England : Cambridgeshire Not a Christmas Friday Night ride - 11th December

[jiberjaber]

Well a good ride, fairly event free with the exception for a bit of tow path calamity - I nearly rear ended a Brompton and one of the chaps tracked along a wooden section on the edge of the path but avoided a dip in the water... I think we were all starting to feel a bit tired and hungry by then...

Thanks for organising Adam It was great to meet new and old friends on two wheels....

Most of my pictures are on Strava, group ones here for completeness:

https://www.strava.com/activities/448615192

 

[Gordon P]

A lovely night's ride.

Definitely worth saying twice!
Thanks Adam, it was a most interesting ride & fantastic to survive a night out in December, even though it was a bit chilly at times. A straightforward flat section for 2/3rds of the night, some warming undulations - & then it got technical, twists & turns, towpaths & the pylon we rode through.
Sorry Lindsay & I sloped off quietly from the back when the call of home further down the river grew too loud (& he had to go to work....).
Great to have one more nocturnal conversation in 2015 with everyone else: take this as my seasonal greetings & I look forward to seeing you in 2016.

 

[mmmmartin]

@jiberjaber those two outdoor pics in the countryside are great - wonderful use of light and reflectives and all that. i had an exciting funeral to go to then a train journey to norfolk and wish I'd been with you for that ride. Good company too.

 

[Pale Rider]

Ooo, a Mcdonald's and a 'spoons breakfast.

Yummy.

 

[Dogtrousers]

A great night out. It veered between being an episode of Dad's Army (I'm particularly thinking of Private Godfrey asking to be excused a lot) and coverage of the Tour de France, with a high speed peloton zooming along. The pace was pretty brisk at times - too brisk for me in the Essex Alps around Theydon Bois - I'm afraid I occasioned a couple of long regroup stops there - but I have no doubt that the team found a Private Godfrey inspired way to pass the time while waiting.

It wasn't really very cold, and it didn't rain. Perfect conditions.

Having started with a plate of chips in Cambridge, followed by chips at McD's, my insides were rebelling at Liverpool St, fearing that I may be about to force down more chips, so I headed off to London Bridge, a train, and bed.

Thanks, Adam!

Here's a track: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/7304915

Edit: And no punctures! (unless they were very discreet, rapidly sorted ones that I didn't notice).

 

[velovoice]

They are fantastic - website material, except that they are a bit white and male yet again, which can't be helped this time.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. I'll bear these in mind if/when new website material is needed -- as Jason's photos are always excellent.

 

[rb58]

Golly, that ride reminded me how much I've missed night riding and the FNRttC this year. @Flying Dodo has take the credit for sorting the weather - less of a headwind than forecast and completely dry; a great route - especially the long quiet stretch either side of the ford, which for me is up there with the best FNRttC stretches; the pace which was just enough to keep us warm and attentive, but not so much as to stretch us out too far; and the peculiar absence of punctures, which considering the damp, debris covered roads, was no mean feat.

All in all a great night, made all the better for being home, showered and in bed well before 9.00am, even allowing for the long route home to round up to the century.

Thanks Adam.

Now, if @jiberjaber let us know where he bought his bibs............

 

[rb58]

And did everyone see the deer around Stanstead?

 

[Flying Dodo]

Thank you to the 13 intrepid individuals who came along. It wasn't actually as cold as I expected, although possibly that might have been due to the brisk pace. In fact at times I was trying to slow things up a bit and found myself at the back.

Due to the fortunate mistake of taking a wrong turn off the A10, this managed to delay us getting to Liverpool Street Station until 7am when the Wetherspoons opened. So apologies to @User10571 if you rolled up after 8, as we were all gone by then!

No mechanicals, although due to the cloud cover, no stars or meteors to look at. Very quiet roads - a few taxis, a police car and an emergency ambulance mainly. Generally we rolled together as a bunch with no need for long stops to re-group, so possibly Charlie's nicotine intake might have been reduced compared to a normal night ride.

There had clearly been a lot of rain earlier as some of the roads were very wet, and we even had a mini ford to go through, which 2 weeks earlier had been dry.

