17th July 2015 Night Ride to Whitstable

[rb58]

Ross, who was your friend with her son?
It was uplifting to hear their comments on the ride as they had clearly both enjoyed themselves.
Even though young lad didn't want anything to eat, but made a bacon roll disappear in fairly short order....

That would be Susan and Pete. I've worked with Susan on and off for maybe twenty years and when she was on the Ghost Signs ride last week I mentioned the FNRttC and she rushed through CTC membership etc. so she could come along. I think she may have an appetite for more...
She may be along in a bit to say more - although I think they're flying to Ireland first thing tomorrow, so that may have to wait.

 

[PaulRide]

Thank you Tim. Top ride. Loved the race to the finish. Oh, and those clouds.

As ever on this route, the first half sometimes seems a bit of a slog (despite the excellent company and relative lack of unpleasantness) but from Greenhithe onwards it is delightful, this time possibly more so than ever. That moment as you look back down on the lights of Northfleet is wonderful, and then the sunrise and the beautiful lanes continue to deliver pleasure - Basser Hill, Bobbing, Tonge, Bysing Wood Lake and prettified Faversham. And this time I childishly joined the sprint finish, sitting in Charlie's slipstream for long enough to recover for a final attack, but didn't manage to catch Lee and the chap from Bristol (Steve?) who were ahead.

 

[ianrauk]

Thank you Tim. Top ride. Loved the race to the finish. Oh, and those clouds.

Sorry Paul, can you explain what the clouds are again. Cheers.

 

[PaulRide]

I was relieved to find that my explanation this morning tallies with good old wikipedia:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud

 

[HertzvanRental]

If this should happen again I could be interested. What sort of speeds were you doing?

 

[User10571]

Ah, at one point a cyclist came towards a couple of us and said something about 'clouds' which we didn't quite catch, before heading off in the wrong direction. Presumably that was you @PaulRide? Sorry if we looked a bit blank.

I think that may've been me, somewhere in Gravesend, just after Paul had pointed them out to me, I'd been down to the ferry pier to have a look and was heading back to tell Paul (who was waymarking) to do the same.

 

[rb58]

You know what, I really enjoyed that. All of it. Thanks to everyone who made it possible, but especially to @Trickedem for organising everything, including the weather and the most excellent cakes. Well done!

There's something uniquely Fridays' about sitting in a bus shelter outside Greenhithe Asda in the middle of the night chatting to @CharlieB and persuading him to ride home from Doncaster overnight with us next weekend. I suspect if we'd had that conversation in the cold light of day the answer would have been quite different

Top prize has to go to @topcat1 for wearing that outfit. I hope you won the bet mate

Even the SMRbtH was great, but try as I did to lose her, every time I looked over my shoulder that Sarah was right there. Chapeau.

When's the next one?

 

[ianrauk]

If this should happen again I could be interested. What sort of speeds were you doing?

Slow enough for you too keep up.

 

[Trickedem]

I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped with this ride, the TEC team, everyone who so willingly did waymarking, then sprinted back to the front to do it all again and particularly to @rb58 who helped lead the ride and made sure we didn't have any strange diversions (A normal feature of rides I organise). The conditions couldn't have been better, with dry roads, warm temperatures and a following wind meant this was a very enjoyable ride. We stuck to the route originally devised by @dellzeqq with just a couple of minor changes. I hope you enjoyed the route through Woolwich Arsenal, Those statues we saw are by Peter Burke, not Gormley as I orginally thought. We also went through Crossways near the Dartford Crossing, which meant we were able to avoid the enormous roundabout, with traffic lights that don't seem to work for cycles.

We were a little bit slower than normal getting to Strood and then a lot quicker than expected on the leg to Whitstable arriving a little bit earlier than expected. With the benefit of hindsight, we could have had an extra 20 minutes at Strood and this would have resulted in more cakes being sold. Instead I have selflessly being eating the remaining extra cakes at every opportunity. You will be pleased to know that we raised over £200 for Step&Learn

I gave out the normal warnings about group riding and making sure to shout out if you were stopping or slowing. This seemed to work most of the way until we were greeted by the most glorious sunrise, which stopped us in our tracks and nearly caused a pile up. I am sure that we will be back next year for a couple of night rides to Whitstable and I am looking forward to them already. I will leave you with a picture of that sunrise.

 

[Dogtrousers]

If this should happen again I could be interested. What sort of speeds were you doing?

