Central London CTC blog

We spun out on a beautiful sunny Sunday through Hertfordshire and along the Essex borders to Furneaux Pelham for lunch. With a very non-dictatorial (read ‘idle’ if you will) leader, Stephen and Ken (the only fixie on show) lead for quite a bit of the day, and the rest of us just bowled along in the January sun, soaking up tea and cake at the Westmill tea shop and then back to Stevenage.

With only one puncture the four mad folk who cycled out clocked up 140km, the others did about 100km, which seemed about right for the day as the sun began to set over the picturesque landscape of Stevenage as we reached the station.

SWTrains decided we couldn’t start from Basingstoke, so we ended up on the very slow train to Liphook. Perhaps Farnham might have been a better option, but then we’d've missed out on some of the better bits of the ride.

Nine decided to place their Sunday in my hands - Nick, Camille, Linus, Roger Cline and Kate, plus Chris and Julie, Sophie and Omar from Serpentine CC.

When we finally got to Liphook, we headed north and west at a wind-assisted pace more »

The weather on Sunday was a bit better than had been forecast earlier in the week, which was a relief as I didn’t much fancy a proper drenching. We had a decent turn out of 12 to start with only one early abandonment meaning that the attrition rate on the ride was a healthy 8.33%.

There are a couple of points at which the route got “a bit cyclo-cross” in the morning as we wended our way from Amersham up to Wendover before turning southwards to go past Chequers and towards Great Missenden. There were even a couple of impromptu water features to keep everyone on their toes, more »

I’m planning to organise a ride on Easter Monday, 24 March (yes, that’s right, the day after my Easter Sunday ride).

The plan is to go somewhere south and/or west of London by train and ride back towards London with a tailwind. Details TBA - depends on engineering work. Watch this space.

Current favourite is train to Rowland’s Castle then ride to Guildford through some seriously good scenery and seriously quiet places.

Essex – no trains!

Twelve months ago I also got to do the final 3-star ride of the year so maybe that will become one of my official duties for future years. This one was not without some problems as rail engineering works meant that Liverpool Street and Shenfield were both shut meaning that a fair amount of reorganisation was necessary. I eventually settled on using a route, that I often take when riding on Saturday, into Essex but starting from fairly close to my home in north London, at Tottenham Hale. Nine in all started out and Sue Dorey and Simon Binning also turned up there which was a little bit of a surprise. They had arranged to meet us at lunch but I had rashly assumed that they would get a train part of the way out and only have a short ride but they chose the more adventurous option of taking a more direct route to Hatfield Heath. more »

Like many, I rely on the radio wake me most days. The inane pomposity of presenters rises to a crescendo with the strange fervour marks sports reporters. But Sunday is often an exception. I lie content listening to those rabid guardians of our morality, the religous minority, most eloquently reveal their own malignity. And try to catch a weather report.

Mist. Heavy mist. But no mention of fog (I have no idea if there is some technical difference). At least this means no rain. As I descend over Hampstead Heath oncoming cars have their lights on., but into the centre of town the warmth of commerce clears the air. Only Hyde Park remains illusory, forbidding. more »

Sunday 16th December 3*

A magnificent sunny but chilly winters day enticed 3 riders to take the train to hertford north, and 11 mad souls to cycle out from london, 10 of them having sampled the ‘delights’ of the Big Chef in East Finchley. Cycling out from London meant that I clocked up about 95k, we suffered no mechanicals, and with the leader only getting lost a couple of times (it is possible to get lost in Hertfordshire) at which point Stephen Taylor lessened my embarrassment by leading, or cycled faster than me, or both . The Lilley Arms fed us well and we got back to Stevenage as the sun was setting at 3.30pm, having left home at sunrise. What more could you want, apart from not having to work on the Monday after a ride (ok every monday then)

Hertfordshire by the Back Door — December 2nd

It was at times wet and windy but a surprisingly large turnout and excellent lunch made for a great winter’s ride.  Before all that there was lots of behind the scenes action.  more »