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DAS ed someone on a silvery blue (I think) bike going past sutcliff park toward eltham at about 7 ish this evening. They did ignoring, I was sad...

London looked more than nice today - having loitered for 20 plus years I get jaded on occasion, but today I had a real sense of pride and excitement about living here... Riding this route with such interesting, cool people made me appreciate that we all make up and share in something pretty bloody special.

Also, Mini-Benj seems to have developed an unhealthy interest in cobbles after today - I somewhat worriedly anticipate a Paris-Roubaix sportive for us in the none-too-distant...

Thanks to hms for being masterful with the twists and turns of the route today and guiding us round without incident.

Big, big thanks to the organisers and all the people who made today possible.
Ben

Will be rolling around geared with Mrs hms from around 10 onwards on a white/red/grey Cinelli (me) and a bare aluminium with orange tyres (her).
Say hi if you are a late starter and overtake us!

I, Mrs benj and Mini Benj will be rolling with hms and Mrs hms.

I'll be on a yellow Colnago Master Olympic, Mini on a red Isla bike and Mrs on a Crabon Trek.

Looking forward to it!

^^ Jim, you seem to specialise in rides with saw tooth profiles!

I think we've passed each other in Essex a few times with Wrongcog and Bigpaintbrush. Let me know if you fancy hooking up with me and HMS for a Surrey/Kent loop some time. Looks like you've got some good routes.
Ben

^ Nice looking route! I fancy a go on that...
Chapeau.

It was chilly, but it wasn't unbearable. Such a lovely route. Nearly threw my toys out of the pram when I got a puncture though. Not sure I've ever ridden a sportive without getting one. Particularly annoying because I was with a group of seriously zippy riders. However, I was massively cheered to see the laughing faces of Wrongcog and Bigpaintbrush hove into view.
3 hours 45 mins moving time for the long course - which was quicker than last year.

@ wrongcog and bigpaintbrush. Don't either of you dare lose your cycling mojo. If the bromance that is our weekend jaunts on the bike comes to an end, my life'll be greatly impoverished. Wrongcog, I couldn't care less about being slowed down - which isn't the case anyway, and BPB, I'll happily push your lardy ass any time your bike has a hissy fit.

Was that the road out of Theydon toward Abridge? We had to stop for a second to pick up a dropped water bottle. I nodded to someone coming down toward Theydon. You're right though, very few people out in the lanes. Hello again if it was you!

75 miles of Essexiness with Bigpaintbrush and hms this morning. We felt pretty smug sitting outside the High Beech tea hut to be the only cyclists braving the snow and stuffing themselves with cake. I was roundly mocked for my second expensive winter glove fail - £75 down and still suffering from numb fingers. Fortunately, hms lent me his Ski-Dubai uber-gloves so I could regain enough sensation to change gears (the horror...) and brake.

The roads were mostly fine, but there was an occasional sheet of ice, so we were fairly cautious, although hms's monster tyres gave off an air of invincibility in any event. The sun almost came out for a brief interlude, and I got a very subtle, but nonetheless palpable, sense of the season starting the shift into spring - bring it.

Excellent company, as always, who were lucky enough to be regaled with scintillating tales of fishing derring-do from my misspent youth, and who in-no-way took the piss when I spread my arms out wide to earnestly describe the enormity of a salmon I'd once caught. The only thing missing was the company of Wrongcog, who was doing something called "moving house", which apparently interferes with a persons ability to go bike riding. Missed your shapely legs and dewy beard mister!

Hopefully it'll be a little warmer and drier than last year. Looking forward to it!

You abandoned a guy bleeding from his face on the road, only to trick a driver into overtaking at a dangerous spot, and then abandoning them after a crash, too?

:o

That's only the tip of the iceberg, I also ran over an elderly gent while rlj-ing. I taunted a group of vulnerable single parents as I rode past them, I spat on a goat and insulted a traffic warden till she puked. All that adrenaline from riding makes me heartless and evil.

(for the record the van went into the hedge at less than walking pace, and then drove off. I had stopped on the side of the road to let him pass as I didn't fancy being overtaken given the road conditions. My injured cycling buddy was fine, and turned down my offer of riding home with him)

My weekend rides included the following awesome winter moments:

Meeting up, and riding with, a stranger on the way out to Surrey and having an excellent conversation until he lost it on an icy corner and acquired an awesome, dripping in blood, soon to be permanent, facial scar. Me carrying on until waving a van past which hit ice and went into the hedge 100 meters up the road - at which point I turned round and headed back toward the muggy metropolis. Gingerly riding down Layham's slower than I've ever done before.

Catching my son's puke in a casserole dish after he trained too hard at the VCL youth turbo training session (that and he'd got my stomach bug).

