Mike Ayling
Veteran
- Location
- Melbourne Downunda
Well done!
Bitten off a little more than I can currently chew
- Thread starter Cathryn
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Well done!
Legs
usually riding on Zwift...
- Location
- Staffordshire
Well done, Pog and Cathryn!
biggs682
Itching to get back on my bike's
- Location
- Northamptonshire
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
Well done both of you...
UphillSlowly
Making my way slowly uphill
Chislenko
Veteran
Nice one. Let's hope your son continues his cycling adventure and that life does not "get in the way"
Must admit not done a century ride for a couple of years now and at the end of my last one I just felt relieved it was over, so fair play to you looking forward to the next one.
Must admit not done a century ride for a couple of years now and at the end of my last one I just felt relieved it was over, so fair play to you looking forward to the next one.
BrumJim
Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
- Location
- Selly Oak, Birmingham
Wow!
I'm also much taller than my Mum and she is a similar height to you, but:
1) She's a "war model" and claims that most her age are a similar height. (They aren't).
2) I'm only 6', and didn't achieve that until I was about 16 or so.
Is his father really tall, or did you put him on a rack in his younger years?
OP
OP
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
So here’s a longer version for anyone interested! It might be a bit long!
Left home just outside Marlborough at 7am as planned. All great for about 8 miles when we pull over to put on rain jackets and Pog cannot put his shoe into the cleats. We have no idea why not, he’s never struggled before. Nothing seems broken. We try and try, I examine everything I can, nothing. There’s no way forward, we will have to phone the husband to pick us up. It’s over already. We have to ride a mile into the next village to get phone reception so we stagger along and magically the shoe goes on and off we go, cheering. Disaster 1 averted.
All good for 10 miles. Some dramas with my phone which I use for navigation…it WILL NOT work when it’s wet so I have to swap it out for Pog’s phone, but all good. Until I get a puncture on my front wheel. No worries, I can fix a puncture. It takes a while as I am not fast but we do it, we pump it up, we ride on. Disaster 2 averted.
A few miles later we see our lovely soigneur, my husband who will be driving round today supporting us. He spots that the tyre isn’t on right and might pop so he redoes my wheel. Disaster 3 averted but about an hour lost in total.
Onwards and some lovely straightforward miles now. Lovely quiet roads. Some surprising hills. Some flooding. But all good. Cycling through Reading is a joy, we are very proud to have made it this far and the infrastructure is excellent. We spot a woman taking a selfie stroking a swan and I have to dissuade Pog from trying it too 😂 Just outside Reading, our handsome swannie shows up with sandwiches. The sun is shining and we are legit feeling good. Half way!
On through Maidenhead where friends live. It’s thrilling to think we’ve cycled to where they live! Then towards Windsor and pop, I get a second puncture. This time we phone our swannie who comes within minutes to fix it faster than I can. This is also excellent timing because I have to stop for a video conference with my cardiologist! I sit in the car and we decide that my dodgy heart doing pretty well - she is delighted to have a patient mid century ride. Puncture is fixed. Disaster 3 averted but we’ve lost a good extra half hour in total.
Through Windsor and Eton. Very brief stop for an ice-cream. Eton Mess for me, Bubblegum for Pog. Onwards. It’s starting to be much busier now and this is very exciting for Country mice like us. And soon enough we are cycling next to Heathrow and we cannot believe we’ve cycled to Heathrow. There’s a fab bridge we cross with a corkscrew up and down - this is the best bit of the day. The cycle lanes are excellent so we make good time as we head east.
Cycling through Hounslow, we have a moment when we spot one of my colleagues from the tiny school I teach in! Pavements hugs! Crazy! By now we have done 80-odd miles. We still feel REALLY good. Nothing hurts and we have loads of energy. We are really happy. We see our soigneur one last time and arrange to meet him and his bike at Hammersmith.
It’s fun now, cycling through London. We cross the river at Teddington Lock and head into Richmond Park. This is both great and a little unnerving. It’s about 6ish and dusky because of the weather. The park feels enormous and empty, despite people around. I’m very conscious of the bike jackings they’ve had lately and our nice (although not overly expensive) bikes and I feel very responsible for my child. At this point, the husband starts messaging us because the pre booked car parking was full and he couldn’t park so he’s had to book a NEW place and he wants us to join him there. It’s gets a little ‘tense’ as I’m not prepared to start rerouting whilst I’m in the park but luckily, once we get to Roehampton Gate and I feel comfy checking the route, the new spot is only a mile off route. So we head to the new spot, meet the husband, he gets his bike out with the panniers (for our overnight gear) and we are ready to finish. Disaster 4 averted but we lost another good half hour.
The final 10 miles as a family through London is so much fun. The infrastructure is superb so we feel very safe and I’m constantly marvelling that we’ve cycled this far! Through Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace and then we see Big Ben gleaming and actually donging as it’s exactly 8pm when we arrive! Magic!! We get some photos and then hurtle down the ‘Embankment Superhighway’ to our Premier Inn!! We’ve done 101 miles as we rock up to its welcome purple doors!
Pog and I are glad to finish but we still physically feel really good. Nothing hurts, we are tired but not exhausted. My right hand hurts from changing gear but that’s it. We have quick showers and then walk the half hour to Chipotle for burritos…the bait I dangled in front of Pog to make him do this 😁
So that’s it. It was more dramatic than I’d planned and it took a LONG time. I can’t work out our average speed because of app disasters (disaster 5?) but I reckon we rode at about 11 mph. I am so so grateful to my husband for giving up his day, his smiling face lit up our day every time we saw him! It was the BEST day with my giant child, he could have done this much much faster without me but he was excellent company.
