Bike ride

[shermarama]

I keep failing to write this post but it's here now; the bike ride on Sunday went well. The organisation remained a bit shoddy but it more or less worked - the promised mechanic who was going to check bikes prior to setting off never showed up but everyone's bike seemed to be working anyway, apart from the organiser had a problem with her bike on the way there and only just arrived before the time we were all supposed to set off, and there were printed maps for everyone but the drawn-on route and the pasted-on description of it were diffferent.

I had thought we were going to be shepherded together into vague groups, too, but that proved not to be true apart from the groups people formed themselves. I got into a fast group right at the start by vaguely knowing the area and therefore knowing to believe the drawn route not the described route south to Sawston, viz, not going via Addenbrooke's. After that a lot of it was on my own, apart from having a nice chat to a bloke called Colin from Essex as we got lost (and the support car did too) in Ickleton, and being aware of the same handful of people around who I alternately caught and got left behind by depending on the terrain. I'm not a natural hill-climber, but with that 52-tooth front chain wheel I can go pretty fast down the other side. Oh, yeah, there were hills! Not huge ones, but quite distinct, down between Ickleton and Clavering. But they were all on lanes through bright green fields under bright blue skies with almost no traffic, almost more non-charity-riding other cyclists than cars, and some of the downhills were tremendous fun. It was a splendid ride as far as Ware, and if you want to try it sometime, as far as Clavering it's well-signposted as National Cycle Network Route 11. From Clavering it was a non-official route to get us to Ware, but the organisers had signposted and mapped that bit well so we made it but I wouldn't want to try it without a good map.

The route into London from Ware was down the Lee River navigation path, which sounds like a great idea because it's a route into central London with no cars on it and no hills. Unfortunately, this being a sunny Sunday, it was full of inattentive strolling pedestrians, small children and dogs running around and slow unpredictable occasional cyclists puttering along. The dogs caused one three-bike pile-up that I heard of, and then there was the other, day-independent problem with that path, which is that the good bits of it are packed earth with a coating of fine gravel and the bad bits of it are rutted, coarse gravel, badly deteriorated concrete or cobbles, which I know caused another tumble. I think I had very much the right bike for the ride. I overtook a bunch of proper road bikers in the vicinity of Waltham Abbey who were having to go quite gingerly on the gravel, where as I was only restricted by what speed I could keep up and how much vibration my hands could deal with. By the time I got back onto the roads at Stamford Hill I was somewhat knackered of leg but it was other parts that were really threatening to make me want to stop - the tingling hands from the vibration, the saddle that just needed to be a different shape. Re-entering the world of traffic lights, speed bumps and having to do constant stop-starts at traffic lights was a right pain by then too. I made it to SOAS in a weary way, though, and did the whole journey in six hours including a half hour or so lunch stop. The fastest rider had got in an hour and a quarter before, but I think I was still in the top ten. Not that it was in any way a race but going fast is quite satisfying, and beating road bikers home was also entertaining.

I don't know that I'd do that again. I don't think cycling that distance was a problem, but that towpath was a killer, and the last two fingers on each hand are still a bit numb and tingly. I'd happily do the bit as far as Ware again, though. Maybe I need to work out some different gloves or something. I even earnt the charity some money, so thank you to all that sponsored me. But that's enough long-distance cycling just for now.

Comments

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I have drop handlebars (hence multiple hand positions), gloves with actual leather palms, MarSAS bar foam (whose previous dismal Website has vanished, but it's a kind of shock absorbing foam). I don't like to ride more than 50k on flat bars, but since fitting the foam I've ridden 200s with no significant numbness - I used to expect trouble around 150k.