July 26th - London - Cambridge

One year ago, this was the first ride that I did fixed so this time I decided to use the racer. I was supposed to meet Sparky and Tanya at the start at 7.30 but I was running a bit late so called to say not to wait for me. I actually reached the start at 8 and headed straight off. I remembered most of the route from last year and it was well signposted and marshalled so I didn't have to look at a map the whole way which was nice. As I was riding by myself I decided to abandon the idea of doing there and back and just go for a good time. I stopped for a tea and a piece of cake at the first stop as the route shepherds you into the field anyway. I spent 15 mins there talking with SteveH who was skating the route before heading back out on the road. The only other stops I made were for 2 level crossing so about a 5 minute delay in total. Most of the ride was done without anyone to work with apart from a small stretch where I had a guy on a Colnago draft me downhill and then he returned the favour on a flat section. My favourite part of the ride was 7 miles from the finish when I got a call from Tanya. I expected it to be her telling me that she'd finished, but instead she had broken her chain at the 40 mile mark. I tried to suppress the laughter (see the Eastbourne ride for why). There was no point in me heading back as I had no spare links so I continued on my merry (well merry now anyway) way to the finish arriving at 11:20. A phone call established that Sparky was already on the train home so after a quick beer I followed in his footsteps arriving back home about 1:30.

July 18th - Eastbourne

Another week, another coast! And what a contrast. Loved the Dunwich ride, hated the Eastbourne one but it really shouldn't have been like that. Fact is, I was going to go to Eastbourne on the Friday by train for the Eastbourne Extreme festival, by Tanya suggested we get a group together to ride it instead. She'd skated there before and said it was a decent route so I agreed and several others (Christophe, Pam, Luke, Matt, Diego and Ed) decided to come along too.

However, arriving at Paddington with Pam and Christophe for the start, we found that Tanya was nowhere to be seen and wasn't answering her phone. Fortunately Ed had printed some maps but they were OS ones which I hate navigating from.

First stop was Battersea to pick up Simon so I didn't need a map for that bit, and having successfully met him, several people decided they needed a comfort break. While they took care of that, I bought a road atlas from a nearby garage and extracted to 2 pages that covered our route, binning the rest. It wasn't perfect but an improvement. My sense of direction once south of the river is shaky at best, but we made our way across Clapham Common and down through Streatham towards Croydon.

This was new territory for Pam whose previous furthest ride was 15 miles and Luke had only done one of about 40 over 5 years ago, so, combined with Simon whose bike was laden down with skates and luggage, our progress was only at a medium pace.

We also made a couple of wrong turns due to the poor maps and several times we had to wait while we called up Google maps on our phones to get us back on track.

We finally got ourselves back onto the B269 before Warlingham and the plan was to stay on that until we reached Chiddingstone Causeway where Alex would join us.

A nice, though slightly bumpy descent under the M25 saw me hit 46.5mph while I worried about my hat and sunglasses ability to remain attached to my head.

Unfortunately, before reaching Alex and somewhere around Limpsfield, we fell victim to the usual levels of inconsistent signage that this country seems to excel in. One signpost points the direction to a place and then the next junction fails to have any mention of it. As a result many stops were necessary with several Google checks before we regained the B269.

We finally reached Alex around midday and this lead to another issue. As Alex had been waiting for quite a while he was eager to get going, whereas Pam and several of the others were looking forward to a lunch stop and Christophe was having problems with his knee so decided to abandon and get the train back. In the end we compromised and agreed to ride to Penshurst and then eat there. It shouldn't have taken very long. We set off and took a right turn almost immediately which led to a nice downhill and then a reasonable climb. We stopped at the top of the climb to regroup which was just as well as Ed, Luke and Simon failed to appear. After about 10 minutes and fearing a mechanical, I rode back down the hill but they were nowhere to be seen. It took several attempts to contact them by phone and it turned out that they hadn't taken the right turn. It took a while to work out where they were and then how to get them back to us. We finally found them a route that would take them to Penshurst and I set off back up the hill to rejoin the others. I caught up with them in Penshurst at the pub where they were now having lunch.

Luke, Ed and Simon rolled in and Simon decided that he would call it a day at that point.

It was getting on for 2 by the time we set off again (I'd hoped to be in Eastbourne by then and we were still 35 miles short). The route had a lot of long, slow climbs which were pretty tough going and apart from a stretch where I hit 47.5mph on a downhill I was just wanting to get it over and done with.

