Prudential RideLondon 2018

Do you fancy trying the Prudential London/Surrey 100-mile bike ride in 2018? It’s a fantastic experience and we have the chance to book a guaranteed place with the charity I rode for this year The Caring Cancer Trust. They have 20 places and you can grab one if you book soon, we already have 11 of these places reserved in the first couple of weeks. Unlike a lot of charities, they aren’t too demanding, they have a registration fee of £25 and will be pleased if you can raise anything over £200 – I managed £500 for them this year. The charity was so pleased with what I did they have asked me to co-ordinate their Prudential for 2018 hence first dibs to West Surrey CTC riders!

This charity’s purpose is to send children in remission from cancer on adventure holidays with any excess money being used for ethical cancer research (caringcancertrust.com). This is a small charity based on the Isle of Wight, they have no paid employees just dedicated volunteers and all their income comes from the one shop they run in Ryde and donations. All the money they raise is used for their work with children, no big salaries are paid and they don’t have opulent offices to support. They don’t supply cycling tops or provide teams on the course cheering you on or provide a party or massage in Green Park but they are very supportive and very easy to deal with.

The advantage of booking your place now is: –

  • A guaranteed place
  • You can reserve the date
  • Make an early accommodation booking probably at the best rate
  • Plan your training over a long period
  • You don’t have to wait until the end of January or early February to know if you have a ballot place
  • If you enter the ballot and are unsuccessful you then have to start looking for a charity place
  • Many charities expect you to commit to raising £600+ in sponsorship money

If you’d like further information or to reserve a place don’t hesitate to contact me on 01252 716660 or brian@caringcancertrust.com ,  I will be away on holiday in Canada from 3rd to 18th September.

Kind regards

Brian Keen

Tour of the Hills and Tour of the Greensand

The club’s most legendary event enjoyed fine, mild weather conditions – just! The rain started at around 7pm, by which time almost everyone – even those who cycled to and from the event – had reached home. Hard luck, Julie and Roland, but well done for riding to the start, taking some photos when on the ride, completing the ride almost within the time limit, and then riding home: true cycling heroes! And well done to all 103 finishers because it’s a tough ride by any standard, as was proved by the 25 who didn’t manage to finish. And as for the 24 who didn’t start, thanks for your entry anyway – we won’t waste your entry money on anything trivial.

This year the Tour of the Hills was one of Cycling UK’s chosen events in their ‘Challenge Ride’ series. As such, every rider received a medal, a musette and a bidon, which I think on the whole were well received. And was this raised profile the reason why the entries increased by almost 50%? We shall never know, but 150 entries is very respectable so thanks to Cycling UK for choosing us.

Home first was Steve Bauer of Woking based Team Velo Sportif (TVS) in 4 hours 11 minutes, which is an awesome time. Not that it’s a race of course but it just shows what’s possible if you’re fit and not too old and decrepit. It was good to know that Thames Water’s attempt to scupper the ride by closing White Down to traffic actually didn’t hold anyone up. And congratulations to Martin Vinson, Pat Daffarn, William Lowries and Robert Clarke, the only West Surrey Riders to ride the event. Finally mention must be made of Jack Hartrey, aged just 12, who rode the event with his father in a time of 5 hours 45 minutes: just amazing…

Heroic in a different way are all the West Surrey riders who gave up their ride to help on the day: in no particular order, Heidi Vinson, who masterminded the catering, and her assistants Bob McLeod, Susan Buff and John Child; at the start the help provided by Chris Jeggo, Angela Byrne, Laurie Mutch and John Finlay, not forgetting Martin Vinson who helped before he rode was much appreciated. Out on the road, marshalling the controls were Maggi Moss, Laurie Mutch, Julian Allen, Pete Hathaway, Ian Pickering, Penny Knight, David and Helen Pinkess, Arthur Twiggs, Dave King, Mark Heal, Clive Richardson and Chris Boggon. John Finlay performed the admirable task of ensuring that the marshals had everything they needed and went round checking everything was OK before returning to Shere to help with checking the riders back in. Finally thanks to John Murdoch for taking on the task of organising all the road marshals. Apologies to anyone I’ve left out. As has been mentioned countless times now, without the help of West Surrey CTC members, this event, not to mention the ‘surplus’ we make on the event, would either evaporate away or be taken over by another club. Please let’s never allow this to happen.

Run in tandem with the Tour of the Hills is the Tour of the Greensand, which was supported by nine members and two visitors from Notts CTC, namely John Wills, Angela Byrne, Sue and Paul Herber, Carol Moore, Anne and Derek Tanner, Peter Fennemore, Roger Philo, with Jude and Mark Beaven as our guests from Nottingham. Their 54km ride was not without its excitements: only yards from the start the riders were witness to an accident involving a runaway horse whose rider was thrown to the ground and needed urgent medical help. Thanks must go to Carol Moore who used her first aid skills to assist, and commiserations to her as well for losing her wallet and hearing aids in the process – what bad luck.

It would be great to know how many Tour of the Hills there have been; I shall be delving into the archives to try to bring this figure to light but if anyone can help, it would be much appreciated.

I hope to run the event next year, but I’m going to investigate the possibility of adjusting the route so that it doesn’t have to use the A25 after Box Hill, which doesn’t seem in keeping with the rest of the ride. Instead, I shall be attempting to route riders down ‘Little Switzerland’ and then back up to Ranmore Common and down through the back streets of Dorking: another climb and a couple more kilometres of torture? Sounds like fun to me!

