Three Strikes and You're Out!

Ouch! That was a lot of walking for one day. A total of 18.5 miles or so left me with very sore feet.

If you fancy a look at the stats, plus the GPS map, plus a 1.5 minute vid then you know where to look.

Thanks for all the messages of support I received, it was a fun journey.

There are Heroes Everywhere

Last Saturday Carole, K and I took a train into the fourth dimension. Well actually we went to the Smithfield Nocturne. It's a great evening of full on cycle racing, with beer, great company and good food to boot.

Team Addiscombe had two racers in the support race. Sylvain Garde and Toks Adesanya. The race takes place on a very tight 1.1km circuit around Smithfield Meat Market. Right from the off there was trouble as a Rapha rider took the very first corner way too wide and smashed heavily into the barriers. A Dulwich Paragon rider couldn't avoid the crash but he eventually got up and rode on to much applause. All the other riders avoided the incident though Toks very nearly fell victim to it, some sharp bike handling saved his skin.

The race soon settled with Sylv among the front runners. The pace was relentless with an average speed in excess of 40 km/h. After 40 minutes there were five laps called to decide the winners. Sylv was still close to the front, Toks further back in the main bunch. In the final couple of laps, Sylv held on in 6th place before coming round the outside in the final turn. He belted for the line and was just caught, finishing in fine style with a fourth place. A great result. After the race we caught up with Sylv and he said "It was a great race and I thoroughly enjoyed it, the course was brilliant just what I like, and the crowds awesome!"

So, there's two heroes for you, Sylv and Toks. I met more cycling hero buddies, including Huw, Chloe, David, Sean & Ajay.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any more heroic, I turned to find myself face to face with Johnny Green. Johnny roadied for The Clash and wrote a fantastic book about his experiences with them. Several years later he wrote a great book about following the Tour de France. What's a boy to do? I approached him and we enjoyed (well I did and I think he did) a few lovely minutes mixing up The Clash and cycling. Friendly guy, seemed surprised to be recognised and happy to talk. Great fun, one of those special moments.

There are Heroes Everywhere.

Mr Snoop Walks to Work

48 hour tube strike starts tonight, talk about doing dumb things to your customers. I have to be in London on Thursday. My bike has a flat tyre and a busted spoke. I could fix it. I'm not going to, yet. Instead of cycling into St Pauls I'm going to walk. It's only around 15 miles. I'll plan a route that follows as much river and parkland as practical, it should be fun.

I called into Radio London and told them about my planned adventure. Paul Ross asked me if I would skip at least part of the way. I will do just that. The plan will evolve on my Stop Doing Dumb Things to Customers site so why not check in and see how I get on? Any route suggestions, must sees, must not sees that you would like to recommend please go ahead.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The rain came down. The four horsemen looked at each other, eyes cold as steel. The Internet Millionaire raised his right hand and they were off. The Whippersnapper broke from the front and led the way. He had to be told where to turn left.

In twos they stalked the Surrey lanes. Neddy drove past in his little car and proffered the one fingered salute. The Engineer said something about a highway code. The others just shrugged, and the rain came down.

The Cowardly Lion felt both brave and afraid, so he took it easy, biding his time. The lanes narrowed, and the dung of a thousand nags filled the nostrils. The Whippersnapper whipped and snapped his steed through the plethora of manure, flick flack. They talked of permission slips, sausages, fortunes won and lost, and the rain came down.

Neddy rode through again, still buzzing like an angry wasp, this time The Engineer just motioned as if to say, what ya gonna do? We did nothing, more than Neddy deserved.

Little Switzerland opened her canton like arms and the horsemen rode bravely on, some more than most. Swooping, darting, and the rain came down.

At the foot of the mountains, The Cowardly Lion stole past and pushed to the bottom of the zig zags. He waited, the four regrouped. The Cowardly Lion pushed on and soon his fellow horsemen were whispers on the breeze. He eased and The Whippersnapper pulled alongside. They sized each other up, without giving anything away. Whippersnapper pushed on and suddenly, from nowhere, like a true entrepreneur, The Internet Millionaire rode past. A diet of LBP-20 was too pure for most, but he could cope. The Engineer followed, he wore a mask of indifference, and somehow he knew he would be first to the tea shop.

Treacle tart, coffee and drizzle. Talk of world domination.

Homeward bound, the lanes were devoured like long strings of tarmac spaghetti. Italian. They hit Regalinos and ordered lattes ‘n’ macchiatos. They rode on and shortly after they split. The Cowardly Lion attacked a short, steep hill which burned then he coasted home, no brakes, even some swooping. He crossed the wild plains of Little Woodcote Estate. He caught a flat, ten yards from home, and the rain came down.

Epic Ride.

With thanks to Grahame, Marco and Bryn

Excuse for Ice Cream

I finally got a resolution to the Battery Farm issue, they posted me a new phone. So, I had to return the old one. To be fair they did offer to collect but I didn't fancy a day in waiting...

I rode to the post office. Then, goods duly dispatched, I pushed on. Pootled out to Nonsuch Park and hoofed round that a couple of times. Both circuits took me near to the caff. It had some kind of people magnet thing going on and so second time around I found myself helplessly in the queue for an ice cream. The ice cream server would only let me choose one flavour, despite the fact I got two scoops, weird. Anyhoo, I went for mint with chocolate bits in. It was lovely.

I whizzed home, stopping off to collect K who had been playing at a friends house after school. She was pleased to see me but no too pleased that I'd had one of her favourite flavours of ice cream without her.

1 ice cream, 14.2 miles, average speed 12.2 mph. My computer says I hit 32.6 mph max but I think it's fibbing, I was in shade/under trees a while, jolly old satellite must've confused me with a pigeon or something.