Central London CTC blog

Sunday 18th October and it is (near enough) 30 years since I did my first bike race. What happened was that I had just joined Paddington Cycling Club and the secretary/coach, John Austin, asked if I wanted to do a bike race the next Sunday. It was a hill climb – time-trial up a hill – and I wanted an idea of how hard it was. “How long is it”, I innocently enquired. “About 2 minutes for the good guys, everybody else should get in under 3 minutes”, came the reply. “Ah well”, I thought, “that can’t be too hard…”. more »

It is always potluck booking a table at a pub for a bunch of hungry cyclists. Usually I make a booking for ten but will I have that many? On one occasion there was just the three of us – we were still made welcome at the pub, though. This time I had the opposite problem when the pub suddenly had to cater for twice the number! Luckily the pub, the Anchor Inn at Sutton Gault, was able to rise to the challenge. We were served excellent food and given wonderful service. more »

With Angela Dale ordered off her bike by her osteopath, Paul Foster was persuaded to lead an off-the-cuff ride through Kent from Bromley South. We were a fateful 13 for the day, mostly 3* regulars, a couple from the 2*’s giving us a try. The 3* riders are more at home north of the river, but this is home turf for Paul, so in capable hands. And a glorious day it was to be – probably the best Sunday of the year.

Paul’s route was roughly along the Pilgrims Way, but many of us recognised parts of it from The Ride of The Falling Leaves,and Richard knew much of it from the Dulwich Paragon rides. We were promised six significant climbs, and there was no doubt about some of them. Where the Chilterns are short and sharp, and can mainly be crashed up out the saddle, these were longer, best taken spinning firmly but steadily, then a chance to savour the views from the ridge. more »

Some have said that CTC stands for “Café To Café”, others that it stands for “Coffee, Tea and Cakes”. Nick Bloom led the the three star riders on 16 August on an attempt to find out.

Cyclists with jazz band

First cup – Fourteen met at the Big Chef, East Finchley for the first cup of the day.

Second cup – Off at 0900 for a steady ride along the A1000, then on smaller roads into Hertfordshire. Before long it was time for elevenses at Notcutts Garden Centre, well stocked with plants, small animals, tea and cakes.

Third cup – Back into the saddle on more Herts lanes with a detour to the edge of Luton Airport before our next stop, Emily’s Tea Shop at Whitwell. It’s a favourite with local cyclists, with stables alongside the dining.

Fourth cup – Turning back south and more of the countryside, now in the sunshine, before reaching our fourth tea venue, Panshanger Airfield. The tea accompaniment of jazz, dancing (we watched but didn’t take part), veteran cars and aircraft acrobatics was particularly impressive. Apparently they don’t do this every day.

Tea-filled cyclists at rest

Fifth cup – Between stops the group, high on caffeine, tannin and hot water, kept up a brisk pace and were back at East Finchley before 1630. Big Chef closes at teatime strangely, but the nearby Chorak patisserie provided a last stop for some of us before the ride home.

The group had successfully completed its mission to combine a 100km three star ride with the full refreshment agenda.

Map of the route here.

Eleven people showed on a perfect day,  a not too stressful number,  allowing the leader to perfect his talent for leading from the back or middle of the ride,  I argued there is no point trying to out pace Bob Davis or Martin Hayman. We found some steep hills with plenty of chevrons in the morning, finding lunch at The Reformation at Gallowstree Common, a welcoming and friendly pub in a grimly named village. more »

On a day of swirling cross winds, a decisive intervention by Bob created a split in the peleton before the train had even arrived at Princes Risborough. It was decided that he would take the headbangers off for some punishment in the hills whilst those of us less in need of pain cruised over to Benson under the escarpment. more »

April 5th 2009

So, in once more into the wilds of Essex with a ride out from sunny Tottenham. Not all the usual 3-star suspects were there as the ‘Finsbury Park Massive’ aka Naomi, Keith and Steve were off in Flanders being ‘ard and Charlie was unable to join either the Flandrian Three or ourselves as his injury is still keeping him away from the roads.

There were plenty of faces already at Tottenham Hale by the time I arrived and with a few others who made it after I did including Paul who suffered in the Tottenham one-way system we were 14 in all. more »

A perfect 10 showed up at High (really Low as every way is up from there) Wycombe and it never rained all day, nor did I or anyone get lost, and the pub had not shut down by the time we reached it for lunch. The pub we went to three months ago has closed, along with a host of other places we cycled by, tough times.

We found some great hills, especially the hill up past Luxters brewery and Vineyard, and a great decent off the Chilterns reaching about 60km an hour on Britwell hill, and then we found Sue and Simon at the pub for lunch, before spinning back to do about 80km for the day without getting wet.  It did rain ferociously, but we were all safely sat around a big wooden table eating good lunchtime  food at the time, so that doesn’t count — next time we will look for some really evil hills to climb to keep Rory happy, since he loves to zoom up the toughest of climbs.