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Ah, now I remember, it was the Comet roundabout. See these links ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/photoblog/2009/09/recession_road_the_comet.html

which would suggest when I was TT'ing there, the cafe was in fact the Comet Hotel.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/209699

which is I guess how it looks now.

Bruce

I was a member of the Paddington Cycling Club in about 1974-1977. I was 13 when I joined. I met John Austin because he worked for the ILEA (Inner London Education Authority) as a sports instructor and through school, I went to race at the track. After the first session there, John said I should join the club. I raced track at Paddington and road races as a schoolboy and Junior at Eastway. I did the winter circuit training with the club, but had a girlfriend that lived nearby and so it was a bit of a toss up between circuit training and goin to the gym.

I did one of the club TTs up on the A1, a 10 mile TT starting just near a roundabout (which I think was called the rocket roundabout or something to do with aircraft ... there was a cafe or something right on the roundabout with an aircraft on the roof). I did loads of clubruns from Kingsbury circle.

I thought Tony Gowland was in the club, but maybe he just raced at the track. He's listed in wikipedia and was a pretty big pro., but it says nothing about him being a member of Paddington, so maybe I was wrong about that. He was pretty good friends with John though. There was a race I went to help marshall at with my Dad out near Beaconsfield, a road race, that the club helped promote.

I remember the club jersey was red, white and blue, I don't remember the order of the colours, but I have an old picture of me in it, someplace. If others are interested, I'll post it.

I lived in Shepherds Bush and John Austin made me ride up one of the hills on the A40 to wear marks onto my new shoes (bought from JD Whiskers), he then screwed and glued the cleats on for me. My understanding was that the club disbanded because John moved to North Wales to retire.

Bruce