I woke up nice an early on Sunday morning, I would like to be able to play the sympathy card for this and claim that it was an early start for the ride, however having two boys under three, the morning start was the same time as normal. Of us all, I think the only one who would be able to claim that he sacrificed his usual relaxed Sunday morning for this noble cause was Simon. (The rest of us have little one’s)
So Sunday morning, turned out to be a dry and grey day and I set out for the 10 mile ride to the start, running a little late, I managed to stop by in Kingston (just under seven miles) and meet up with Tim in 25 Mins. We then proceeded via the scenic route to the start via Richmond Park. Entering via the Ham gate, we cycled up the first hill (I am sure since I last rode that way they have made that hill longer and steeper) and joined the plethora of bikes doing laps round Richmond Park. Seeing the speed these cyclist were passing me I had to check that I wasn’t actually rolling backwards but no alas I was just slow..It have been might be due to the fact that my cycling gear didn’t match my bike, all the other road racers who were cycling round the Park had matching clothes and bikes..
So having come to terms of being a plodder and justifying, to myself that I my speed, was due to the fact that I have 39 miles to ride later I ambled up the slight incline towards the Richmond Gate when catastrophe struck. I had broken my chain!!
Now those of you who know me and have been on a bike ride with me before will know that this is becoming a kind of tradition. Something always happens before the start of a major ride, if it’s not the chain, it’s the gears if it’s not the gears it’s a complete shredding of an inner tube. I have even after repairing a leaky tube been known to accidentally tear the valve out of a tube whilst re-inflating it. Hence I experience has lead me to carry several tools in my rucksack and the odd survival blanket. What could have been s show stopping fault became an oily delay of 10 minutes.
So we all, finally, met up at the start, Simon had cycled from Bow to Waterloo in 30 minutes and rewarded himself enjoyed a relaxing train ride to a station near to the start ( In the rail company had decided to close Richmond station for engineering works)and had been waiting for us for over 40 minutes.. So there we all are at the start, looking at this slow moving caterpillar of cyclist trying to get through the start gate and came to a decision that Tim and I would Queue whilst Simon got a head start with some other friends and we would catch him up. In the ends this equated to quite a head start it took over forty minutes just to queue the 60 metres to the start line from the back of the queue, well in fact we pushed in on the side halfway down the queue to the start line. (It’s OK we both have French wives so don’t have too queue)
So Tim and I managed to cross the start approximately 40 Mins after Simon, who by this time was probably riding through Kingston, within 20 metres we saw the reason for the delay;
Narrow roads, lots of bikes, riders who aren’t sure of the rules of the road or just don’t care, throw in a several cars vans and lorries and you have chaos.
So after threading our way through the slower riders on narrow towpaths and roads, we arrived at Kingston Bridge, well on the cobbled path under it. All I am going to say, expensive road bike’s hard plastic clip in shoes and cobbles don’t get on. These riders worried so much about damaging their wheel rims they started to bunch up and a couple unclipped and put their feet down. Plastic clipped cycle shoes and cobbles is like trying to walk on black ice, it leads to comedy moments if only we had put a web cam up at this point we could have made a fortune selling the clips. So now after the cobbles, we are on the gravelled Thames towpath all the way from Kingston t Hampton Court Palace, Once again those expensive roads bike were not happy you should have seen the pained expression every time they hit a piece of uneven ground. So we pass Hampton court and hit the paved road and all those road bike’s we had smugly overtaken on the gravel got the last laugh and zoomed past us.
Several miles later we had crossed the Thames for the second time at Chertsey and passed over the M25 and there waiting for us in at the bottom of a hill, near Chobham, was Simon (it took a couple of calls to arrange this) It turned out that he had cycled the first 20 miles with his back brake stuck half on, wondering why it was so hard...needless to say Tim and I, were completely understanding and whilst Tim became a mobile mechanic and adjusted Simon's brakes, we became concerned friend who in no way took the piss..
From here it was a case of tired legs, slow hills and fast down hills to the finish at Alexandria Park in Windsor. I had a slight chain issue 800 metres from the finish and the guys nicely waited for me, 30 metres from the finish so we could cross the line together. I am not sure what we looked like, but we must have looked tired as the spectators applauded as we crossed the line.
The final Irony of the day, the ride was in aid of the British Heart foundation and their parked behind the beer tent, next to the crepe stall was a van with a huge advert for Camel cigarettes on the side. We all went for a burger and chips.
And no padded shorts do not work.