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^ you dodgy, dodgy person!

I'm going to try and sneak on somewhere near the isle of dogs. I can't imagine it'll be that difficult to do. I'm going to try and get on the route before 6 and avoid the crowds/try and do a quickish time.

Couldn't do the Dynamo this year, but I rode back to town from Woodbridge today. I was hoping to see lots of super hardy there and backer's, but alas, I rode alone.

Bastard nice ride, mind. Slight tailwind for once made it reasonably pacey too...

http://app.strava.com/activities/68747628

^^^ good cause. Good riding. Donation made.

^^^^ I've cycled some of those roads near Lucca. Best roads, like evah...

^ excellent work . Rep.

Good memory! Yes it is Jago. He has already said he wants to do it again next year, so he must have loved it.
see you around,
Ben

Thanks for leading the ride Jane. It was my son on the islabike! He's 10 actually but perhaps looks a bit younger. It was a really good ride and we were blessed by the weather. It was nice to see some bits of lewisham that I've never seen before, despite living in, or near, the borough for many years.

^ that looks about as good as it gets. Jealous.

Asked a guy to do a skid as he was grinding up Greenwich Park hill this evening - I was doing reps on a crabon geared bike: I know, bike radar>>>>>>

Anyway, he looked cross - with a hint of perplexity, so probably not on here, (or just thought I was an idiot for requesting an uphill skid at low speed) but man, did he look on here. Saw a couple of other people going up there fixed, but couldn't das them with any conviction after that.

That looks superb that Norway does. Good work - what is this jogging, or yogging, thing of which you speak? Sounds hideous...

Excellent right up wrong cog!

Obvs I have nothing better to do while in the south of France than to read all about the rides you lot are going on! I'm having serious bike withdrawal and would probably swap the cake and for gras I'm being forced to consume for a few hours of suffering on the bike.

Justhavinganepiphanyaboutextentofmywrongness.

http://app.strava.com/activities/58206806

I'm not going to get a weekend ride this week - I'm going to a wedding in France and I've been banned from bringing my bike along with me by the boss.

So I'm trying to squeeze in a few rides during the week. This evening was blissfully perfect weather - cloudless sky, warm and not too windy.

There's nothing interesting to report about this ride - no buzzards catching small children or marauding sheep, but it was one of those rare occasions when everything felt effortless. To such an extent that it was almost as if someone has swapped my body with someone's who's actually good at cycling and not old.

People, you are looking at my golden moment in the sun!

^^ looks like a tough ride Jim - chapeau!

Three rides for me this weekend.

Firstly, I rode to Brighton on Friday with my son (jago, who is 10). Beautiful weather conspiring with a flukey failure to get lost, resulted in a bona fide win of a ride. The highlight of which was me talking J through the ascent of Ditchling by pretending to be Froome helping Sideburns through a moment of difficulty in the Alps. Sharing a molten brownie with a red-faced, proud 10 year old at the top was mos def a Hallmark moment to tuck into the Dad portfolio.

Second was a 45 minute ride on Saturday, which was having to replace a proper ride because I had a wedding to be drunk at later on. Decided to have a crack at a Strava loop someone had set up over shooter's hill and back round via Rochester way. I managed to take a minute and a half out of the kom (boast post tosser), which was quite nice.

Thirdly, Family spin of 30 miles round London today, which took in lunch at Capitan Corelli's in Battersea. For those not in the know Corelli's is the most awesome, cheap, weird, authentic Italian restaurant I know in London. Full of odd looking misfits shouting/singing at each other in Italian.

The most singular bit of knowledge that I gained today is that when the sun comes out, if you see a Boris bike you should take immediate evasive action. This may sound hyperbolic, but I have honestly NEVER seen such terrible, scary cycling as I saw The Borisers doing today. I was nearly taken out by two guys RLJing as I crossed on the green man in clear view, I had to grab my son and pull him out of the path of a woman swerving across the entire width of a one way road going the wrong way, looking behind her, while talking on a mobile! Fucking cyclists, I'm bidding on a hummvee as I type and filling out a subscription to the Daily mail.