Once again, thank you all for the online cheer squad. It added a real extra joy to the day and I’m super grateful!!
Left home just outside Marlborough at 7am as planned. All great for about 8 miles when we pull over to put on rain jackets and Pog cannot put his shoe into the cleats. We have no idea why not, he’s never struggled before. Nothing seems broken. We try and try, I examine everything I can, nothing. There’s no way forward, we will have to phone the husband to pick us up. It’s over already. We have to ride a mile into the next village to get phone reception so we stagger along and magically the shoe goes on and off we go, cheering. Disaster 1 averted.
All good for 10 miles. Some dramas with my phone which I use for navigation…it WILL NOT work when it’s wet so I have to swap it out for Pog’s phone, but all good. Until I get a puncture on my front wheel. No worries, I can fix a puncture. It takes a while as I am not fast but we do it, we pump it up, we ride on. Disaster 2 averted.
A few miles later we see our lovely soigneur, my husband who will be driving round today supporting us. He spots that the tyre isn’t on right and might pop so he redoes my wheel. Disaster 3 averted but about an hour lost in total.
Onwards and some lovely straightforward miles now. Lovely quiet roads. Some surprising hills. Some flooding. But all good. Cycling through Reading is a joy, we are very proud to have made it this far and the infrastructure is excellent. We spot a woman taking a selfie stroking a swan and I have to dissuade Pog from trying it too 😂 Just outside Reading, our handsome swannie shows up with sandwiches. The sun is shining and we are legit feeling good. Half way!
On through Maidenhead where friends live. It’s thrilling to think we’ve cycled to where they live! Then towards Windsor and pop, I get a second puncture. This time we phone our swannie who comes within minutes to fix it faster than I can. This is also excellent timing because I have to stop for a video conference with my cardiologist! I sit in the car and we decide that my dodgy heart doing pretty well - she is delighted to have a patient mid century ride. Puncture is fixed. Disaster 3 averted but we’ve lost a good extra half hour in total.
Through Windsor and Eton. Very brief stop for an ice-cream. Eton Mess for me, Bubblegum for Pog. Onwards. It’s starting to be much busier now and this is very exciting for Country mice like us. And soon enough we are cycling next to Heathrow and we cannot believe we’ve cycled to Heathrow. There’s a fab bridge we cross with a corkscrew up and down - this is the best bit of the day. The cycle lanes are excellent so we make good time as we head east.
Cycling through Hounslow, we have a moment when we spot one of my colleagues from the tiny school I teach in! Pavements hugs! Crazy! By now we have done 80-odd miles. We still feel REALLY good. Nothing hurts and we have loads of energy. We are really happy. We see our soigneur one last time and arrange to meet him and his bike at Hammersmith.
It’s fun now, cycling through London. We cross the river at Teddington Lock and head into Richmond Park. This is both great and a little unnerving. It’s about 6ish and dusky because of the weather. The park feels enormous and empty, despite people around. I’m very conscious of the bike jackings they’ve had lately and our nice (although not overly expensive) bikes and I feel very responsible for my child. At this point, the husband starts messaging us because the pre booked car parking was full and he couldn’t park so he’s had to book a NEW place and he wants us to join him there. It’s gets a little ‘tense’ as I’m not prepared to start rerouting whilst I’m in the park but luckily, once we get to Roehampton Gate and I feel comfy checking the route, the new spot is only a mile off route. So we head to the new spot, meet the husband, he gets his bike out with the panniers (for our overnight gear) and we are ready to finish. Disaster 4 averted but we lost another good half hour.
The final 10 miles as a family through London is so much fun. The infrastructure is superb so we feel very safe and I’m constantly marvelling that we’ve cycled this far! Through Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace and then we see Big Ben gleaming and actually donging as it’s exactly 8pm when we arrive! Magic!! We get some photos and then hurtle down the ‘Embankment Superhighway’ to our Premier Inn!! We’ve done 101 miles as we rock up to its welcome purple doors!
Pog and I are glad to finish but we still physically feel really good. Nothing hurts, we are tired but not exhausted. My right hand hurts from changing gear but that’s it. We have quick showers and then walk the half hour to Chipotle for burritos…the bait I dangled in front of Pog to make him do this 😁
So that’s it. It was more dramatic than I’d planned and it took a LONG time. I can’t work out our average speed because of app disasters (disaster 5?) but I reckon we rode at about 11 mph. I am so so grateful to my husband for giving up his day, his smiling face lit up our day every time we saw him! It was the BEST day with my giant child, he could have done this much much faster without me but he was excellent company.
Once again, thank you all for the online cheer squad. It added a real extra joy to the day and I’m super grateful!!
OP
OP
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
Hahah! No, he’s 6’4. We look ridiculous together!
BrumJim
Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
- Location
- Selly Oak, Birmingham
BrumJim
Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
- Location
- Selly Oak, Birmingham
Big Ben, Big Pog and Big soigneur, all in one photo!
(Yes, I know it is the Elizabeth Tower and you can't actually see Big Ben in the photo, but please humour me)
Specialeyes
Guru
- Location
- Essex
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Great story, and I'm glad you found your way through London and even enjoyed it. I was a bit concerned at your choice of end point for your epic ride and that you were going to end up knackered and lost in some tedious suburbs. Probably in the rain.
Next leg: London to Paris?
Next leg: London to Paris?
Last edited:
