2011-08-13 - 1948 London Olympic Ride

Hope it's a great day. Mini skully is 7 today, so I'm otherwise engaged.

Home now. That was awesome. Lovely ride, lovely route, lovely people.
Had to leave when I found out the train was in 10 minutes, got home to get a text message saying "we're going to be home at 4..."
I could have stayed and had a beer.

We are still here, leaving in about ten - corny has a flat.

oh no oh no again- i could have just about made it! didn't see this post til just now. shit shit shit
However, I had a lovely lie-in and have done lost of gardening and learnt a lot about headsets and vernier gauges.

Thanks very much all crew, and andy for leading, for an excellent ride. Had to bail a few miles from the end as my mate couldn't keep up.
Downhill mountainbikers.

Wicked ride!
Thanks Andy, and all who waited for me to catch up every now and then. Good meeting new folk and chatting to old folk.
Windsor Park is beautiful...something nice out west apart from hammersmith then

Lovely ride indeed: great people, great route, great weather, great beer.

Thanks Andy!

Overslept. Arse.

Fun ride, thanks for leading. Particularly enjoyed the sprint around Windsor Park and the ensuing views of Windsor Castle.

The "slow paced" ride back with smiff, jaygee and two others whose names I've forgotten (apologies) was also awesome, although I probably coughed up a lung keeping up!

Worst part was £3.80 for orange and lemonade

Windsor Park was out of this world

Ha! Matt and I look fucking cool. It must be the branding.

Great ride. Thanks Andy, good to do a long ride after so long.

Jenny - my folks B&B in the lake district:
www.greenacres-lindale.co.uk

^ so IN for award winning breakfast next time I'm oop north.

Loverley ride, y'all. Enjoyed each and every minute. Briefly flummoxed by the gates in the park. Other than that, stress-free.

Major thanks to AndyP.

And the rest of yas

Love each and every one of you. Really. And will still do so in the morning.

The "slow paced" ride back with smiff, jaygee and **two others **whose names I've forgotten (apologies) was also awesome, although I probably coughed up a lung keeping up!

V and Dov IIRC

oh no oh no again- i could have just about made it! didn't see this post til just now. shit shit shit
However, I had a lovely lie-in and have done lost of gardening and learnt a lot about headsets and vernier gauges.

pity, we weren't at all prompt leaving HH. but sounds like you made the most of missing it!

Lovely ride indeed: great people, great route, great weather, great beer.

Thanks Andy!

all of this. really good ride, cheers Andy

congrats to Jonny for his gold medal, a fantastic achievement to add to his no-doubt stellar palmares

Thanks Andy!

yeah top ride. thanks andy p and all the other riders.

enjoyed the ride back with v, dov, jaygee and amygdala who was kept up with us gearies on fixed. some nice fast sections too. not quite as slow as advertised :-)

whoops! forgot about this ride! went to oxford instead...glad to hear it was great for everyone...

ok who won?

ok who won?

Some old tramp on a recently-looted pub bike. It was quite a sight.
; )

hahahaha!

To echo much of the above, excellent ride, lovely people, and thanks to Andy for organising and leading it!

Firstly, big thanks to Andy for putting together a nice little saturday morning race. Sweet roads saw us through suburbia in no time.

Secondly, massive thanks to shoots for the awesome 3k lead out. The gold was never in doubt once we perfectly timed our jump from the pack.

Damo and diapo did their bit to keep the tempo high in the pack. So high in fact a couple of racers were swept up by the broom wagon with 6k to go.

Shoots and I conserved our energy at the back to the peloton, waiting for our moment to come - at the entrance to Windsor Great Park - with just 3k to go.

The bunch were caught napping as Shoots and I went down the right hand side and started to pick up the pace.

Who was gonna get organised for the chase - who had the legs? Smiff, Velocio, Wiesa, perhaps One Less Cardigan, Jenny J or Cornelius still had something left to give?

We were a good 50 metres off the front before the CS Grupetto fastmen got their game together, and Senor Bear and Jaygee gave chase.

Shoots took it up to top cruising speed and effortlessly maintained it whilst I just followed that rear wheel, which span beautifully courtesy of one of our sponsors - thanks Royce.

Senor Bear and Jaygee were slowly catching though, showing plenty of Big Ring Attitude.

Fortunately for us they had not figured on short third category climb at the 1k to go mark and that allowed for a little reprieve as Shoots rose effortlessly up it with me still glued to his wheel.

But what's this, someone has come across - senor Bear (aka Dovvles) was on my wheel. Jaygee had done all the work for Dov and now he might be there to take the win - I believe that might be a first for a Grupetto rider. It wasn't to be.

Of course, I had not done any work at this point due to the effort of Renshoots. With the line 80 metres on I went for the sprint - turning my 67 GI at 180 rpm the victory was always going to be mine.

A quick look at the shoulders at the 20 metre mark and the distinctive black and blue of the Grupetto was gaining fast on my shoulder. Epic comeback from Jaygee. But too little too late. I zipped up my shirt to give my other sponsors maximum exposure and raised my hands up in Victory as we passed the white gate.

Quite simply ls & gs, this was bike racing at it's beautiful best.

epic race. could've been a different story if smiff's attempts at a breakaway earlier on had escaped the pack, but every time Groupe Smiff put some open road between themselves and the peleton, they'd miss a turning!

^^ Pure GOLD!
Because nobody remembers who came 2nd.

^^^
Great account. Though I like to think that if Smiff and I had actually got our act together and worked together, rather than against each other, it could have worked out differently.
#whatcouldhavebeen