Central London CTC blog

The Spyride

I sometimes suspect that Network Rail has a specialist unit that monitors the CTC rides list and then plans engineering work to disrupt it. This time they pulled off a new trick. Due to timetable changes the riders arrived early! I’d planned on the basis that people would be arriving on the train from London at 10.24 and so arranged to a meeting time with Spokes of 10.30. However they arrived at 10.11 before most of the Spokes riders were there. The necessitated an impromptu coffee stop at the Junction Café near the station to keep people warm.

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Some of us remember the late lamented Hilly Chilterns 100 kms Audax – the “Chilly Hilterns” , a collection of numerous short and very sharp hills in the Chilterns between Amersham and Marlow. This ride was due to cover some of the second part of it.

The usual suspects gathered at Marylebone: Martin Hayman, Keith and Naomi, Matthew Wright, Damian, Roger and Kay and Phil Coleman. Elevenses and late lunch rather than a long stop were planned and I think worked out OK.

Super picturesque Hambleden has the village shop for cake and coffee, and an interesting insight into rural life provided as I sat inside. A pair of locals discussed the tribulations of the farming community: “It was a drive by shooting…”. more »

First of all the credits: this ride was a blatant rip-off of Colin Wing’s “Docks and Ducks” ride. He was very gracious when I rang him and asked if I could use it. He said that there was no copyright on rides and that he’s published it in The London Cyclist so that others could ride it. The only bit of the ride I can claim any credit for was the stretch from St Pancras to Southwark Bridge.

My thanks also to Tom and Ian for acting as backstops. Their job was essential as the route twisted and turned through the City and along the south bank of the Thames. Riders do need to get into the habit of looking behind at turns to check that the riders behind can see them.

For a 1* ride, it was well attended with over 20 joining the ride at either St Pancras or London Bridge. more »

Colin Wing’s rides have a following. I counted 14 on the ride, though somehow there were only 13 names in the attendance book. We left Enfield via the elegant Gentleman’s Row and the New River, built in the reign of James I to bring water to London.

The New River in Enfield

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Mikael Colville-Andersen, Cophenhagenize.com‘s committed advocate of cycling for Everyman (the word comprises women too), is pleased to refer to sporting riders, all right, ‘roadies’, as a ‘speed-obsessed subculture’.

OK, we own up, it does rather look like that to judge by this GPS trace of Thursday’s RP Tune-up and Social, downloaded from Damian’s Garmin.

Nice consistent pattern...pity about the red light at 20 km (click for full-sized version)

The sustained brisk progress over the course of the hour’s riding is rather pleasing, but I would point out that we were lapped on the Inner Circle by a hard-charging group of Phoenixes. Now they definitely are speed-obsessed.

In deference to Mr Snuggs, I would add that the Thursday evening club session is for pleasure. It is not training, no sirree! We can do slow cycling with equal pleasure. And in Copenhagen too.

Stevenage CTC’s season-closing Audax, Summertime Reversed (Desrever Emitremmus, if you must) has a loyal following, and 19 (we think) of the Central London Massive turned out to represent, a good number of them even wearing the colours.

We were split into two start groups. Ours took off from Costello’s Cafe shortly after 10 in mild, dry, cloudy conditions. With a gentle south-westerly drift assisting us, we soon engaged the narrow lanes towards Aston, where single file is mandatory. Unsurprisingly, the usual suspects stuck together, and the group of Damian, Jon, Mike and I rode the course together.

The 100-km course is so well-known to readers as to require no further recapitulation. The helpful breeze encouraged us, and we were well up to the mark at the first and second controls, so took a leisurely break for coffee at Saffron Walden. There, Andrew was already remounting and wondered what had kept us; as a hardened Audaxer, he eschewed our cafe-racer idleness. more »

Sixteen riders met a St Pancras for the 38 minute ride to Ashford on 23 October. We quickly escaped Ashford and sped through the Stour Valley towards the hills.

Our time in the North Downs started with a run along the old Pilgrim’s Way, undulating below the southern escarpment. Then a turn to cycle across the grain of the hills, up to the viewpoint at Farthing Common, then another down and up, then a long fast but gentle downhill to the edge of Dover.

We crossed the town to the seafront midway between the docks and for lunch in the bar of the Dover Marina Hotel. We were able to eat outside in the autumn sunshine with views of the castle, the sea, the ferries, the coast of France and, as promised, the White Cliffs.

Lunch done, we took a long climb back to the top of the Downs and the escarpment first above the sea, then above Folkestone, then above the Channel Tunnel railway yards.

We descended to the seafront at Hythe, where one of the group had gone ahead for a swim, and onto Romney Marsh for a flat section. The leader took a very near miss from a motorist who had thought it much better to risk injury to himself and others rather than undergo the ordeal of a minute’s delay to his journey.

Unharmed, we took a last climb over the Greensand ridge and a fast return to Ashford along the Roman Road. We were back in London by 1800. It was 95 km – map of the ride here.