Having a family hug on the Thames path in a desperate attempt to defrost during a misguided bike outing on Saturday morning, which ended with us rushing into the design museum to use their loos after the tummy bug re-asserted its grip on our lower intestines. (tried to take the bikes inside due to bike-lock-not-bringing-fail, met with security guard death stares)

Existential crisis while doing hill reps at 7.30 on Saturday evening in sub-zero temperatures, in the rain and getting a puncture. Who am I? Why am I here? But mostly, why the fuck aren't I at home drinking a gin and tonic?

All in all a peach of a weekend.

^sometimes even when I'm cycling in the cold.

I borrow my wife's tights

^^ That's insanely fast running - equivalent of three 19minute 5km runs in a row. My fastest ever 5k is 18.40 and I was specifically training for that and felt a bit faint afterwards. Chapeau!

^^I'm beginning to think that we might need to get Wrongcog a doping test - man's getting too quick!

I didn't realise we were registering mini-mes, I'd better amend the list.
Sorry for the inadvertent removal of hoke. Copypastefail!

1. doppelkorn
   
2. mands
   
3. JAH tim
   
4. smiff
   
5. Jings
   
6. jb000
   
7. Hefty
   
8. rwn
   
9. poots
   
10. Jurek
    
11. Ramaye
    
12. Zebs
    12+1. villa-ru
    
13. Kim the Dane (not on here, but looks like he is)
    
14. Cafewanda
    
15. Digger
    
16. Lady Digger
    
17. Moserism - hope to meet some of you before hand - give me some faces to look out for!
    
18. bothwell
    
19. hats
    
20. Branwen & possible +1
    
21. GarethHon with daughter as stoker, &possible +1
    
22. Sirf
    
23. Sergeant Pluck
    
24. Andrew - same as 18, hope to meet some people before hand, say hi if you see me.
    
25. Catydid - tandem
    
26. Steves - tandem (not sure about Canonbie though!)
    
27. dst
    
28. Lynch
    
29. hms
    
30. Ludd
    
31. Oliver Schick
    
32. jonny
    
33. benj
    34.5 mini-benj
    
34. fussballclub
    
35. diapo
    
36. Skully
    
37. Mini Skully
    
    

Is mini skully flying solo, or will he be attached via the dave Yates contraption?

1. doppelkorn
   
2. mands
   
3. JAH tim
   
4. smiff
   
5. Jings
   
6. jb000
   
7. Hefty
   
8. rwn
   
9. poots
   
10. Jurek
    
11. Ramaye
    
12. Zebs
    12+1. villa-ru
    
13. Kim the Dane (not on here, but looks like he is)
    
14. Cafewanda
    
15. Digger
    
16. Lady Digger
    
17. Moserism - hope to meet some of you before hand - give me some faces to look out for!
    
18. bothwell
    
19. hats
    
20. Branwen & possible +1
    
21. GarethHon with daughter as stoker, &possible +1
    
22. Sirf
    
23. Sergeant Pluck
    
24. Andrew - same as 18, hope to meet some people before hand, say hi if you see me.
    
25. Catydid - tandem
    
26. Steves - tandem (not sure about Canonbie though!)
    
27. dst
    
28. Lynch
    
29. hms
    
30. Ludd
    
31. Oliver Schick
    
32. jonny
    
33. benj
    

^ exactly where I nearly got had out yesterday - though not by a 4by4, but by a middle aged lady in a Ford Focus not prepared to wait 2 seconds at a pinch point and nearly barging me into a parked car. Stay classy mrs.

I come in from Bexley to Liverpool Street, that hill along with the short sharp hills as you come up to Bexley Village and through the other side (Vicarage Road / Dartford Road) can be a killer...i.e last night with a force 9 in your face

I rode that route yesterday in the wind. 'Twas grim. The combination of the weather and the soul-sucking grimness of Blackfen town centre made my spirits wither. People drive differently there too. I get the feeling bikes don't make up a very large chunk of the road demographic thereabouts. Still, long old commute you've got - easy way to get some miles in yer legs!

I would put that at my door, I only cycle in on Mon / Wed & Fri, and meetings have dictated that I am travelling in any time between 6am and 7:30am

I did notice though that your Strava Time up the hill is awsome....1:59 @ 19.7mph, about 20secs faster than me....

I quite often cycle up/down eltham hill, but never spot anyone on a bike let alone a fixed gear. I don't often ride at commuting time though.

Was KOM on the hill for ages till some monster averaged 25 mph up there. Howisthatevenpossible?

Really enjoyed the 100 climbs blog. Will miss reading it.

^ I should have said Hi, but given that I was without a bike and have only met you once (when I tried and failed to keep up with you and 6pt at the ROFL) you'd have been bemused and confused.

Still, pleased to have made a genuine spot - and yes - it was a boss trackstand!

Took a short-cut around the Elephant with WrongCog after spotting him on the OKR.

Also, a guy on a black Felt track bike with flat (riser?) bars doing a boss trackstand at the lights on Kennington Road at lunchtime - looked a bit like Skinny...

^ that walkers sign is quite vulnerable to a spot of immature horseplay involving a marker pen...