April's ride with food

[Sittingduck]

Great ride in good company and special thanks to Abs for organising it! My troublesome rear wheel didn't seem to get any worse either, most surprising
Peeled off on the way home when we went within about 4 miles of home, so I didn't get my hundred. A shade under 86 miles today though, which is my second longest ride ever. Pity I couldnt muster the last few miles but I was beginning to flag badly and the feet started to hurt a fair bit. The swift pace from Esher - Richmond Park took it's toll on me in those few miles approaching Kingston. All good though and a decent rolling avg of just under 15mph.

Cheers All,
SD

 

[frank9755]

15mph on those hills - good ride, Anthony!

 

[Sittingduck]

15mph on those hills - good ride, Anthony!

I was doing more like 6-9mph on the hills Frank
The avg was kept up by plenty of descents and a long flat section of 19-21mph on the way back in.

2 noteworthy hills and the first was short and nasty. Then Boxhill, which I found ok but tiring because it's a fairly long climb (by my standards). The half way Pub was good too, stream / duckpond and all sorts!

p.s. Hero prize goes to User, for tacking Boxhill on a fixed!

 

[HaloJ]

Thanks all. It was a top ride made better by the great weather and wonderful company. I made my 100 with the journey home and a lap or Hyde Park but felt it a bit today. Dust allergies and hay fever really messed up my lung capacity and being off the bike for two weeks prior didn't help my strength any. Great that we achieved the ride at a good pace and I was amazed that we rocked up at the lunch destination at 11:45!

101.5 miles (102 but I missed starting the Garmin for half a mile) for me at a moving average of 15.6mph. This time the Garmin didn't mess up and recorded a top speed of 40mph. May have pushed a bit too hard down star and garter hill as I had a hell of a job slowing down to take the corner and by the number of near over shoots so did everyone else.

Garmin data : http://connect.garmin.com/activity/79539649

The ride itself whilst it has some great points and will be amazing to watch is fairly brutal on some of the roads it uses and I'd say it's not for those who are unwilling to bully traffic or ride on fast carriage ways.

My next organised ride will be a run to Cambridge again taking place the day before my Birthday on the 7th May.

Abs

 

[martint235]

Yep great ride. I was really looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint. Good company, good food and I got to show Box Hill who's boss. To the guy I scalped on the way up, ditch the arm warmers, you'll go quicker

We should do it again next year when they've resurfaced the roads!!

102 miles by the time I got home, last climb over Shooters Hill hurt a bit though!

 

[ianrauk]

An excellent days riding. Great idea to do the London 2012 Olympics Road Race Route.

We got together at Admiralty Arch in London.
Sittingduck, FlyingDodo, User1314, RB58, Martin235, Stuaff, Abs.

Once out of London and into Surrey there was some Cracking riding.

Having set a really good pace, we reached our lunch destination early.

Food, beverage and banter abound...

Some had more then all the rest put together (Well polished off Stu)

After lunch, Box Hill was the destination, only the once though (The 2012 route does it 7 times)
Reaching the top..

Sittingduck - Anthony

User1314 - User (who did the whole ride fixed)

FlyingDodo - Adam

Stuaff - Stuart

Glorious Leader Of Ride Abs...

The merry band at the viewpoint

And don't forget the photographer..Me

118.55 miles for the day for me at a cracking pace of 15.5mph avg. 10,000+ft of climbing and about the same descending.
It's a great fast route and can Imagine the professionals are going to love it. It's scarily fast in some places with more downs then ups.
(Then again we did Box Hill once, they will do it 7 times..

)

And the sun came out... though it went back in as soon as we slapped a load of sun lotion on...

All these pics and more are here... Please help yourselves.

 

[StuAff]

Thanks Abs for another excellent bit of organisation (and bringing an extra bottle for me!), and to everyone for a splendid day out. My Garmin data (for the route alone) is here- 14.3 mph rolling average, top speed a mere 33.8. Pretty damn good I think considering all the climbing, and I was a bit more cautious descending than some of the others..given my, ahem, chequered history on that, particularly in Surrey, that's probably for the best!

