The brightness of the street
lighting confirmed yet again that the Brompton London Club rides generated too
much excitement. Like a child on Christmas Day I woke at 5.30am - a
whole two hours earlier than needed.
Today's ride started at Cafe
Rouge in Windsor. A fast train from Paddington to Slough provided plenty
of time to get lost cycling to Windsor several times which of course just
becomes a bike ride. Social media was being a great identifier of potential
timings - peeps were coming in from all over the place and those nearby were
going to be late. Faffing, perhaps? (No names mentioned...!) Amazingly one of
our number had travelled a particularly long way. New York-New York! A cab from
Heathrow and there he was with his NYCe Wheels Brommie. Time zone
issues never raised their head. Chapeau sir, chapeau!
As a group of 15 (I'm making
that up I didn't count) we wheeled out of Windsor down to the river and out to
Windsor Great Park. As ever we caused a bit of a stir and much pointing from
passerbys. As well as Our Man From New York, we also had a guest (for one
ride only) on an oversized wheeled bike. I was stunned to hear that it wasn't
single speed - it was fixed! Not a route I'd even consider single speed, never
mind fixed!
Cycling and chatting, general catching up and discussing a whole spectrum of
things whilst our feet and our ride leaders led us through Windsor Great Park
past several lakes. There were many people out enjoying the weather -
cyclists, pedestrians and quite a few dogs weaving their way through, but all
relaxed. It was very special - the standard of these rides never falters
nor ceases to amaze me. There were some puddles - some of which were up
up to the pedals!
There was also quite a lot of mud. My cleats were so full of
mud that I couldn't actually clip in. "Have you got any water" I was
asked. "Yes" I replied, ready to offer it to him. "Excellent -
if you pour it over your cleats you can wash away the mud". D'oh - how
silly of me, why didn't I think of that? It worked a treat!
As we were nearing our lunchtime stop my Brommie started bouncing about and made a funny noise. Completely in denial I carried on another ten metres. Oh rats! A visitation. The back tyre was pancake flat. However, even before I could dig out my tyre levers A Man Called Michael had removed the back wheel and was replacing the tube. I just stood in awe at the speed in which this happened.
As we were nearing our lunchtime stop my Brommie started bouncing about and made a funny noise. Completely in denial I carried on another ten metres. Oh rats! A visitation. The back tyre was pancake flat. However, even before I could dig out my tyre levers A Man Called Michael had removed the back wheel and was replacing the tube. I just stood in awe at the speed in which this happened.
Everyone else chatted, helping
when they could and there was not a hint of irritation - it was just fantastic
the way everyone stood around in such a fabulously relaxed fashion. Within a
ridiculously short space of time I was back on my bike and we were on our way
to lunch. The speed was increased, a hill appeared but soon we were at the top
of it. Into Egham and up a hill to a pub that serves the most fantastic food.
An hour or so later we left and
headed along a not-so-lovely glass covered and shared pedestrian-cycle
pavement. Not a great deal of fun but luckily we were soon back in the Park.
Photo opportunities abound, we carried on all the way to a path that I'm not
sure The Rambler's Association would approve of.
A couple of small trees were
across it - the first we could walk around, the second was where our galant
leader individually helped us lean our Brommies at a more horizontal angle to
allow us to crawl through. Onwards, upwards and downwards - at some point I
went through a puddle that was actually a bog. It was like cycling through
sand, gripping my wheels, sucking them lower and lower making me slower and
slower- thankfully I escaped just in time.
Back through Windsor, coffee in
Cafe Nero then a ride back to Slough. The cycle infrastructure is a curious
thing - the only way to activate the traffic lights is by being a bus so after
10 minutes (I suspect less) we transferred ourselves to pedestrian mode
instead. Sensor issues me thinks.
A bit further on there was a classic
call of "the station is next right" immediately followed by "not
that right, this right" and we reached the station for a train home. 36
miles for the day with a top speed of 24.7 miles. Our Man from New York stayed
awake and ahead of most if not all of us - with half the amount of gears I have
- and no cleats. Pretty impressive I say.
Thank you peeps - that was one
lovely day! I took some pics here
