England : London Sunday London ride

[redjedi]

Another great day for a ride. Not as cold as last week which made fixing my puncture a lot easier
Luckily just the one this week, but it was a big piece of glass, which I like to think I gallantly threw myself onto to avoid anyone else getting the flat

40 miles for me, with 974ft of climbing. 300 of those are the climb up the Alexander Palace.

This may be my last one until after Christmas now

My family are having Christmas next week. Then it's every body else's Xmas the week after.

If anyone wants to go out for a ride over the Christmas week I'll be up for it. I'll probably be out on Xmas or Boxing day trying to find some quiet roads in case anyone wants to join me and burn off the extra portion of pudding you're bound to have.

 

[ianrauk]

It was another cold ride today.
Myself, Mista Preston (only 3 minutes late) and Andrew at TDT. We where on our way to HPC... Joined on route by Arallsopp and Topcat.
It was a very pleasant surprise to see so many people waiting for us at HPC. Considering the cold weather, a marvellous turnout.

At HPC was Sittingduck, RedJedi, Fly, Mice, Mark, Eurygnomes, User10571, Mice, AdrianC, Becs & Rimas. A total of 16 riders for the day. (17 is the record). Also there was Dellzeqq, looking resplendent & dashing in jeans (blue), beret and Brompton.. he was off to mess around with boy's toys tools and wooden floors.

So after the customary visit to Hyde Park loo's for the old ones, we were off to Alexandra Palace in North London.

A couple of miles from Ally Pally, Redjedi rode over some broken glass, taking one for the team.

Clive was feeling a little Orange so he decided to turn back for home for his deadline & Roast Dinner, taking Arallsopp with him.

It's a little bit of a climb to Ally Pally, but definitely worth the effort. The sun came out for us...it was a glorious view over London.

Mr Fly and Mr Sittingduck

Mr Rimas

Mr Redjedi & Mr Mark

The Cafe had an impressive selection of drinks and munchies, and served us pretty quickly considering we suddenly made the cafe very busy.

His Royal Sereenness Mr Topcat Of The Rum Club Towers.

 

[ianrauk]

Drink and food consumed... it was time to head back.

Who want's to get up on the Lion? went up the shout.
Becs was worryingly very quick to say "Me!"

This was the first time I had been to Alexandra Palace and a beautiful and impressive looking building it is too.

It was a good downhill trot back in to the Centre of London. Riders peeling off for home as and when..

Oxford Street was very busy

And Christmassy

6 of us made it back to HPC, Myself, Topcat, Mice, Sittingduck, AdrianC and Redjedi.. wre once again, riders peeled off in various directions to their homes.

I passed the Shard in London Bridge. It's coming on very nicely. Soon to be the tallest building in the European Union at 310 Meters tall with 72 floors.

Thank you all for coming.
What started out as a quick couple of hours training ride for Mista Preston has, over the year turned into a
fantastic fun, social, meet, chat and ride.

Please feel free to join us one Sunday if you haven't already. It's a great way to see parts of London that you haven't or don't usually see. Both good and bad..

.!!

62 miles for the day for me.

 

[Becs]

Who want's to get up on the Lion? went up the shout.
Becs was worryingly very quick to say "Me!"

What can I say? I miss my pony!

 

[Eurygnomes]

That was awesome! Such a beautiful clear sunny morning - even I couldn't justify staying in bed - and the near-tropical temperature of 0[sup]o[/sup]C meant that not too many people were on the roads on way to HPC. Caught up (i.e. met!) Mice/Mouse (argh!) and showed off T (the new Red) when the congregation strengthened - before following the way up to Ally Pally (ignoring a curious moment where we ignored the signs saying "Ally Pally LEFT" and went around the Wood Green bypass. The cafe was brilliant...an outlook onto an ice crusted duck pond and the sun warm through the window. A few more ups (grr) and downs (weeee) before we reached my peel-off-point and I went immediately to Evans to purchase some proper mudguards and a rack for the new (longer) commute to work.

Thanks so much for a brilliant Sunday morning ride; I was able to feel my fingers for most of it (will look out for those gloves, Becs!) and Anthony (sorry, don't know your handle) mentioned he was gonna have a bath at one point - which was such an inspired idea, it's exactly what I did when I got home (after the french toast, bacon and banana combo that lured me to peel off when we reached Highbury Corner).

Hope I didn't annoy anyone with my road position/behaviour- it was weird to be riding in a group in daylight! I forgot to indicate some horrible potholes, so belated apologies if anyone found them.

And now: rubbish television before a tattoo parlour Christmas party I've been invited to (!!?). How could life be better?

 

[topcat1]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Mice]

All the stop-starting through London has left me pining for the countryside. Mice (now super speedy!) and I were chatting about heading out to Herts/Essex on the 22nd (weather and work permitting) for a nice long run, if people fancy joining us let me know!

