Central London CTC blog

Follow this link for the Easter Tour 2010 album

Paul and John rode out meeting at Jordans YH on Monday night. Paul’s new SPD shoes squeaked making any surprise attack from behind impossible. We crossed the Chilterns to Oxford with its dreaming spires and Inspector Morse’s pubs, then over the Cotswolds to Stratford on Avon. The weather was cold with head winds and occasional hail showers, so that we had to thaw out at Chipping Norton before ordering lunch. Then into the Midlands, passing through the centre of England at Meriden. We stopped at the cyclists war memorial there.

As we moved north we went back in the seasons, with only lambs, Daffodils and Primroses as evidence of Spring, but two meal deals were down to £7. It was raining as we arrived at National Forest YH. David and Angela, Nina, Lawrence, and Frank joined us in the Cricketers that evening and the start of the tour next day.  David was given a handicap by carring both panniers: one for him and one for her. more »

Nick’s invitational ride takes place at a variety of seasons. This time it was a chilly grey Easter Monday morning.

Six met in the vastness of St Pancras Station for the unusually far-flung trip to Romney Marsh. The train accelerates across a newly-created landscape of concrete flyover, contoured turf, and smoked-glass office complex, like a naïf preview of the future. Soon you are flying along the Essex bank with the Thames Estuary to your right; then the tunnel swallows you up and you emerge moments later on the Kent bank, soon to vault over the Medway.

Ashford International, equally grandiose, feels out of place in the banality of the surrounding town. We head south for the coast, into brightening skies and a freshening breeze, quickly leaving behind the gravitational pull of the future. We traverse a small country of fields, woods and villages: these rural eastward reaches of Kent entirely lack the manicured plushness of the more-familiar western end of the county. Soon after Ruckinge, we ride down off this upland on to the broad expanse of Romney Marsh, pan-flat to the Strait of Dover beyond. more »

After several attempts that were rained off, Alison finally managed to lead a ride to Ware Museum. The route is almost ideal 1* ride territory being almost traffic free and flat. It starts with a complicated exit route on cycle paths from more »

Pictures from Dave Newman’s two-star ride yesterday. You can also find a map of the route here.

On Wisley airfield (click for full gallery)

Five of the 4-star hardcore joined the 09.00 train to Sevenoaks. Leaving the station in a northerly direction, we soon pick up a lively, even hectic, pace down the hill towards Riverhead. But reality bites the moment we cross the M25 and toil up the scarp of the North Downs to Knockholt. Surely one’s heart should not be thumping at so many BPM, so early in the ride? more »

Yippee! It looked like it was going to be the first day of Spring, with good weather forecast. Off I set to meet Geoff Thomas at Golders Green clock tower at 08.00., not wanting to be later for the ride out to Hertford North – which needs to be as early as possible to avoid early Sunday traffic- where we were to meet the trainers from Kings Cross.
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Normally my in-house rent-a-mob boosts my attendance record and justifies the ‘family’ tag for the ride, but this year they absconded. However, our group of six bonded into a happy unit for a day’s spin in the Hertfordshire sunshine. Two St Alban’s residents, two from north London and two off the train.

Twists and turns through Victorian streets, a walk through the White Hart coaching inn yard and the Abbey grounds, and out of the city via St Michaels and the Gorhambury estate. A short stretch on the A4147 and then onto the lanes through Westwick Row and Buncefield, over the Ver at Redbournbury Mill and up the hill to Harpenden Common.
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An unusually early train from Paddington with only two coaches, but a Birdy and six full sized bicycles squeezed on, followed by another at Ealing. We met our leader David , who had cycled out to Burnham.

A bright, sunny but chilly start and the mornings ride found ice patches on the route through the Beeches, with plenty of pot holes on the back roads. There were only Snowdrops as the first sign of Spring. We made good progress through the hills, and were ahead of schedule for the planned lunch stop, so continued to “The Whip” beside the windmill at Lacey Green.

Richard left after lunch, avoiding the hills that David had planned for the afternoon. Over Bledlow Ridge and across the grain of the Chilterns, then down into the Hambleden valley. We crossed over the weir there with the Thames in full flow, then south to Twyford.

The train back had grown to three crowded coaches. Fifty quality miles on the first ride in March, with plenty of good hills: well worth the early start.

950m total ascent!