For the final section of the ride, Alex took us to the start of something called the Cuckoo Trail. It's a Sustrans piece of work which used to be an old railway line and as he left us there he told us it was just a nice straight, slightly downhill route all the way to Eastbourne and it had been great when they had skated it. Well, on skates it might have been nice, but, with a surface that looked extremely conducive to giving punctures, several dog walkers and barriers to slow cyclists down every half a mile or so, it only took about a mile before Matt and I had had enough. The others continued on this route, Matt headed back to find a station and return to London and I made my way via some proper roads on to Eastbourne.

I finally arrived around 5pm to the welcome sight of Quaddie and a can of beer. Definitely not my best ride of the year, hopefully London to Cambridge this weekend will be better.

July 4th - Dunwich Dynamo

Best ride of the year so far. 116 miles plus another 25 back to Andy's in Ipswich make it not only the furthest I've ridden fixed in one go but the furthest I've ridden on any bike in one go. The fact that my backside was feeling it for 2 days after and that as I type this, 5 days later, I've still not regained all the feeling in 2 fingers, is a minor issue.

So to the ride itself. I met up outside Liverpool St with Andy, Christophe, Ray and Matt from LSST and eventually Michelle joined us too. Then we headed to DanB's to pick him up and drop up a bag with some clean clothes for Annabelle to take up to Andy's for the following day. We then headed en masse to the starting point at London Fields.

The Dynamo is a bit different to other rides I've done. For a start, there's no start time. People show up at the park, chill for a bit, maybe grab a beer or 2, and then when the mood takes them, they head off. The leaving starts about 8 and then gradually gains momentum until, all of a sudden, everyone's gone. Of course, I only know this from the reports of others as we set off just after 8.30.

The first 27 miles of the ride out to Leaden Roding were on roads I've ridden many times and, excepting the long drag up to Epping, were pretty flat. Annoyingly my trip computer packed up around the 22 mile mark, and though it wasn't an immediate issue, it would become a pain later in the ride when I was trying to work out where I was.

Shortly after this we approached a roundabout where, although I thought we were supposed to go straight over, it looked like people were turning right. We turned right and immediately stopped to check, when someone shouted that it was straight on like I had thought. However, by the time I'd put my route sheet back in my pocket, the rest of the group on their geared bikes had already headed off, which meant that I was on my own. No big deal, I'd expected to get separated at some point as there was no way I'd be able to match their pace for the whole ride. I continued to the 30 mile point where I decided to stop at a pub, the Axe and Compasses in Aythorpe Roding. Nice pub, and while the enthusiastic landlady cheered on the passing riders outside, I grabbed a pint and a J2O and made a couple of calls to locate the others. The fast group were in Great Dunmow (having a Chinese!) and Michelle was just behind me, so I waited for her. I wouldn't normally stop that early into a ride but I was a bit food and drink limited. My plug has no water bottle mounts so I had 1 water bottle in my jersey pocket and I had only one power bar and 1 gel with me as I'd forgotten to get any others in. I also thought that it would be unlikely that there would be many places to stop for supplies out in the country in the middle of the night. This definitely proved to be true.

Anyway, refreshed and with last orders being rung, we headed back out into the night. I rode with Michelle for a while but I think I lost her as we climbed the hill out of Finchingfield (for some reason I seem to climb better on my fixed than I do on my road bike) and then I was alone for the next 19 miles and we entered Suffolk and finally came across the mass of red lights that was obviously the halfway stop in Great Waldingfield. The LSST group were inside having pasta but I took one look at the queue and decided that I'd be there for ever if I joined it, so sat outside and had half my powerbar instead. It was around 1am at this point and Michelle arrived at about 1.30. She kindly gave me one of her sandwiches and I ate that while Christophe went and refilled several people's waterbottles, mine included. According to Ray, they'd started off at a 19.8mph pace before slowing to 17.6. Andy said he wasn't going to be able to stay at that as did Christophe so I was looking forward to having company. Apart from Michelle who wanted a bit more rest before continuing, we set off again at about 2am. I tried to stay with everyone but very slowly the gap grew until Ray, Matt, Dan and Andy were just another red light blending in with many others in the distance. At least this time I had Christophe for company. There's something I really like about cycling at night. I'm not sure if it's the challenge of maintaining concentration in order to avoid potholes, other riders etc in the low light or if it's the lack of motorised traffic or if it's just the way that everything is quieter and looks different at night but I'm definitely getting hooked on it.

Around 3.30 the dawn chorus of birdsong was starting up and then later, around 4.15, I got to see my second Sunday morning dawn in 2 weeks (Last week was the 24 Roller in Le Mans) and I stopped to take a couple of photos for myself and then a few more for some other riders.