A bit of a lie in compared to the Leicester ride- up at 5 for 6.32 train. Got everything ready, so I thought, ate, put the bag on the bike...made the train...realised bottle cages were empty. Whoops! Sent Abs a text to say I was on my way, and that I might be a bit late due to last-minute shopping trip. She kindly offered to take an extra bottle for me, which I'd augment with a trip to Tesco near the Arch. Train was bang on time, and made it just after User, I saw him turn in. Nipped in to Tesco for a couple of bottles of something or other- Powerade Cherry on special offer, so that's what I went for. Ian arrived, photo call..and then we were off.

Like Abs, I thought the pace to Gomshall was pretty remarkable, but the conditions were pretty much perfect. Not too windy, overcast (apart from the sun damage, I don't perform too well in the heat), and we all were keeping an excellent pace. Abs might have been feeling all those maladies, but she wasn't showing them in her turn of speed. Ant was doing well despite the wonky wheel, and User was winning a heroic battle with 19 missing gears and a malfunctioning freewheel

. It was much easier with a compact double and 12-25 Shere Hill was a good work out, but for me at least (with the right gearing and both bike and body working OK), it was pretty straightforward. Still glad for that most excellent lunch stop afterwards, that was a great choice. Steak and Ale pie was delicious and a good carb reload. Onwards and upwards we went. Pootled my way up Box Hill at 8-10 mph- again, straightforward enough, though I'm sure the Olympians will be hurting a bit on the last couple of laps. The pace stayed pretty high on the leg back north, I'm not surprised Ant flagged considering his earlier exertions. Six of us got back to Hyde Park, where Adam took his leave, before the rest completed the lap, after navigating our way round the bureaucratic nonsense of the Marathon route. It shouldn't take that long to set up....but for some reason it does. Stayed with Ian, Martin and Ross till Waterloo Bridge, and made the next train to Pompey with five minutes to spare. Back home 6.35.
And tomorrow, another 87 miles or so (56 mile route on the Wiggle New Forest sportive, and I'm planning to ride out there- another 31 miles or so). Won't forget the bottles this time!
Roll on May!

 

[martint235]

T12-25

Really sorry but WUSS!!!! 53/39:25/11

But this doesn't negate what I said about great route!

 

[StuAff]

Really sorry but WUSS!!!! 53/39:25/11

But this doesn't negate what I said about great route!

Yup, but most of us don't have legs like yours

 

[potsy]

Yup, but most of us don't have legs like yours

And he has no armwarmers to slow him down

 

[rb58]

Big thanks to Abs for organising yesterday's ride. It was a top day, with fine company (which makes all the difference), a good route (although the road surface required vigilance in a few places), good weather (the sun making a welcome appearance at lunchtime) and an excellent half way stop. Also, well done for arranging a ride with no serious mechanicals - although I did lose a couple of minutes early on when my saddle decided to reposition itself into a vertical position which I figured I needed to attend to. Sorry about that!

Highlights for me were the the quick pace, the abandoned abbey in a field in Surrey (where was that?) which seemed to be picked out by the sunshine as we rode past, and the awesome view from the top of Box Hill, although I paid for it on the way down when we hit a short, sharp incline which I couldn't see, but I could certainly feel in my legs.

The peloton started to thin as we got closer to London, and after we'd said all our farewells, Martin, Ian and I headed back out to the wilds of south-east London/north-west Kent before we too parted. I rode the rest of the way with a big grin on my face - cycling does that to me - and arrived home with 110 miles on the clock for the day.

Thanks for your company everyone. When's the next one Abs?

 

[ianrauk]

We will have to do this ride again later this year.
Thinking back. It really is a cracking fun to ride route.
With the bonus of a not too early start and a not too late finish.

 

[rb58]

I know this may sound odd, but I'd quite like to do the Box Hill loop a couple of times next time.....

 

[Sittingduck]

I know this may sound odd, but I'd quite like to do the Box Hill loop a couple of times next time.....

It's a little early to have been drinking, Ross

RE: abandoned abbey
I am not sure but I think it was on the road into Ripley?

 

[Mark Grant]

Re: Abandoned Abbey, that sounds like Newark Priory