Central London CTC blog

Jon McColl organised a wind-down *** for post Christmas, and we met at Highbury corner for a ride out into Essex aided by a following wind. Roger Cline did the first 30km before his cold got the better of him, leaving Dawn, me and Jon to be pushed across the flat and relatively car-free lanes to lunch at Green Tye.
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I wouldn’t have been surprised if no one had turned up. It was cold. It was two days after Christmas and Spokes had had a ride in the same area the day before. Normally, if you are leading a ride you tend to get a little flurry of phone calls and emails beforehand asking how long the ride is, how long will it take etc.. But this time there was nothing. However, to my surprise, there were seven on the ride — one from Spokes, five from the Central London CTC and one rider who belonged to both. more »

Some pictures from Fuzz Edwards’ Annual Mince Pie Ride on 13th December

Some photos from last Saturday’s walk, led by Phil Benstead:

The well known cycle tourist Josie Dew will be giving a lecture in aid of Sustrans on Monday 11 January at the Gallery, 70 Cowcross St, London, EC1M 6EJ. Doors open at 18.00, talk starts at 18.30. Tickets £7.00, in advance only, from Sustrans.

I was absolutely certain I wasn’t going out when I work up – shivering, temperature, sickness, the whole business. I was on the brink of just going to the station by tube to tell people they were on their own and would have to elect a new leader for the day. But no, I thought, I’ll ride down there just to show willing and make absolutely sure I’m in no state to do the ride. So with a generous handful of pharmaceuticals inside me I set off in the driving rain. “This is a bad business” I thought as a truck showered me with filthy water on the Holloway Road, “If I get pneumonia, it’ll be nobody’s fault but my own”. But even as I rounded Highbury Corner, the first faint glimmer of enthusiasm ventured tentatively forward from behind the dark clouds of achey sickness, and I began to think I might just be OK. By the time I got to Liverpool Street I’d virtually forgotten what I’d been moaning about just two hours previously, and by the time we arrived at Shenfield and the literal clouds had parted alongside their metaphorical equivalents, I was revelling in the bleak December Essex-ness of it all. more »

Here are a couple of reports that I intended to post earlier but that got overlooked:

6th September: Botolph Claydon, British Time Trial Championships

An extraordinary day: Geoff and I went to see Bradley Wiggins beat Michael Hutchinson over 50km on a course on the Aylesbury plain, further west and north from our usual Chiltern rides although we’ve been round here before with John Snuggs and could do with a repeat visit.

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“So how do you manage to keep your front light pointing straight?” Keith enquired awhile back, gesturing at my slim Cateye front light.

“Ah yes, I rebuilt it with a proper Cateye bracket you can buy as a spare. From Germany.”

Looking around, I noticed several of our squad had these lights. All but mine, I noted, hung down sadly, pointing at the front wheel rather than the road ahead. This seemed a sorry state of affairs, because we all use our bikes in town, in the dark, and in rain. more »