By now we were around 95 miles into the ride, somewhere near Kettleburgh, and with the improving light the rest of the route should have been easy. The numbers on the roads had thinned out so it was no longer possible to just blindly follow and somewhere around the 106 mile point we made our first mistake. We missed a turning signposted "By Road" and were several miles further on before we realised this. Fortunately, along with the direction sheets, I had printed out some maps so I figured out a detour through Yoxford. As it turned out, this was a good decision as, even though it was still before 6am, we found a newsagent's open and were able to grab some more sustenance. We rejoined those that were on the right route as we climbed up by the green in Westleton and then it was an easy 4 miles down to the beach and another, far too long for my liking, queue for breakfast. Arrival time 6.20am.

The LSST lot had had breakfast, while I just had 10 minutes kip on the beach admiring the bravery/stupidity of those that took the opportunity of a dip in the sea.

Just before 7, we set off again. This time we were headed the 25 miles to Andy's. This was tough and about to get tougher. We waited in Westleton to find out what Michelle was doing. Finally making phone contact, we found that she was OK and not far off the finish, but she decided that she would make her own way back, hopefully on one of the coaches that the organisers laid on.

By now it was raining, and as we failed to come up with an alternative solution for getting to Ipswich, we headed off into the rain. I was regretting not including a spare pair of trainers in the stuff I had given to Bella, but the pain my backside was giving me forced such trivialities from my mind. We'd decided that this bit of the ride would be done at whatever pace we could manage. This was definitely uncharted distance for Christophe and myself and I suspect too for Andy, who was vying with me for the title of most painful arse. DanB must have been suffering too. He'd ridden half of the Friday Night Skate on the music bike AND done the FNRttC to Brighton on Friday so by now was at around the 200 mile mark. To add to our difficulties both Ray and I suffered punctures on this leg of the ride and I was less than impressed with my new Crank Brother's pump.

Finally, after several nasty climbs and around 10am, we arrived at Andy's house. Bikes safely ensconced in his garage, we started on his supply of food and beer. I had a shower and donned my welcome change of clothes and then I spent the afternoon on his sofa watching the Men's final at Wimbledon before heading home on the train, a tired but very happy bunny.

June 21 L2B.......2L

Christophe and Cherry refuel in Brighton

Having repeated Sunday's ride on Tuesday as a bit of extra pre-Brighton ride training, and having taken it easy on the Saturday, I should have been confident and relaxed enough to get a good night's sleep but that didn't happen. Instead I lay awake listening to music and thinking that I might as well have listened to everyone else and gone for the 6am start time and not my favoured 8.30.

Anyway, Christophe picked me up at 7 as, having started a new job this week, he had a secure place to park up near the start and we added Cherry to our crew on the way. The start area was packed and Cherry and I joined the queue to start at 8.30 while Christophe waited for us on the other side of the start as he hadn't registered. We actually crossed the start line at 8.40 and it was immediately apparent why the others had suggested the early start. With the number of riders and the police on every junction ensuring red light observence along with managing traffic flow, progress was slow and halting. Skate marshalling skills enabled us to people slalom better than most and Cherry proved best at this disappearing into the distance after only a few miles when I got caught at a junction. This congestion was annoying, but worse was to come. About 12 miles in near Chipstead, the route went under a railway bridge and then turned right into gridlock. Obviously the number of cyclists that couldn't cycle up this hill had reached the point where those that were walking up had blocked the road to the extent that those that could cycle up it were unable to. Fortunately I had a map with be and after checking it and asking a couple of local spectators I found that if I continued along the road, took a right and then another right I could rejoin the route. So instead of having to walk slowly up a hill, I got to climb a lovely, well surfaced, wide, empty road. Result. By the point that I rejoined, the hill was over and people were riding again.

Unfortunately, I was unable to perform a similar trick at the next congestion spot which was near Nutfield. By the time I realised that forward progress had basically halted, it was too late to go back to the previous turn off. Several things happened during the over 30 minute to reach the top. I called Christophe who was a couple of miles behind to warn him, but without a map of his own it was impossible to divert him around it. Cherry walked past me up the side of the queue carrying her bike (I guess I passed her on my last diversion) - a tactic I soon employed.

I phoned Sparky to find that, along with Tanya and Quentin, he had arrived in Brighton before 10am, skating it in 3h45. At this point I had covered 20 miles in 2 hours and my plan to arrive in Brighton in time for the 1pm F1GP start was looking like a fail.

Finally we reached the top of the hill. The queue was caused my having to cross the A25 and the marshalls had to alternate traffic and cyclists. The route went straight across, but I turned left, then right and rode about 3 miles on another deserted road before rejoining the main route.

I caught up with Cherry after about 27 miles and we rode together for a while as we approached Turner's Hill, the second biggest climb on the way there. I had planned to stop at the top, but it was so crowded I changed my mind and pressed on.

