The one thing that has always astounded people is that I used to commute to London. The idea of cycling for 15 miles seems to befuddle many of my colleagues. Yes there are risks, a Vauxhall Corsa’s windscreen is testament to that fact, but I don’t think it’s the traffic that astounds people more the concept.
I know, I know, 15 miles is not a lot to contend with but it’s going into London. Something most people only do by public transport. But for me it was simply part and parcel of my commute.
So there I was, noting that the wind was coming in from the North East…so London it was for the training ride with the hope of benefitting from a tail wind on the way back.
On the way in, I decided to take my old commute route through Richmond Park and towards Putney also taking in the the view of hoards of cyclists pounding out their circuits. As I have written before, circuits are not for me. The idea of going round and round and round, seeing the same views every ten or so minutes would drive me insane. So, deciding discretion was the better part of valour, I avoided Dark Hill.
In reality, I preferred the relative quiet of Pen Ponds to the widdershins road so I headed to Ham Gate to turn right towards the Ballet School. At the cafe, I turned right, down the hill then left towards Roehampton. Much to my surprise, I kept overtaking cyclists even though two held me up.
There they were cycling side by side, chatting away, bloody cyclists, road-hogging preventing me from getting where I wanted to go at at faster speed than them…oh didn’t I mention they were also on the speed limit not inconveniencing anyone at all…as I said, bloody cyclists.
So of course, I overtook them and headed out of the park towards Putney Bridge.
Now when I was commuting into London there was a particular type of cyclist, the Silly Commuter Racing cyclist. These would set their Stravas and go to work, taking scalps as they went. What I didn’t expect was to find them on a Saturday ride-out.
So for nearly two miles, I had a couple of shadows. I really don’t mind other cyclists overtaking me, but what they were doing was towing. Towing is when you tuck behind another cyclist and use them as a shield against the wind. That’s OK and perfectly acceptable. What isn’t acceptable is not taking your turn. So after a couple of miles, I put the pedal down and extended the gap. Everytime I felt their presence, I would again put the foot down - why should they get advantage of my work? Eventually, I burned them off and relaxed back into the ride.
Another thing I usually only saw on the commute was the red light jumper - car and cyclist alike. But they were out in force on this ride. Fortunately for all other road users, at least the RLJers were making sure the route was clear instead of totalling themselves in front of me.
I kinda do like those RLJ cyclists that are in front of me as inevitably, they’re not that fast and so add to their pathetic-ness when I overtake them. On one commute in, an RLJer jumped the lights five times and five times myself and another rider overtook him between the lights. On the sixth pass, the other rider turned to the RLJer and shouted: ‘No wonder you jump lights you fudging slow barsteward.’ Or words to that effect,
Up to Kensington then the chicken run of South Carriage Drive, Hyde Park. It’s a small slope that gets the bike up to around 25-30mph but with the added danger of inattentive pedestrians stepping into the bike lane without looking or even stopping in the middle of the lane to take a selfie. Once passed the barracks and lights, it’s a fairly clear run up to Park Lane…
If there isn’t a march on.
For some reason known only to my brain, I had completely forgot that a few people were gathering to protest against Brexit. My initial thought of 'That’s alright, just follow the bike path round’ was soon scotched by the sheer numbers. So, to the amusement of many, I pushed my way through to the other side of Park Lane, ‘excuse, me, sorry, excuse me, Oops, enjoy your march, sorry, excuse me, what? No I’m not on the march you sarky ba….’
Eventually I got out of the chaos and joined the different type of chaos that’s the Marylebone Road past Madame Tussauds and over to Paddington where I joined another old commute of mine. Up through Notting Hill and the death gauntlet that is Shepherds Bush, Chiswick - scene of the said Corsa and its windscreen - then Brentford, Hounslow, home.
Training Ride 6
Distance: 35 miles
Average speed: 14.6mph
Distance so far: 188 miles
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