Lanes and Fens ride: 100km around Cambridge

Yesterday we took advantage of the still-lovely Autumn weather on a delightful 100km ride around the Cambridge area, organised by Alberto's colleage Becs via the cyclechat forum. I was excited to join a forum ride--Alberto has been on several but they're usually at a pace and distance that is just a little out of my reach. Becs organised this ride specifically as a social ride that would accommodate all paces.

The route of the day as uploaded by Luke

Several of us met up at King's Cross to catch the 9:15 train to Cambridge. It was lovely to be able to sleep in a bit compared to our usual start times! We then met up with the rest of the crew at Cambridge and began our cycle out to the countryside. It was a beautiful day and, once we were out of Cambridge, the roads were surprisingly quiet and the cars were surprisingly respectful! One of the many benefits of cycling in groups I suppose! It was nice to be out in the Cambridge area again as it has been a while.

It is always nice to cycle with others and I thought the group yesterday was especially friendly. There were many interesting chats with interesting people, which made the miles fly by and the ride so much more enjoyable.

Alberto chatting away (pic courtesy of Dave)

Caught laughing at something (pic courtesy of Dave)

We had an early pub stop at Withersfield which had great food and reasonable prices. It was nice to be able to stop for a proper meal as we almost never do that on our rides these days!

Outside the pub stop - Alberto and I are in the centre in yellow (pic courtesy of Dave)

After lunch, we continued on for a while and then a small group turned off to head back to Cambridge via a more direct route. The rest of us headed across the Fens, a flat expanse of marshland that is windy all the time! Yesterday was no exception and it was definitely one of the most challenging parts of the day to get across it. Shortly after that we stopped for tea and cakes at the Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve where we all remarked on how amazing it was that we were able to sit outside comfortably so late into October.

Gorgeous weather (pic courtesy of Dave)

After that it was just a flat and quiet ride back to Cambridge, via Becs' house and a cycle path all the way into the town centre. All in all it was a great ride, slower than usual for us but with much better company! It was also really refreshing for me not to be the slowest rider, as I usually am with Alberto, because it meant that I could relax in the knowledge that I could keep up with the pace rather than have to worry about whether I was going fast enough.

Autumn has arrived

I know we will not get many more great days for cycling so I was glad we took advantage of this one.

Riding in London can be fun

It was just a random Friday, although packed in with a bit more riding than any other regular weekday. We are still enjoying amazing weather in late October. This made for a trully enjoyable commute in the morning as well as a relatively traffic-free pottle in the evening, when I joined the Critical Mass. A good way to finishing off a busy week...

BT tower in the background, the highest freestanding building in London

View from Waterloo bridge, St Paul's Cathedrals shines in the background

7:05 pm setting off Critical Mass

Downhill to St. Paul's Cathedral

Heading towards the city, Critical Mass

The Mary Poppins Saddlebag

On one of our FNRttC rides this summer, the mount for the saddlebag that we normally take on my bike broke off. I felt it break and stopped as soon as it felt safe (the bag was hanging on by a velcro strap, rubbing against my back wheel), but it was dark and we didn't want to turn back to search for the bolt that had held the saddlebag in place. We managed to pack the contents of the saddlebag into our jacket pockets and into Alberto's large Ortlieb saddlebag, and continued on our way. Shortly afterwards we bought a new saddlebag, the Topeak Aero Wedge QuickClip.

This new saddlebag is incredible! It is compact and unobtrusive, yet holds a ton of stuff! Here's a picture of it, fully packed, on my bike.

The Topeak Aero Wedge QuickClip

You can already see two of its excellent features--the pump holder straps along the bottom of the  bag and the strap on the back of the bike for a back light. It certainly helps to fit things into the bag when you can store some stuff on the outside of it!

But the best thing about this saddlebag is how roomy it is on the inside. On our 200km audax last month, I managed to fit all of this into it....

That's the routesheet, two spare inner tubes, a patch kit, a back light, a pump, a multi-tool, a spoke tool, two spare AA batteries, our alternate sunglass lenses (in a plastic bag), tyre levers, and my packable waterproof jacket! 

I'm so glad we have this one, especially as it means I have more room in my jersey pockets for FOOD!

PS: In case it isn't obvious, we don't get paid for our reviews and we only review products we have bought ourselves unless otherwise stated!

London (Bromley) to Rye and back: a 200 km ride

Back in August I made a note on my diary. I would ride from Bromley (southeast London) to Rye (East Sussex) and back, totalling 200 km, with a bunch a machacas from the Friday Night Rides.

Time had come, and weather could have not been better for this time of the year. Although with a fairly chilly start, around 6 degrees when I left the house, the temperatures warmed up as soon as the sun came out. I took my night riding lights since we were expecting a couple of hours of darkness towards the end. Off I went, making it to Victoria station in less than 25 min! I should've ridden to the start, especially given that it was a Sunday morning and that would have meant little traffic...but on the other hand I am quite bad with directions and did not want to get there late (this is not Spain, and people are actually on time!). Despite that, I was, as always, the last one to arrive, just 5 min before the official 8 am start.

The route we took looked like this (thanks Martin!)

After 45 min of riding, we went past Biggin Hill aerodrome and down the North Downs, crossing the M25 into Westerham, where we collected two more riders. From there on it was a relatively hilly (for the Southeast standards) ride, without much faffing.

Around Biggin Hill airport in Southeast London (all pics courtesy of Adam)

At some point we relealised that we were running a bit late for lunch (again, this is not Spain, and lunch was booked for 1 pm, kitchen closing before 3 pm!). We pushed it to Rye in the last 30 km, forming a mini-peloton of 5-6 riders. Slipstreaming is actually amazing, they say it reduces in about 40% the amount of effort you need to put into the pedals...and I truly belive it. We were riding at almost 40 km/h on the flat, and while I was at the back, I could keep up without any problem and having to freewheel at times! Completely the opposite when I took the front: I was completely spent after 15 min...but then someone else gave me a relay!