The next section of road was mainly downhills and somewhere along here I hit over 42mph and also came across a few skaters, Angee who was sitting by the side of the road, Paul, who I slowed and chatted to and finally Ash as we approached Ditchling.

The climb up Ditchling started well and I was feeling better than the last time I tried it. However, with half the road covered with people pushing, my lack of a real low gear meant that by about 2/3rds of the way up I ran out of steam, and unlike last time, restarting wasn't really an option and I joined the walking hoards. Once at the top, I had half a powerbar and realised it was the first thing I'd eaten since breakfast. I set of again but had to stop almost immediately as my chain came off changing up to the big ring. That fixed, I set off again and Brighton was in sight. Ignoring the bike/car lanes signs I weaved through the traffic (safer than weaving through inexperienced cyclists) turned onto Madiera drive and crossed the finish at 1.20.

I then joined the crew of spectators that had come down from London to cheer the skaters and this crew gradually grew as more of our friends finished. Cherry finished just before 2 and Christophe shortly after that.

I had planned to start the return leg at 3, but as we'd arrived later in order to have a decent rest and get some food, we ended up leaving after 4. Our return route was different to avoid those still on the way down but ran basically parallel and slightly to the west of run down.

We hit the first climb up the A23 toward Devil's Dyke almost immediately and I was regretting the loss of my cap and gloves soon after as the sweat poured into my eyes without the cap to soak it up or the gloves to wipe it away.

Cherry reckoned the route home was more uphill, but I think it just felt that way due to tiredness. There were definitely some decent downhills as I hit 46.34mph on one of them. Most of the route was quiet roads, with the only really unpleasant stretch being the A272 between Botley and Ansty being a narrow main road with a long slow climb which made it difficult for motorists to pass.

We stopped for drinks just before Reigate and Cherry showed the elevation map on her GPS. I was puzzled as looking at it we appeared to have a mountain to climb. I was a bit puzzled, as when planning the route, I avoided Reigate hill as I knew how evil that would be, but I thought that the route I'd found round it was a relatively easy climb. Anyway we continued and the climb we took did indeed turn out to be too evil for me and I had to walk about 200m of it. Lovely view at the top though!

As we set off again, I finally realised what had happened. We hadn't gone the route that I had planned. Cherry had entered it slightly wrong on the GPS so we were now at the top of Reigate Hill. Oooops. Oh well, we carried on and were soon back on course riding along the lovely High Rd and then Portnalls Rd.

Before long we were into single figures of miles to go and our last obstacle to clear was the hundreds of Pakistanis in Tooting who were out celebrating their country's win in the Twenty20 cricket world cup.

We finally arrived at a now deserted Clapham Common at about 9.20 before heading back to the car and then home to showers, baths, food and recovery.

My figures for the trip were 112.96 miles, 8h17m53s, max speed 46.34mph, total climb 6672ft.

Essex Countryside

52 Miles ride as a bit of a preparation for next weekend's L2B. Joined by Simon on his fixed, along with Cherry and Christophe.

Scariest bit for me was when I realised that the buzzing I could hear was the sound of an insect that had managed to fly into my shirt and was trapped there. Still don't know whether it was a fly or a wasp, but it definitely freaked me out for a bit.

Radio LeMans

OK, granted this has nothing to do with cycling, but it does have everything to do with somewhere I've gone to 7 times in the last 7 years (only once for the cars though).

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June 7th - Norwich 100

Ouch. This was tough. Not because of the course, that was great. Really well signposted (didn't need to look at my map once!)with good surfaces and no major climbs this should have been a lovely ride along the Norfolk coast, but unfortunately the elements combined to make it a whole bunch harder.

I travelled up with Christophe and Cherry in Christophe's car on Saturday and we stayed at my sister's in Lowestoft where we had a top barbeque thanks to my nephew Graham. At this point the weather was cool and overcast, but dry. Earlier in the week Christophe had seen a forecast for heavy rain and had needed some persuasion (coupled with some improved forecasts) to come so it was encouraging that it was still dry as we loaded the bikes up the following morning to head to the start. It was still dry as we parked up in the carpark, but then the heavens opened. However, it was only a shower and as we made our way to the start I decided it wasn't even worth putting waterproofs on for. I'd been given a start time of 7.20 but it was already gone that and as the other 2 still had to register we ended up setting off at 8am. It was still spitting with rain so I decided to take it easy for the first couple of miles until my legs had warmed up and the pack of riders had thinned a little. For the first 24 miles or so the route was shared with people doing the 50 mile route so the pace of riders was quite varied. About 2 miles into the ride I'd stopped at a set of lights and as I was at the front of the group that were stopped there, I decided that I'd take advantage of the clear road ahead to get up to speed. That was the last I saw of Christophe and Cherry until the finish. The rain was alternating between drizzle and slightly heavier showers interspersed with the odd break where it would stop. My bare arms were feeling the cold but otherwise I felt fine and although I saw quite a few riders stop to put on jackets I kept mine rolled up in the rear pocket of my jersey.

