Silly commuting racing

Bassjunkieuk

Il Principe wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Thinking of altering route home this evening, avoid hills in Crystal Palace and take on the Embankment/NKR right upto Wandsworth Bridge :-)

Edit: Just checked the route on BikeHike, will not only add the hollowed SCR battling ground to my commute but also a whole 5 miles extra!

Ooh see you out there!

Leaving office in about 15-20 minutes and joining the embankment at London Bridge!

il_principe

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Thinking of altering route home this evening, avoid hills in Crystal Palace and take on the Embankment/NKR right upto Wandsworth Bridge :-)

Edit: Just checked the route on BikeHike, will not only add the hollowed SCR battling ground to my commute but also a whole 5 miles extra!

Ooh see you out there!

Leaving office in about 15-20 minutes and joining the embankment at London Bridge!

Ah too early for me, I don't finish until 6...

rjsterry

@IP for a moment this morning I thought it might have been you that I inadvertently carved up, but I see from your photo that you have a much flashier saddle on your Touché and an even flashier blue chain

MonkeyMonster

I usually get to blackfriars aboot 5.45-6.00ish sometimes bit earlier.

itboffin

Il Principe wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Thinking of altering route home this evening, avoid hills in Crystal Palace and take on the Embankment/NKR right upto Wandsworth Bridge :-)

Edit: Just checked the route on BikeHike, will not only add the hollowed SCR battling ground to my commute but also a whole 5 miles extra!

Ooh see you out there!

Leaving office in about 15-20 minutes and joining the embankment at London Bridge!

Ah too early for me, I don't finish until 6...

Oh yes what route?

MonkeyMonster

Boffo can you take the PF back home with you please - thats my 2nd of this week now...!

Right little bugger it was too - took two full careful feelings of the tube to find the wee shite.

Other than that - more than a few fast roadies going home today and more than a few didn't mind fellow roadies going past but a mtb... Hee hee. Chapeau to the lady fixie on the red something. Those are some pins you got there - similar style to the Lady LiT in fact.

Bassjunkieuk

THAT WAS HUGE FUN! Nudged 30 through Blackfriars then had a quick roadie lead me upto Parly Square. Tw4tty SS rider RLJ towards LB but I think I got rid of him on the run to VB or so I thought....

At this point I do have a confession: I jumped a red light at Vauxhall Bridge

In my defence I was in a full on seeing red SCR moment as that SS rider from earlier (I think) had just whipped past me on the right and I wasn't going to let that sort of behaviour go un-answered!

DSC was great fun as I put the hammer down to catch the SS guy only for a duo of roadies to come past us!! GAME ON B!TCHES :-) From that point on it pretty much became a blur of very fast (sometimes possibly lunatic) fitlering with occasional sprints put in as I tried to stay in touch with the 2 guys ahead. I make a break past one of the bridges (Chelsea I think) as a gap in traffic opened. Managed to hold it briefly before the two of them came thundering round me again :x We joined Kings Road and the mad filtering started again, I'd like to apologize to the driver of the Merc SL350, me racing up past up as you indicated left probably wasn't the best thing to do but hey - I was chasing someone :twisted:

I peeled off down Wandsworth Bridge Road and took a couple of minutes to get my breath, flipped through the cycle computer read outs and was pleased to see that the average for that section of the commute was up at 16.7mph :-D

Next set of roadies where found just coming off the roundabout on the south side of Wandsworth Bridge. The mind was willing but my legs just didn't want to play ball after the dash along Embankment. The gap widened between me and the chap on the road bike ahead and it took a red light for me to catch him. I tried to keep the gap as small as possible after we pulled off until the point where he turned off and carried on down towards Tooting.

Yet again even more roadies! Racing up past the Lido a guy who I'd just overtaken RLJ's. By the time I set off he's drawn out a decent lead. He then became my little riding buddy for the remainder of my commute :-) Each RL we arrived at he'd jump and I'd duly catch up (eventually) but I really wasn't expecting to have such a chase on for the rest of my ride! I have to say I was surprised to overtake him on Green Lane and lead the whole way along there until we got to the lights at Thornton Heath High Street. Not sure if I can claim his scalp as he certainly had a good turn of speed going towards Streatham Common but his persistant RLJing and my catching him and leading along the final long stretch of road makes me think I could claim the win on this one.

All in I'd say that was certainly worth the extra 5 mile and 20/25 minutes. I can hand on heart say that was one of the best if not the best commute I've had and I've never encountered such a challenging set of riders :-D Roll on summer and I might just switch to that route each day

itboffin

Nice one bass BUT! Take it easy dude, getting killed to add a scalp would be a waste of a decent bloke, plus you have what 45 children now!?

rjsterry

There isn't some other Embankment, and I've picked the wrong one?

Turned on at Blackfriars at about just after 6 and coasted down the ramp behind a bus. Couldn't get any real speed up until the last lights before W'minster Bridge. Did give it full beans then, and none of the other roadies with me at the lights came past me .

However none of these roadies turned left as we got to the bridge and it was all quiet from there until I got down to Stockwell. Gave a few RLJers what for on Clapham Road, and then that was pretty much it this evening.

