Operation Etape du Tour: January update

In my third month of preparing for the Etape du Tour, January was a bit of a challenge as I had a wobble in my commitment to the cause and I ended up playing catch-up to get in the miles - in the dark, damp weather

My ride around South London took me out past Hampton Court Palace

I am beginning to step up my training for this year's Etape du Tour. It still seems a long way off though, and in these dreary winter days it's hard to imagine riding in brilliant sunshine over lovely dry roads through the countryside or National Parks in the UK or beyond. A lot of my riding has been done in darkness or semi-darkness, on damp suburban streets of London, and only venturing into the countryside on the odd ride.

As much as I would rather ride outdoors than in the rarefied virtual world of a smart turbotrainer, riding outdoors still has its challenges and frustrations to deal with. 

So this is how I've been doing my riding in January. Firstly, I ride alone. I find it hard to join in with club runs because my daily schedule is a movable feast. I like to have flexibility in when and how I do things, as well as where I go. 

My cycling club has a system of signing up for a ride via RiderHQ, a platform for signing up to sports events. As it's a big club the rides can sometimes get fully booked as they want to limit the size of groups on a road. That's understandable. So that means for me, that if I sign up for a ride I should commit to going, or go online to remove my name, and thus free up the space for another club member - which I must admit is a palava. The thing is, I just like things old skool - wake up in the morning, see if the sun's shining. Go if it's a nice day, or do something else if the day looks dodgy.

As someone who is generally motivated and a self-starter, I don't need the pull of a group or someone else to get me out on a ride. I've taken myself out on rides since I was in my late teens, so at the age of 54 I'm unlikely to stop doing that now!

As someone who is a bit of a map geek I know the roads around my local area, so am capable of planning myself a route, and maybe discovering new ones too. So I don't need to have a group leader showing me which way to go.

So ultimately, I am happy enough to decide when and where I go on a ride. The whole concept of signing up onto RiderHQ and committing to turn up at the bike shop meet-up point at a given moment on a Sunday morning come rain or shine has all the charm of wearing a straight jacket. My working week is full of appointments and deadlines, so the weekends need to be more chilled and laid back.

So with all that, I do my own rides on my own, deciding the day before, on the day itself, or even during the ride on where to go, and I am happy enough to say hello to other riders that I see along the way. For me, it's freedom and it's bliss!

Spotting other Sunday morning riders at Kingston Bridge

Secondly, I do my rides at slightly unsocial times. As a person who has a tendency to take on various activities, I need to optimise on the hours of the day. I prefer to do sporty things first thing in the morning - like as soon as I wake up. It's the purest time of the day. No one to disturb you, and I feel at my most motivated and energised. So for me, that means 5am - sometimes even before that. So that's when I've taken to going out. 

The London streets are great. There's hardly any traffic - just Uber drivers, a few black cabs, the odd night bus. When cycling through Central London at that time the traffic lights are generally with me, so I hardly have to stop - which is handy for someone who is not a red-light jumper.

You get to see a bit of London life too - the fox community, clubbers tipping out at Vauxhall or Brixton, lovers tiffs, all the action at the 24hour grocers or the kebab shops. During the week, I say hello to the dustmen and I can learn the different days when the different London boroughs do their refuse collections!

In the early mornings  I prefer to ride through London rather than in the country lanes which are unlit and for which I don't have suitable lights. For me, the Royal Parks serve as a great place to do laps - be it the cycle path around Hyde Park, the loop of Regents Park, or the very Royal loop around St James's Park, taking in The Mall, Birdcage Walk, and Horse Guards Road. 

So, even if I did think about doing a club run it'd have to be one that does this sort of itinerary at this time of the day. I am not aware of any cycle clubs that do that.

So that has been my riding I've been doing in January, with a few rides out to another Royal Park, Richmond Park, when I break a habit and decide to ride during daylight hours.

My routine consists of doing a hilly ride on the local hills around Crystal Palace, a fast ride through Regents Park, and then medium paced rides around Cator Park, Crystal Palace, Park or Dulwich Park, plus rides around the Bromley and Beckenham suburbs. The aim was to get in 600km for this month.