The first refreshment stop was after about 13 miles at Reepham but I decided to continue as I felt that I had a good rhythm going and 1 hour in saw me pass the 20 mile point. The rain was pretty consistent now and to keep my mind off of it I was working out target distances like 31.25 miles which would be 50km and I hit that in 1h33, and then 33.3 miles which would be one third distance.

At 28 miles I had gone straight past the refreshment stop at Hindringham and, although I didn't spot him, Ray from LSST saw me as he was leaving the stop. It then took him about 10 miles to catch me and we exchanged pleasantries before I again pulled ahead to reach the "half-time" stop at Sheringham at 10.28, with 44.6 miles completed. Here we had to make a 20 minute compulsory stop with timecards needing to be signed in and out. There was a big queue for food so I just had a Powerbar and a bottle of Lucozade sport. I was quite anxious to get going again to avoid stiffening up so did a bit of stretching as by hamstrings felt quite tight and I tried to dry my feet a bit as they were feeling the cold. Just as I was about to leave there was a quite heavy downpour so I waited an extra 10 minutes to let that clear and for the first time I put my jacket on. I sent Christophe a text to say I was going on with a view to stopping at Cromer.

By now the rain had eased quite a bit but the wind was head-on and although there were no huge climbs, the coast road was quite undulating and I was unable to find a group riding at a similar pace, so the going was pretty tough. I decided not to stop at Cromer and instead went back to setting intermediate targets with the next being 62.5miles (100km). Shorthly after Cromer I became fed up with the way my loose jacket was flapping in the wind so stopped briefly to remove it, preferring to get wet rather than suffer the additional wind resistance. 100km occured just past Walcott and my time of 3h48 showed how much the headwind had slowed me. I had some more lucozade and a couple of energy jelly blocks and carried on.

Despite the roads appearing to me to be in great condition, there did seem to be a large number of people mending punctures or mechanicals on the road and I always try to offer assistance if they appear not to have the situation under control. Somewhere near Waxham I came across such a rider whose seat/seatpost had come loose so I stopped to lend him an allen key. While he was fixing this, Ray and his friend John caught me up and we rode together to Horsey Mill where we stopped to get a coffee and some cakes. I called Phil to check on the progress of the Turkish GP as well.

Leaving Horsey Mill, the rain again got harder and the three of us joined with another group of five and I got was was to be pretty much my only pack riding of the day. Unfortunately it only lasted for about 5 miles before one of the five punctured and we were back to 3.We were heading back inland now and the loss of the headwind meant that we were cruising at over 20mph. John did about 5 miles at the front and then I did the same. Just as I was hoping for Ray to take over the lead he punctured and we stopped. It was the rear and it took us about 10-15 minutes to fix before heading off again. John lead but immediately Ray noticed that his front was also flat. John didn't hear our cries so the two of us remained and another 10 minutes passed as we mended the front. Setting off again we took turns at the front, forcing the pace to repass all those that had caught us thanks to the flats. I dropped Ray with about 10 miles to go as he got caught at lights over a narrow bridge and I finished at 3:05 for an elapsed time of 7hr5mins and a riding time of 5hr33mins which gave an average speed of 17.89mph - very pleasing. Christophe finished about 1hr 10mins later and Cherry about a further 10-15 minutes after that. We all agreed that it had been a tough ride but there was a great feeling of satisfaction at completing it.

Friday May 8 - FNRttC Brighton

My second FNRttC (Friday Night Ride to the Coast) saw a huge group of people (90ish) making their way from Hyde Park Corner to the Madiera Cafe in Brighton. My first FNRttC was to Southend just after I'd got my Condor and was a lot of fun so I was looking forward to a nice ride and a chance to prepare myself for the BHF version next month. We had a large contingent from LSST but there were riders from as far afield as Hull and on a wide range of machinery including a recumbent tricycle and a couple of Bromptons.
Setting off at midnight, we made our way across South London via Clapham, Balham, Tooting and Mitcham and out into Surrey. The pace across London seemed a lot better than the glacial rate at which the Southend ride started so that was nice. We passed Coulsdon before having a bit of a stop/regroup just inside the M25 (I later found out we were waiting for a cab to collect one rider with an irreparable mechanical failure).
Setting off again took us down Reigate Hill. I know Simon had asked us to be careful descending in the dark, but even without pedalling I still hit over 42mph which was a blast. Having regrouped again we headed off along a lovely country road called Lonesome Lane en route for our half-time refreshment venue, a scout hut near Horley, which furnished us with tea, soup and rock cakes.
Dawn had already broken by the time we left there and I found myself in a breakaway group of 7 including DanB, Tanya and Sol as we upped the pace all the way to Lindfield. Another regroup and by now my mind was focusing on the fast approaching climb over Ditchling Beacon. It's been something like 20 years since I last climbed it and it does have a bit of a reputation so although I was disappointed that had to stop 3/4 of the way up, I wasn't too surprised. In retrospect I probably set off a bit too quick but at least I remounted once my heart rate had lowered and I didn't walk any of it.
From that point on it was literally all downhill to an empty seafront and a welcome full english breakfast, before training it back to London.

Filling in the Gaps

Having enjoyed Sunday's outing so much, I did feel a bit bad at having taken an alternative route for one section thanks to a bit of poor navigation on my part. So, as the sun once again decided to defy the BBC's predictions and put in a good solid performance, I decided to retrace some of Sunday's original route to see what I had missed out on. There was noticeably more traffic about on the early sections of the ride, but once outside the M25 it dropped right off and the Essex country roads were enjoyably empty. This time I managed to remember to turn left at Greensted and followed the empty roads out through Bobbingworth, Moreton and Matching Green before arriving where I had rejoined the route near Abbess Roding. At this point I turned right and rode the opposite way along my corrected route of Sunday down the B184 through Fyfield to Chipping Ongar. There I turned left on the A128 towards Sunday's inbound route at Kelvedon Hatch. I then followed Sunday's route through Navestock and Stapleford Abbotts before diverting again at Chigwell by continuing down to Woodford. The headwind on the return leg dropped by average speed to under 17mph, but still a very pleasant 55 miles.

26th April - First Century of the Year

A gorgeous day saw Cherry and myself join fellow skaters Tom and Christophe join up to take part in Hackney CC's round Chelmsford ride. There were about 30 -35 of us that set out from Lea Valley Ice Rink heading north towards Buckhurst Hill and our first stop at the High Beach tea hut. At this point we split into 3 groups, with Tom and myself attempting to stay with the fast group led by Kier and Cherry and Chris taking the slow group. I figured that I'd see how I got on with the fast boys and if I couldn't hack it, I'd drop off and join the intermediate group. All was going OK but I started to struggle at Toot Hill. I'm not built for climbing and when 4 of the group are skinny little teenagers with far too much energy it wasn't a surprise to see me falling off the back of the group. Still it wasn't too bad and my extra weight was helping me to gain ground on the subsequent descent. Unfortunately, just as I recaught Tom on the next small climb by using this extra speed, I failed to change down in time and my chain came off. I stayed upright but by the time I had the chain back on and had flipped down through the gears, the group was already out of sight. that meant I also had to stop at the next junction to see which way to go costing me more time. I guessed which way to go at the following junction in an attempt to save time but guessed wrongly which I realised as I reached Ongar.
Looking at the map, I decide my best option was to head straight up the B184 through Fyfield before rejoining the route just before Leaden Roding. I got my head down and made pretty good time but with no idea as to the whereabouts of any of the groups I figured that my best bet would be to continue to the halfway stop, so I continued on alone. However, a pleasant surprise was waiting in Pleshey as I caught the fast group who had stopped for a 5 minute breather. No rest for me as we all headed straight off but I did get the chance to sit in the slipstream of the group for a while which helped a bunch. Fortunately the only remaining climb was the one up to the halftime stop so when the kids went sprinting off, Tom and I just slugged it out to the summit and a welcome cup of tea. Just to rub in their climbing superiority, the kids headed back down the hill to race up it again. Gits!
Somehow the slow group made it to halftime before the intermediate (worse map reading skills than mine it seems!) and Cherry said she was pretty tired. I was a bit concerned about just how much her legs were trembling but a quick shoulder massage and some food and drink seemed to revive her pretty well.
I'd thought about joining the intermediate group for the second half but I too as feeling better after the break and decide to try and stay with the fast lot again as did Tom. That didn't last long as once again we were getting blown out the back on climbs and though I could get back to about 15-20 metres away I couldn't seem to bridge the gap and somewhere around South Hanningfield we decided that we'd let them go and continue at our own pace. We caught them agin as they had stopped in Ingatestone but it was only temporary as by Hook End there was just Tom and I and a recumbent rider. By now I was on familiar territory so map reading stops were less and aside from a quick stop in Chigwell Row for some lucozade we made good time to the finish arriving at about 5.30 (apparently only 20 minutes down on the fast group). Tom carried on to West London and I took a slightly rambling route home in order to bring up my first 100 mile ride of the year (5hr52min for the record). Cherry and Chris finished just over an hour after us, tired but happy.

