Audax rides

You do seem to pick the windy days for a long ride, most mere mortals (well, me) would find that taxing enough without the wind.

To be fair to me this was a calendar event. It just happened to be windy while riding, rather than being by choice!

Fair enough, I forget some of these rides are calendared, and not just ride whenever.

#hippyisfat

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70,300m worth of hills now flattened

other than taking the broken road off Mam Tor as a nod to the Harder Day in the Peaks ride

<3 Great work on your ride, it's tough up there

I told you after Brexit I didn't care if the UK sunk into the sea...

Well done, to both of you!

Still need to get to 100 points then I can stop. Though taking the overall at the end of the season would be nice. Not sure it's possible to do when I add in racing though.

Is The Shark not running this year?

I decided against running it this year as the Covid situation was looking pretty bad when I had to schedule it late last year, and I've brought Greenwich Mean Climb forward to June for the 100th anniversary of the BRM300, only have so much time for organising events. It should be back next year as a PBP qualifier though.

Spanks for the info. I had a reminder in my calendar for midweek which was odd so I went looking for it. Probably a previous edition on April 7th that I'd bumped forward each year. Or maybe I was going to DIY it midweek. I've got GMC marked in the calendar too.

Neglected to post here but inviting any mad cyclists on here to join a Group ride I am organising this Friday evening at 10pm. Details below.

Date and Location

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2022
Distance: 160 km (100 miles for the uninitiated)
Climb: 1,086m (flat)
Start Time: 22:00 (late)
Starting from:
Victoria Station car park, London (meet opposite bike racks at car park entrance to Victoria Place mall - see Google Street view https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4943836,-0.1452069,3a,75y,279.55h,84.48t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sIatozASroN-A0fOJ7u0DWQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DIatozASroN-A0fOJ7u0DWQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D189.26674%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656)

Route

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38655094

TLDR

Group DIY night ride around London. Starts at 10pm from Victoria Station (for pre-ride food, the 2nd floor McDonalds closes at 11). Post-ride brekky at Victoria Station Wetherspoons where I can confirm the taps turn on at 8am (opens at 6). A great ride to acclimatise to cold night riding, test lights/gear, all safe in the warmth of the city. This is an X-rated event - i.e. no manned controls.

Genesis

In late March 2020 we went lockies. Four weeks later the PM would announce “we are past the peak” of the pandemic. This ride seeks to replicate what it was like for the exercise-inclined during these unprecedented times. A bit weird, quiet streets, circuitous. Staying local was the (legal) order of the day. Non-essential travel was shamed. Hair grew long. We all know this so why am I saying it? Because it's sentimental!!

Accepting the guilt that if I rode outside the M25 I could be “hit by a car and take an ambulance from someone who needed it”, I set about creating and sourcing local London routes. If I were hit by a car locally, at least I could walk myself to a nearby hospital, the thinking went, or maybe the driver would take me if I were nice. The London Fixed Beers missions were a particular highlight for me—giving riders a curated tour of London’s boroughs while taking advantage of the empty streets (but for the ominous queues starting to form outside supermarkets).

I rode the first version of this “strava art” in April 2020, and one year later extended the route with the needle in commemoration of the vaccine. Ironically, as I rode down the Mall while tracing “the needle”, I went right through an anti-vaccine march.

Touring London’s boroughs on empty streets turned out to be actually quite nice. But daylight scenes reminiscent of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later are unlikely—though not impossible—to return this year, and I don’t want to lose half a lung riding 160 km through London traffic, so this year I’m doing the ride at night.

Fee

There is no fee but I ask that you make a minimum £6 donation to the Lewisham Bank of Things (https://www.lewishamlocal.com/lewisham-bank-of-things/?fbclid=IwAR2SK-ZVIkmz3nLSO6a9zosCTa6zOidekBSToUJFYc7QEqJDCezWNfmN4Qk). An admirable project some of you may have seen on the news in recent weeks.

“The Bank of Things is a new Young Mayors Project working in partnership with Lewisham Local aimed at Young People aged 11 to 25 living in Lewisham. Former Young Mayors have used their budgets to develop the Bank of Things to address the issue of poverty and lack of resources for young people in the borough. We now supply everyday necessities to any young person facing hardship living in Lewisham.” - Lewisham Bank of Things

Upon donation, please message me at “ kowalskimark [at] gmail [dot] com ” to inform me of your intention to ride.

Finish

I would appreciate if you confirm back to me you finished (Strava/Komoot/ebrevet). I won’t be publishing a list of finishers anywhere but I will record you as having completed it for my own records. If the ride is popular enough, the idea would be to turn it into an annual Calendar event.

Riding in London

Be safe, bring a decent lock or bring your own food. Let me know your average speed and I can try and match people in groups. Though the Friday night streets of London may provide plenty of company!

YACF post here: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=122436.0

Rode a DIY 300 yesterday based around several of the Wiltshire sites featured in Julian Cope's Modern Antiquarian.

In practice that included Stonehenge, Woodhenge, Adam's Grave, West Kennet Long Barrow, Silbury Hill, West Kennet Avenue, Avebury Stones, the Ridgeway and The Devil's Den dolmen.

Mostly on-road but some bridleway / chalk gravel on the Stonehenge service road and from Avebury up to the Ridgeway and Devil's Den. All doable on 28s in dryish conditions. About 10km in total.

One section of the route goes through Blackhills estate in Esher. You can either ride straight through and ignore whatever the security guard is shouting at you (my preferred route) or you could re-route across Esher Common.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38891663

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I'm slightly worried about the weather forecast for the Mandem of Kent on Sunday. -1 and clear at 7am. I make a point of not riding roabikes in the lanes when it's frosty as breaking bones isn't worth it. Anyone know if the route follows main roads that are likely to be gritted at first?

hmm yeah https://www.weatherbagel.com/f/246eb3dc-7393-4d4e-987a-a66e93b7d68f

need to keep an eye on https://twitter.com/GrittingKent

and https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?referrer=app&date=2022-04-03

but yeah icy roads are NEVER worth it

That weather bagel site is amazing!

there is also this: https://mywindsock.com/uploads/395993/

29km/hr lol

I seem to remember there was a new thing that let you DNS on calendar events without having to email the organiser [which I'm happy to do but aware they have a lot of thankless admin to do already]. Have I imagined it?

[Got family staying this weekend and can no longer do the lovely 100k jaunt I had signed up to]

I'm not liking the forecast for Man of Kent, at all. I'll make a yay/nay call Saturday evening, fingers crossed it warms up a bit.

I'm out. Temp forecast to drop way too low overnight. I'm sure it'll warm up quickly but the risk in those first couple of hours is absolutely not worth it.

I had DIYs planned but I'm on the turbo this weekend. It's nice during the day but that early morning ice risk isn't worth it. I wanted to do a 400k in Bristol next weekend but these temps are bullshit. It does look to be warming up next week but that just means rain.

I was out just after 6 am this morning and the lanes were fine. There's very little standing water to freeze.

85% humidity in parts of Kent overnight though and hoarfrost doesn't need standing water.

I was going to route check Fast Times in the High Weald today but called it off, nothing's worth a broken collarbone.