I'll keep an open mind (as I say, it may have just been a bad day), but I'm still not convinced about the Embankment. Have any of you chaps who go through Putney/Barnes/RP tried going in on the A3 through Clapham, Stockwell and Kennington. There seems to be much less traffic and fairly few lights to get in your way. Just an idea.

il_principe

rjsterry wrote:

@IP for a moment this morning I thought it might have been you that I inadvertently carved up, but I see from your photo that you have a much flashier saddle on your Touché and an even flashier blue chain

I'm not riding the Touche ATM anyway.

cjcp

rjsterry wrote:

There isn't some other Embankment, and I've picked the wrong one?

Nope, that's the same Embankment.

On the way home, the traffic's a bit hit-and-miss from Blackfriars to Westminster Bridge. The sodding tourist buses by Embankment tube don't help. But the real fun always begins after Parlt Square: two mini-prologues (to LBR and then along Millbank), followed by a series of TTs all the way to Cheyne Walk. Unless you're (un)lucky with the lights and get to ride straight through, in which case you're in The Vomit Zone all the way.

The NKR section after Wandsworth BR turning also gets very quick, as does Queen's Ride, with KOM points up for grabs at the summit of Bolan Death Crash Bridge. In the daylight, the racing - and be in no doubt, it's three miles of racing whichever way you go round - through Richmond Park is great fun.

I used to do the A3 route right down to Tooting Broadway. Had some good features, but prefer my present route. Saying that though, the first time I rode Embankment aftercommuting along the South Bank for a year or so, I thought "WTF? :shock: ", particularly down the NKR.

rjsterry

I'll give it another go then. although I don't think I can justify diverting via Richmond Park as this would mean doing about 40 miles a day. I might be able to swing out over Battersea Bridge now and then for a bit of fun.

Bassjunkieuk

itboffin wrote:

Nice one bass BUT! Take it easy dude, getting killed to add a scalp would be a waste of a decent bloke, plus you have what 45 children now!?

Fair comment, but I was having such a great time I just knew I'd be able to poke through!

Also having checked the maps last night whilst showing the kids which was daddy came home I think it was at about Cheyne Walk where I made my break from the 2 other roadies which would be 2 bridges beyond where I thought! Not very familiar with the bridges beyond Vauxhall as I've never had to use them asides from Wandsworth :-)

cjcp

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Nice one bass BUT! Take it easy dude, getting killed to add a scalp would be a waste of a decent bloke, plus you have what 45 children now!?

Fair comment, but I was having such a great time I just knew I'd be able to poke through!

Also having checked the maps last night whilst showing the kids which was daddy came home I think it was at about Cheyne Walk where I made my break from the 2 other roadies which would be 2 bridges beyond where I thought! Not very familiar with the bridges beyond Vauxhall as I've never had to use them asides from Wandsworth :-)

I've got visions of your regaling stories of your scalps to a sofa-full of little Bassjunkies, listening wide-eyed. Nice one, BJUK. Maybe see you on there soon.

il_principe

cjcp wrote:

I've got visions of your regaling stories of your scalps to a sofa-full of little Bassjunkies, listening wide-eyed. Nice one, BJUK. Maybe see you on there soon.

rjsterry

Aaaaah, I get it now.:)

Turned off to Clapham Common to head down to Battersea Bridge this morning and at Queenstown Road I was beginning to wonder whether it was worth it. The traffic was appalling working round the station there. Eventually squeezed through and things started to open up a bit up to Millbank, but with a bit of a headwind. Millbank to Parly Sq. was very good. Nice long blast, just a shame there were only a few hybrids about. I think I held 25ish down that stretch and with more favourable conditions and someone to chase I might have even broken out the 52x11 . Parly Sq to Blackfriars was parp again though. Way too much traffic.

I still reckon you north bank types should give Kennington road and Clapham Road a go sometime though.

Jay dubbleU

Rubbish ride in this morning - after yesterdays off which I thought I'd got away with woke up this am with absolutly no power in my right thigh and what felt like someone sticking needles in my knee - rode in slowly pretty much one legged - passed by a hybrid who I managed to catch at the lights only to have him pavement hop and RLJ - grrr

MonkeyMonster

Traffic was chuffin pants on parly to blackfriars, mopeds who continually cross the line between being cars and then - oh I'll just go down where all the cyclists are and then gosh darn, blocking everyone...

Porridge legs too and covered in shit. I want narrow mudguards at 26inch... To stop my front half from being plastered.

Clever Pun

Nice ride in this morning.. no rain!!! Awesome

Getting to deptford I spot a roadie spinner he stands out a mile and was keeping a very impressive cadence up. I chase him down and pass him on his giant, his tights had some celtic stuff on it (anyone seen that stuff before?). Anyway didn’t give him anymore thought after I’d dropped him couple of miles later I’m dawdling through traffic hands on the flat bit of the bars and he zips past, this wakes me up a bit and I catch and pull up next to him at the lights. They turn green and we’re off except I’m not; I miss the pedal with my foot and have to unclip the other to stop me completely stacking it altogether I must have looked a right twat, I laughed got my sh!t together to chase him down. I turn on the after burners and absolutely fly past.. yey

A little shame but overall win

tgotb

Came in on the Brompton this morning; seems to be a magnet for drafting faries. Towed several hybrids, a fixie and a roadie most of the way along Embankment (self-activating dynamo whirring away happily) and then lost them at the lights just before Grosvenor Road when they jumped the red light en masse. By the time I caught them up I'd picked up another hybrid and a guy on a brand new Charge Plug.

