mud and horse s%^t by the end. I was soaked to the bone, bonking and mildly hypothermic. It was the best kind of disaster. Everyone was exhausted and laughing at the end.

indyfabz

Heh. My first ever unsupported bike tour started in Seattle. We left the old hostel location and rode a short distance to the Bainbridge Island ferry. Spent the first night at Kitsap park. 92 days later we made it to Bar Harbor, ME.

pdlamb

Wasn't that start in the wrong direction?

2seven0

Tour de Big Bear. Wife & I spent several days riding around town before. Weather was perfect & legs felt good. We both had a great time. Spectacular scenery.
Can't ask for much more than that.
West

indyfabz

Seattle was a convenient meeting place. We went north to pick up ACA’s Northern Tier route in Mt. Vernon, WA. We then turned east.

Badger6

A lot of them. I am always looking for stuff that will be epic, and I try to make every non-commute ride epic in it’s own way. But, some rides just stand out more than others, but because of my approach, for me there is no one favorite, but there are a few that are worth recalling. It helps that I take a lot of pictures on the bike, and I always upload at least one snap to Strava with every ride that isn’t a commute. So bear with me as I offer up my favorites of ’21, with short descriptions, and links to Strava if you care to see the tracks and photos.

#1) First Century for 2021. Rode the train to Kortrijk, and then proceeded to go up and over a bunch of famous Flandrien cobbled climbs. Yes, Paterberg, Oude Kwaremont, and Koppenberg featured in this torturefest, we finished climbing on the Muur van Gerardsbergen. The weather was sketchy, it had rained for several days, then it cleared in the morning, but the clouds and a light drizzle set in for the return to Brussels. It was perfectly Belgian.
#2) Muur de Huy Century. So the day prior to this I rode a nice metric+ century into Wallonia and on the ride comments a German friend of mine commented that I should go ride the Mur de Huy. Well, the weather the next day was froecastto be beautiful, no wind, sunny, and warm (10°C). So in a spur of the moment, I mapped it, and took off. And let me tell you, 19% for that long is emotional, and then you still have half the ride left…
#3) Highest Point in Belgium. Convinced a buddy of mine who as training to do Race Across France (as Race Across USA qualifier) to go with me. We rode 176km to get too the highest point in Belgium, which is 692m above sea level, but, if you climb the stairs to nowhere, you can stand 700m above sea level.
#4) Belgian exclaves for Frites. The next day, I had a hankering for some frites….and a visit to a part of Belgium that is entirely enclosed within The Netherlands. And it is not just one little enclave, but a series of them, some as small as one or two farm plots! Baale-Hertog they call it, and I visited. We aren’t out of February, yet…I promise it’ll slow down.
#5) First ride with the local club. We take a winter break, the club gets together informally, but not regularly. This was the first ride of the “pre”-season. We were all tired of COVID and really wanted a fast road ride, so we decided to get everyone together and go hammer. It was wet and messy, because it was still winter. But it was so much fun.
#6) KOMing home. First visit to my dad in three years, last time I was there, I buried my mom. I took a KOM I had eyeballed for 4 years…and then I proceeded to bag segment after segment all around my dad’s house for the next 10 days. It started a bit of a ruckus because some of the locals who didn’t know me (because I had moved away over 20 years ago) we’re not too happy at the “losses.” One of them knew me, and told them all to settle down, train harder and go take them back…so far none have been taken, but the clock is ticking…
#7) Back in the Schwarzwald. Had a long weekend, drove to Germany, and rode in the Schwarzwald again with another German friend. It was epic and worth the long drive to get there for it. Next summer, he and I are planning to do a Brussels to Stuttgart (or S->BXL) ride since it is planned to be my last summer in Europe. I love that guy.
#8) Grit! Gravel 130. A local gravel cycling consortium puts on several events each year. With COVID this was the first I could participate in for 2021. 130km, all sorts of surfaces: from tarmac to high quality gravel fire roads to single track and even some sand. It was cool to go ride an organized event.
#9) Rapha Prestige Tisvilde. Denmark! When someone says Denmark is cycling friendly, it’s not words. This ride was amazing. Even more so, my “team” vaporized. Plans changed, and life took over, so I went to Denmark alone to ride this. I hit up the Rapha store in Copenhagen, started a convo with one of the employees, next thing you know, I’m riding with the store! 2 days later we met up on the beach, and set off for a great ride all around northern Hovestaden. It was epically beautiful and fun.

I’m getting exhausted just reliving all of this. And there’s more…maybe another post tomorrow. Thanks for reading, if you clicked on the links, I hope the pictures were worth it.

kahn

I believe the old hostel was down by the Pike Place Market?

My longest ride was across WA state from Bow-Edison to Newport, ID. Probably the same route you might have taken unless you did Stevens Pass. But your sounds like quite the REAL adventure. We were supported.

indyfabz

It was way back in ‘99, but I think it was near the Pike Market.

We went up to Concrete then Colonial Creek Campground then over Rainy & Washington Passes in the rain and snow to Winthrop for a much deserved rest day. Only stop in ID was Sandpoint, where we took another rest day.