Well - it's getting to the point where we also need to start looking for signups to the "Grand Tour Challenge" I suppose... Anyone up for it ?

This one's a "team based" challenge - over the duration of each of the grand tours, 9 riders on a team attempt to ride the distance of that day's stage - so - if the stage is 180km, each of the riders needs to do an average of 20km to get a Total for the day of 180km. Obviously, not everyone can ride every day (or 21 days out of 23 for example with the Giro), some people ride more, some less, but every rider counts. Last year we had 2 teams for LeTour and La Vuelta, both teams aced the distances so it's eminently do-able...

What is my bib number :glasses:

I've booked you in as #311, leader on the second team - I'll do the second bunch of numbers this evening with a bit of luck...

Okay - spot prizes on Sunday's Liège - Bastogne - Liège

I liked the "Railway Level Crossing" Photo Bonus idea for 1 point in ride

for those unsure of what I mean... something like this...



- drink's a given - anything Belgian (beer/cidre)

- As It's too short notice for shopping, I'll throw the snack bonus open to 1 point only for anything mentioned on the "Belgian cuisine" wikipedia page ?? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_cuisine

- usual "climb bonus" - 1pt for each 500m ascent up to a max of 3pts/1500+ metres.

How do you scout for 1,500+ meter climbs? Google doesn't help, and I find the Strava Segments difficult to explore too.

It's not a single climb of that distance - there isn't a mountain that high in the UK, it's 1,500M of climbing over the entire ride... I'm not that sadistic mate :laugh:

To hit the bigger ascents, I'm guessing for you it's ride towards Penistone, then make for the classic stuff like the Cat & Fiddle, Holme Moss, Snake Pass - that sort of thing. There is an interesting website - http://www.climbbybike.com/ - that lists loads of classic cycling hills/mountains, and allows you to search by country...

Ride done - 46.14 miles, double my longest ride so far this year so quite chuffed :-)

think I may have got the 3pts for climbing over 1500m, no level crossings, but Belgian beer (Leffe) and Belgian chocolate eclair

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/300990670





Now for a warm bath!!!! Hope everyone else has had a good ride too :-)

Fantastic ride Fran - I'm really sorry, I forgot to open the actual submissions thread before I went out, so I've copied this post into the proper entries thread - if you can post in there to confirm i've copied it properly (just for transparency for everyone else) that'd be cool (and the gang ) - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/866408-mfp-cycling-classics-challenge?page=6

Edited - posted results in the wrong thread :blushing:

Again - probably my fault for not opening the proper thread in time... Sorry ! :embarassed: