What was the most extreme thing you did because you are a cyclist?

[Marva32]

You know, I've never actualy ridden Loveland Pass.
I used to spend every spring weekend at A-basin (at the ski area) back in 1988-1989, but never rode a bike there.

Independence Pass I have done, though. The West side is tougher than the east. I would hate to get a flat front tire on either pass...

To put it mildly, it wasn't worth even trying to clean the chamois after that incident, the shorts went right into the garbage.

 

[Martin318is]

There seems to be not much "I did this extreme thing because I'm a cyclist" and a lot of I'm a cyclist and check out this thing I did". For example, how did being a cyclist cause someone to run a marathon? Or being hit by cars? Its not like you intentionally did that is it?

For myself, I'll ignore my years rockclimbing etc and just tell this story:

I once raced in a small town in a criterium that was arranged as a going away party for a guy who was heading to Europe to try and get a ride on a team. It was mid summer and around 37C. There was a little bit of argy-bargy in the final lap and two other riders and I came to the line very closely together (I won).

Most of the town went to the pub for the party afterwards and were drinking from around 3pm - through dinner - and out the other side until, at around 1am, the guys and I were arguing about whether somone was blocked in the sprint. So....

We re-ran the last 5 laps of the race at 2am in the dark.... this time I didn't win but at least I was the only one that didn't throw up!

See now that is something I did BECAUSE I am a cyclist (and a competetive one) rather than just AS a cyclist.

 

[Deagol]

To put it mildly, it wasn't worth even trying to clean the chamois after that incident, the shorts went right into the garbage.

 

[fatandfast]

The most extreme thing I have done to date is not having sex with my girlfriend the 2 days before the district TT. I rode almost 3.5 minutes slower than in training. Total waste. Needless to say that won't happen again

 

[TopCarbon]

The most extreme thing I have done to date is not having sex with my girlfriend the 2 days before the district TT. I rode almost 3.5 minutes slower than in training. Total waste. Needless to say that won't happen again

next time, you can stop the sex before they call you to line. Riding her and the bike at the same time is not aero.

 

[mattfatcyclist]

Lotoja

LOTOJA+Ruptured ear drum+Antibiotics+no pain meds= stupid, wicked hard and lots o' pain

 

[usedtobefast]

i guess i am faster than i thought i was.

 

[spaceboy]

What was the most extreme thing you did because you are a cyclist?

Read these forums expecting rational thoughts from fanboys!

 

[flyor64]

I'll preface my story by saying extreme actually equals stupid in my case...

Deciding at the ripe old age of 29 to get back into BMX racing after a ~15 yr hiatus...casing on a double...landing on my (helmeted) head...concussion with 4 hours of amnesia...being grounded and almost permanently losing my job as a pilot at the time...then healing, and getting cleared to fly again...going back and racing again to "climb back on the horse".

My wife still thinks I'm nuts on that one.

As an aside, I apparently told over an hours worth of jokes to the paramedic and track director while waiting for my wife to come and get me. I refused an ambulance. I don't remember either thing.

 

[VeloEcosse]

Back in my BMX (Chromoly Skyway TA with white Skyway Mag wheels and TW bars....loved that bike!) days I decided that I could gap jump a 20 foot wide river. I factored wind, distance, speed, run up and landing.

What I didn't factor was my lack of talent, the embankment on the far side, coming up short and my two front teeth, upper jaw and nose being shattered into...well a million fragments really.

However, two weeks later I was back out on my Skyway with borrowed front forks from my brothers bike doing frame stands and bunny hops...loved BMX!

 

[VGsupermoto]

I named my son after a famous one day classic.

I'm not buying that we all have to be x-gamer rad dudes with flat billed hats.

but in my younger days building launch ramps to distance jump was fun...

nowadays it's just plain old boring distance biking...

 

[Le breton]

There seems to be not much "I did this extreme thing because I'm a cyclist"

I'll try to stay on the "because" side of things. A number of the extreme things I did I really don't want friends and family to know about and I'm afraid it's too easy to find out my real identity, so I selected one that was extreme but not embarrassing.

At the end of that summer, last century, a very long time ago, I was getting to be in a decent shape with frequent good placings, like 2nd and 3rd on two consecutive week-ends. But the end of the season was near, my first real racing season.

In those days, when you narrowly failed an exam at the university in June, you got a second chance, an oral exam in early october.

So I had been studying like crazy the week before, like 15 hours a day ( that's how I did things in those days), no time for biking. My exam was on a Friday afternoon and I had a race planned, the last one of the season, two days later on Sunday.

I therefore figured out a way to train after the exam. I had my bike but lived 210 km away, so I took the train part of the way, leaving 80 km to bike to reach home, the hilliest part, good training terrain. I would have had to finish the ride in the dark but traffic was light over the last stretch.

As I approached my destination, I noticed the darker and darker clouds, and then the rain started. Getting out of the station and on my bike, I got wet very quickly. I realized that this was more than I had bargained for as it was as dark as night because of the cloud cover and I was already getting uncomfortably wet.

At a red light while I was still in town, I asked a lift from a truck driver, but he had room neither in the back nor in the cabin, otherwise he would have been glad to take me in as he had never been in the area and he asked me about the road he should take, which was the same as mine for about 55 km.

So I said I would try to follow as long as I could, thinking that would not be long with the various hills on the menu.

The road was a major one, a Nationale, but traffic was not very heavy at that time of day.

Of course I don't know how fast I was riding, but I was doing quite well following that truck which protected me from the direct rain but of course not from the dirty projections from its wheels and mines. There is no way the driver could know whether or not I was still following his truck, I was just praying he would not hit the brakes as of course mines would take 100 meters before really working, but the alternative of letting the truck go appeared far worse. So I gritted my teeth on the uphills and anticipated on the downhills as I knew the road quite well.

The fact is that I managed to follow that truck the whole 55 km to the town that was our common intermediate destination. Arriving there, he stopped and we exchanged a few words, I thanked him and showed him his way to his final destination.

As for myself, the worse, by far, was behind me, the truck probably had saved me over half an hour and now I had really quiet and fairly easy secondary départementalesroads to reach my final destination.

When I got home I didn't give my mother any details on how I had returned, just said the oral exam apparently had gone well. In those days I used a heavy WOOL sweater for the top layer when biking, I had nothing for the rain. My guess is that sweater weighed about 5kg when I finally could take it off!

It would be a nice ending if I had won my last race of my first real racing season, but it was not to be, I finished 5th.

However I did win my first race of the following season.

 

[durianrider]

You should do the RAAM.

We had a team 'Bradley Saul/organic athlete )organised for this year but sponsorship didnt work out..

RAAM is a big bucks race to enter unfortunately.

I did 225 on Saturday and 142 today(Monday) and was actually thinking how hardcore RAAM really is. Its insane.!

 

[durianrider]

Some classic stories here. Thanks for sharing, all.

 

[craig1985]

We had a team 'Bradley Saul/organic athlete )organised for this year but sponsorship didnt work out..

RAAM is a big bucks race to enter unfortunately.

I did 225 on Saturday and 142 today(Monday) and was actually thinking how hardcore RAAM really is. Its insane.!

A friend of mine who works as a mechanic at the bike store that I race for, is trying to organise a ride down to Ballina and back in one day, ie me and him ride down as a challenge. It would be about a 300km round trip. If so, I'm stopping off in Byron for a tofu burger.

But I know what will happen though, I will end up dropping him, and having to soft pedal so he can stay with me. He's also trying to organise a team for next year's Grafton - Inverall (about 228km).

 

[durianrider]

A friend of mine who works as a mechanic at the bike store that I race for, is trying to organise a ride down to Ballina and back in one day, ie me and him ride down as a challenge. It would be about a 300km round trip. If so, I'm stopping off in Byron for a tofu burger.

