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I'm still working on the routes. Much of Thomas' route is now on nasty roads so we are looking for alternates but still trying to visit some of his highlights.
So far day 1 ridewithgps.com/routes/2197390
and day 2 ridewithgps.com/routes/2197532

tricitybendix probably has done some of this, but not stopped anywhere.
What a pity, now that TB has given up cycling.

I would rather go up than down to be honest. Proper steep descents on road bikes seem nothing other than lethal to me. Brake pads would melt before you were half way down. If you had disc brakes, they would get super hot and also stop working properly I imagine.
On my first descent of Tourmalet I sat up and put the dynamo on to increase drag, by 2/3rds way down I had serious brake fade and came very close to a tour bus on one of the hairpins

Three of us are planning a leisurely six day Easter ride from Clapham to Cothelstone, Somerset. We will be staying in a wierd selection of pubs and B+Bs on the way.
This is the 100 year celebration of Edward Thomas's 1913 ride In Pursuit of Spring from

to

Has anyone done some or all of this before?

We will try to follow much of Thomas's route although not at the same pace. He stopped at:-
CLAPHAM, GUILDFORD, DUNBRIDGE, DILLYBROOK, TROWBRIDGE , SHEPTON-MALLET, BRIDGWATER , KILVE and The Grave of Winter at COTHELSTONE HILL

Do cats count as family?

I quite like them, but I can only imagine their consternation at being left a Volvo.
*Has this been resolved yet? *

Do we need a Tourmalet only thread?

Hopefully his insurance will take a claim out against her directly and she will have the book thrown at her.

One concern is she sounded American, so she may just fuck off out of the country.
Err .... drunk driver .. range rover .... foreign driver .... South Ken ... A4 .... ?
reminds me of the killing of Tom Sippel-Dau
Natela's lawyers got her passport back from the court, she skipped bail and was last seen in Moscow pretending to be too ill to return to justice

Howdy folks, . . . .
I would appreciate your comments on what you think of the video as it was one of the most exciting things Ive done for a while, (riding through London).
Why exciting? I guess we can all get an adrenalin rush from repeatedly failing anticipate other people's moves in traffic and being forced to jump on a pavement to avoid a bus. Scattering pedestrians as you RLJ gives some people a buzz but if you do that then it is not a good idea riding into an identifiable address and putting your name at the end.
Personally I liked your other video better www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRYUIbzLFbU
, the subliminal tension delivered through the post modern editing technique almost made me . . . .

yes
and who trains the trainers?
do you lot get annual assessments and refresher training?

How many death by dangerous driving cases have resulted in conviction where a cyclist was concerned?
Not many, and now that 'causing death by careless driving' is an option many of the 'dangerous' cases are downgraded to get a conviction or 'gulity' plea.
Tracing the legal outcomes of serious injury crashes is something Roadpeace and LCC have been pushing at TfL's Cycle Safety Working Group. The short answer is that no one has been tracing this from the crash investigation, to the police action, to the prosecution decision to the court outcome. There are 4 or 5 different organisations involved and any case can be blocked or lost at any stage. TfL have promised to improve reporting, but only for cyclists and only for fatals. They have almost finished the analysis for the 2010 cases but we don't know when this will written up and published.
At least one of the 2011 cyclist fatalities has yet to come to court.

if the joy of cycling doesn't outweigh the fear then you're probably best not getting back on the bike.

stop reading the forum, enjoy riding your bike.
Mostly I ride a bike for the sheer joy of it.
A very very long time ago when I was about 11 they told us at school that by the time we were 25 we would have lost a friend or close relative to a fatal road crash. They were right about both.
Decades later London is 3 to 4 times less risky than where I was then. The risks are real but so are the risks of not riding:- a less active, less healthy, joyless life.
Managing ourselves to minimise risk makes sense. For me it is by trying to learn from every 'near miss' and see them before they happen. And training. Spending an hour with a Bikeability trainer analysing and criticising my moves was an enlightening experience. That was about 5 years ago and I need to do it again. Everyone reading this needs to do it again, about every 5 years for the rest of your life.