Route

20th April - Audax fail

Central London CTC are running a couple of Audax events in July - 1 is a 200k and the other a 100k. The latter is listed as an ideal first time Audax so I thought I'd give the route a go to see how it would be. The actual event starts at 10am but I didn't get to the start point until 1.40 so I was going to be pushing it a bit to get round, especially as it was on roads I didn't know and therefore I'd be making regular stops to navigate. Also the traffic on the early section was likely to be heavier than on a weekend.
The route is here http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2727276 and it's not until after Barnet that it starts being a bit nicer for cycling. Anyway, I made the halfway point in 2.5 hours which wasn't too bad (it seemed reasonably hilly) as on the actual run you need to take between 1hr48 and 4hrs. I turned straight round and started heading back. All went well until about mile 45 where I missed a turn and ended up going all the way to Hertford. Realising my mistake, I tried to head along the B1000 to rejoin the route but again I missed the turning and continued to Welwyn GC. I thought about taking the B195 and trying again to rejoin the route but by now the traffic had built up, the daylight and heat of the day was fading and I decided to call it a day, catching the train back to Finsbury Park. I still managed to clock up 66 miles for the day but this route is definitely classed as unfinished business.

Fun while it Lasted

For a while now I've been meaning to take a ride down to the velodrome at Herne Hill so the Good Friday meeting with the promise of being able to see some top stars in action was motivation enough. It's actually a lot nearer than I'd thought (25 mile round trip) so that was one for riding fixed.
Unfortunately the weather was marginal and although it held out until early afternoon, when the rain eventually came down it put an end to the racing. Before that however, I was able to watch several sprint races, a points race won convincingly by Chris Newton and, my favourite, a Devils race.


The rain did give me a chance to look around the bike stalls (aside from a few spare tubes looking was all I did) and check out the Rollapaluza crew who could still race despite the rain. I returned to my bike to find it had attracted the company of a certain Olympic gold medalist.


There are some more of my photos here

Escorting the BassFreight

After some repairs to the frame and some extensive modifications to the sound, the 2009 incarnation of the BassFreight, LondonSkate's music bike, was ready to be road tested. It's loud!! In fact, it's so loud that it has to be road tested as it's too loud to test properly indoors.

Improvements this year include improved ventilation and cooling and a dashboard so that the rider can make adjustments to the sound without having to take his eyes away from the road to adjust settings behind him.

Accompanied by 4 of us on bikes and about 10 skaters we made our way out to Hammersmith (keeping well away from the G20 protests) where we stopped for a short break and so StevieB could make a few tweaks/log current/faff about. We then carried on the LS's Barnes route across Hammersmith Bridge and then back towards Putney and from there along the King's Road. Impressively there were no failures and although Stevie has found a couple of minor issues that he wants to correct, everything is looking good for the first LondonSkate of the season on April 15th.

Redbridge Cycling Centre

Lovely day for a ride so I headed off into the Essex countryside with Christophe for a few hours. Went past Redbridge Cycling Centre and as we were in no hurry, popped in and had a look. There was only one person on the circuit and apparently that's often the case during work days. I didn't have a go round as I would have needed a helmet (not going to happen!) but it looked like an excellent facility. We were supposed to come back through Chigwell Row but somewhere along the way I missed a turning and we ended up doing 39 miles instead of the 32 I'd planned, but it's all good.

Back to the Fixed

Saturday 21st March - Normally I find switching between my racer with it's gears and freewheel and my fixed bike pretty easy, but I did find myself getting caught out a couple of times in the first 5 minutes of my ride into Hyde Park to play hockey. Guess it must have just been the length of time since I rode it and the amount of mileage I'd clocked up in between using it, but fortunately it was nothing serious and I was soon back in the swing of things. Just as well really as, having played hockey for about 4-5 hours, I rode the 11 miles home, grabbed something to eat and then headed straight back to Kew Bridge to go on the LFGSS bridges ride that was starting at 10pm. Had my doubts that I'd actually make it in time but made it with enough time to have a quick pint before the off so that was pretty pleasing. The ride consists of crossing every Thames bridge and this time we were heading from West to East and although the pace was higher than the last one (which we did in the opposite direction) it wasn't too tough. There were some fun sprints and we had a bit of a regroup by Battersea Park so some could mend punctures. I found that my legs were stiffening up a bit so I decided that I'd try to finish the rest of the ride without stopping so I found myself on my own after Vauxhall Bridge. No matter, I knew where I was going and crossed Tower Bridge at 12.15 before heading home. 66 miles for the day which was pleasing and leaves me another 150 miles to complete my first 1000.