 

Semaine Fédérale Internationale De Cyclotourisme 2017 – part 2

France celebrates the bike at the Semaine Federale

At this year’s Semaine Federale based in Mortagne au Perche in Normandy the villages and farms went to town in celebrating the velo. It’s amazing that they have the time and inclination to put so much effort into celebrating the bike when they know the Semaine will have passed by in just one day. What follows are photos from this year’s event, with a few others from previous Semaines. They show great imagination and are an inspiring celebration of the bicycle

 

(see more photos here)

Paul Gillingham

see more photos here

Cycling Mirrors – a potential life saver

Phil Hamilton and Bob McLeod introduced me to the Take-a-Look cycling mirror (made by Bike Peddler USA) about 4 years ago and I wouldn’t now ride without it.

Generally bike mirrors fit into five categories:

Frame mounted (e.g. Bike Eye), Handlebar (Oxford Bar End, Third Eye) , Helmet (EVT Safe Zone), Eye Glasses (Take-a-Look), and (now) Arm mounted. Handlebar mirrors are probably the most popular with varieties that can be fitted to either road or mountain / hybrid bikes. Prices generally range from £10 to £20 depending on local supply or imported.

The Arguments for and against mirrors:

It’s a subject that launches lots of passion amongst cyclists. I was concerned at first that the Take-a-Look mirror is close to my right eye and could cause a serious injury if I came off. However this risk seems very low when viewed against the advantages. Another argument against mirrors is the need briefly to take your eyes off the road. Of course, as drivers, we do this all the time. With eye glass mirrors a glance behind requires only the slightest turn of the head. On the other hand a frame mounted mirror requires you to look down and this might take time to get used to.

The criticism against some frame and handlebar mounted mirrors is that they suffer from vibration. One great advantage of West Surrey CTC is that we have so much experience close to hand. So if you are thinking of buying one of these mirrors chat to John Child (frame – Bike Eye) or Pat Daffarn (handlebar) for advice.

The biggest risk with mirrors perhaps is that we might rely too much on them – especially when turning right. There’s no substitute for a life saving look over the shoulder.

In summary, if you don’t already have a mirror, think of this as your next cycling safety purchase. And if you are a regular ride leader or back marker, being able to see what’s going on behind makes a huge difference. Here are some useful links:

Take-a-Look

Bike Eye

Oxford Bar End

Third Eye

EVT Safe Zone

Arm mounted mirrors

 

 

 

WMW’s Wey and Thames Towpath Ride

Laurie gives the group briefing

August is being a bit funny this year, weatherwise, and today was a typical example of the sort of muggy dull days we’ve been getting recently. (My photos also seem to get a bit fuzzy too so apologies for this.) Fortunately, there’s usually a bit of fine weather thrown in at some point each day, and in the case of today, it came at around lunchtime, so we enjoyed at least half of our ride today in pleasant sunshine.

This was our annual jaunt up the towpath of the Wey Navigation to Weybridge, where the Thames is reached, and which we then pedal along all the way to Richmond. An eatery is then found – usually expensive in this part of the world – after which we return, taking a slight shortcut through Bushey Park, back to where we started. It’s a great ride and somewhat different from our usual offerings in that we have the chance to dust off our off-road machines (if we have one) and ride on dirt for much of the day. The dirt, of course, isn’t particularly dirty – it’s just towpaths along the side of our local rivers, but it makes for a very pleasant day’s riding. As such, a good number of people gathered outside the Black Prince in New Haw / Woodham, since all three groups follow much the same route.

To ease congestion we set off in our respective groups. There were quite a few people walking dogs and cycling with their children in tow but I don’t think we incurred the wrath of anyone, mainly because we’re a sensible group of riders who say ‘good morning’ and ‘thank you’ as we pass other people; it’s so worthwhile being courteous and smiley.

Paul with his new bike

Your scribe rode with the 2s today and enjoyed a relatively leisurely ride downriver. We enjoyed the usual coffee stop by Walton Bridge before continuing to Kingston where we headed cross country to Ham and thence to Richmond Park where we encountered our one and only hill of the day, as we cycled from Ham Gate to Richmond Gate. A minor route error was soon corrected and shortly afterwards we reached Terrace Gardens and the Hollyhock Cafe, a vegetarian / vegan restaurant, chosen by our group leader, Roger. Great choice, Roger! We all loved the food and what a perfect setting!

We reach the Thames

Hampton Court

The Hollyhock Cafe

We headed back by crossing the Thames at Teddington Lock, where we passed the usual watering hole of The Anglers PH before pedalling up Teddington High Street and turning right shortly after into Bushey Park. We were enjoying a pleasant ride through this delightfully peaceful place before being caught up by the noisy group 3s and 4s, who proceeded to carve a slice through our well ordered group. By the time we reached the river at Hampton Court Bridge we were all over the place and then it was every man for himself (ditto with the ladies). Rumours were spread that the ice cream was running out at the Walton Cafe, so it was full speed ahead and devil take the hindmost to get the last of them. Of course it was a complete load of me-eye and anyone who wanted one enjoyed a good suck on a lolly of their choice, or enjoyed a more traditional cuppa before the final five or so miles back to Woodham.

Crossing the Thames at Teddington

Tbe 3s and 4s attempt to overtake us – and succeed!

Enjoying a quiet ride through Bushey Park

We all got a bit split up, the end result of which was that, of course, Susan and I got mildly lost by not heading up the Basingstoke Canal where it splits off from the Wey, but that was soon put right and we were back at the Black Price by about four something, having enjoyed a very pleasant day in good company.

I really must ride more of these canals – they’re so enjoyable to ride. Thanks to the leaders and everyone for their company. A great day!

Heron sighted