Operation Etape du Tour - May update

It's time to fit in some fast riding in earnest, so I took myself to take part in my local races. Crystal Palace park criterium on Tuesday nights must be the best work-out in town. Then over at Herne Hill Velodrome crit races you get to do the best bike handling in town!

Racing at Crystal Palace Park (photo: Honor Elliott)

In my preparation for the Etape du Tour it's important to get in some fast cycling. It's easy to go plodding around, particularly over long distances. So the way to ride faster is to well, ride faster.

I like to do track cycling at Herne Hill Velodrome, as well as doing training rides around Regents Park in Central London. These have definitely helped increase my natural speed.

But why not go one step further, and do some actual racing. I had renewed my British Cycling racing licence earlier this year, but didn’t feel quite ready to pin on a number.

At the epoch when I was cycle racing regularly, Redbridge Cycle Centre was just a schematic design on an architect’s desk, and people entered cycle races by sending their entry form with a cheque [remember them?] in the post.

I did do a lot of racing at the time. Over the summer months I would race maybe four times a week - at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit, the former Eastway circuit [now occupied by the Olympic Park], track league at Herne Hill, even a bit of summer cyclocross. A few of us got together and formed the original London Women's Cycle Racing League too, which we did as a way to encourage more women into racing. That was when I had more free time and fewer responsibilities. Then things got busy with work, especially as I worked abroad and in other parts of the UK and so racing died down.

I did make a brief comeback to cycle racing when I raced on a circuit at Dalton Barracks, Oxfordshire a couple of years ago. Nobody knew me, and the young girls kindly gave me encouraging tips as I was blown off the back of the group like a proper newbie! I concluded I was too old for this sort of thing and returned to my life in retirement. I would still do the odd bit of cyclocross racing, more as a way to brighten up a winter's day, than be competitive.

But in the end there’s always a little bit of hunger for competition that remains in you. Maybe it is that mid-life crisis that drives you to feed the hunger before old age really sets in – rather like my motivation for entering the Etape du Tour.

So I decided to ride the Crystal Palace circuit race. It's by no means the easiest one to start with. The circuit is only about one kilometre and during that time you have three tight bends, including one that is 180°, one on a fast descent, and another one around a corner obscured by a bush. The saving grace there’s a soft grassy bank to roll down if you go wrong there! Oh, and there's also a cheeky uphill – something you can’t avoid in that part of South London.

Crystal Palace Crit Circuit

It might be one of the scariest circuit races you can do - the organisers, Dulwich Paragon dub it "the best crit in town" - but it’s just a 10-minute ride uphill from my home, which doubles as my warm-up. I prefer to stay local when racing.  

Standing on the start-line in my Penge Cycling Club kit, alongside a 15-strong field of women who were half my age I knew it would be a fast race, but I had no expectation. That attitude meant that I didn’t feel nervous.

From the whistle, I was dropped by most of the field apart from one of the London Dynamo women. We were quite close together for a short while but then she put in a dig out of the saddle on the hill, and left me for dust.

As someone familiar with this circuit from doing my own training laps I know the course very well. But riding at race pace was a very different experience. I scared myself on the tight corners and at times had to slow right down, before accelerating back up to speed.

That put me at an even greater disadvantage, as I was probably using more energy than the other riders and would burn out quicker. Given the small field, I knew I would come last, so resolved to ride at my pace. I'd paid my entry fee, pinned on a number and so it was my choice how I would do my race!

These races attract a lot of spectators, so I got quite a few cheers of encouragement.  I must say I am grateful of their support - even if I barely had the breath to show it mid-race.

There are various racing going on simultaneously at this Tuesday evening event, so it's not always obvious where a rider is in a race, and pelotons tend to fragment with many riders racing around in ones and twos. So if you're on your own it's not an issue. Just stay off the racing line when a bigger group of riders lap you.  

I was lapped about three times by the top women. After speaking to them at the end I concluded that it doesn’t matter how fast or slow you are – Crystal Palace is a scary course for everyone. But you get such an adrenaline rush that you want to race there again!

I certainly hope to go back, regardless of where I finish. For me, it's the best work-out in town!

Another place to get a good work-out is Herne Hill Velodrome. Of course doing the regular track cycling sessions such as the morning sessions on Tuesdays or Thursdays is a great work-out. What I am referring to specifically are the races on a Friday evening.

Herne Hill Velodrome Crit Circuit

The folks at Herne Hill Velodrome have very cleverly designed a criterium course within the grounds of the velodrome that includes parts of the main velodrome and also the inner section of the track where they normally have sessions for children. Given how compact the area is, this has shown how creative course designers can be. What it also shows is how twisty and technical a course can be, and how much I need to practice my skills. On one section you come off down the ramp of the velodrome and drop down into the inner section at speed and straight into a chicane. It's not something that you want to get wrong - handily there is padding on the corner in case you do miss the corner!

