Brilliant ride. Sublime. Both gears fully employed. Excellent company (special mention to Charlie and Ian who are great at encouraging this great lump). Wonderful route. WONDERFUL lunch. Met up with two cyclists just back from Girona, with their bikes in hard cases, at Gatwick after parting company with Jenny. I was agog at the training camp they'd just attended, there were agog at tales of CC, FNRttC and FD's splendid rape seed ride. The lads from Barnet Ian and I spoke to just beofre the motorway were full of admiration; it's that charity ride thing, people always look at you twice when you say "it's just for fun and the craic"
Loved the way life flicks a switch at High Barnet and in the space of 500m you go from rural village feel to full on that Landan. Loved the detours round the back of deserted Kings X and the banter with the Asian kids that put us going in the right direction, and riding past St Pancras old Church and seeing the international station and thinking, 'this was a rural village outside London when that Church was built'.
View of the Shard at Archway made me go "W-H-O-A' the light was hitting it just so.
Does anyone want to do a list of what the participants real names are so when we meet again, or speak of them to others we do it with real names....?
Factor 50 failure on right calf and left wrist and given my farmers tan must stay below the knee this summer, 'the scars' he cried, 'the scars' I look a bit stupid. Nothing new under the sun, they say.
Adam, thank you so much. User10571, thanks for the lead into town.