A night ride ending in breakfast is normally constrained by the cafe opening time so about 8 hours. Given that night rides are normally about 100km, that gives an overall average of 12.5km/h. But we have a "lunch" stop at 3am, and lots of regroups, and the front of the ride moves quicker than the back so it's really hard to say. You choose your own pace. For what it's worth my "moving average" (a metric that I dislike but in this case I suppose it's useful) was about 18 or 19km/h as we approached Whitstable. The Bognor ride earlier this year was a smidge quicker.

If you like working really hard and riding really fast you can try waymarking, which involves long periods of inactivity pointing the way at junctions interspersed with chases back to the front of the ride. Or you could take my approach and just keep ahead of the tail end of the ride and speed up very slightly when the sound of the cry "all up" actually begins to hurt your ears.

Or do you mean what speeds were achieved by the fast squad on the Graveney marshes? I don't know, but from the middle/back of the ride I think I heard a couple of sonic booms.

Here's a GPX track of the ride (with my morning ride tacked on) http://ridewithgps.com/trips/5758735

 

[mmmmartin]

'I am sure that we will be back next year for a couple of night rides to Whitstable

Agreed, a good idea, great event. Two Whitstable rides next year is about right I think.

In other news, and for future reference if anyone is interested, I Crab & Winkle'd it to Canterbury - this apology for a cycle route would, in the Netherlands where they really understand such things, be the subject of a sitcom. it's perfect tarmac for about six sections, none more than 100 yards log, the rest is gravel. But there are no cars on it and it got me to the station in about 40 minutes i think, including a few minutes chatting to Charlie B. I'd use this way to canterbury in future, as the trains are better for me - none of that tedious getting off and changing at bromley south ad then again at orpington.

 

[HertzvanRental]

A night ride ending in breakfast is normally constrained by the cafe opening time so about 8 hours. Given that night rides are normally about 100km, that gives an overall average of 12.5km/h. But we have a "lunch" stop at 3am, and lots of regroups, and the front of the ride moves quicker than the back so it's really hard to say. You choose your own pace. For what it's worth my "moving average" (a metric that I dislike but in this case I suppose it's useful) was about 18 or 19km/h as we approached Whitstable. The Bognor ride earlier this year was a smidge quicker.

If you like working really hard and riding really fast you can try waymarking, which involves long periods of inactivity pointing the way at junctions interspersed with chases back to the front of the ride. Or you could take my approach and just keep ahead of the tail end of the ride and speed up very slightly when the sound of the cry "all up" actually begins to hurt your ears.

Or do you mean what speeds were achieved by the fast squad on the Graveney marshes? I don't know, but from the middle/back of the ride I think I heard a couple of sonic booms.

Here's a GPX track of the ride (with my morning ride tacked on) http://ridewithgps.com/trips/5758735

Thanks. I wasn't being specific, I was just concerned that, being somewhat old and knackered, I wouldn't be quick enough!!
I usually do rides of about 50-60 miles at an average of about 15mph, so it would seem I might just hang on!
Appreciate your reply.

 

[martint235]

Thanks. I wasn't being specific, I was just concerned that, being somewhat old and knackered, I wouldn't be quick enough!!
I usually do rides of about 50-60 miles at an average of about 15mph, so it would seem I might just hang on!
Appreciate your reply.

No you'd be easily comfortable rather than hanging on. I start my GPS at home, arrived at HPC with an average of 18mph. I then did some waymarking and also attempted to chase down the front of the ride across Graveney Marshes holding around 25mph for most of it (have I mentioned I needed a toilet break just as the sprint took off). So with all that, my average for the whole route until hitting the Waterfront was 12.5mph

 

[StuAff]

Or do you mean what speeds were achieved by the fast squad on the Graveney marshes? I don't know, but from the middle/back of the ride I think I heard a couple of sonic booms.

Here's a GPX track of the ride (with my morning ride tacked on) http://ridewithgps.com/trips/5758735

I was in the first 30 (no-one got near Lee, apparently...)- I wasn't on the front at the turn and fell somewhat short of my best times for that stretch, but still averaged 17 mph for that last seven miles...best time was a sub-20 minute run on the June 2011 ride, average of 21.1....!

 

[PaulRide]

Ah, at one point a cyclist came towards a couple of us and said something about 'clouds' which we didn't quite catch, before heading off in the wrong direction. Presumably that was you @PaulRide? Sorry if we looked a bit blank.

Aha, yes, I think that was me, riding the wrong way back to where User10571 was waymarking.

I apologise to everyone I may have bored/alarmed with my excitement about things in the sky. That was the brightest display of these clouds that I have ever seen, and the timing of the Iridium flare at Strood was spot on, just as I rolled into the car park.