Once back into London, despite cutting out as much of the unpaved sections of the tow path as possible, there was still a bit of mud splattering (sorry Ian......) and the road alternative was busier than I expected so realistically the route probably wouldn't work with a bigger group. I think some people might also have an issue with the narrow bits of the tow path! Having said that, the whole bit from Cambridge to Ongar really is nice, as you can go for miles without needing to make a turn.

Mulling things over, it would work better in reverse, but simply following the Dun Run route out of London, which has the advantage that being after midnight, unlike south London, people in the north seem to go to sleep earlier, so heading out of London, there's very little traffic, and the Epping Road is very quiet by 1 am. And that's a plan I've used before for the Dun Run Lite rides. It's 39 miles to Stansted which is OK, and would mean far less climbing and in fact from Stansted to Cambridge is almost all downhill. So something to ponder........

 

[tatr]

No mechanicals, although due to the cloud cover, no stars or meteors to look at. Very quiet roads - a few taxis, a police car and an emergency ambulance mainly.

One mechanical - in my sleep deprived state I put my bike in the lift badly when I got home and bent my rear mudguard

Excellent night out though, and really enjoyed riding through the night for the first time - thank you! This was my first ride with the Fridays and everyone was really friendly and relaxed.

Thought you might be interested in how your route overlapped with the Strava recommended route I used on the way out - your way back over Toot Hill was much more pleasant.

http://imgur.com/Pdqz2UW

 

[robjh]

If you're going to something really nutty like ride 70 miles through a December night, then it helps to have 13 other nutcases to do it with you, and I couldn't have wished for a better group of nutcases. I was nursing a bad cold - sorry about all the coughing - and this at times made it a tough ride for me, with a low in the dark and cold about 4 am., but my mojo returned and I really enjoyed the hilly sections as we approached London through Theydon Bois and the depths of Epping Forest. I loved the atmospherics of the various Lea Valley byways and towpaths, even though I was the unfortunate (alluded to above) who lost his wheel in an unseen rut and hit the towpath, thankfully with no damage other than a grazed knee and ego.
Thanks to @Flying Dodo for organising and choosing such a good route (even if we agree that certain bits may need tweeking for a full Fridays ride), and it was nice to meet and re-meet others on a smaller ride where it was easy to get around and chat to people.

This was my only picture of the night:

 

[Dogtrousers]

Mulling things over, it would work better in reverse, but simply following the Dun Run route out of London, which has the advantage that being after midnight, unlike south London, people in the north seem to go to sleep earlier, so heading out of London, there's very little traffic, and the Epping Road is very quiet by 1 am. And that's a plan I've used before for the Dun Run Lite rides. It's 39 miles to Stansted which is OK, and would mean far less climbing and in fact from Stansted to Cambridge is almost all downhill. So something to ponder........

You're probably right. I remember your Dun Run Lite year before last was quite a painless exit from town. Saturday morning is quite busy on the roads in town so that's the logical way to do it.

But from a selfish point of view, as a resident of Sarf East London it makes a great change to be so close to home at the end of a ride. And a London finish for others is probably easier (I expect quite a few people will go home from Whitstable or Bognor via London) and a bit of a change from normal. (Perhaps "normal" is not the right word there)

 

[StuAff]

You're probably right. I remember your Dun Run Lite year before last was quite a painless exit from town. Saturday morning is quite busy on the roads in town so that's the logical way to do it.

But from a selfish point of view, as a resident of Sarf East London it makes a great change to be so close to home at the end of a ride. And a London finish for others is probably easier (I expect quite a few people will go home from Whitstable or Bognor via London) and a bit of a change from normal. (Perhaps "normal" is not the right word there)

+1. Felpham & Brighton work best for most of the south coast contingent, as they're on the south coast, obv. For pretty much anywhere points north we'll be returning via That London anyway.

 

[User10571]

So apologies to @User10571 if you rolled up after 8, as we were all gone by then!

No you weren't.
Mark Grant, Charlie and one other (apologies, I know not your name) were present when I turned up like the wafer thin mint, after eight.

 

[robjh]

........and one other (apologies, I know not your name) ...

It was me. I've now worked out who you are too