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CENTRAL LONDON SIGHTSEER This time last week, we had no ride booked. It looked set to be the
first weekend in the history of the club with no ride. Fortunately, 5
of our ride leaders rose to the challenge with the honours going to
the first two to offer their services, both with similar ideas for the
route. With just 4 days to go, the finalised route was posted to the
PHC e-list and sent out to the LCC Rider list. What a pleasant
surprise then to find 18 last-minute riders at the library for the
start.
A sightseeing ride of Central London is something that has been talked
about before. It's really not very far and there are a couple of nice
routes to get there. This ride used the Waterlink Way to Greenwich
which is always popular. The challenging spiral ramp over the railway
at Ladywell Fields saw a 'refusal at the first' for the second rider
which had a domino effect of the rest of the pack. You need a good run
up in first gear to get over it!
The unreliable cafe at the other end of the bridge was closed which
meant pushing on to Greenwich for a morning stop. That's a decent 13
miles of cycling before everyone piled into the Wetherspoons for a
coffee. After a quick group discussion, it was decided that despite
being behind schedule, it was preferable to stick with the quieter but
longer riverside route. It's so well signed that the leaders didn't
need their maps.
Crossing Tower Bridge is a first for a PHC ride. Then the sights began
to stack up quickly. Turning left at the Tower of London and past the
Monument, London's cheapest tourist attraction, and onto Poultry where
the ASL box at the head of the junction wasn't large enough to
accommodate 18 cyclists at once.
Next up was St. Paul's Cathedral and then direct to lunch at a
different Wetherspoons pub to the advertised one, Peverall's Oak in
High Holborn. The leader thought the original choice of the Lord Moon
of the Mall might be too crowded with tourists, as it is at the top of
Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, so he'd checked on the Wetherspoons
website the previous night, found their City pubs weren't open at the
weekend, but the Peverall's Oak is in No Man's Land between the City
and the West End, IS open on Sundays, and thought it might be quieter.
Good move, as it turned out. We didn't get there until about 1:30pm,
but it's a double-fronted pub with railings across the front for
locking bikes to and we found a whole corner with about 5 free tables
(necessary for 18 people). Cheap drinks, cheap food (although the
standard Wetherspoons menu meant we could have picked what we wanted
to order at the earlier one in Greenwich!), and no problem eating your
own food.
A couple of busier roads were necessary on the afternoon stretch but
no problem with a group of experienced riders. We headed along High
Holborn, Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road to go through
Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall, round Parliament Square and along
Birdcage Walk to Buckingham Palace. The it was straight on past
Victoria station and over Chelsea Bridge to Battersea Park where we
switched leaders.
Plough Road started the return south towards Clapham Common where the
original leader dropped out due to a mechanical failure (and the
report ends). I assume the ride went over the Common and back to
Streatham Vale along LCN5 via Tooting Common as that's the most
logical quiet route to Pollards Hill.
Well done to everyone who offered to help. Report relayed (in much
greater detail than published here!) by Jim B. No pix but everybody
knows what Buckingham Palace looks like.....
Sunday 18th March OUTWOOD Today was our first ever joint ride with the Anerley Bicycle Club.
These days they start their rides in South Croydon (rather than
Crystal Palace as their name suggests) and often tend to cycle for up
to 50 miles, so the only way we could feasibly join up without
altering the PHC formula was to catch a train to give us a headstart.
Unfortunately, that meant meeting an hour early at 8:30am so it was
just 3 of us on the train to Oxted.
Originally, we had planned to alight at Hurst Green but the cyclists'
Sunday nightmare - the replacement bus service - put paid to that.
Fortunately, Oxted is only 2 miles shy of Hurst Green.
The roads around here are rural lanes but they're wide with 40 or
50mph speed limits. That means cars can pass reasonably easy leaving
you to concentrate on the scenery. There's very little traffic as most
of it use the fast A22. We criss-crossed our way down towards to huge
Mormon Temple and then into the nursery at Newchapel that hides
Gullivers, a greasy spoon cafe in a wooden shack.
The Anerley riders turned up just after 11am. 9 of them plus a PHC
regular going for the extra miles. They ride very slightly quicker
than we do but they still wait at the top of hills so it was
reasonably easy to keep the pace going. It's great to join with other
clubs as you get all kinds of tips on new cafes to stop at and places
of interest. We'll be trying a few of these in the near future.
Another source of knowledge is the Anerley's resident windmill expert.
Subsequently, we got an interesting and informative talk when we
pulled up outside the Outwood postmill. It's open in the summer so
well worth a visit.
Lunch was at the Dog and Duck. I recognised it from the London to
Brighton charity ride route. Not too many Mothering Day diners so no
problem with ordering food although a limited choice for veggies. We'd
feared they'd be overcrowded and so most had brought sandwiches or
stocked up at the cafe. The weather was nice enough to sit outside.
The return along the Prince of Wales road is a steady climb, one of
which brings you disconcertingly to eye-level with the M25 motorway
before the road dives down underneath the bridge. We decided not to
bother going back to Oxted and opted to cut the miles and continue
straight on to Merstham station. We passed the Inn On The Pond pub on
NCN21 and the Mercers Country Park, fighting a strong headwind and
braving a 3 minute hailstorm before we arrived at the station, just in
time for a train back to Croydon. 22 miles. Out for 6hrs (plus train travel) See some photos from today on Flickr
Sunday 11th March MERTON CYCLE QUEST It was a fine sunny morning for sampling some of the best landmarks
that Merton has to offer. 15 riders had taken advantage of an extra
hour in bed to be at Pollards Hill Library for 10.30. There are 10
clues in the Quest and the ride set off across Figges Marsh and
alongside the Wandle, towards Wimbledon Park, to wrestle with the
first. Here, our youngest rider took up the mantle of chief clue
solver, with the help of his uncle, while the rest of the ride stopped
for tea at the basic but busy cafe near the tennis courts. Here I had
my worst fears realised, I was wearing the obligatory backmarkers
jacket - which I had expressed some disquiet about wearing beforehand,
and in the cafe the woman behind the counter asked, "are you working
today?"
Suitably replenished the ride perused the first clue, before venturing
into the hills past the famous tennis courts of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis
Club. Here we were greeted by the serene presence of the Buddist
Temple, and the riders took a look around as they got their breath
back and noted clue number 2. The next two clues were on Wimbledon
Common and Cannazaro Park respectively. By this time our young
clue-solver was well into his stride, putting the adults to shame with
his ability to grasp the obtuse nature of the questions.
After such a strenuous morning the Crooked Billet, just on from
Cannazaro Park, provided our welcome lunch stop. It was over her
portion of goats cheese in filo pastry that the leader devised her
cunning plan to check out the motivation for the day's event. We moved
directly on to clue number six - thus missing out number five to be
solved later by those who wished to finish the Quest. This took us
south of Wimbledon and within sight of the finish. Clue seven took us
to a crowded Abbey Mills. We went off road to Deen City Farm (as we
had been most of the day) hunting for clue eight.
Still venturing south we arrived at Morden Hall Park for tea (for some
of us at least), then is was on to the Heritage centre for clue
nine. It was here that the leader demanded that the group did a lap of
the small lake in front of the old house, the group obeyed this rather
eccentric request almost without question.
After lunch the size of the group gradually began to deplete, and by
the time we got to the Windmill on Mitcham Common - the last clue - we
were down to five. Report by Philip. No photos today.
Click here for ride reports from 2008
Click here for ride reports from 2007
Click here for ride reports from 2006
Click here for ride reports from 2005