I shook them all off with a big dose of MTFU along Millbank, but it was getting a bit ridiculous; I felt like the Pied Piper...

Bassjunkieuk

Looks like Denmark Hill was saving the best til last this morning!
The last 4 days I've been blasting down there and round the small corner and see the lights just before the hospital on red, meaning I have to back off, but not this morning :-)
I saw green and engaged a higher gear thinking I'm going to fecking nail this!

I saw 32mph on the computer at one point as I was whipping past the traffic in the bus lane :-)

No one of interest around this morning really until I got to London Bridge, had another flat barred roadie giving it large. Put in a decentish effort but insisted on creeping through RL's so he'd always have a small head start!

@rjsterry - I know I've only done the Embankment once but I've done Kennington-Clapham Road a fair few times and I'd say I had far more fun and a lot better competition going along Embankment, especially once I'd passed VB. Then again I do rather enjoy the agressive riding and mad filtering that we had last night and I dare say if it hadn't been for the duet of roadies that I found it might have been a different story as they certainly made me push myself!!

Clever Pun

That guy on the Brompton wrote:

Came in on the Brompton this morning; seems to be a magnet for drafting faries. Towed several hybrids, a fixie and a roadie most of the way along Embankment (self-activating dynamo whirring away happily) and then lost them at the lights just before Grosvenor Road when they jumped the red light en masse. By the time I caught them up I'd picked up another hybrid and a guy on a brand new Charge Plug.

I shook them all off with a big dose of MTFU along Millbank, but it was getting a bit ridiculous; I felt like the Pied Piper...

think about it though overtaking a brompton only puts you in their sights for a humiliating scalp loss

amnezia

Set a new commuting speed record of 35.6 mph this morning helped somewhat by rare tailwind down Wandsworth bridge road.

Bassjunkieuk

amnezia wrote:

Set a new commuting speed record of 35.6 mph this morning helped somewhat by rare tailwind down Wandsworth bridge road.

Excellent work!

rjsterry

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

@rjsterry - I know I've only done the Embankment once but I've done Kennington-Clapham Road a fair few times and I'd say I had far more fun and a lot better competition going along Embankment, especially once I'd passed VB. Then again I do rather enjoy the agressive riding and mad filtering that we had last night and I dare say if it hadn't been for the duet of roadies that I found it might have been a different story as they certainly made me push myself!!

My experiment this morning seems to corroborate this and CJ's suggestion, it's just that the bit of the Embankment worth riding on (not the W'minster to Blackfriars bit) is quite a way out of my way for the daily commute. I'm pretty close to my limit at 27 miles a day x 4 days a week, as I'm on about 5hrs sleep a night due to Little M (6 months old)

King Donut

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

THAT WAS HUGE FUN! ...

I was in need of a fix after been off the bike all week. Made me lose my breath just reading that. Bring it home BJ!!!

I'm salivating at the thought of Monday morning.

Roastie

Some pretty good stories there!

I'm missing my bike so much. Today I had 3.5h in the car driving to South Wales. Anyways, headed to Bath after lunch - first stop - John's Bikes .

King Donut

rjsterry wrote:

I'm on about 5hrs sleep a night due to Little M (6 months old)

There comes a point when we all have to decide between SCR and having a family. Personally I've been faking it for the last 10 months.

MonkeyMonster

If you get the blackfriars down ramp timed to not then hit the crappy red light at the bottom then it can give you a wonderful boost all the way past 2 sets of lights. Only once have i ever hit all green lights all the way to parly sq and that was just evil for my legs. Last night was quite fun chasing roadies and fixies who were up for some racing or rather not wanting me to take their scalp Just remembered I almost took some out last night by stopping for a red light, he skidded and put feet down to squeeze past me and jump onwards - twunt. Though where the feck that massive crack is from that you can caught by if overtaking other cyclists. Its massive.

rjsterry

MonkeyMonster wrote:

If you get the blackfriars down ramp timed to not then hit the crappy red light at the bottom then it can give you a wonderful boost all the way past 2 sets of lights. Only once have i ever hit all green lights all the way to parly sq and that was just evil for my legs. Last night was quite fun chasing roadies and fixies who were up for some racing or rather not wanting me to take their scalp Just remembered I almost took some out last night by stopping for a red light, he skidded and put feet down to squeeze past me and jump onwards - twunt. Though where the feck that massive crack is from that you can caught by if overtaking other cyclists. Its massive.

That's what I was hoping for last night - I could see the potential for some 52x11 action, but no dice. Perhaps I should leave work at 1am or something :shock:

If that's the crack I think you mean, I'd say it's more of a canyon. Does this suggest that this bit of the Embankment is falling into the Thames :shock: