So, once again I took part in the London To Brighton this year. It is fair to say my training this year was ‘light’.<\/p>\n
I had done a grand total (since the start of the year) of five rides with the longest being 18 miles. Not exactly training!
\nMy training wasn’t helped with illness in the three weeks leading up to it as well… Never the less, time doesn’t stand still, the days rolled through and the big day arrived.<\/p>\n
It’s quite hard to explain what went on the day before the ride. I stay in a very handy Travelodge not far from the start on the night before. Did it this and last year and it was fine. This year I was due to meet up with other people but due to;
\nmonsoon rain,
\ntwo fairly heated arguments with London Underground staff,
\nan argument with someone who runs the station platform,
\none pub,
\ntwo taxis,
\nand an Italian meal whereby two people made profit for eating the food
\n…the evening was a bit of a mess.<\/p>\n
On the day if the ride the weather was kind and calm, the heavy rain gone and so I headed to the start line with my trusty Chris Boardman CompMX.
\nThe bike is in its second year and I have done about 500 miles on it. I will say how the bike was later.<\/p>\n
The melee at the start was pretty normal. Large crowds of people wanting to start before everyone else.
\nThis year we had a start time of 0630, which although is VERY early (wake up time was about 0430), it does make for a better day.
\nWe headed off and within a 1\/4 of a mile of starting we saw a puncture and a poor man on gas and air.<\/p>\n
Not a good start.<\/p>\n
After that we cycled through the busier London part of the ride. With the same congestion as we saw last year on the various high streets.
\nLeaving early avoided the terrible bus issue if last year. This year the busses hadn’t started so we weren’t dueling with vast double decker red busses.<\/p>\n
We trundled onwards with the weather being cloudy and cool and the ride felt some how smoother than last year.
\nWe hit a key milestone for us, which is a pub which sells burgers etc. It’s in the region of 12 ish miles. This year, the arrival of that check point was significantly quicker.
\nIt was noticeable that the flow of cyclists was better this year.<\/p>\n
We had our first stop and recharged out water bottles. Pace wasn’t the best and the hills were a bit if a pain, but it was all going rather well.<\/p>\n
The half way point arrived and we were quite obviously under Gatwick flight path. Unfortunately at this point we had lost a couple of people due to speed of cycling and a chain coming off and, I think, we had our one and only\u00a0 puncture by now as well…<\/p>\n
We managed to find our team mates who were only a couple of miles up the road. Amusingly our reference point was a plane coming into land. I was on the phone telling them the plane was landing right over head, and could they see it? Yes was there reply, with a guess we were behind them but not by much. Their guess was right…<\/p>\n
More to follow in my next post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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