Silly commuting racing

asprilla

martinc wrote:

It's a bit OT, but as many of you are London commuters maybe you can help.
Anyone know the name of the cycly group that ride around on a week night and sort of take over the streets?
They start at Southbank I think. There's also a rollerblading version I believe. Is it 'free the streets' or something? I've googled but can't find so far. Cheers.

Critical Mass.

Any opinions of them may open a big can of worms.

Pufftmw

Critical Mass

jonginge

A mate of mine used to go on the rollerblading one. Not sure there was any agenda bar having fun.
http://www.londonskate.com/introduction.php

martinc

Thanks y'all.

richred_uk

WesternWay wrote:

On the way in this morning, I was late and saw a guy on a folder heading towards Whetstone so I assumed it was richred... Cue one entirely confused man ona folder who knew nothing about bikeradar or richred...

:evil: was it a chap later 40's on a small wheeled dark Grey Dahon? Encountered him this morning coming down Barnet Hill. As we were both filtering down the inside, I hung back so I didn't put him under pressure, he then swung out to filter down the outside for a minute, and then cut me up as the lights changed like a proper twunt. I passed him as soon as we were moving, but felt like 'educating' him about road manners in rude words as I passed.

Rich

blu3cat

Where are all of the roadies gone......... Only person I've seen recently was this morning with panniers on a road bike who drafted me for about 400m.

Really not up for it this morning due to late night and my darling daughter waking up at 06:00 (grrrr - just wish those teeth would pop through, all 20 at once)

Sprightly acceleration left them a disappearing dot in the distance behind me.

Only consolation was they got to see my humungous ar*e in lycra (not a pretty sight)

I was expecting lots of people with their nice new Road bikes to be out this week due to the TDF, and not yet have the legs for it.... Easy pickings I thought.

MonkeyMonster

See you soon guys!

rjsterry

blu3cat wrote:

Where are all of the roadies gone......... Only person I've seen recently was this morning with panniers on a road bike who drafted me for about 400m.

Really not up for it this morning due to late night and my darling daughter waking up at 06:00 (grrrr - just wish those teeth would pop through, all 20 at once)

Sprightly acceleration left them a disappearing dot in the distance behind me.

Only consolation was they got to see my humungous ar*e in lycra (not a pretty sight)

I was expecting lots of people with their nice new Road bikes to be out this week due to the TDF, and not yet have the legs for it.... Easy pickings I thought.

I'll see your 06:00 and raise you 04:10, then again at 05:30. Got to bed about 00:20. Our little one's teeth are coming through too.

MonkeyMonster

Wheeeee - those three nice roadie scalps - red lights invalidates your takeback am afraid - was rather nice timing as I was drafting a bus and it went orange as we went through - ahead of your.

And the stupid over take via the other lane of traffic earning a whoop from your friend. You must have a really big penis... on your head.

That said nice little power pootle home

Oh and ffs roadies - if you're gonna draft someone at least 4 places above you in the fcn - mtfu and thank them.

Pufftmw

Just took a run over Tower Bridge to go and get something and there was a
fixie who jumped the lights just before then set off across the bridge. I reeled him in and past him well before the crest. This obv annoyed him as on the reverse side he pedals like mad to keep pace with me on the inside of the traffic then shot out in front & cut me up - I had to swerve. Next couple of hundred yards he was pedaling like mad as I lazily powered along in big ring - he kept looking over his shoulder & I was smiling beside his pedal lol. Red light and he had to stop but went the wrong way up against the traffic (no entry) and then once he could turn round, across the lights and on down TBR. I so wish he'd had the balls for a drag instead of being a penis.

lost_in_thought

I was *trying* to be in no sweat super pootle mode, due to popping in for a cuppa at a friend's new flat for an hour after work.

I failed.

I went along Dover Street, down Hay Hill and onto Berkeley Street to get on to Piccadilly, and a sporty-looking lady on a roadie pulls up next to me. Ignore her, I say to myself.

But the lights change and she's out of the saddle, working hard, but there's traffic. Then the light changes and the traffic thins out. She's going the same way, again out of the saddle, but not actually super-fast, as it seems is often the case. So I catch her up, and pull up behind at the rbt. Then we both get caught by the stupid ped x-ing on the rbt, she says hello, we chat briefly, then we're off again. At about the same speed. Cotton dresses are not excellent cycling tops. She goes into the park, exhibiting that she has a brain, while i've put myself on the wrong side of traffic, so get sucked into Knightsbridge, as ever. But back into the park I go, and there she is again.

