2009-09-05 Sat 10am - Leaving East London Ride

There's Dancing James's ride today if you want to go fast. This was a billed as a social ride and for it to have been held to ransom by the speed merchants is unacceptable. And as for not bringing lights, and then cajoling everyone to skip the refreshment stops so you don't have to ride in the dark....

The whole point of rolling through all that beautiful Essex countryside is to appreciate and enjoy it, not blast through it as if it is an inconvenience. If you want to get back to London so badly why bother leaving?

And no it is not flat. There were 70 miles of pretty big fucking hills. It may be flat compared with the pennines or the cotswolds, but it's damn hilly compared to London.

From the original post:

This will be a gently-paced social ride that will wait for everybody and that will have plenty of piss-up refreshment stops at attractive boozers travellers' inns out in the countryside, starting with the estimable High Beech tea hut. OK, so that's not an inn, but I promise we'll hit some of those later on.

Well, it wasn't gently paced, we didn't wait for everybody, and one tea shack and one pub is not plenty of refreshment stops.