Central London CTC blog

‘A 13.1km meander after work when the sun is guaranteed to shine‘ according to the Rapha site. Well, we got the meander. No fear of striking due south along the direct route, we twisted and turned through Southwark and Lambeth, the leaders and tailenders occasionally crossing. As last month, some forty riders had gathered at Smithfield (nine from CLCTC), all but four were male, maybe one third were riding fixed. The ride itself was short and sharp, the pervading mystery of South London the main topic of talk. With grey clouds looming, Herne Hill itself was somewhat bleak, as the dernys pulled their trains. There’s a grim determination needed to keep the pace lap upon lap, a strong discipline to follow the wheel, each lap the leader climbing up the banking to drop to the back. And when all were through one derny let rip, flying round the track at full pelt, legs spinning & body leaning wildly. To the pub, beer and chat, and that Rapha ride essential - a wet journey home.

On shallow slates the pigeons shift together, backing against a thin rain from the west.

(Philip Larkin)

We gathered, huddled, under the cover of Smithfield Market, just chill, just damp. The pattern in the puddles constant. First a mere half dozen riders, then a in ones and twos our number grew. A good spread of ages, though almost entirely male, mainly roadies, a sprinkling of foolhardy fixies, a handful of hybrids, even a faired ‘bent. A short time to admire the machinery, as Rapha staffers casually modeled the latest Rapha kit to the hapless masses. A few minutes grace for latecomers, then just after 7.40 Linus lead us out - a string of 40-odd riders, including 9 Central London ‘marshalls’.

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Five Miles to Fabulous is a CTC initiative to encourage women into cycling — I organised my event around St. Albans on 5 April. It went very well; I was expecting five, but three couldn’t make it in the end. more »

Nick Bloom’s three-star ride today (here’s a map) - on a perfect autumn day in the Chilterns - took us to West London CTC’s annual Freewheel competition at Penn Street, where the trophy (for the greatest distance travelled without pedalling) was won for the third year running by a Central London CTC member. Paul Foster narrowly beat last year’s champion Geoff Thomas by a few metres.

Paul receiving his trophy from West London CTC president Bob Kynaston and event organiser Rocco Richardson.

Paul & Inez in training for the Freewheel

Jo Wright and I both did this last year, and were back for more this year, showing the purple and black and white colours of Central London. Cyclosportives inhabit a territory pitched between full on racing, Audaxes and charity rides. The joy for both Jo & I is that we do not have to worry about navigation - just follow those huge black arrows on a flourescent background. There is considerably more atmosphere than at an Audax, and the riding (both in terms of speed and road manners) is of a much higher standard than prevails at Charity rides. There was a 140 or 80k option. We did the longer version as did the majority of riders.

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So, the yellow fever that gripped London in July didn’t last long.

Crystal Palace, sarf London: two men and a dog. The sponsors were struggling to give sun-hats away. A smattering of locals, a few clubs in kit, and, I suspect, most of the rest were friends and family. And us, thanks to a last-minute plan to have a short roll round Kent. No big screens, no enlightening commentary – even the riders, as they stormed over the line and turned to check their time, could see only a garbled mess of numbers.
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I was talked into doing the London Sportif by a few people at work and after a little bit of arm twisting I agreed to give it a shot. 200km (120 miles) is a long way, but it’s the Tour de France and a once in a life time opportunity so I could not say no. more »

It might have been the alarm that woke me at 4:50am but it could equally have been the rain hammering on the window. A glance outside confirmed metcheck’s forecast - heavy rain… and some. There might even have been animals forming pairs in the street for all I knew, for it was biblical out there.
Bed beckoned. But this was an event. Maybe even a one off. So the urge to clamber back in was dispatched… not with ease, more like tackling Huez on 120″… in a rubber clown suit.
On the plus side, it resolved my clothing decisions - though sou’wester and galoshes seemed more appropriate than pertex and overshoes. After a bowl of porridge, the bike was loaded into the van and off I set to Greenwich for a 6:30 start. Thankfully, the rain was easing off. more »

Registering on the Saturday was a nightmare - it was utter chaos. The queues were miles long, it was pouring with rain and there was no shelter, and we queued for over an hour for our timing chips and numbers. Up till then I’d been mentally congratulating the organisers for not wasting rainforests and doing all the newsletters etc via the internet instead of the post. Bad idea guys! Anyway, we just prayed the race itself would be better organised. more »