I found the Crystal Palace course technical, but this Herne Hill circuit is technical to another level. One lap of the circuit is probably around 600m, meaning the tricky sections come round with greater frequency than at the Tuesday night race. There are no fast descent at Herne Hill, but you can gain high speed on the flat and on the ramp. With 180-degree and 90-degree turns a-plenty I found it hard to pick up speed, knowing that I would need to slow right down to negotiate these sections safely. 

In the old days when I raced at Herne Hill Velodrome there would be literally one man and his dog spectating. So for that reason when I turned up at the venue I hadn't even considered that anyone would be watching the race. I had been hoping to race in relative anonymity given that most of the other competitors would be younger women who would have been still in primary school when I was regularly racing.  

So imagine my shock when I arrived there to the sound of pumping music, a commentator on the loudspeaker and loads of people actually sitting in the stands watching, cheering while drinking beer. Crikey. That alone almost made me say to myself, "There's been a mistake. I hadn't meant to sign up for this - I should go home!" But I guess deep down I wanted to get a work out, regardless of where I finished in the group. So I just took the start line anyway.

Just as with Crystal Palace, folks cheered me on, but in even greater numbers than at Crystal Palace. It was actually quite fun being part of this dynamic event, even if I did finish in last place again. I must also admit that I wasn't out of breath at all - it wasn't for want of trying, but simply because the corners were so tight that there was a real possibility of stacking it if you went too fast. In fact, one woman did crash, though without any injury and she managed to get up and carry on racing. In a group that lapped me, one girl skidded when she applied her brakes to suddenly, which sent her fellow riders and myself into a brief panic. Thankfully she managed to stay upright. Those two scenarios were exactly what I wouldn't have wanted to be involved in, and was ready to be dropped in order to avoid that.

It was a good evening, and I was glad I went. If nothing else, the Herne Hill Velodrome circuit is a great place for improving your bike handling skills.

So between racing at Crystal Palace and racing at Herne Hill you definitely get in the best racing in town.

One day one photo - 18: RIP Wonder Woman (aka Tabitha Rendall)

The lovely Tabitha Rendall

This photo of Tabitha Rendall symbolises what she represented - Wonder Woman - a woman who does loads of activities, is strong, empowered and a superhero to her three children.

I am so shocked and saddened to learn that Tabitha, who I raced with in previous years at local cyclocross races, died this morning. It was like a real hit to the solar plexus. She was a healthy woman who did lots of sport, and busied herself within the cycling community, notably in BMX where her she and her children had been heavily involved - and were doing well at the discipline. 

I first got to know Tabitha when she started doing cyclocross and we would sometimes end up in a mano a mano in the races - though in the end, she got faster as I got slower!

Tabitha also got into road racing and helped with administering the London Women's Cycle Racing League. 

I didn't see her so much in recent years as I raced less. Also, she took time out when she suffered a head injury following a crash in a BMX race. But we kept in touch on social media and she regularly updated us on the different activities and trips that she went on.

Then out of the blue, in May of this year Tabitha made the shock announcement that she had been diagnosed with bowel cancer. It was quite a surprise as I had until then, been enjoying her posts about her travels in Nigeria and to Chile.

So I really didn't see this coming. Knowing how strong and organised Tabitha is, I wanted to believe she could combat this terrible affliction. 

But it wasn't to be. Unfortunately, a few complications including a pulmonary embolism, and a bout of coronavirus left her in a very weakened state, and the cancer spread throughout her body. It was in late August - just 2 months later - that she said she was being moved into end-of-life care.

I really had hoped there could be a miraculous change in events, but when I saw the various tribute messages on Facebook, I realised that Tabitha had passed away. That left me in shock, and I am still reeling from the news. I just keep asking why this had to happen.

Sure, folks say that death is part and parcel of the rigours of life. I had to deal with the sudden loss of my own mother in 2014 at the age of 64, as well as another active cycle racer, Charlotte Easton in 2016, aged 36. But there's something quite brutal about what happened with Tabitha.

A few high-profile people died of bowel cancer in recent times - Deborah James (aka Bowel Babe) succumbed to it after being diagnosed in 2016, and the BBC journalist George Alagiah also died a couple of months ago from the same disease after a nine-year battle. They both had a survival rate of a few years - the average five-year survival rate for bowel cancer is around 65%. That means that for every 100 people diagnosed with bowel cancer 65 of them will live for five years after the diagnosis.

