Having just had a rather epic day in the saddle, I thought I’d reflect on what have been my best days in the saddle over the past six years, but first, what makes a ride epic? I think it can be a variety of things. Sometimes it’s achieving something you’ve never done before, pushing yourself beyond what you thought you could do, sometimes it’s as simple as amazing scenery or great company. Often it comes down to how it made you feel and how memorable it was, for any of the aforementioned reasons.
Here are my top 5, in reverse order –
5) Costa Blanca Day 5 – Tollos y #59 Coll de Garga (Strava)
10th January 2025
70 miles – 6,100 ft
I decided to treat myself to a cycling trip to the Costa Blanca for my 50th Birthday, and it certainly was a great trip, which included bumping into Mathieu Van Der Pol in Calpe! The fifth day of the trip was perhaps the most epic though.
Four of us set out into the blue-skied Spanish countryside and headed straight up Puerto de Tollos, taking almost 2½ hours to ride the 22 miles to the top.
From there, we had a nice long descent to lunch. We rode on to a point where two of the group split to head home, a good ride already complete, but I chose to tackle #59 of Simon Warren’s Top Spanish Climbs, Coll de Garga with the ride leader Claudia.
My average heart rate of 151 shows how hard it was to climb the 2,103 ft over 6.6 miles, especially with 50 miles already in the legs.
This is one of those rides that just made me feel great. The second climb was not only a great challenge to conquer, but also particularly beautiful, especially the descent (see video below).
4) Girona Day 3 – Rocacorba (Strava)
17th September 2022
88 miles – 6,300 ft
This is another one where it was more about what I accomplished than how pretty the ride was. I’m a ‘Group 2’ rider, especially when it comes to climbing mountains, I have no doubts about that. At around 100kg I’m never going to keep up with the fast climbers, but on this day I put in one of my better climbing efforts and reached the top of Rocacorba before Group 1 started their descent, and I let myself get talked into joining them!
What that did, was make it one of the toughest days in the saddle I’d ridden to that point. The effort needed to keep up with the Group 1 riders was shown by a Strava ‘Relative Effort’ score of 476 for the day, the highest it had ever been at the time!
The high I had rolling back into Girona with Group 1 after 88 miles and all that climbing was simply amazing and something I’ll never forget.
3) Ride London 2023 (Strava)
28th May 2023
125 miles – 4,900 ft
This makes the list for the simple reason it was my first (and to this day, only) 200km ride!
Riding in to the start (most of the way) and back out again, I knew I was in for a big day, so I didn’t push too hard and managed to pace myself quite well, teaming up with two random cyclists to help pass the day!
2) 3 Parks Day 1 (Strava)
6th August 2021
72 miles – 7,500 ft
With #3 being my longest ride, #2 goes to my ride with the most climbing, which surprisingly is a UK based ride! This was my first cycling trip and I remember being worried about how I would cope with multiple days of big miles and big climbs and it certainly kicked off with a big one!
There were lots of lumps and bumps with the ride finishing going up Hartside Summit. The other element making this day so memorable was the weather. One of my wettest days in the saddle, too!
1) Mallorca 312 (167) (Strava)
26th April 2025
104 miles (120 in the day) – 7,100 ft
Now to the ride that inspired this post. Initially, there was an element of disappointment for me. I’d hoped I would make the cutoff for one of the longer routes, but on reflection, the ‘shorter’ route was the right ride for me. I probably couldn’t have gone a mile longer! Given we all rode to the start (in pitch black darkness) and back to the Cabot afterwards, the total miles for the day were only 5 miles short of my most ever. Then, throw in the elevation of Fermenia, Puig Major, Can Costa and more, and I was only a few hundred feet short of my most climbing ever. It was definitely the hardest day of my life in the saddle.
To put the cherry on top, the ride had amazing scenery, under bright blue skies on the (generally) perfectly smooth Mallorcan roads and the great atmosphere of 8,500 other cyclists.
Whilst I initially had felt disappointment in not making the cutoff, by the end, I was feeling I’d accomplished something special, my hardest days riding yet. What’s my next challenge?!
