Central London CTC blog

2* from Beaconsfield 27 July

11 people left the train at Beaconsfield and after a brief ‘find the leader’ moment we all joined up and set off riding north up the first of many ‘moderate’ climbs in the lovely morning sunshine.

Along the first of many lanes to Penn Bottom where we turned east and headed to Holmer Green and to the lovely village of Little Missenden. There we admired the Georgian Manor House and the St John the Baptist Church, a place of Christian pilgrimage which dates back over a 1000 years. A busy stretch of the A413 followed with a sharp right turn under the railway bridge and up Hyde Lane to Hyde Heath. We stopped at the
common in Hyde Heath for our first mini break and to take on some water supplies in the ever increasing heat of the day. Then it was down Copperkins Lane into the northern outskirts of Amersham where we dropped down the hill to meet the River Chess in Chesham. Riding along the Chess valley we turned north at Latimer and climbed up to Flaunden. more »

A few pictures from Bob Davis of his visit with Geoff Thomas to some Tour Climbs – just to make you jealous. Note the field especially grown in Central London colour to welcome them …

Seven from Central London joined the melee of fixies, road bikes and anyone else mad enough to cycle all of Saturday night, in deepest Hackney outside the Pub in the Park.

John Snuggs, Jon McColl, Ken Peters, Jan , Rory, Naomi and myself headed up along the straight roads to Epping, and onto Moreton, to be serenaded by Elvis from one of the pubs, white jumpsuit and all, I never knew that Elvis had so admired cyclists? It was a perfect but chilly night with a steady tail wind and we coasted onto the mid-way refuelling stop at Lavenham, though we didn’t bother to join the massive queues for pasta. We stopped long enough to get chilled and then knocked of the final 90k down to the sea at Dunwich, dreaming of a well deserved fried breakfast. The cafe at Dunwich always seems to cope with hundreds of hungry and tired cyclists, but the food never gets better, but it hits the spot. None of went for a swim sadly, and then it was the 50k back to Ipswich and a good sleep on the train.

A great night out, 240k on the speedo, what else would you do on a Saturday night?

I think I can say with confidence that this is and will be the only Central London Section ride in the UK where all the riders were given a postcard sized holy icon as a souvenir – how?  read on …

Seven of us (3 gentlemen and 4 ladies for Michael’s gender attendance records) set out from Weybridge to visit the largest cemetery in Europe on a glorious summer’s day last Sunday.  After only two miles we took a cappuccino in Addlestone to brace ourselves for the gentle rigours of a morning on towpaths, beside the silent lilypadded waters of the Basingstoke Canal, the only incident being an angry swan (defending its nest of cygnets) blocking the path. more »

1* Ride on 6 July

The Met Office said it would rain and they were right. It was raining when the train arrived but the party voted to carry on as planned. We followed the Thames Path to Eton, had lunch at the Waterman’s Arms and then followed the Jubilee River back towards Maidenhead. We had tea as planned a Taplow Court, a former minor stately home now owned by a lay Buddhist organisation, followed by a tour of the house. In view of the rain we decided to return back to the station from there and abandon the last part of the ride to the Stanley Spencer Gallery at Cookham.

Another time perhaps?

3* Ride on 6 July

I suppose I should start with some statistics, which don’t lie.

I managed to deviate from the course I had planned 3 times, twice of them fairly spectacularly.
We had 2 punctures, and 4 people abandoned, and then the whole ride packed it in before midday when the forecast rain really set in.

It got so wet and cold for July, that hot tea back at High Wycombe station was pretty much a lift saver. We crossed the path of the London to Oxford Bike Events ride, occasional cyclists in cotton t shirts on mountain bikes, I hope none of them got hypothermia?

The best moment of the day was getting home to a hot shower and to watch the finish of the Tour. Or Jon saying that ‘the weather looked like it was brightening up’, to realise that it was still raining steadily. I would like the thank the riders who hopefully survived the suffering without lasting consequences, Stephen, Naomi, Roger Fretwell, Kay, Brenda, Ken, Angela, Jon and Brendan- this ride will live long in my memory, hopefully as long as the route I had planned and then forgotten!

And if anyone wants to see how the ride was meant to be, and to try the pub I had lined up, I plan to try it again on Sunday 13th July, hopefully in summer weather.

Usually, if you get off the District line at Mile End you can sneak onto a Central line train for the one stop you’re not allowed to take a bike through. But not last Sunday. For the first time ever, I was spotted. Anyone else ever been chucked off?

But it didn’t end there. After riding eyes-out to Leyton to get back on the tube, I discovered a signal failure that stopped trains as far as Woodford. Fortunately, I also found Dr Bob, so had someone to ride with (remarkably, without getting lost) to Woodford where, at last, there was a train for us. more »