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.