But I know what will happen though, I will end up dropping him, and having to soft pedal so he can stay with me. He's also trying to organise a team for next year's Grafton - Inverall (about 228km).

I rode 142km yesterday, Bilambil-Byron-Bilambil.

Byron has 2 tofu burger joints-santos and fundamentals and then you have the byron bay pie company that sells 5 varieties of vegan pies opposite the IGA in sunrise.

Id stick with simple carbs for a ride like that though..fruit, dried fruit, jam sandwiches etc. Too much protein and not enough carbs in a tofu burger.

Do it anyway, you can always push your mate if he wears out. Its a good ride as you have heaps of shoulder on the main highway. Bit tight for 2km thru tweed but thats about it.

 

[Greyhound Velo]

About the only thing I can think of that doesn't involve getting run over is the time that I rode a 12 hour mountain bike race on my road bike. Just threw some 24mm cyclocross tires on and went for it. I never really thought of this as "extreme", just me being a smartass, but it was fun proving that it really isn't about the bike (I got second place overall ).

 

[craig1985]

I rode 142km yesterday, Bilambil-Byron-Bilambil.

Byron has 2 tofu burger joints-santos and fundamentals and then you have the byron bay pie company that sells 5 varieties of vegan pies opposite the IGA in sunrise.

Id stick with simple carbs for a ride like that though..fruit, dried fruit, jam sandwiches etc. Too much protein and not enough carbs in a tofu burger.

Do it anyway, you can always push your mate if he wears out. Its a good ride as you have heaps of shoulder on the main highway. Bit tight for 2km thru tweed but thats about it.

That's pretty much it for me. I'm getting sick of those gels TBH, they make too much of a mess over my fingers and I waste water trying to clean them. My party trick is to eat a bread roll with jam and riding at more then 45km/h and eating it and not spill the contents every where.

 

[usedtobefast]

 

[craig1985]

The last photo is more exciting then a pan flat stage at the Tour...

 

[skidmark]

2 things come to mind, generally things I have participated in rather than specific experiences:

- 'alley cat' bike courier races, which essentially is a test to see how quickly you can use short cuts and weave through traffic with centimetres to spare in the middle of the city.

- tall bike jousting.

Even more generally, working as a city wide bike courier year round in Winnipeg, Canada can get very extreme, with regards to temperature and danger due to road condition.

ETA: also, I should probably add - getting up at 5:30am to watch hours of a one-day classic online after staying out until 3am... that is usually every weekend from the end of February until the end of April.

 

[kiwirider]

Because I'm a biker, I find it really hard to NOT cycle to and from work on any day - even though there are pretty good public transport opportunities where I live.

For those of you who don't know Wellington, it's known throughout New Zealand as "Windy Wellington" for good cause. It is really common to be riding in 50km/h winds (30mph for those still on old money) - which for me usually (because of the prevailing wind) mean racing cars to work and grovelling like a dog on the way home.

Every so often, it gets really windy ... which can make for interesting commutes.

Until this year, my "record" was riding in to work in 90km/h winds with gusts a little above that (which is about 55mph+). My short route in is about 14km and usually takes about 24 mins ... but this time took closer to 50mins.

Earlier this year, I inadvertently set a new record for riding in crap conditions. I was about 8km from home when a "weather bomb" hit. Basically that meant that it went from a dry, cloudy day to the sort of rain that you get in the tropics and what the Met Service said were 130km/h+ wind gusts (about 87mph) in a flash. Unfortunately, because of where I was at the time, I had no choice but to keep riding. There was no-where to stop and shelter and I couldn't call my partner to pick me up as she'd never get through the rush hour traffic.

So, I kept riding ... This was OK while I had a tail wind, but sucked when I turned into the wind. I can tell you that, at that wind speed, rain drops feel about the same as when a car flicks a stone up off the road and it hits you - and they do bruise you. I can also tell you that it is possible to ride into a wind of that speed - admittedly at about 5km/h in the gusts.

