(upbeat music)
- I don't even want to count up
the total number of years that all the GCN presenters
have been riding for.
But, that presumably quite scarily large total
does mean that between us we have racked up
a considerable number of kilometers.
In some quite incredible locations,
and many of which, have fortunately, been documented
right here on GCN.
So out of that experience then, which have been the best?
(dramatic music)
- I must say, it's quite hard to chose the best ride I've
ever done since working with GCN.
I love the Merita De La Metez.
That place really is out of this world stunning.
And for complete different reasons,
I also love riding the final one hundred kilometers
of Parow Bay, even if the two couldn't really of been
more contrasting.
However, the one that I've chosen is our
epic ride in Gran Canaria.
Really couldn't have been any better.
We sit in a lovely quiet place,
called La Aldea de San Nicolas de Tolentino.
From there, we took a nice gentle climb,
that just so happens to be freshly tarmacked
and is smooth as a billiard board table.
After which, you have a stunning decent.
It's really kind of flowing, not much need for braking
but still plenty of exhilarating corners.
And then, we had our first coffee stop.
Always an important part of any ride for me these days.
Now the biggest climb of the day came straight
after that coffee stop, it's called the Serenity Climb.
And honestly, it was one of the most
beautiful roads I have ever ridden.
I mean we did luck out with the weather.
There wasn't a cloud in the sky on the day,
but it really was stunning, in every sense of the word.
Now the main part of that climb is
eight and a half kilometers long.
But, it does drag on quite significantly
over the top, to the lunch stop.
Another important part of any of my rides today.
The highlight of the lunch actually wasn't the food.
It was watching Si try cafe bombon or leche leche.
Basically, that is an espresso with condensed milk.
It was delicious, although I'm not sure that Si agreed.
(laughing)
From there, there was still about 1,000 meters of climbing
to go but, the main feature of the final part
of the ride was the Valley of Tears.
Now I've been really up about this climb and
it sounded horrific.
So when I was designing the route,
I included it, going down it obviously.
And I must say it was, I do not know how to say it.
A bit sketchy in places.
There were huge drops off the side of the road.
Not much in the way of fencing to stop you going down them.
So I'm going to describe it as a thrilling decent
And it led us back to our hotel, which was perfect.
It ticked all four boxes for my best ride;
Sunny, coffee stop, lunch stop, down hill finish.
And I thoroughly recommend it.
- Wow that's a really, really difficult question
because there are two rides that spring to mind.
One's the rad race which, was my
second ever fixed gear race, on a go-kart track
which was really truly, truly terrifying.
But, I guess the one, that kind of beats them all
has to be replicating the 1903 Tour de France stage,
with Mark Beaumont, and like all utterly bonkers ideas
it came about over a cup of coffee.
Where we kind of discussed how hard was it back in the day.
And so to find out we kind of just decided to go and do it.
The ride was just as I imagined,
absolutely physically and mentally brutal.
But I did enjoy every moment of it.
I mean it was the beautiful summers day,
riding through the incredible scenery of France,
with a world record holder to my left.
Being able to chat with him and
talk about all his adventures.
But I think the hardest thing, or the thing that
really sticks in my memory was the last sixty K.
When the heat was pounding down.
And it was so hot, we both well thought we were going to get
heat stroke so we started stripping our polo necks off
and decided to ride in our vests,
pouring water over ourselves.
I don't think I've ever felt like that before.
I didn't ever expect me to really start suffering
like I did then.
And then I guess when we got to the finish
there was a massive sense of relief,
a massive sense of happiness.
We had just completed something I never ever thought
I was going to be able to complete.
And so that was quite amazing.
So I, I think that's why it sticks in my memory the most,
just because, it's something I never thought I could do.
Get a hundred year old bike from Paris to Leon
in twenty-five hours without stopping through the night.
It was some ride.
- For my own epic ride, I have had a really tough choice.
North Coast 500 in Scotland this year,
Taiwan KOM Challenge, couple of years back,
Iceland last year.
Well I've actually gone for what was my first taste
of bikepacking, which in typical GCN fashion,
just happened to be a quick loop of the Atlas Mountains
in Morocco with bikepacking guru
and all around nice guy Josh Ibbett.
Frankly, this goes down as one of my favorite ever rides.
Full stop, particularly the third slash fourth day.
So we were riding through this incredibly remote valley,
before taking on an uncharted mountain pass.
We found it on google earth,
but it didn't exist any where else.
Tarmack very quickly gave way in to dirt,
Day eventually gave way in to night,
and we were still going up this mountian.
When we got to the very top,
we had to take a snap decision
as to whether or not we needed to
turn back to avoid a lightning
storm that was coming perilously close.
But in typical GCN fashion, we didn't, and we pressed on.
And that, see that was a wise move.
We camped out just over the other side.
Brewed our coffee the next morning in an incredible spot,
and were then treated to one of the best
decents of all time.
Before catching up with the GCN crew at a hidden gem
of a guest house in another hidden valley,
and we were treated to second breakfast.
Yeah, now I don't know about you, but any ride that
includes second breakfast, is a good one in my book .
Well those are our epic rides,
make sure you let us know in the comments section
what your ultimate epic ride is.
And we'll consider it invitation and maybe
we will turn up and do it for ourselves
and make another GCN video.
If you want to see a true epic ride
right now, then why not check out Ollie's Iceland adventure,
when he embarked on his first ever gravel race?
Otherwise give this video a big thumbs up.