“Must Do” bike rides

Tour de France, LEJOG, JOGLE, C2C and the list can go on.  Yes we must all do our own personal “must do” rides while we can.  At the tender age of 50 I have about 30 years of cycling left and so I must make sure I achieve what I want to accomplish.

Apart from those epic rides, there are some more local, less demanding rides which are no less special.  This one is very special.  Everyone needs to do something like ride a tandem around; this was at our church picnic earlier this year.  That’s Hannah (12) on the back with Poppy and we had such great fun.  It’s not our tandem, in fact it’s owned by our friends (the Newton family) who were happy for everyone to have a try.  Needless to say we all wobbled around a bit while we got the hang of it.

Must do – ride 2

I like hills – both cycling and running, up or down.  You can’t escape hills in the Lake District in Cumbria, Northern England and amongst the many challenging rides is Kirkstone Pass.  It can be reached from three different directions (from Ullswater, Ambleside or Windermere) and I chose the first which has a gradient of 1:5 (20%) with a few yards at 1:4 (25%) which can be a lung busting ascent and absolutely brilliant.  Naturally the descent is also brilliant, in a scary way.  Taking some of those bends at speed can be a risky and an exhilarating experience.

Both of these rides are unforgettable.  Must get plotting some further “must do” rides for next year.  I fancy most of all, another mid summer ride in going through the night.  I also fancy a long distant ride – perhaps 130 miles in a day and heading to the Somerset coast.  That’ll take some training!

And you?

Do you have any “must do” rides you could share….. ?