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The cull was still going on on Wednesday although it should be done by the week after.
They start closing the gates at 8pm although there's only one set of blokes doing it so it takes them a while to get round to all 7 gates. They have to flag down and stop anyone they see and tell them to get out.
I think they start at Richmond Gate at 8pm (or maybe Ham) and go clockwise.
The other week I started my third lap passing Roehampton Gate at about 8.05pm (I'd forgotten about the cull). 5 minutes later someone coming down Sawyer's Hill stopped and asked me about the gates saying that Richmond Gate was locked. I didn't see the blokes in the landrover so I assume they were off locking up Sheen Gate.
I carried on round my lap and bumped in to them at the top of Bastard Hill (thankfully not at the bottom). They told me to turn around and go out of Kingston gate. I followed them to Ladderstile gate and went out just before they locked it.
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Biffa have a depot at Ugley on the B1383 just south of the turn off for Ugley.
One of the cycling clubs located at the Huts (on North Hall Road between Ugley and Elsenham) do a ride from Ugley to Nasty (in Herts, just north of Great Munden) and back.
There are a load of Audaxes starting at the Ugley club huts over the next 2 weekends. From 50km to 200km, all easily doable on fixed. Plus another 200 starting in Haslingfield on the 22nd which is a bit hillier. Go to www.audax.uk.net and look at the calendar.
A few Audaxes will also be good preperation if you're thinking of doing any long rides.
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Thread hijack... anyone got a favourite route from London (I'll be starting from Lewisham) to Tunbridge Wells? Considering doing this one
but it looks a bit hilly and I really want to do it fixed (48/16 :D)
Maybe I'll just go down the A20 again.
I did this last year: [ame]http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/158182[/ame
[/ame] on the way to Bethersden in Kent.
Reasonable climb up from Croydon past Sanderstead up to Warlingham. Screaming descent down Titsey Hill. Lumpy through Crockham Hill, Four Elms, Penshurst and Bidborough.
Fine on 46x17 but it did have 200km in my legs already, plus another 300km to do once I got to Bethersden as it was a 600km DIY Audax. ;)
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yeah the A232-A24-A246 wouldn't be that bad... I've done the route on the weekend from Addiscombe (not far from you) down to dorking then back past redhill and up biggin hill.
so I don't know the route on the 246 though
The -A24-A246 bits are fine. Main roads obviously but good for just getting the miles done. I used this route to go to Guildford (from Putney) a few times last year to visit my sister. There's a bit of a hill up from Leatherhead up to the A246 otherwise it is nicely undulating for fixed.
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LEL is full already, and has been for some time. There's a waiting list you can add your name to (see the contact details for the event on the Audax UK website) and places should start to become available soon as people who paid a deposit are due to pay the balance in the next couple of weeks and I'm sure some people will be dropping out. However, there are no guarantees. I've paid for my place in full and know I'm in. :)
If you're serious about doing LEL this year you should think about doing an SR series before July, that's a 200, 300, 400 and a 600 km ride. It's not a requirement for LEL (unlike PBP where you have to do an SR within certain timescales) but if you haven't done an SR then you're going to find LEL a lot harder than anyone that has. Fixed or geared, doesn't really matter.
If you're not thinking of doing it this year, or planning on PBP in 2011 then start as soon as possible. If only to find out whether you really like it or not. I'm relatively new to this Audax lark (my first one was in late 2006) and I've still got a lot to learn and every ride I've done in the last 2 years (even 100km rides) has taught me something new about myself (limitations both mental and physical, nutrition, hydration, mental fortitude or lack thereof, etc).
There are plenty of stronger riders, and plenty of stronger fixed riders than me (Audax UK is full of them, and they're astonishingly modest), but I'm building up confidence as I've done several long relatively hilly rides on fixed and bizarrely want to do more.
67" will hopefully get me round the Elenith (4727m climbing in 300km) and the Bryan Chapman (8300m climbing in 600km) this year although I'll expect to walk a few bits of the former ride like the Devil's Staircase (a mile of steepness up to 25%).
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67" (46x18) for LEL. I may take the 17T Miche sprocket (for a 71" gear) for the first 500km as it's reasonably flat. I did Putney to Thorne in October on 67" and could have gone faster with a longer gear.
I'll have a better idea in a month as I'm doing London to Edinburgh in 3 days to familiarise myself with the LEL route (day 1 is 330km from Putney to Thorne, day 2 is 200km to Alston via Coxwold, Middleton Tyas and Yad Moss, and then day 3 to Edinburgh via Canonbie, Innerleithen and Dalkeith). If the weather is shit on the 15th-17th of March then it's all my fault.
Will be going for PBP in 2011. Longest ride so far is only 630km so LEL will be the first proper long one. Plenty of other 1200km rides too (Madrid-Gijon-Madrid, Boston-Montreal-Boston, Great Southern Randonee, Rocky Monutain, Gold Rush Randonee, etc)
On the other hand I might just stand around five miles out of Lea Valley and shout HTFU at riders coming back in.
Please do! The little hills south of Brickendon would be the perfect place for it too.
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Will be riding there and back from Putney to make it into a DIY 400km Audax (although I may have to start in Weybridge or Dorking to get it over 400km).
It'll be by last long ride (and good sleep dep training) before the 1400km London-Edinburgh-London Audax later on in July.
Will be using a 67" gear to get my legs spinning a bit more otherwise I'd use my normal Audax gear of 46x17 (71") or even 48x17 (74") as there's not much in the way of hills.
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fraudax. Is that for Audax style but with out the 400 km ride over one day, so we'll just go out for a few hours and find a pub on top of a hill and drink bitter. The ultimate accessory will be someone with a hub dynamo. Someone on here must have one.
http://www.greenbank.org/bikes/tempo/tempo6.jpg
Condor Tempo (46x17)
Full SKS 'guards.
Brook Swallow.
Carradice Barley
SON dynohub + Solidlights 1203D light
Aero bars.
Zefal HPX pump.
[FONT=Trebuchet MS]Sadly I don't qualify on the fraud front as I actually do Audaxes. This setup has done an SR series this year along with lots of other Audaxes.[/FONT]
Either cycle, or get the train out to Box Hill & Westhumble station and do this:-
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/167493
Either finish back at BH&W or Dorking stations, or HTFU and cycle home via Box Hill, Epsom, West Ewell, etc (with Dark Hill in RP thrown in for fun).
Various sections of that ride will get you spinning. Various points will have you grinding to a standstill too.