Quick stop to regroup after the hill

All in all, I managed to stay at the front with the strongest two machacas (one of them a Paris-Brest-Paris 69 h finisher!!), although at some point got quite concerned about wasting all my fuel for the return leg. Most of the roads we took were B four numbers (in theory, the least busy of the roads, not counting the proper country lanes) and a few A three numbers. Not my personal preference, but the advantage is they're usually better paved and a lot faster to ride on. In fact, one of them had just been re-surfaced with fresh tarmac, and we really flew on that section. Good tarmac makes a difference! We eventually got to Rye on a lovely sunshine afternoon, got a bit lost finding the pub, but did it in the end. I was really craving for hearty meal, but knowing how upset my stomach gets while on the bike, went for a light soup and chips (again, adapting fast to the British culture!). The rest did, of course, have the fish and chips, another tipically British stereotype that is completely true! Oh yes, and pints. I still have not reached that stage, and reckon I would have been tipsy with an empty stomach after a 568 ml of beer intake.

After we left Rye, gone past 2 pm, we rode on quieter roads along the canal, until we made an abrupt left turn on to yet another steep shortish hill! At that point, Adam, the photographer, peeled off to catch his train back. My camera was playing up, so could not take many pictures unfortunately...

You can tell that's steep! especially after lunch

The ride back was bumpier than I had anticipated. Maybe it was because of the >100 km on the legs already? The scenery was beautiful though, passing through a lot of farmlands, plenty of apple/pear trees and some cute typical Kent houses.

Kent houses and their funny pointy roofs

Towards the last quarter/stage of the ride (still got that audax mentallity from our last audax 200) I was feeling pretty knackered, and quite hungry. Not sure if it was me, but the ride seemed to be getting hillier and hillier, and we still had another 40 km. I ate my last banana and a cereal bar, and that gave me boost for the next few km. The group kept splitting, with some riders heading East. The sunset was fantastic though. We turned our lights on and carried on cycling along quiet lanes. I started to feel a bit better, maybe it was because you cannot really tell how fast you ride at night, and with the excitement of it, we crossed the M25. One of the riders was local to the area and took us on a few diversions/shortcuts to avoid the last few hills as we were all feeling the legs. Without delay, we were back on the A21 into Bromley.

It was just past 7 pm and I was there waiting for my train back to Victoria. So glad I did not have to ride another 30 extra km, as I was feeling quite sleepy and hungry: not a good sign. My predictions came true, and after I headed north from Victoria station and into Camden, the semi-bonk hit me. It took me more than 45 min to get back home. I ate everything I found on the fridge, showered and went for a greasy pizza and Tuborg beer! Really need to eat a lot more next time!!! Oh well, another 200 km route in the pocket (or under the belt, as they say up here!) and a fantastic ride in good company. I even got some good advice for my hopefully first PBP.

The stats said:

- 2300 m climb (7500 feet)
- 220 km for the day
- ~24 km/h average
- 63.4 km/h maximum speed
- 9 h riding time
- 6 bottles of water

Special thanks to Martin for planning the ride, and to Adam for taking the pictures.

Went to bed at 10:30 pm as we had planned a mountain bike ride in the Epping Forest on the following day...

The Expert on the Trails

Last weekend I finally got the chance to try out my new mountain bike, the Corratec Expert XVert. Having never ridden an actual mountain bike I was a little apprehensive... but it turned out great!

We headed out a bit late (as always) and rode some canal towpaths out to Epping Forest in northeast London. We picked up the Regent's Canal about a mile from our place, and then connected to the Lee Navigation and followed it up to Epping. It's a lovely scenic ride although it always takes longer than you would hope as you have to dodge walkers, joggers, children, pets, etc. 

When we got to Epping Forest, the entrance we arrived at was what Alberto later referred to as a 'technical uphill'. Of course I didn't know this as I charged ahead up the hill, loving the existence of my triple chainring, until my front wheel lost traction with the ground and I had barely enough time to catch myself before I fell over! That's how I learned that when going uphill on the MTB, you need to lean forward and try to put weight on the front wheel. 

After that incident just to enter the forest, I was starting to feel a bit nervous for what my first MTB session had in store for me. As we went along through the beautiful scenery, I found it hard to just relax and enjoy myself. I spend all my time on the road bike watching out for hazards and trying to avoid cycling over them. Now, the entire surface that I was cycling on was made of hazards, and that was the point!

We had a 27km route through the forest planned, but it soon became apparent that with all my paranoia, we were going too slowly to have any hope of accomplishing that! Instead we just focused on trying to get more confident on the trails, with Alberto giving me tips as we went along. Mainly he just said "relax and let the bike do all the work," which I had no idea what he was talking about! He said that there was an error on my bike where it says 'Expert' along the crossbar.

I did start to relax a bit towards the end of the ride though. I started to see what the fun could be about and also started to feel more confident on different types of hazards, although I was still dismounting a fair bit when something seemed too tricky to navigate. 

I escaped the day with only one proper fall, which left me with some impressive bruises on one leg, but other than that unscathed!

We had to head back on the early side, but we stopped for a snack at a canalside cafe where we also discovered that our GPS unit can do navigation (like a car GPS), which we never knew! We found a quicker way home through the backstreets of north London. It was a short adventure in Epping, though we did manage to put in 60km, but I definitely look forward to my next trip out on the trails!