England : London Sunday London ride

[topcat1]

 

[Mista Preston]

urgh....knackered .....

 

[arallsopp]

Ack. Everything hurts. Ouch. Nasty. Grrr.

Not coming today. Sorry. Will sms ian/clive.

 

[Aperitif]

Sorry to hear that Andy - were you at Whitstable on Saturday morning too?
Take care.

I'll be hanging around HP from about 9:15...I'm having fun posting on some old cycling forum at the moment and I fancy another cuppa

 

[Mista Preston]

that ride should have been Teefs off road nature trail. Great fun and just shy of 46 miles for me and still feeling fresh !

 

[redflightuk]

Got back to sunny Hertfordshire about ten mins ago. 81 miles on the clock so far(got to go to the stables later) 3000+ feet of climbing which should get me the king of the mountains on bikewire. A great ride around parts of London i've not seen before, but once i've moved into one of those nice little houses teef showed us {i wish). Thanks all for a great morning in the smoke.

 

[ianrauk]

Another CycleChat Bromley Massive caper... 51 miles for the day. A bit windy on the way to London.. and a little chilly to start. But with the hills and a littl cyclocross adventure which Teef threw into the mix we soon warmed up. And great to see Redflight who cycled down from Knebworthto join our little pootle. No off's this week.. we where all paying attention.:-)

 

[Aperitif]

14:11 the tickets were printed on Sat. afternoon, Ian...so it is conceivable we caught a train soon after...

 

[ianrauk]

Blimey mate.. good on you all. By that time I was well away in the land of nod...

14:11 the tickets were printed on Sat. afternoon, Ian...so it is conceivable we caught a train soon after...

 

[redflightuk]

14:11 the tickets were printed on Sat. afternoon, Ian...so it is conceivable we caught a train soon after...

sounds like a good .

 

[Aperitif]

sounds like a good .

Nah - just took a long time for the breakfast to go down...

 

[Aperitif]

On the South sector of Wellington Arch, in the middle of HPC, there is a memorial to the contribution of Australian servicemen during two world wars - and more...
OK, it's normally dark / crowded or we are behind schedule when arriving but today it was quiet, and worth an investigation.
It's intricate, with the 'bolder' type within the names helping to create the profile of larger, Campaign names throughout the monument. Very impressive I think. Part waterfall, the monument commemorates 102,000 Australians who died fighting for the Allied forces.

A quick timer photo was called for as we had a full turnout of CycleChat shirts.

Aperitif

Ianrauk

Mista Preston

topcat1

After the photocall, John turned up. Flippin' 'eck! He had come from Knebworth and couldn't get there on time...even though the time was brought forward by half an hour!
And off.
To Hyde Park cans, then back to HPC for one last look, then away. The day was about 20 degrees cooler than the previous ride, and the concensus was to follow the Oxford St, Portland Place, Regents Park, Camden route - then stomp uphill to Belsize Park, duck down to Hampstead Heath and traverse the open space - taking in a bit of impromptu BMX.
Which is what we did in serene fashion - not too many people around today and Oxford Street was kind - and Camden...everyone was shivering in the coffee bars!
We scampered through the 'tollgate' at The Spaniards Inn after a brief spell in the cycle lane, turning left into Bishops Avenue, left and left again, returning by Winnington Road. topcat and Clive were relishing the hills by now - the gradients not enough to bring pain, but enough to instill a dull ache!
And down, left, Primrose Hill, Regents Park the short route and a request for a globalized hot drink - duly supped at Starbucks.
I ordered the selection, including a milky coffee for Ian:
"Skinny laddie?" the guy behind the counter said
"No, that's Clive" I replied.
And we sat on the terrace, drinking in the diesel exhaust, while a youngster preened herself extensively in the window of an adjacent shop...Ian was worried that hios bike was going to receive smoke damage!

And on - towards Picadilly, Trafalgar Square, where we admired this:

- looks good actually. Makes a change from portly generals on horses...this could mark a sea-change in the Capital's sculpture!
All our normal thoroughfares were blocked because of the BHF 10km run which meant that I turned around and headed for a couple of laps of Hyde Park then out, up the A5. John had turned left earlier and was Northerly bound, Dave was going straight home, so we said goodbyes and, once again, I forgot to put the counter on the bike. I'll tot it up later using a mapper tool...
Now it's sunny.

 

[zimzum42]

Sorry not to have made it, got in at 4am last night, and had a ticket for the final day of the test, forgot all about that!

 

[Mista Preston]

the camera caught me just as I was having a Mctrump judging by my posture

great pics and a great ride !

 

[ianrauk]

Nice pics 'teef.....

Clive.. can you post up the data of the ride?
Cheers