Silly commuting racing

The Rookie

Got 3 minutes from home, out the village onto the open when a gust blew me from the left hand wheel track into the left hand wheel track for cars coming the other way in about 0.1second, no cars around thank god!

Simon

iain_j

JonGinge wrote:

On a related note, these have just been put up on the front page of the site:


Yeah, it was hard work. Same for the couple of days. Boo.

TTFU. Toughen the fook up.

I like it

Bassjunkieuk

iain_j wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

On a related note, these have just been put up on the front page of the site:


Yeah, it was hard work. Same for the couple of days. Boo.

TTFU. Toughen the fook up.

I like it

I think they are aimed at IP, G66 et al. - Tart The Fu(k Up

biondino

Was I the only schmuck who didn't know about the State Opening of Parliament this morning? Or were all roads leading into Westminster still open when you all went to work? I had to make (well, "had to" is a bit strong - I could have walked the bike) a FIVE mile detour to get round it! 25 mins late for work in the end, but I did sort of rather enjoy the extra riding...

cjcp

Did they not have it on the Radio 3 news this morning?

EDIT: we were able to detour around Great Smith St and approach Parlt Square from the north when I went through, but the news said the surrounding area would be closed later.

Bassjunkieuk

cjcp wrote:

Did they not have it on the Radio 3 news this morning?

The the BBC news, apparently it's closed until Saturday!

MonkeyMonster

Reckon I will be fine coming in via birdcage and then turn left and hit embankment from there tomorrow morning?

greg66_tri_v2.0

I cut south at LB and then back north over Waterloo Bridge. Traffic was OK going that way.

cjcp

Interesting tussle with a roadie on a Trek tonight.

He appeared at VB lights. Huge thighs, very possibly shaved legs under the 3/4 shorts. Looked a bit quick. Game on.

He crept a bit and went on amber. He was closely followed by a chap with tri bars. I reeled them just after the bend into DSC. He took the tow all the way through DSC and went through on the approach to the railway bridge. The chap with tri bars had been despatched, thank goodness.

He crept a bit at CB lights and shot off down the slope. He left me for dust with his acceleration - my chicken legs didn't stand much chance against his thighs, but I was able to make ground on him after a while. This theme continued all the way to Putney. I re-took him on the LRR, and he briefly hopped on the backwheel before filtering down the outside and got ahead again. I should have gone for it again on Queen's Ride, but opted out for some reason. Should've done; that would have been good. I nearly got him on Bolan Bridge, but for the big effort he put in out of the saddle.

Can't really SCR after that through Sheen - too much traffic, and he turned off about 15 yards ahead of me. That was good fun. Both of us know it was "On". Chapeau, sir.

Honours even, I think.

Wrath Rob

P. Square closed until Saturday? Bum. I was hoping for an extended tail-wind commute tomorrow

No SCR action to speak of on the way in or out today. The wind might have had something to do with it, I was pushing an easy 27mph on the way to work but struggling to get above 17mph on the way home!

jonginge

P. Square was open this evening but with diversions around the stretch past HoP towards LBR

mtb-idle

first time poster on this thread.

Monday evening on way home from Canary Wharf, along Cable Street and turn left to cross Tower Bridge thinking that the traffic was heavy.

Went past some slow moving cars until i realised that the bridge was 'up' but couldn't be bothered to go back and along to London Bridge to beat the wait.

Waiting near the front of the gates was totally amazed at how many riders there were. I did a rough headcount and there were at least 70 riders just waiting for those blue gates to open.

Open they did and away we went. I kept a decent pace but it was like wacky races with the inevitable slowest and least stable riders seeming to have made it to the front of the queue and wobbling all over the road. Mixed in with scooter riders and wreckless young 'uns flying past at totally unsuitable points but i held my position and worked my way safely past dozens of riders and all this in the 200 yards before the set of lights at the end of the bridge.

A fortuitous light change allowed me to maintain my speed and off we went, power down and worked my way to the top ten riders and that was good enough for me, kept the speed up all the way to New Kent Road.

Can't claim any specific scalps as there were so many riders it was difficult to keep track, keep safe and ride (all this in the dark too).

Was so chuffed that even ignored the bloke in the car making wanker signs at me

(I had turned right into New Kent road heading to Elelphant and was in bus lane when a car pulled out beside/behind me into the bus lane. Oi, i thought and shouted this is a bus lane you twat and slowed right down in front of him so he couldnt queue jump. Unfortunately the road was qide enough for him to undertake me and then drive just fast enough for me not to catch him again)

Happy dayz.

jonginge

@CJ Chapeau, sir. SCR action into the headwind. Good grief :shock:

I was all over the place on the way home. Not quite at the shouting into the teeth of the gale stage but pretty close. Tomorrow evening I think

cjcp

JonGinge wrote:

@CJ Chapeau, sir. SCR action into the headwind. Good grief :shock:

It took my mind off the headwind. Forced me to suck it up. Was knackered when I got home though.