Worse was to come when I had to ride across the wind. After about 1km of trying to balance in it, I gave up and started walking my bike - trying to get a couple of blocks so that I could then ride in the lee of some buildings. Good plan, but the wind funneled down the side street and nearly pulled my bike out of my hands when I was walking.

About the time I got to the sheltered street, the wind dropped to just "bloody strong" and I was able to ride the remaining couple of km home - towing some other poor ****** who got stuck in it in my slipstream while we dodged cars who didn't seem to realise why we were weaving on the road a bit more than normal.

Great experience - in a "that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger" kind of way. It would've rivaled any storm I've been caught in while mountaineering for intensity, but I'm just bloody glad it was so short lived!!

(Link to some cool pics of the storm!! http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/3448426/Wellington-mops-up-after-the-weather-bomb )

 

[craig1985]

Because I'm a biker, I find it really hard to NOT cycle to and from work on any day - even though there are pretty good public transport opportunities where I live.

For those of you who don't know Wellington, it's known throughout New Zealand as "Windy Wellington" for good cause. It is really common to be riding in 50km/h winds (30mph for those still on old money) - which for me usually (because of the prevailing wind) mean racing cars to work and grovelling like a dog on the way home.

Every so often, it gets really windy ... which can make for interesting commutes.

Until this year, my "record" was riding in to work in 90km/h winds with gusts a little above that (which is about 55mph+). My short route in is about 14km and usually takes about 24 mins ... but this time took closer to 50mins.

Earlier this year, I inadvertently set a new record for riding in crap conditions. I was about 8km from home when a "weather bomb" hit. Basically that meant that it went from a dry, cloudy day to the sort of rain that you get in the tropics and what the Met Service said were 140km/h wind gusts (about 87mph) in a flash. Unfortunately, because of where I was at the time, I had no choice but to keep riding. There was no-where to stop and shelter and I couldn't call my partner to pick me up as she'd never get through the rush hour traffic.

So, I kept riding ... This was OK while I had a tail wind, but sucked when I turned into the wind. I can tell you that, at that wind speed, rain drops feel about the same as when a car flicks a stone up off the road and it hits you - and they do bruise you. I can also tell you that it is possible to ride into a wind of that speed - admittedly at about 5km/h in the gusts.

Worse was to come when I had to ride across the wind. After about 1km of trying to balance in it, I gave up and started walking my bike - trying to get a couple of blocks so that I could then ride in the lee of some buildings. Good plan, but the wind funneled down the side street and nearly pulled my bike out of my hands when I was walking.

About the time I got to the sheltered street, the wind dropped to just "bloody strong" and I was able to ride the remaining couple of km home - towing some other poor ****** who got stuck in it in my slipstream while we dodged cars who didn't seem to realise why we were weaving on the road a bit more than normal.

Great experience - in a "that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger" kind of way. It would've rivaled any storm I've been caught in while mountaineering for intensity, but I'm just bloody glad it was so short lived!!

So what is it like being in aeroplane and flying in and out of Wellington with that sort of wind? I haven't been to Wellington in more then a decade and it wasn't that windy of a day. But I think it's fair to say you spent the whole time cursing and swearing every word you could think of?

 

[kiwirider]

So what is it like being in aeroplane and flying in and out of Wellington with that sort of wind? I haven't been to Wellington in more then a decade and it wasn't that windy of a day. But I think it's fair to say you spent the whole time cursing and swearing every word you could think of?

Can definitely be fun ....

I remember when I was a kid flying to Wellington for the first time and the guy across the aisle from me spent all of the approach doing his rosary! I thought it was funny - being a kid, the bumpier the better!!!!

 

[pedaling squares]

... working as a city wide bike courier year round in Winnipeg, Canada can get very extreme, with regards to temperature and danger due to road condition.

Never ridden there, but just waking in Winterpeg when that prairie wind starts blowing can be difficult. Must be a tough place to be a messenger, -40 and windy in Jan and the 'skeeters carry you away in June. Cool city, love it there.