Central London CTC blog

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.

This was to be a Charlie Keep ride, but our Secretary heroically stepped up to the breach (or whatever the cycling equivalent is) to lead instead when Charlie couldn’t. He was to be partnered by Ken Peters, who cycled out to Princes Risborough with Angela Dale (although Angela didn’t make it there by the time the main body left). So Rob Saunders, Bob Davis, Linus, John Snuggs, Roger Cline, Nick and Rory set off from Marylebone and waited at Princes Risborough until Ken arrived, with him agreeing to take the quicker route to Benson with Angela while we took the longer one. John Snuggs lasted about 3km before he decided that he was still too ill for a ride and went back to the station. more »

Turned up at Waterloo ready for John’s Basingstoke ride. Regis, Kate, Jon, Richard and I spotted John, clearly not his usual self. Feeling poorly, he yielded to the voices of common sense and returned home to bed.  I (was) volunteered to lead, and not knowing Basingstoke from Basildon, decided to take the gang on an arbitrary wander through the suburbs to places scenic and nice. We kept close as a group and navigated the traffic lights with our usual skill – I didn’t have clip out until Crystal Palace. more »

I awoke to bitter cold. A grey sky looked at me severely, as I shivered to the rendezvous at Euston, secretly hoping that only 1 or 2 would pitch up, and a few coffees could be sunk in a warm café close at hand without the need to cycle anything other than a token amount. No such luck – in no time we had 9, keen and eager, apart from the mildly reluctant leader. A puncture delayed Rory promised to show in 5 minutes. 5 Naomi Campbell minutes later Rory hove into view, much to the relief of the party. more »

Rain, arrive Liverpool Street to be greeted by five enthusiastic 3* riders. Out to Bishopsgate. Rain. Steady pace. Past the delights of über-cool Shoreditch. 1km – puncture. Drizzle. Two inner-tubes & thirty minutes later we’re off again sampling the pleasures of the back-streets of Hackney, Homerton & Clapton Park. Yet more rain.

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Usual winter ride stuff; midweek was spent watching weather forecasts and trying to work out the prospects of a decent turnout or whether it was going to be a ride for the hardcore only.

Oops, I almost forgot that there was the all too frequent email from Richard about rail engineering works so a little reworking of the route was done. Once that had happened all that was left was to do the ride but not before suffering some kind of drastic upset which caused me to warn the Hon Sec that I may not be able to lead. more »

Well, no alpaca fondling as we took a different route. The weather had been really cold until the day before and I had had a cold for a couple of weeks, only just about up for the ride. So not going to plan, no question of meeting at Tally Ho for a ride out, and I set off from Kings X, to be met by Rory Rhodes (back from an unfit few weeks off in USA), Roger Fretwell and Kay Bettis. Nick Bloom got on at Ally Pally. Gerrard Veglio met us at Hertford North having ridden out from NE London. more »