I was all over the place on the way home. Not quite at the shouting into the teeth of the gale stage but pretty close. Tomorrow evening I think

[/quote]

I was there yesterday. In fact, I have a confession: I avoided Millbank on the homeward stretch by carrying straight on to Pimlico from the P Square detour because I couldn't face the headwind. My excuse is that I had was making a return journey only 40 minutes after finishing my outward journey and my legs were knackered.

cjcp

MTB-Idle wrote:

first time poster on this thread.

Monday evening on way home from Canary Wharf, along Cable Street and turn left to cross Tower Bridge thinking that the traffic was heavy.

Went past some slow moving cars until i realised that the bridge was 'up' but couldn't be bothered to go back and along to London Bridge to beat the wait.

Waiting near the front of the gates was totally amazed at how many riders there were. I did a rough headcount and there were at least 70 riders just waiting for those blue gates to open.

Open they did and away we went. I kept a decent pace but it was like wacky races with the inevitable slowest and least stable riders seeming to have made it to the front of the queue and wobbling all over the road. Mixed in with scooter riders and wreckless young 'uns flying past at totally unsuitable points but i held my position and worked my way safely past dozens of riders and all this in the 200 yards before the set of lights at the end of the bridge.

A fortuitous light change alowed me to maintain my speed and off we went, power down and worked my way to the top ten riders and that was good enough for me, kept the speed up all the way to New Kent Road.

Can't claim any specific scalps as there were so many riders it was difficult to keep track, keep safe and ride (all this in the dark too).

Was so chuffed that even ignored the bloke in the car making wanker signs at me

(I had turned right into New Kent road heading to Elelphant and was in bus lane when a car pulled out beside/behind me into the bus lane. Oi, i thought and shouted this is a bus lane you fool and slowed right down in front of him so he couldnt queue jump. Unfortunately the road was qide enough for him to undertake me and then drive just fast enough for me not to catch him again)

Happy dayz.

Howdy

Know what you mean by the number of riders. I pop out at St Katharine's Way and there are always loads of cyclists heading over Tower Bridge.

jonginge

cjcp wrote:

I was all over the place on the way home. Not quite at the shouting into the teeth of the gale stage but pretty close. Tomorrow evening I think

I was there yesterday. In fact, I have a confession: I avoided Millbank on the homeward stretch by carrying straight on to Pimlico from the P Square detour because I couldn't face the headwind. My excuse is that I had was making a return journey only 40 minutes after finishing my outward journey and my legs were knackered.

Ah, good training there

I'd done an interval session on the rollers. My hamstrings were on the verge of cramping on the way home (must remember to do some stretching)

cjcp

Good training indeed. Hell of a difference when you don't have nine hours or more between rides. (Made me think "how exactly am I going to get up the Galibier if I'm put off by the slightly-less-mighty Broomfield?" )

What's stretching? :oops:

jonginge

cjcp wrote:

Good training indeed. Hell of a difference when you don't have nine hours or more between rides. (Made me think "how exactly am I going to get up the Galibier if I'm put off by the slightly-less-mighty Broomfield?" )

Plenty of time to worry about that*. (see what I did there )

cjcp wrote:

What's stretching? :oops:

zactly. I probably should do some, some time


* actually the commute is harder, in a certain sort of way, than sensibly climbing the Galibier... of course, in the heat of battle all sense may go out of the window and the Alpe will end up being a world of pain

iain_j

What a disappointment. The wind was no worse than yesterday, I think even it was slightly lighter, and no rain. I was looking forward to a battle royale.

UndercoverElephant

Got done good and proper last night. :oops:

Was going a decent pace past Musselburgh racecourse when a bloke on a flat-bar road bike (can't bring myself to say the 'H' word, shudder) went past me at a rate of knots. "He's overcooked it" I thought to myself, I raised my speed a bit to pick him off when he blew-up. He pulled away a bit more, so I raised my speed again, up to about 24 mph now, into a headwind.

"When the hell's he going to blow up?", I thought. Still he goes, but we're matched in speed at least. After about a mile or so, I start to gain on him, but I'm hurting too. I caught him up after another mile, but I'm about goosed. We stop at a red, and chat for a bit. I congratulate him on his effort, he says, "Yeah, but you caught me again". Turns out he does a mere 25 miles each way. Light goes green, and he's off. He looses me this time.

Mitigating circumstances though, he was wearing a Liquigas top, I have suspicions he may have been more serious than his steed suggested.