I MUST POOTLE.

Down HSK, stop-start, and we pick up a male roadie, who cuts me up rather annoyingly off a light. Damn it man, if you're going to do that do it faster. This irks me, so I pass both of them, then stop for the next red. I'm a bit sweaty now.

POOTLE DAMN IT.

Down towards Olympia and I've got to turn off, so fortunately I do manage to pootle a few hundred yards. As I turn off, roadie-man is chasing roadie girl. And not having much joy.

I hope I see her again when I'm in cycling gear, and not in pootle mode.

asprilla

rjsterry wrote:

blu3cat wrote:

Where are all of the roadies gone......... Only person I've seen recently was this morning with panniers on a road bike who drafted me for about 400m.

Really not up for it this morning due to late night and my darling daughter waking up at 06:00 (grrrr - just wish those teeth would pop through, all 20 at once)

Sprightly acceleration left them a disappearing dot in the distance behind me.

Only consolation was they got to see my humungous ar*e in lycra (not a pretty sight)

I was expecting lots of people with their nice new Road bikes to be out this week due to the TDF, and not yet have the legs for it.... Easy pickings I thought.

I'll see your 06:00 and raise you 04:10, then again at 05:30. Got to bed about 00:20. Our little one's teeth are coming through too.

Gum gel is the way forward. The Mighty Pickle (my little girl) gets it rubbed on her gums at 19.00 and she goes though until 6.45. It's wicked.

Had an excellent tussle this evening though the park with a chap on a CAAD9. He drafted me down priory lane (chap on a Condor had the manners to leave us both behind) and then turning right at the rbt CAAD boy speeds past. Spin this morning has killed me and I'm willing to let it go, particularly as the Condor is off in the distance. However, I notice that as the road rises the CAAD is slowing and now my tail is up.....

I'm gaining on him now and he (and the Condor) turns left up to White Lodge. As we crest the hill I'm on his wheel, but I need a drink and the gap opens while I go for my bottle. I close on the way down the hill, right at Pen Ponds car park, CAAD notices and puts the power down. As soon as we hit the little rise though he's going backwards; I've identified his weakness, now I just have to use it.

On his wheel, drafting towards Ham Gate (only fair I think after Prior Lane). Surprisingly we both go past the Condor, which comes as a rude surprise for him and he too puts down the power. We are three abreast looking at the traffic coming down Queens Road waiting to time the gap. We time it perfectly, CAAD and I go left whilst Condor goes straight and this is my chance; down the hill going full pelt and up the other side CAAD comes out the saddle and I know I've got him. I stay in seated, legs going like billy-o as I cruise past the CAAD and two civilians caught in the onslaught, four abreast as I come though on the outside, invisibly punching the air in my head.

The CAAD9 is vanquished and he knows it. I don't look back and I don't see him again. It's better that way.

asprilla

Double post

HamishD

Learned a new trick tonight . . . . think someone else on here did it a few pages back too. . .

Oval to Lewisham . . .

there are a group of fairly quick roadies and SSers ahead of me but every time I look like catching up with them they jump the lights, the lot of them. :x

Sod this, thinks I and draft a Luton van doing just shy of 30 for half a mile or so. Then spot said gaggle . . .

Pull out of luton's slipstream, light blue touch paper and go . . . . overtaking at 35 on the peckham road. Caught a couple of double-take looks of surprise

Didn't see them again after that.

Happy days!

rjsterry

@Asprilla: Have some of that, but doesn't seem so effective on our littl'un. TBF, she's been fine up until this morning. 6 teeth so far, so a way to go yet. Thanks anyway.

That Condor wasn't blue by any chance, with the rider wearing a blue and white Bell Volt helmet (I think that's the model) and black baggies (that aren't that baggy)? I managed to hold that chap off from VB until a couple of hundred yards before the railway bridge before CB, but faded a bit and he and another chap on a grey flatbar roadie came by. They didn't pull out much of a lead, but then we were heading for a red light at CB.

Did make it home at just 34 seconds over the hour though, which is the fastest I've done it in a while, and a good 4 minutes faster than yesterday. Quite pleased with that, if a little blown as I staggered in the back door.

itboffin

Greg T wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Ummm..... is anyone else thinking "10 pages to go" ? :oops:

The peloton's forming a tight group at the front - I'm not sure anyone will try for a breakaway just yet - they'd only get reeled in - I'm anticipating a mass sprint, however if a team gets organised we could have a middle of the night attack.....

