The clocks going forward meant my 6am wake up was in effect 5am. Ooh, that hurt. My legs were feeling yesterday’s ride. Maybe Des was right about it not being such an ‘easy’ one. 🙂
Decided to take the Ribble (should now be known as the “Rubble” with its mass of failing parts!) due to the rain forecast and colour of the skies. This meant I missed all that precious, precious Powertap data. *sob* 🙁
I rode to easily to Richmond Park and met Wayne and Tom. From RP we rode to Esher (pronounced “eeesher” not “esher” like you’d think!). We were cutting it fine but arrived mid-briefing though thankfully before departure.
Wayne, Des and Tom elected to ride Group 4, with the plan to move up if they found it too easy. I decided to ride Group 2 with the hope of being told to move up to Group 1. No such luck.. yet 🙂
So, for me it was a wet ride in a bunch of maybe 20? 2/3 combined. The lanes were pretty cool to ride down although I wish more people had mud guards – seems everyone came out on their nice bikes and I was one of a couple with a rear guard. Face full of muck. Not sure how far in we were but Sven said “at the top of this hill we’ll regroup so smash it up!” or something similar. As we’d arrived late I missed my chance to have a leak so I busted off the front and hammered up the hill. Who would’ve thunk it?! ME riding up a hill in front of people! Ha! One guy joined me when I ran out of steam and then near some cafe I lightened my body weight a little..
We rolled on further and the group started splitting up a little bit. Myself and oddly enough another ‘big’ guy were up there along with typical skinny buggers (guy from Edinburgh, also on a blue Ribble). There was also a Dutch guy (sorry mate, I’ve forgotten your name! Marcel??) who’d only been riding since November!
So that was how it went. We (a bunch of about 6 or 8 of us) split off the front and formed Group 2 I guess. I was pretty comfortable with it all which is good. Climbs were tougher as the day went on, the guys setting the pace would put the pace up on the flat and it would rise and there was just no letup! Show’s what training and being 20kg lighter could do for me! 🙂
The steepest climb we hit was probably Combe Bottom.. it climbs along normally for a while, you make a left turn and then it just kicks up to finish you off. Nice..
There was a great view from the top, but I didn’t want to break the descent to camera-phone it. Luckily it’s been done for me..
At one point, after catching our breath atop Combe Bottom, we actually came across a flooded section of road. Water was covering the road for 20m and I was tempted to take a photo as a van created a bow wave just driving through it. We all stuck to the middle of the road and were fine.
At the end Bernard was struggling a bit so I went back and collected him. We rolled into Carluccio’s and sat outside to chat and drink nice coffee (and eat chocolate cake!). Bernard and Marcel(?) know each other through their kids and it looks like they’ll be riding Group 2 with me (unless I get faster and get bumped up..).
Bloody Wayne, Des and Tom the slackers didn’t rock up for another 1.5 hours! Still a good showing considering they’ve not done that much bunch riding or such big hills for that matter!
Tom and I rolled home to Ealing, splitting off from the others in heavy (VW-dense) traffic. I can’t remember what I did then.. oh yes, Mal helped me clean the 4kgs of mud of the Rubble.
While doing so I noticed that the bottom bracket has LOTS of play in it and the chainline is worn to hell. I don’t have the newer tools required for outboard Shimano BBs so I’m thinking of just dropping the thing off at a shop (Quest or Sigma) and saying “please swap this with a new bike, thanks!” 🙂
Cool Surrey Hills images stolen from www.herneweb.com.
OK, I let the other lavish purchases pass, but Carluccio’s? La-de-da!
It was the official end point of the ride. Lovely coffee and cake though. I wish somewhere, ANYWHERE in London could do the same..
Oh the hardships of modern life! 😉
Ahh… come on stew… Uxbridge rd in She Bu has many classy cake and coffee establishments, you can even enjoy a nice Shisha Pipe after a long ride.
You’re right – Shepherds Bush does have some amazing cake shops. The coffee weren’t bad either. I fuelled up for a crit there at the start of March – spent ?10 on coffee and cake, then spent most of the afternoon feeling sick.
I’ve found a coffee shop in the city that makes actual coffee as opposed to the overheated dirty milk that most London places churn out.
Of course I can’t say where it is for fear of English women running there in droves and asking for their coffees to be made ‘hotter hotter hotter!’.. rant ends.
I’ve never witnessed this phenomenon before (‘hotter hotter hotter’, not English women) … obviously you will have to inform me of your findings in person, or there may be difficulties involving a mini-pump.
Bah, I’m not scared of your minipump! 😛
Every time I order coffee, one of the local women wrapped in 14 layers of clothing is in front of me asking for it to be made hotter.
Coffee isn’t supposed to be scalding! Go back to tea drinking and stop ruining my ‘cinos! Coffee heathens! 😛
hahah… well never move to the states then hippy… coffee over here is horrible, so scolding hot you can?t hold onto the cup, so weak you have to order extra shots, and when you just order a tall late or tall ?cino they look at you strange and ask what else? not everyone orders a extra hot, skinny, no foam, chocolate macchiato with hazelnut syrup and whipped cream? what?s wrong with a good old coffee with full fat milk?
What about my aerohat? That could be uncomfortable.
If I remember correctly, espresso (the only coffee worth discussing) is supposed to be made at 70 degrees centigrade. Not sure what temperature the steamed and frothed milk is supposed to then be, but a decent barista should have a thermometer on their frothing jug.
The local women of Ealing? I only used to buy coffee in Ealing very early in the morning on my way to TTs, so nobody else was about.
Only if it’s the red one..
Actually I’m fond of numerous varieties of coffee. Milk is good. You should know this. Don’t you come from a dairy farm?
Even a crappy barista should be able to hear the milk and stop the frothing before it starts to boil.
I’m actually talking about London City, not Ealing. Cafe Onik in West Ealing actually manages to produce nice coffee.
I just cringe when my colleagues send perfectly good drinks back asking for them to be made hotter..
Rain forecast for Saturday. Make it go away or I’ll be riding a Ribble with mudguards.