Just five months ago Tabitha was getting on with her active life and enjoying her travels. When she suffered from stomach upset in April she just thought it was something dodgy she'd eaten. She couldn't have imagined that there was a metastasis going on in her caecum, and this would take her away from this earth just a few months later. Even in her last update to everyone on Facebook she admitted that she had thought that she would reach this situation in two or three years' time, not in three months' time. In her post she said she had so much more love and nourishing to give her children. She had so much of the world that she hadn't seen, and was looking forward to doing so. 

Tabitha was ready to fight this battle and her experience of endurance events - notably when she did the Three Peaks cyclocross, and her ride across Italy - had her set up for a long road. But that road just came to shockingly abrupt end - at the age of 52. That's what is heartbreaking and devastating.

I feel terrible for Tabby's family and friends, especially her children, who have not all reached adulthood yet. I like to think that she has left a strong legacy for her children, and she will always be Wonder Woman.

Ride high, Tabby. Xx  

Farewell Look Mum No Hands!

The downturn in the economy really is biting. Many businesses have gone into administration - shops as well as service industries. A café in my local area, Joanna's, which had been a fixture in Crystal Palace since 1978  had to close down. One of the local bike shops in Penge was helped thanks to a crowd-funding campaign by local cyclists when the proprietor received an astronomical fuel bill.

Very sadly, we have now received the news via an Instagram post from the owners of Look Mum No Hands! Cycling café & workshop that this establishment, a mainstay of the London cycling community is closing its doors. This was quite a shock.

I guess it was something that we could have seen coming. Businesses affected by the loss of revenue because of the coronavirus pandemic had previously received subsidies from the government. However, this could only have been a short-term fix, particularly as many businesses in Central London were slow to return to their pre-coronavirus level of commercial activity, if at all.

In the case of the Look Mum No Hands! café and bike workshop a lot of business came from people who worked in the area - whether they were taking in their bikes for repair or to eat at the café. The effect of the pandemic had been for people to change their working patterns, notably by working from home instead of in an office at least part time, if not permanently. 

Sam Humpheson, the head mechanic, and one of the co-founder and owners of the business had told me at times about the decrease in footfall in the area. 

Furthermore, the café had previously hosted events and presentations almost on a weekly basis - be it product launches, parties by cycling clubs, group meet-ups, celebrity interviews, and film screenings. Since the pandemic this level of activity had dropped after people became reticent about attending large gatherings.

To add to that, all businesses have been feeling the pinch over increased business rates, fuel bills and other running costs.

All of the above created the perfect storm which ultimately led to Sam and fellow co-founder-owners Matt Harper and Lewin Chalkley deciding to close the doors on the famous Old Street premises.

This has been a real blow to the cycling community, as could be seen by the thousands of messages across the social media channels. Look Mum No Hands! was a well-known institution not just in the London area, but also in many parts of the UK and beyond. A number of cycling cafés that were set up during the thirteen-year existence of Sam, Matt and Lewin's joint modelled themselves on Look Mum. I remember interviewing a café owner in Harrogate who had the London café in mind when setting up his own establishment. Even more impressive was UpCycle, a Milan-based café-workshop which cited Look Mum as its inspiration in a local newspaper. 

So it is all the more ironic that this cycling café & workshop in Old Street that spawned a new trend in cycling hubs, has now received its own last rites.

My first experience of Look Mum No Hands! was in 2009, almost six months before they opened. A group of local women cycle racers, including myself, Maryka Sennema, Rebecca Slack, Liz Rice, and Charlotte Easton (Sam's then girlfriend) were setting up the London women's cycle racing league. At that point Sam, Matt and Lewin proposed to sponsor our fledgling project. Initially I was as sceptical about the offer as I was about the name they'd be giving to their new business! I had heard about cycling sponsorship deals that had fallen through and I was concerned that we may leave our league exposed to risks. 

Lewin Chalkley (2nd right) with competitors in the London Women's Cycle Racing League in 2010. (L-R: Emma Patterson, Maryka Sennema, Claire Beaumont, Elise Sherwell)

But everyone was excited about this prospective partnership, so we agreed a deal and we had a very fruitful inaugural year with the London Women's Cycle Racing League. So I will always remember the guys at Look Mum No Hands! as having played a significant role in helping local women's cycle racing. 

The cycling café also became very well known very quickly after it opened. I remember attending some pretty fun parties there too. I must also add that Sam is a very competent mechanic, as I found when he serviced my different bikes.

So I am going to miss Look Mum. I am glad to have been there, and been part of that history, and I hope that Sam, Matt and Lewin can feel comforted that with their café-workshop they did make their mark in cycling culture.