Central London CTC blog

…a celebration of the Freedom Pass.

A simple 3* ride, from Chalk farm to Newton via Hertford North, with with an easy escape home from Cambridge. Or so we planned before checking the trains. No Hertford North service. No Cambridge service. Hum. Plan B, with an added C, and D on the return.

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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?

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 »

… all day, but you never have to go up them”,  was the pitch for this ride, which described a squashed ovoid shape lying in a south-westerly anti-clockwise loop from Princes Risborough with a diversion at the end to take in a section of the Pheonix Trail. It is a very flat route with no serious hills to speak of for the whole day. The lack of gradient however was somewhat neutralised by the headwind in the morning which was brutal and unrelenting. This was a shame because the first part of the ride features two stretches of long straight B-road which are fun to put your head down and belt along in the manner of migrating wildebeest. We were more like pack ponies struggling across the tundra. more »

Much has happened in the last few weeks since I last wrote a ride report. May, for instance, when all rides were in Essex and only the wet Spring Bank Holiday ride featured a train trip. Since then I led a 22-strong 2 star ride that was almost hijacked by a few of the faster riders but that did allow me to learn a new trick. If you ever find that people want to ride too fast when you are leading, simply ride at the back of the group and eventually they will get the message and slow down then you can, probably, control the pace of the ride from the front again. more »

Though bereft of any founder members — Roger Cline is celebrating his own anniversary on LEJoG — a large group spilled out of Witham station blinking in unaccustomed sunlight. The 16 comprised regulars, a few unreliables, even a couple of new faces. A brief pause whilst some splashed cream on lily-white skin, whilst others prepared their lungs. Due to some late-day alterations, we had a lead committee. It was John Snuggs’ ride, but I myself had prepared the route to lunch. Now my navigation has somewhat of a reputation, though I say so myself. An element of surprise, the joy of discovery. I got us lost again. Thankfully, Richard Philpott, whilst watching the tail, would correct our course with a barely perceptible sigh of resignation. more »

Last year when I did this ride we were blessed with glorious spring sunshine but this was not to be repeated. OK, well that is what the weather forecast said. I had spent the whole of the week leading up to the ride looking at forecasts that said rain and was expecting the worse. Others were similarly afflicted by the impending deluge so I lost a few who had expected to ride. Nevertheless there were 10 hardy souls who were prepared to join me and defy the elements.

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Fuelled by The Big Chef’s toast and marmalade, those following the basic plan broke out of suburbia and shot north. By Potters Bar there was a steady trickle of early competitors and spectators heading home, and once onto the B158 and course proper, a vast array of bikes and riders to distract us.

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