Look into my eyes wrongcog, look into the eyes, not around the eyes, into the eyes, look into my eyes and you're under.

Dude, stop smoking, you're like, partying way too hard. You're going to regret your weak willed self indulgence!

And you're back in the room.

After yesterday's toil on the moor today was about the most perfectly leisurely ride imaginable. Cruising down the Exe valley with my wife and son, the sky was cloudless and the countryside conformed to some sort of platonic ideal of beauty. Having grown up in this landscape I was suffused with a sense of nostalgia for a good portion of the ride.

Olivia was riding my mum's clunky mountain bike and was pretty slow as a result, but she was happy for jago and me to race ahead for a couple of sprints. It was an amazing feeling sitting at 25 mph for a 2 mile stretch riding neat through and off with my ten year old son - superprouddadmoment

The ferry crossing from starcross to exmouth was a highlight. Jago is a bit obsessed with animals and I had said there was a chance of seeing a seal from the ferry. Although in reality it isn't very common to see them in that part of the estuary. However, halfway across, there, frolicking on a sandbanks, was not just a seal, but a seal pup, magic! The ride back from exmouth was spent mostly trying to field awkward questions from Jago, such as: " what is the point of there being so many million millions of particles in the universe? " and "what effect does gravity have on time? "

Fortunately, these ponderings were brought to an end by a lunch of the best fish and chips in the universe at Dart's farm, which is middle class foodie heaven just outside Exeter. We scoffed them down next to an enclosure of llamas and then feel asleep in the sun. Pure bliss! And made all the more intense by virtue of the horror of the day before.

I had just over three hours to get some riding in yesterday after a long and tiresome car journey to Devon, involving massive traffic jams and much back seat whinging

It was sunny and reasonably warm, but windy. I began the long drag from Exeter to Mortonhampstead into a stinker of a head wind, which got worse the further and higher I got into Dartmoor. The wind got so bad on the high moor that I found myself crawling along at a painfully slow pace. By the time I got to the point where I turned back I felt spent and was beginning to dread the thought of Widecombe climb.

This was my third ascent of Widecombe and it was as bad as I remember it being. Just over a mile of 10% average gradient with a few spells at 20% for good measure. I didn't have the legs to push very hard but I made respectable progress and once I crested the top I knew that the worst of the climbing was behind me. I now had a following wind and the anticipation of booze and dinner in my mind. I was able to crack on and managed to turn my embarrassing average speed into something a little more respectable.

It is beautifully sunny this morning and we will be heading out for a family ride to exmouth and back along the cycle path. Flat all the way - sweet!
http://app.strava.com/activities/56214231

Ace report Blue fleet!

Rode today with Mr Tim (he's not on here). The normal state of affairs is that he tells me how slowly we are going, while I bleed through my eyes trying to keep up. He wasn't having the best day today, for a number of reasons, so I was able to actually look around me at the world as I passed through it without the red filter, and mighty special blighty looked today. I really would like to put this time of year in aspic - Kent was looking almost edibly voluptuous. The landscape around Sevenoaks, and the grounds of Knoll in particular, are comically picturesque right now.

We did a fair bit of climbing, but avoided most of the really steep pigs, in favour of longer grinding drags, which suits me quite well and I felt quite okay on the bike - I even got a few twinkly little strava ego massages.

Tim was doing most of the navigating , until I made a hubristic comment about my excellent, nay infallible sense of direction, took over the steering and promptly got us lost. I'm such a pillock sometimes.

I even got back in time for a lunch of asparagus crepes and a pretty decent bottle of Picpoul. Middleclasswin...

All important data:
http://app.strava.com/activities/54832631

Spotted Jim1985 in a world of pain going up Star Hill while I was cruising down it - smugfeeling...

Guy riding a brakeless fixed gear with no foot retention riding west on the Old Kent Road this morning. Grey clothes, grey bike, grey beanie - he jumped every red from New Cross to E&C.

So far, so blah - who gives a whatevs I wouldn't bother spotting, but after about quarter of a mile of passing him and then watching him rlj, I see him freewheeling...
Brakless ss, classy. Now where did I put that picture of Darwin?

^^ pothole-tastic out there at the moment. Had a mostly lovely spin with Wrongcog, but we had punctures and snapped chains and mech failures. I'm hoping that today has got my bike bad luck over and done with and I shan't have to pick up a tyre lever for the next 6 months.

There was a vintage bus festival in Theydon today. I had no idea that the was such a thing as a bus-fancier, but the world seems expanded and richer after seeing the how many Mr Toad's there were, ogling the beautifully restored sharabangs and saying 'poop, poop!' under their breath.

The country also smiled on us in the form of Eric - most def not on here - who looked like a man least likely to have a chain tool (lumpen hybrid, jeans, flouro, etc) but who turned out to have a bag filled with every bike tool you can imagine. Thanks to Eric I was saved the LONG walk from banks lane to Theydon and a train journey home.

In fact the more I think about it the better today gets in affirming the general goodness of folk. My Garmin fell off somewhere just north of the Greenwich foot tunnel. I realised in the lift at the other end and sprinted back northward, to find that someone had found it and left it with the newsagents kiosk at the entrance. I looked so flustered when I claimed it that the guy offered me a cup of tea!

So, 65 sunny, interrupted miles filled with excellent conversation that ranged from discussing the various excitements / woes of our successes/failures in the studio, the Killing, vintage buses (natch), Paris-roubaix, John Major and American frat movies. That'll do.

I'm in for the ride - possibly also for the tenting and rolling back with mssers wrongcog and 6pt, depending on what mrs and mini benj are doing that weekend.

I expect hms and I will be rolling to the start together. Anyone else in the Blackheath, lewisham, Greenwich area want to tag along?

I'm terrified of messing with the list after messing up the London classic one three times. So apologies in advance if I cock this up...

1. Whatok
   
2. Wrongcog
   
3. doppelkorn
   
4. Hefty
   
5. stedlocks
   
6. MrDrem
   
7. Ludd
   
8. AllezSzmyd
   
9. Buckaroo
   
10. hats
    
11. Chainbreaker +3
    
12. OldSkoolRacer +1
    
13. Hovis
    
14. laner
    
15. Tricitybenix
    
16. pt
    
17. Doctor Cake
    
18. Howard
    
19. vunugu
    
20. Hairy
    
21. Tanya g
    
22. Ed!
    
23. T4
    
24. hms
    
25. Arben Zilci
    
26. jakemcree
    
27. FixedCheese
    
28. Poots
    
29. Mr Poots
    
30. TooTallTim
    
31. Benj
    .
    .
    
32. Ramaye
    .
    .
    
33. middleofnowhere
    

^ Nice to meet you today Jim.

I was up at 6.30 making porridge, bathed in sunlight pouring in through my kitchen window. By the time I met Jim and TY at Orpington station my optimistically donned sunglasses were entirely redundant, and we set off in gloopy low cloud and began throwing grit and mud at each other from our tyres.

I, prophetically as it turned out, commented on the inappropriateness of our summer/race tyres. It wasn't long before we had our first sojourn on the verge and before long we were all tiptoeing on our bikes in near-constant trepidation, waiting for that all too familiar, horrible, lumpy sensation that presages another faff in the hedge.

However, that only slightly diminished the enjoyment of a splendid ride - I felt almost, oh what's the word, almost... oh, erm, warm? At least not cold... That was quite nice. I'd like to get used to it. So used to it that I start to wonder whether I might want to have freezing fingers and toes, just because I'm so fucking bored of being warm.

Kent was swarming with cyclists and it still amazes me how many people one sees out doing meaty riding. A couple of years ago I might only see 3 or 4 people over the course of a whole ride - we must have seen 50 or more today; H G Wells would have been over the moon.

I can't believe you're arm hasn't been torn off.
This is an ace bike - looks fab in the metal and is being pretty much given away at this price.

Could have been me.....Cream rain jacket and rucksack ?

Bikes a Silver Brooklyn, black forks

Sounds about right. I was cracking along so can't be one hundred percent sure about the exact details. I was on a white crabon giant wearing a black and red campagnolo top.

Will shout more loudly next time!