What a fab Post - thanks Becs that's great to read (a wheencey bit of an exaggeration I think but good to know that I'm speeding up at last!) And what a fab day! Fab people, fab weather -a clear blue sky, no ice (except mine obviously- although could do with some more Ices!) and a great route to Alexandra Palace. Just loved it. Thank you everyone - I cant believe how much fun these Sunday London Rides are.

Also - just to confirm - its the 21st (tuesday) I was thinking of - sorry cant do 22nd. But that would be good if it suited.

Meanwhile - back to Today - I took some pics! (Including The Prince Albert Memorial on my way to HPC as it looked so darn fine)

Thank you all again for such a fun time. Mice

 

[Mista Preston]

What a great turn out and great pics.

I was a little unsure of the Frenchmen in the group at HPC none the lessDave led us on another great ride despite having to turn back in view of theintended location to make my 1pm deadline. Just prior Luke made a last minute leap to his intendedtarget, some glass !.

So as Mr Allsopp eludes to someone needs to buy me a map for my Garmin. We still made it back and I was bang on time. A very large Sunday lunch then a littlesnooze for me this afternoon

48 miles for me. It was great to keep moving and get somemiles in today despite the cold.

A mention of country side by some fellow riders eah !. Well the rolling hills of Kent are 15 -20 miles from HPC, and between Andy, Ian and myself we know plenty of goodroutes and plenty of good café’s. And its only 15 minutes to Bromley South from Victoria on the train.

I will be off work across Christmas and want to get out onthe bike for at least one big ride to hit my 2000 mile target for the year. Who else is up for something?

 

[Becs]

ooh I could be persuaded to head south, especially if we could swing a pub lunch

 

[Sittingduck]

A Top ride on a lovely winter's morning. I even quite enjoyed that hill up to Ally Pally!
Good to see so many people out and looking forward to the next one. Won't be in town over the Christmas period but will try to get out a couple of Sundays either side.

and Anthony (sorry, don't know your handle) mentioned he was gonna have a bath at one point - which was such an inspired idea, it's exactly what I did when I got home (after the french toast, bacon and banana combo that lured me to peel off when we reached Highbury Corner).

Oh, by the way - that was me! Sounded like a good idea but I auto-piloted into shower mode upon arrival.


Cheers all,
SD

 

[User10571]

Thanks peeps for a very, very fine day out in your very good company.

I'm only just home, on account of a number of house calls I had to make...

... but a lovely day out, my first CC Sunday London ride, which I can see being repeated...

Cheers all...

 

[ianrauk]

When was this the wine corner?! Hahaha! Welcome back Mark! Hope you get over the jetlag enough to come on a ride.

Since I am on here...it's pretty clear that I haven't made it on the ride; it's glorious out there and I'm sad that I'm not on the bike.

Thing is I need to come up with a bit of a strategy as two/three times I said I would go, I wake up in the morning super tired (sometimes justified and sometimes not justified) and then text Ian saying I can't make it and need more sleep.

Now the thing is - it's not a secret that it's been tough for over a year now and things are still pretty hard going, it's really effecting my mood, which I can suffer with anyway as I've indicated on other threads (I am hoping it will turn around soon) however, I feel like I'm really struggling with motivation to get back out on the bike-the last time I was out on the bike was the sunday ride I managed to make (that was only cause Dom kindly came to mine and rode with me to Sloane Sq) and am not commuting or riding otherwise.

So I need to sort this out until I can properly get out and about on the bike without a big kick up the arse- What I'm asking is if there is anyone who I can arrange to meet either near mine/at mine or a close enough meet point before HPC that I have to do- if someone's waiting for me then I have to get out and go if I say i will be riding. I'm South but PM if you're able to do this.

So that's me, bit of a closet cyclist at the moment. Sorry for the big ask but must do something about this now.

Just let me know and I will be there.....happy to leave mine earlier to get to yours..then both of us pootle to HPC.

 

[StuAff]

I will be off work across Christmas and want to get out onthe bike for at least one big ride to hit my 2000 mile target for the year. Who else is up for something?

Me! Me! Getting somewhat fed up with work, work, work & work at the mo (been in every day since last Monday, next day off- assuming I do overtime next weekend is the 25th...!), so something to look forward to would be great. Never mind anything else over the holiday weekend, I want to get out on the bike! Boxing Day would be out for a London start for me as the rail network is shut. Eejits...Sunday ride on Monday? Going south has an obvious appeal to me. I'd like to hit my own (revised) target for the year, 6.5k, or at least get very near it....!

 

[martint235]

I will be off work across Christmas and want to get out onthe bike for at least one big ride to hit my 2000 mile target for the year. Who else is up for something?

Well weather and alcohol intake allowing, I'll be out Xmas day morning through Bromley, Biggin Hill, Westerham, Chartwell, back through Knockholt and Farnborough. Santa hats are compulsory.

 

[redjedi]

Depending on how early you want to start, I may be up for joining you Martin.


And after getting another 2 punctures this morning I will have new rubber on the ground. Continental 4 Seasons are on order.


If it's too early for me to get across to you, then I may aim myself for Box Hill, maybe Horsham, maybe (if I can find shops open to get food) all the way to Brighton and back.