Tell us your absolute worse day on the bike !

[Toks]

2004 the Battle and Back Audax ride. The outward leg was fine. I started a bit late, 9am, but eventually began to catch up with a few people. On the return leg I bonked spectacularly after an hour. I then also ran out of drink so quickly became dehydrated too. Apparently I had cleverly placed a fiver in my back pocket but it was nowhere to be seen. Weak and disorientated from low glycogen levels I lost my way countless numbers of times and plodded along at approximately 11mph per hour for absolutely hours. In fact from Battle it must have been six hours to be exact. At 9pm I eventually got back to find the organisers locking up the hall. Seeing my pityful desperate state one of the organisers and went and got me some left over spaghetti which I hovered up in an instant. I some how managed to put the bike in the car and imediately fell asleep for nearly an hour. I Got home just before midnight

[-Adam-]

I'll do the full version with you Sean...

[-Adam-]

[quote="Sean_BanciaoDad©"]ps, 08:55 and its already 19 degrees outside

[jon avery]

Don't even need to think about this one! On the way back from the Surrey hilly 50. Feeling strong (for me) riding through Coulsden got knocked off by Richard ( sure he didn't mean it) and am still nursing this broken collar bone. 3 weeks to go then i'll be back (hopefully).

[Andrew G]

Probably the Chertsey carnage day. Although I wasn't brought down in one of the crashes themselves (2 in the home straight caused by the same rider ), I was caught up in the aftermath and came down in that. I got off lightly with just a knock to the knee while some others, Matt and then Carl notably, faired much worse.

The whole race was even more edgy than usual at Chertsey with a number of riders doing idiotic things all race. No matter how much they got shouted at, by more than one person, they still carried on.

Only going there for the race, by car, meant that there was nothing to take from the day at all. Any other days are always more good than bad as I'm on the bike and enjoy more than I don't.

Even when I came off in Italy the ride before was fantastic and outweighed the accident. I bonked horrendously on my first CR due to not eating and having no energy drink at all, but it was a great day and introduced my to Addiscombe and the Agreeable spirit - particularly in the form of Alex that day.

PS - Jon you were riding strongly full stop, not just for you.
Sean it was more like 30 degrees. At the finish we were melting standing still and it had got up even higher by that stage so the last 20 miles, even flat would have been tough.

[mlocke]

A few years ago (in my youth) I cycled around part of Europe. One particular day I left Geneva with the intention of getting to Chamonix.

This was in the middle of the summer, in the middle of a European heatwave.

After many miles on my knobbly tired mountain bike i hit the final straight which for me was uphill for miles. I dont remember how long but it was hours.

Now this might not sound too bad or difficult but picture this....
- I had not owned a bike for many years before this trip
- My total training consisted of about 5, 10 mile trips at the most
- In the first few weeks before the worst day I had been through Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland and now this
- My bike wieghed a ton. I had two panniers on my bike, a rucksac on my back and another bag in the main triangle
- I had to carry loads of very heavy water - some times 8 litres at a go
- The water quickly became very hot and discusting to drink

To highlight how hard these couple of months were I lost 3,5 stone - (not healthy as I was no porker to start with and eventually resulted in me cuttign the trip short)

Anyway back to this particular day. By the time I made it to Chamonix I had been riding all day, my sun screen washed off due to the sweat and I had really bad sunburn on the top of my thighs. Looking likea right state I then had to find somewhere to stay for the night, which ended up being a pub, which ended up being a 3 day stay despite Chamonix being possibly the most expensive place on earth!!

[Jon H]

I did a cycle tour around the far north west of Scotland a few years ago. As the places to stay are few and far between in that neck of the woods I had pre-booked accommodation, so each day I was pretty much committed to the planned route. Anyway, one day it just rained non-stop, was about 10 degrees (in summer) and I had woefully inadequate clothing (no proper waterproof). So I spent the day soaked to the skin and shivering, but looking forward to a nice hot shower at Durness youth hostel. Arrived there and discovered that they'd had a power cut, so had no hot water and no heating. I just peeled off the wet stuff, put all my dry clothes on and got into bed for about an hour until I was warm enough to think of doing anything else.

[Dombo]

SDW in a day - summer 2006. Finally running out of gears on my mtb going up a chalky hill, into a headwind with 20 miles left to go.

[John the old'un]

It was Easter 1961 weekend at the Isle of Wight Cycling Festival.
Riding the 25 mile TT in the pouring rain.
Crashed at the first dead turn. Front wheel just slid away. As it was a slow speed crash it didn't do any damage so I carried on.
With less than 1 mile to go, still pouring rain, flat section through twisting lanes, I was just going too fast for one of the bends. There goes the front wheel again.
Slid across the ditch into a hedge; gravel rash and torn shorts on both hips, bloody great dent in the top tube and buckled rear wheel.
Finished the event on foot. Highly pi**ed off.
Vowed then that I will NEVER race in the wet again.

[adrian]

[url=http://www.addiscombe.org/members/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2900&hilit=highclere]Highclere Castle sportive 2006.[/url] Three punctures and endless problems with the back wheel coming out of the drops. I took over eight-and-a-half hours to do not much over 100 miles.

[Grahame]

I've been reduced to tears twice whilst out on the bike. Both on the same trip New York to San Francisco in the summer of 1990.

The first was in upstate New York. It was raining. A lot. My left knee was rather sore, we still had over 80 miles to do that day to our scheduled stop with a host family. A headwind sprung up, and I seriously considered packing in the trip when I looked at the map to see how far we'd travelled (about 10 miles out from New York City) and how far there still was to go (about 4100 miles).

The second was about 3 weeks later in Nebraska when the fact that we'd spent many evenings with lovely people that we'd never see again. It just felt like my life was one long "goodbye". And the plains were a neverending, dull rollercoaster with straight roads, a slight descent and a slightly longer rise every mile. The only break was the county town every 25 miles, and the water towers in those never seemed to get any closer. Oh, and it was about 103 F, and 98% hmidity.

Niether of those were the worst, though. The worst had to be in Idaho when a redneck overtook us a bit too close, then decided to pull a gun on us and threaten to shoot us 'cos "You bicyclists don't respect nuttin' I'm goin' to call the sherriff. If you move I'll shoot you" It took us about 15 minutes to get him to calm down. Eventually, we were passed by a Idaho state police car that we managed to get to stop. The cops calmed him down, got him to leave (didn't arrest him ) and then "offered" to escort us out of the county so we had to follow a patrol car for 15 miles at 20mph as it threw out fumes and dust.

[Ivor]

[quote="Grahame"]Niether of those were the worst, though. The worst had to be in Idaho when a redneck overtook us a bit too close, then decided to pull a gun on us and threaten to shoot us 'cos "You bicyclists don't respect nuttin' I'm goin' to call the sherriff. If you move I'll shoot you" It took us about 15 minutes to get him to calm down

[quote="orv"][quote="Grahame"]Niether of those were the worst, though. The worst had to be in Idaho when a redneck overtook us a bit too close, then decided to pull a gun on us and threaten to shoot us 'cos "You bicyclists don't respect nuttin' I'm goin' to call the sherriff. If you move I'll shoot you" It took us about 15 minutes to get him to calm down

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

That would have to be some time ago, when a Brighton ride was an expedition and done once or if really pushing it twice in a year, and it was on one of those, when I was totally unprepared with no food and only 1 bottle (there and back) and being hard in those days, it was non stop - a quick glimpse of the sea and head home. By the time I got to Redhill on the way back i was struggling, and the legs were getting heavier and heavier and by the time I got to Purley, was going light headed and dizzy, to the point that I rode straing into the kerb. As I got up, in my dazed state, unable to reason clearly, started heading back towards Brighton and by the time I got to Coulsdon, realised that something wasn't right, found a telephone box (pre mobile phone days) and called home.

I have suffered in 12's since, but never got into that state.

[Roy Green]

Well, not really 'worst', but a road race I did in Essex in the 1960s was pretty gruelling. It was over 100 miles, in August, on the hottest day of a very hot summer. Before midway, the roads were molten. Then onwards it was a race of attrition, with the field being whittled down from the sheer exhaustion of ploughing through the rivers of molten tar, I managed to stick (!) it out till the end, getting 6th from, I think 9 finishers. Cleaning my mustard-yellow bike took best part of the ensuing week. My expensive new tubulars were like solid tyres, fit only for the bin. But I still like riding on hot summer days ...
Roy