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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View Comments
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 34x25.
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.