Fountains Abbey

Tuesday 17th March - A lovely day for a ride saw us up early in an attempt to catch the 7.43 train from Durham to Northallerton but not quite early enough and we ended up on the 9.12 instead.

After checking on return trains we set out on this route through some lovely countryside to Fountains Abbey which we reached around 1pm. We then spent about 3 hours exploring the abbey and the surrounding landscaped gardens, including a selection or the scariest trees I've seen in ages.

The ride back was slightly less hilly and we easily made the 7pm train, getting back to base at 8.15. It also saw my racer notch up it's first 1000 miles. Now I'm going to work on getting my fixed through the same barrier.

More walking than cycling :(

Sunday 15th March - OK, so I'm a bit behind in updating this blog so there'll be a week's worth of entries going up right now. Sunday was supposed to be an easy ride to South Shields via Sunderland so that Chris could buy a track pump to leave at her parents, and the out bound leg went well, although Chris's first selection of a pump proved less than easy to use.

So having changed it for one that could pump to 120psi without the user needing to be Mr Universe, we got to test it in earnest as Chris punctured after hitting a pot hole just after the mini-Tyne Bridge.

Having checked out the beach at South Shields it was my turn to run into inflation problems as, whilst eating lunch, I noticed that the sidewall of my rear tyre was failing and at one point the tube was bulging through. After using all our gadgetry to locate a nearby bike shop and then finding them to be closed (or at least not answering the phone),I decided the best option would be to ride back to Halfords (about 7.5 miles) but before I even got started the tube burst and I got to undergo a 2 hour hike instead.

One new Continental Gator Skin and a second test for the track pump later and we were able to make our way home safely.

A Long Day (Thursday 12th March)

We set out at 6.15 on what seemed like a lovely morning, but as we headed West the wind started to pick up which proved a big hinderance to our speed and to our energy levels. It took us until 11 to reach Westgate where we stopped for a sandwich before turning South and climbing up to the Pennines' last remaining snow at 2100ft. The views were fantastic and the descent at up to 40mph with a scary cross wind was invigorating to say the least.

Once down the other side, we turned west again and climbed for about half an hour to get to High Force, a huge single drop waterfall on the River Tees.

After this we were heading east and for a while enjoyed the benefit of a following wind to race along the undulating roads at around 25-30mph (hit 42.5 at one point!) over to Barnard Castle. For a town that has the castle in it's name, it wasn't too easy to find the actual castle and it wasn't that impressive when we did.

We still had about 40 miles to go at that point and it was already late afternoon so we didn't stop at the more impressive looking Raby Castle and instead continue making our way back towards Durham. The dark country roads proved a good test of our lights and our bravery as descents became quite scary. Aside from a puncture somewhere around Witton-le-wear though, it was largely uneventful but I think we were both relieved to see a sign saying Durham 1 mile, and the 7 miles on the A690 back to Houghton seemed very easy all of a sudden. We finally got back at 9.30pm and were asleep very shortly afterwards.

Angels and Devils

Day 1 up North. Having arrived at Durham station at 12.30am this morning and got through the 7 miles to Chris's parents complete with a 50kg backpack, today's ride was only going to be a short warm up. I needed to go to a bike shop and get a spoke wrench as my front wheel was a bit buckled so we headed to Chester-le-Street. Unfortunately that bike shop was closed, so we continued on towards Gateshead, stopping for some obligatory photos at 'The Angel of the North'. We found a bike shop a little further along the road and then decided to pay Newcastle a visit. 

The weather forecast for tomorrow is good so Chris (the Devil) has decreed that we'll be getting up before the crack of dawn to tackle a ride of 96 miles,  so it's off to bed for me.

Oop Norf

We're heading up North to County Durham for a week where I'm told there are some real climbs. Our exact plans will be a bit weather dependent but one route Chris wants to do is this epic . At just under 100 miles it's a slight reduction on her original choice but still quite a step up.

Can we make it? Only time will tell, Chris is confident and I'm far too stubborn to give up before she does so maybe we will.

Anyway en route we get to see High Force and Barnard Castle which will provide welcome breaks from the ride and will hopefully provide some good photos.

Updates on this, and any other rides we do whilst we're up there, will hopefully be posted while we're on them, as long as the whole mobile blogging thing works this time.

52 mile training run

My trusty steed at Mountnessing Windmill after about 23 miles.

Shortly after this we stopped for lunch and while we were eating, the lovely day seen in the picture turned into a horribly cold, rainy affair. As a result the journey back was a little less pleasant with the pair of us losing the ability to feel our toes.

Route can be seen here http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2590165