Taking advantage of not only the extra bank holidays but also the warm weather - shorts!! - I decided to head back into London and extend the out route from Tower Bridge rather than Embankment Station.
Heading through Richmond Park and the cycling traffic there, I realised I was correct in not going out into the hills as I suspect the rest of the South East cycling world would have been out there since they weren’t all in the park.
Off to Wandsworth then Vauxhall, I made good speed bombing past the US Embassy whose gift so far to the British people has been, finally, the removal of the lunar surface that made up the road through Nine Elms.
Past the Waterloo protestors and around Southbank it is quite a fast route but not fast enough for one trendy personified idiot in his very expensive cycling jeans who decided he was far too important for red lights.
Every time I overtook him there was red light ahead. Naturally, he jumped them every time. The most pleasing thing about this idiot was that I got him every time and overtook him again and again, scoring a victory for us cyclists who believe that, as we are part of the road traffic, cyclists should be obeying the Highway Code, if only for our own safety if not others.
One of the best things about Ride London is the lack of traffic, what is also pleasant is the lack of tourists. The City stretch of Ride London takes you along the Embankment from Tower Hill to, well, Embankment Station where you turn right up to Trafalgar Square.
A few years back, to the annoyance of cab drivers, lorry drivers, cab drivers, chauffeurs and cab drivers, an astonishing thing happened and the Embankment Super Cycle highway was built. A two-way segregated pathway extended from the corner of Westminster Bridge all the way to Tower Bridge.
Now of course, the Ride London route takes you onto the road but on training runs, such as the one I did the other day you tend to stick the cycle path which means tourists either walking front of you, taking selfies or clambering onto Boris Bikes (actually what do we call them now? Sadiq’s Cycles?) and inelegantly coming onto the path - usually as you are hitting top speed down the ramp just past the Tower of London.
The other habit of the tourist is to look the other way to you when crossing said cycle path. I presume they simply look the correct way in their country first, don’t realise it is two-way or they are complete…
Past a packed Trafalgar Square where, as I found out later, The Passion was being held then down through the traffic jam that is St James to the Ritz. Since I felt good - and traffic was fairly light past St James Park, I dived down the tunnel and up into the sunshine and the chaos of Knightsbridge.
Knightsbridge is a keen exercise in reaction time. Be it the rich pulling out in their supercars, the tourist running across to Harrods or the Black Cab making turns without a thought, your senses go into overdrive even as you outpace the traffic.
Past the museums and into…traffic.
The A4 was solid. Even I couldn’t take pleasure in weaving in and out of the cars. So I decided to depart the Ride London route and head towards Chiswick, Kew and Brentford.
The traffic followed me to Kew Bridge - it was then that I realised this was down to Hammersmith Bridge being closed as well as the great escape out of London - traffic has to go somewhere after all.
But past Kew Bridge, the traffic eased and a stress-free run through Hounslow, down to Hampton and through Bushy Park where even suicidal puppies couldn’t detract from the ride I had done.
Training ride: 11
Distance: 39.2
Average speed: 15.4mph
Elevation: 572ft
Total distance: 356.4 miles
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