Oh i'm all over that one

itboffin

itboffin wrote:

Greg T wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Ummm..... is anyone else thinking "10 pages to go" ? :oops:

The peloton's forming a tight group at the front - I'm not sure anyone will try for a breakaway just yet - they'd only get reeled in - I'm anticipating a mass sprint, however if a team gets organised we could have a middle of the night attack.....

Oh i'm all over that one

Renshaw leads out again ... :roll:

itboffin

had an interesting tussle with a fellow FGSS rider this morning, he was shaved legged fully lycra pearson rider me in my work clothes shirt & trousers MASSHOOF rucksack etc but fuelled by two cups of Monmouth coffee he didn't stand a chance, i'm using his scalp as a beer mat atm :twisted:

I sealed the deal with an awesome big air bunny hop over several of those tasty pot holes along BF.

8)

itboffin

Anyone watch the TdF today...?

itboffin

Do you prefer the Eurosports or ITV4 coverage ...?

itboffin

Personally I was annoyed at ITV4 and sky cutting off the last 2km of my recordings

itboffin

So i switched to Eurosports live which is actually live and shows almost the entire race, which is actually pretty boring.

itboffin

Flicks elbow, lingering shoulder check :roll:

cjcp

Nothing on the road t 1am last night. Have decided that after 9pm, there's absolutely no zip in the legs at all.

WesternWay

itboffin wrote:

So i switched to Eurosports live which is actually live and shows almost the entire race, which is actually pretty boring.

I love the live shows much more than the highlights show. In the highlights you don't see any of the build up, get much of a feel for how much a rider has been out front or anything like that; it is like watching cricket highlights rather than the whole game.

And I prefer ITV4.

lost_in_thought

ITB, that was a pointless early break. The peloton will reel you back in in no time.

Anyway. Lovely morning this morning, wasn't it? Bit cooler, which was nice.

I left on time (0730) for a change, and there was barely any competition out on the uxbridge road. One guy on a green roadie, but I've seen faster glaciers.

HSK, and the usual pillocks who think they're like well fast innit. I don't mind, but please don't try to undertake me, then get annoyed when it doesn't work. I will do my best to leave you space to get around the buses, but I'm not putting myself under a van for you.

One roadie on what must be a new planet-x, not sure if it was carbon, or alu shaped to look like carbon, but it was black and pale blue and rather pretty.

He shot off, spinning furiously, then rather seemed to run out of steam. Or maybe he'd left the gas on, I'm not sure. Anyway. One for me!

UndercoverElephant

Ah, SCR, how I love thee.

It's my birthday today, and I was wearing the new Wallace and Grommit, "Keep up, Lad!" top I got on my commute...



... and was coming a slightly different route, due to the office tradition of stopping on your way in to buy cakes on your birthday. Anyway, as I was climbing the hill to the supermarket, I spy a roadie ahead and I'm gaining pretty quickly. I catch him with ease, wish him a good morning and fly off at a rate of knots up the hill. Left him for dead.

Thing is, as I was passing, I noticed he had a helmet cam on. If you're reading this, I was the guy on the yellow Orbea, I'd *love* a copy of that video. PM me. It is my birthday.... :twisted:

asprilla

Made good time this morning, but there was a derth of other cyclists about. From Hammersmith had a tussle with a fella on a hybrid who was jumping the lights. There was no need really because his calves were as big as my thighs and so he was easily away from me at any junction. However, once we got a clear run my higher gearing and better aerodynamics showed.

El Capitano

Took my scalp back last night from the lady on the road bike!

Last week, she'd sat on my wheel for about 3 miles into a stupidly strong headwind, only to blast past on the final climb, when I was completely dead.

Last night however, I came up behind her (Oh er matron...), the rain was bouncing off the road, no wind to speak of, I noticed she wasn't that confident in the conditions, so I wound it up from about 50 yards away, and sailed (quite appropriate in the circumstances) past her. Expecting her to accelerate to catch my wheel, I kept the hammer down up the final climb, hardly slowing and kept it at that level until the next roundabout. When I looked back, I'd left her for dead. Petty? probably. Satisfaction? Definitely.

And if she's reading this, your shorts are quite see-through when they're wet...

Nothing of note this morning, rode the XTC in wearing baggies, so pretty much everything's fair game today...

itboffin

lost_in_thought wrote:

ITB, that was a pointless early break. The peloton will reel you back in in no time.

Just testing the pack, checking the appetite for attacks