Etape Anglais

I'm off at 7.30 start I'll be on my Ron Cooper.
Cheers
Steve

bbc weather is total shit,
thats all i have to say about that

before I head off to Cornwall for the weekend just wanted to say good luck people (do you need luck?)
Have a great ride!

If you head towards Warlingham or Biggin Hill and then go East the B269 -B2024 takes you to Westerham, just before Westerham turn left onto the Pilgrims Way to Sundridge, cross the A25 go up to Ide Hill, [you have to climb it somewhere :)], drop down Ide Hill and bear left to Bough Beech reservoir, follow to Chiddingstone Causeway.

From there if you are early enough you can cross the route at Tonbridge or Hadlow but if not you will have to take the hillier route south around Tonbridge through Speldhurst and Royal Tunbridge Wells.

That way you mostly follow the ridges rather than going up and down them all, its not flat but nothing to serious, the climb up to Ide Hill is long and steady.

No problem, we will be at the Halfway House pub at Brenchley, West Kent CTC takeover, my mate is trying to sort out a sattelite and tv set up for the marquee so hopefully we can see the rest of the race as well.

Bike is clean. Now all I have to do is pack and work out how to get to the start.. 192k of soggy fun awaits.

It's early. I want to go back to bed.

I have 3 litres of water, 10 gels, 5 chewy things, waterproofs, wallet, keys and mobile. Oh, and the chip thing is fitted, and number attached. 2 spare tubes, 1 spare tyre, mini-pump, gas canisters. Everything needed for a long ride I think.

Damn, did I say it's early? It's early. I want to go back to bed.

1.5l isotonic, 2 gel, 2 powerbars, rain jacket and the rest except nasty gas cans. also bag of crap to change into at the end and map to get me to greenwich..

Weather wasn't too bad, was it?!?

Had a nightmare start. After 15 miles the drive side of my old skool cup and ball Campag BB decided to unscrew. Cue miles and miles of riding on the little ring and in a poncy gear as to not strain it too much, along with stopping every 10 minutes to get it finger tight again. Went to the SRAM mechanical assistance at the first feed stop to be told in a very rude manner "we only do SRAM". Wankers. So ambled the route to the next feed at Aylesford, and then when the route dived left at East Malling I went straight on as my house is a couple of miles up the road in Leybourne. 20 minutes of swearing later all was fixed, and I went back onto the route proper.

Anyway, enough of that, my actual time was 8hrs 27 mins, while ride time was 7hrs 22mins. 15.6mph average, max 39mph. I reckon I lost 20 mins on the road with the wonky BB and (obviously) another 20 mins fixing the fucking thing. My mate who I was with hit the wall in spectacular fashion between Tunbridge Wells and Goudhurst so also I lost a bit of time there. Anyway, remember, it's not a race!!

I saw loads of fixies, all I can do is tip my hat and say chapeau!

PS I took only one pic (with my phone), this of my mate getting stuck into a Chicken pie at the feed stop in Tenterden!

He also had a burger at Aldington!

Weather was all over the place for me. Rained on and off for four hours then windy.

My bloody crank played up too. Campag ergo power outboard bearings and there is a hex bolt in the axle to tighten the cranks against the bearings. Undid itself so it was a begging mission at the first ffed station for a long 10mm hex key. Ended up tightening it at every stop.

Anyway. I did it in 8.09. Without all the faffing around and trying not to mash the cranks too much it would have been around the 7.30 mark.

Good day all in though.

5h46 according to my computer...don't know official time....second hardest ride of my life...the cold triple espresso with five sugars which I had in a mini bottle in my pocket and gulped down with 30 to go helped though.......my front mech came loosish and was rubbing on the big ring....I couldn't work out what the noise was, so just ignored it....worked it out when I got home....feeling pretty rough now........I think I enjoyed it!

just got my official time by text...5:49:39

After a dodgy start to the day, oversleeping and a puncture just outside Greenwich park, the day got better.

I was late for my 7.30 start but managed to get away about 7.45 and stayed with the groups doing my kind of speed until any hill seperated us as their carbon bling just floated up them
The faeries were busy today it seemed that for the whole day people were changing tubes at the roadside and I heard the guy at the first feed control that they had run out of tubes to sell

The rain showers were heavy but fairly short and as it was warm we dried out quickly. and I probably only had them on twice for thirty minutes a time.

That downhill bit at Pembury was a bit of a thigh burner

I wanted to do a good time I am usually around 10-11 hours for a 200km ride and I hardly stopped at controls only to fill my bottles and grab malt loaf, so I was well chuffed to finish in an official time of 8:14:11 :D a great day.

I spotted at least four other fixies any from on here?

now where is that Malt Loaf mountain? they must have loads left over.

winston just got my official time by text...5:49:39

Fast fscker!

Fixedwheelnut After a dodgy start to the day, oversleeping and a puncture just outside Greenwich park, the day got better.
I was late for my 7.30 start but managed to get away about 7.45 and stayed with the groups doing my kind of speed until any hill seperated us as their carbon bling just floated up them
The faeries were busy today it seemed that for the whole day people were changing tubes at the roadside and I heard the guy at the first feed control that they had run out of tubes to sell

I started at 7.45am too. Funny you should mention that because I didn't see you but I did ask ChrisO (I think) if he was Fixedwheelnut - right near the end.
He had a yellow Roberts with guards and stuff and was MOTORING! THought it might be you. He knows you from ACF apparently.

hippy [

I started at 7.45am too. Funny you should mention that because I didn't see you but I did ask ChrisO (I think) if he was Fixedwheelnut - right near the end.
He had a yellow Roberts with guards and stuff and was MOTORING! THought it might be you. He knows you from ACF apparently.

yeah he said someone from here asked him.
I had my london edinburgh london top on

I don't know what they look like sorry. I met one other guy I know (well, met once) Louis, riding with his brother.
Found a bunch of Willesden riders with numbers around 400 - WTF didn't I ride with them?!?! Doh!

Came in a shade under 9 hours - 8 hours of riding.

Went off way to fast trying to keep up with a mate of mine and his full carbon geared bike. As a result felt quite crap around 30 miles and started to have some doubts. However, a mountain of malt loaf a couple of gels and two bottles of energy drink perked me up and I felt pretty good after that.

Fixed Wheel Nut - I saw you, we spoke briefly coming up the second cat 4 hill. I was riding the blue Pomp.

Malt loaf - never want to see the stuff ever again

winston just got my official time by text...5:49:39

Impressive. That's a serious time there, and not too far outside of what the pro's will be doing.

My official time was 7hrs 58mins.

I don't feel too bad with that at all. The rain at 6am was torrential and pretty much on par with the Southend ride. I stopped 3 times for food, stretches, and piss. Maintained one guy's bike. And then came the winds in the early afternoon.

I think my stops come to about 45 or 50 mins in total, which gives me just over 7 hrs 10 mins for the actual ride.

The rain was horrendous. Anyone who missed it, you're lucky bastards.

I started at about 6.10....we had plenty of showers but nothing "torrential"....it must have been chasing us, so maybe there was an advantage to the early start?

Full rankings are up on the everydaycycling.com website in excel format.

They say 'provisional' results...I hope they are because I'm not on there and I know I was at the finish.

winston I started at about 6.10....we had plenty of showers but nothing "torrential"....it must have been chasing us, so maybe there was an advantage to the early start?

Full rankings are up on the everydaycycling.com website in excel format.

Just saw that you are ranked 51! WOW.

I maintain my perfect averageness with a rank of 2,228. At least my enthusiasm knows no bounds :)

We had spitting rain off the start line, and then it started coming down before we were beyond Plumbstead. It was bad enough to get through light waterproofs that me mates were wearing, and also bad enough to give us soggy feet from almost the outset. Worse than what was coming down was what was coming up... did no-one consider a rear race-blade fender at all? Seems not.

And I just knew that the London Dynamo's weren't going to go at a realistic pace. They left the line and hit around 27/28mph and sustained it for ages. I tried hanging on but they dropped me pretty early on, and I did most of the ride alone and just catching pulses of other groups charging by.

Bloody Dynamo's though... 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, 20, 23, 24, 31, 32, 33. There was no way on earth I was going to hang onto that blue train. At least I wasn't the slowest in the club :)

I had a Decathlon 5 quid clip on rear mudguard.....why not? they don't weigh anything and I had a dry arse all the way......

Full respect to those that did this fixed.

Met a guy around 65 miles on a langster who looked incredibly fresh whilst i was begining to tire.

Saw a crash in front of me which was true tour peleton style resulting in a smashed face, a wonky arm and a lot of bruised ego's.

Did anyone get the busses back. I feared for my bike as i handed it to the guy to go in the back of the lorry. Got it back in one peice to which was a bonus.