Last August I got doored while filtering in stopped traffic on Fulham Palace Road. . . . . . . .

That was until I got a letter in the post this morning saying that the police had taken the guy to court, fined him £150, and thanked me for "helping [them] try to achieve [their] objectives of reducing the number of killed and seriously injured on London's road". . . . . .
Stodd
Reducing the number of Killed and Seriously Injured is the key performance indicator for the Met Police traffic command. It is great that they are beginning to take dooring seriously. In four years working on TfL's Cycle Safety Working Group we have made great progress putting the focus on HGV deaths but dooring and cyclists being hit from behind are areas where we need to make more progress.
Prosecutions for dooring are very rare, most car drivers don't even know it is a crime, nor do most juries, that's why people like Sam Harding's killer get to drive away free. In London about one cyclist a year dies in a dooring related crash, more than twice the rate of RLJ deaths. Dooring is always in the top group of causes of serious injury to cyclists. [table 12, page 17 of casualty report] We have constantly asked the police to take note of the casualty evidence and put real resources into cracking the dooring problem. It may be that they are beginning to take notice. We also need the legal changes so killing someone by opening a car door is treated the same way as killing them by dangerous driving.

Route des Corniches d'Ariege

I do believe that if any able bodied person taking a driving test had to complete cycle training it would help change some of the culture in the UK.

^^ this is a strong simple idea that should be pushed very hard to the Parliamentary Inquiry. Even politicians and the media can understand the idea that on road cycle training for teenagers will help them be safer, better drivers.
It should be branded 'Bikeability' so that high schools will be queuing up to provide Bikeability 3 and expecting the primary schools to deliver kids with Bikeability 1 & 2

I would go for something solid

... The UK has a rather well-developed driver education system, and one of the toughest tests, and consequently we have the lowest road deaths (per capita, per vehicle and per mile - doesn't matter how you measure it) of almost anywhere in the world. ...
The difference between UK and Sweden and Netherlands is that the risk of injury for cyclists is much higher here and the number of serious injuries is increasing.
In the Netherlands kids of about 11 have to do a practical and theory cycling exam in school. If the petition called for Bikeability level 3 as a prerequisite for a UK driving licence then high schools would be queuing up to provide it.

This is a matter of judgement but I don't think a crash that puts a cyclist in hospital with a cracked rib etc. is a minor collision.

More here road.cc . How can it be an appropriate remedy for a driver who pulls out of a garage onto a busy road, crashes with a cyclist, resulting in serious injuries?

So sad that such a thing can happen. This bit of road is a high speed rat run, not the safe local street they promised when it was built 15 years ago.

Zavatta, we hope the rider is doing ok.
What time of day on Friday this this happen? We can put a message out to see if anyone has heard details of the crash.

I am affected by this personally, as is everyone who breathes in London. It is a gentle proposal, people can register under the current rules until July then get free access until 2015.

It will raise an extra £1 million to £2 million a year — helping to reverse a £60 million slump in revenue since the scrapping of the zone’s western extension.
As yet it is only a consultation. To make it happen you have to tell them what you think** tfl.gov.uk/ccyourviews**

Hope the rider is healing. Hitting a small ridge at an angle can easily catch you out.
The westbound contraflow changes as the road works move around. Currently it helps people working and visiting area or you can do a short walk to Shand st to link back to Bermondsey st. From Tower Bridge I use it to Druid st and then south to work.

What do people think of the video
?
It highlights the risk that most forumengers already know about but it is worth spreading out to everyone else.
Yesterday an elderly pedestrian was killed by a lorry in Islington. There are even more peds than cyclists killed by HGVs in London.

Oliver is it right there maybe some food?
there'll be a well stocked bar, including draught ale from the Hackney Brewery, and snacks for sale. What more do you need?