Route advice needed for race against Tube

12mph tailwind all the way. Should be good for a coupld of minutes.

Tailwinds may not be the only weather consideration... the sky here over Kensington is darkening as I type, and the BBC weather forecast for London is "heavy showers", which I guess is bad news for cyclists. :-(

fair weather cyclist will take the tube... i stand by my original statement COME ON MASH!!!!!

good look mashton - sorry i can't get involved - but have to get new crankset put on the beast.

i know you will do it. Hanbibo is a fool to think he can beat you - does he not know you are riding an Off the Peg Wilier? ;)

The rain will make you faster. it will. scientific fact.

Otmfp!

Jonny is a man of science so pay heed to his wise words.

bloody rain might slow us down on the hairpins.

Good luck dude.

Everything is looking good, I just set a PB into work as a warm up - I wasn't even pushing it and was carrying weight which has now been off loaded.

Am sitting in the office trying to keep my soaking body warm.

Come ON!

simple...
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Good luck!

Good luck! Mind the peds in the rain, it seems to make them blind.

uh, shinscar, that video is 'no longer available' ?

click the link on the bottom of the frame.

Central line down = gift. London may hate cyclists but the Gods love us.

what's the source on that jim? tfl says good service...

I took my camera into work today, so I will get some video and pics of the boring journey!

Not that anyone here would stoop to such levels, but I hope that the current state of the tube network is entirely unrelated to anyone rehearsing for tonight:

HAMMERSMITH & CITY LINE: Suspended throughout due to faulty communications equipment.

DISTRICT LINE: Suspended throughout due to faulty communications equipment.

CIRCLE LINE: Suspended due to a signal failure at West Kensington.

BAKERLOO LINE: Suspended between Queens Park and Elephant & Castle, minor delays elsewhere, due to faulty communications equipment.
No longer the case? Damn. Them Gods DO hate us...

For the record I do not know what an "Off the Peg Wilier" is, I assume an unmodified bike of course but that is it.

Good luck Mashton! Good luck cyclists!

Good luck Pete, bad luck tubists :-)

leaving now. see you in angel mashton. i'm in a green "Lotto" jersey.

COMON GUYS!!!!!! I am all excited now :))))

good luck mashton, the rain seems to have stopped dead at six so i hope you make it. i expect a full ride report from you upon arrival.

Yeah, good luck on this one !

Ok, here we are in Epping, illy, hanbibo and myself (plus th eother poker players). In the end it was a very close race:

I set off alone from Kensington at 6pm sharp, feeling nervous but very up for the challenge. I was not surprised to have no support riders from the beginning, the thunder and lightning had probably put everyone off.

A great ride through the park and on to the A40 was helped by a friendly motorbike who led the way through the traffic. No problem keeping up about 17-18 mph through the standing cars.

A quick pull up Pentonville Rd and then on to Upper Steet where I picked up my only domestique for the ride - the ever faithful illy.

The lights were oh so kind to us and illy was in great form after touring Corsica with stelle for the last few weeks. As we passed over the A406 my legs were feeling it, but the average speed was looking good and it felt that we could make it, with luck.

Meanwhile, the tube riders were also blessed with great luck: a bus up to Notting hill gate and an Epping train was ready for them to step straight onto. No call for parkour, much to hanbibo's disappoinment.

As my arse began to feel like falling off, and only the knowledge that there was a mile left to go keeping me going, we entred Epping. The clock read 1h 10m and it looked like nothing could stop us. Then, disaster: my back wheel started knocking in an ominous manner. Sure enough, I had a flat. I shouted the bad news to illy and then decided to see if I could just get out of the saddle, over the bars and finish the race regardless.

As we pulled round the final bend onto hanbibo's street, it all became worth it. 1h 14m and no sign of the tube riders. We had fucking won it!

Hanbibo et al limped in after a further 11 minutes, shouting with amazement. Pete (hanbibo) literally couldn't believe that we had beaten him, particularly seeing as his journey was a perfect run.

COME ON THE BIKES!

Yay! Well done.

Great account too.