Bassjunkieuk

Nothing immediately springs to mind about last nights commute so it must have been relatively quiet on the SCR front.......headwind didn't feel as bad as I had anticipated but my abysmal 14.4mph average showed I was certainly moving a LOT slower then normal :-(

This mornings ride in however was great fun once I'd got past the mess of traffic works in Streatham and onto the Drag Strip. Spied a few tasty looking targets as we stopped by Clapham South but then has a great run on lights and traffic and managed to hold a very respectable pace practically the whole length of the Common, despatching a few SS and a chap on a Cannondale roadie. Had a pillock on a yellow framed flat barred road bike that was a serial RLJer - I have to admit I was a little bit of an a$$hat to him as I undertook at a fair lick due to having a scooter on my 6! It was incredible tho as I was willing the lights ahead to change at the T-junction on the run towards Stockwel (DDD and CS should know the one I mean!) they did and I popped it into the big ring and let fire :twisted:

One last drag race from the lights at Vauxhall Cross saw me trying to outsprint a chap on a rather nice looking matt alu/Ti Condor on Mavic Krysium wheels. He pulled away quickly and was 2 lanes to my right but I wasn't going to let that stop me giving it a go. I was just nudging ahead as we passed the Tesco Express/Metro having topped around 30 :-) I then went onto the drops for a very satisfying swoop round the corner for the bridge and a breather

cjcp

Grrr. I knew it. Rear tyre seemed to be a little soft the last couple of days (having replaced a tube on Tuesday morning). Not flat, but much softer this morning. Grrr. A very slow visit from the deflation fairy - at least I got to change it at home.

Not even four hours sleep last night, so the legs felt slow. Kept my scalp, but hardly set the world on fire.

MonkeyMonster

Most fun this morning - wind assisted. More roadies than normal. Still waiting to catch site of CJ on his kona but keep seeing the same blue ribble instead. Oh and fixies - your acceleration is going to be sh1te - why the feck do you feel the need to push to front of people and the slow them all up - twunt.

Edit 8)

cjcp

MonkeyMonster wrote:

Most fun this morning - wind assisted. More roadies than normal. Still waiting to catch site of CJ on his trek but keep seeing the same blue ribble instead. Oh and fixies - your acceleration is going to be sh1te - why the feck do you feel the need to push to front of people and the slow them all up - twunt.

Excuse me?

MonkeyMonster

it had a K in the the word and I forgot sorry

cjcp

Your humble apologies accepted, young man.

I won't be so forgiving when we meet on Embankment. :twisted:

DonDaddyD

Tooting Broadway.

Me, two other cyclists and a guy on a Focus Varido.

He was wearing my shimano R085 shoes, keo pedals, baggy shorts, yellow jacket. Blessed with a beard, I figured he was around my FCN.

Lights go green. Strewth! He must have them hollow bones that are all th rage amongst weight weenies. This guy was going 23mph pretty much all the way up Tooting - a slight incline - around 24-25mph through Balham he faltered up Balham hill, I was doing 20-21mph and was gaining. However, a series of surperb filters, which in my mind signified that he was a more seasoned rider than I, he then lay down a blitzkrieg into and along Clapham Common as he, on the outside, overtook cars before they had a chance to hunker down and defend from his bombardment.

I didn't see him again.

What I did learn is if I pace myself and not fall vicitim to my urge to sprint I can ride faster for longer than I previously thought I could.

Clever Pun

last night was grim, into the wind, on the drops chewing my handlebars I passed a roadie and offered my wheel, he didn't take it.. I suspect he couldn't keep up with my electric pace of 16mph

this morning I was a wind assisted bullet wasn't much action though sadly, I did pass a SS'er with a hermans lollipop, that threw me a bit

The Running Man

Well : hammered home on Tuesday night completely ignoring the physio's advice. When will I learn - doh!!

Averaged 18.1 mph for the 27 miles home. Stomach was predictably very sore yesterday but as I knew I was spending all day in the car heading up to Epping I thought it was worth the effort.

A lot more sensible on the way in today - largely due to deciding not to try and battle the wind all the way. Took me 10 minutes longer to get in and no pain at all which is good news.

But I reckon if I attach a spinnaker to the front bars I'll be home in about half an hour!!

Bassjunkieuk

DonDaddyD wrote:

Tooting Broadway.

Me, two other cyclists and a guy on a Focus Varido.

Don't suppose you noticed what wheels the Focus was sporting? Only asking as I'm sure it was a Focus of some sort that was giving me jip the other night, he would have been on Cosmic Carbones which I'm sure you would have spotted a mile off....

Indicentally do a google image search on "Focus Variado" and look at the first few results - all from BR :-) Both of Lins bikes, GT,SoL and GB155 avatars and DDD's gauntlet :-D