The only issue was I did suffer a little wobble in early January and I came very close to deciding not to ride the Etape du Tour and just giving myself a quiet life, tootling around doing leisure rides. Sometimes getting motivated to ride frequently when the weather is rubbish and you get punctures can be demoralising and sucks the joy out of bike riding. As mentioned before, I am not cut out for indoor cycling. But in the end, the fire in my belly wouldn't let me give up on targeting this epic ride through the Alpes-Maritimes, so I got my act together.

Roehampton Gate Cafe at Richmond Park

Once I regained my resolve, that left me with around 300km to ride within around five days. For some, that may not seem an unreasonable distance to cover if your days are free from other activities like going to work and getting on with the every day chores of life. But with full-on days at the advertising agency I was working at it was quite a tall order.

But by putting in place a strict plan of starting rides even earlier than 5am, and fitting in rides at lunchtime and in the evenings, I somehow managed it. There were a few rides done when it was pretty gusty as January seemed to have one gale-force wind storm after another, and there were a few drizzly days too. But my determination got me through. 

I was happy to have gotten in a 100km ride as well, when I did a big suburban ride around South-West London, going past Hampton Court and out to Walton-on-Thames, and then heading into South-East London into Greenwich and Lewisham. It was one of the few days where there was wall to wall sunshine, the day was dry and there was no wind or rain. Lots of cyclists were out too, and there was a genuine feelgood factor, especially at Richmond Park, as always.

My South London ride took me to the South-East corner of London to Greenwich

Achieving the 600km has emboldened me to know I am capable of dedicating myself to quality training rides, and hopefully I will be able to build on that over the coming months.

Related posts

The sound tha sucks the joy out of cycling - the puncture fairy

Etape du Tour comes to Nice and I'm riding it (hopefully)!

Another cycling mission for 2024 - Fred Whitton Challenge 

One day one photo - 9: Richmond Park - the cyclists' (and maybe the prisoners') choice

Rider hang-out at Roehampton Gate, Richmond Park

It's been a couple of months since I was last in Richmond Park, so I thought I'd make the most of the good weather and my bursting energy levels to make the trip across into South-West London and do a few laps of the cycling mecca for London-based cyclists. Sure, places like Box Hill and Regents Park are also popular, but Richmond Park is the place for all cyclists - not just club riders. Recreational riders family bike riders and small children all like to come out to this expansive green space, the biggest park in London.

First thing in the morning from about 7 am it tends to be the hard core club cyclists as those mini pelotons want to be able to get a clear uninterrupted path around the circumference of the Royal Park situated between SW15, TW9 and KT2, without having to slow down for or even scare away non-club riders! 

Not being hardcore, I arrived at the Roehampton Gate entrance at around 8.30am and began my three laps. By this time the park was beginning to get busy as more club riders arrived as well as recreational riders. I enjoyed just being among a large loose community of people powered by pedals.

The area around Roehampton Gate where there is a cafe and a cycle hire hub is a prime meeting point for cycling groups and it's always an area where you can bump into familiar faces. I saw different cyclists from London Dynamo, a large local cycling club that organises rides there.

Apparently, the police had also been in Richmond Park searching for an escaped prisoner who had apparently absconded from Wandsworth jail a few days earlier. You do see some dodgy bike riding sometimes, but I can't say I saw any signs of shifty behaviour! Who knows he may have been hiding in some secluded bracken or among the deer.  

Although I cycled there alone, I ended up riding close to other riders who were of a similar ability to myself. Sometimes they were stronger than I on the flat, while other times I pushed myself a bit on the hills and would catch or overtake them. Then on the descent of Broomfield Hill, it was a question of who had the strongest nerves when it came to the fast descent and the sweeping right-hand curve. Generally, they were more confident than myself as I was slightly out of practice and so used my brakes at the top of the climb in order to not pick up too much speed. I wasn't in the mood to kiss the tarmac.

Since the time of lockdown, vehicular traffic has been a little bit restricted and there are a lot fewer cars than before - particularly on Sawyers Hill and Broomfield Hill - which makes it very pleasant to ride. 

In the end I cycled two full anti-clockwise laps, then did one small lap via the ballet school and Pen Ponds, then a clockwise half-lap from Roehampton Gate to Kingston Gate before exiting the park and returning home. I always feel inspired after riding around Richmond Park - the sight of the beautiful, varied woodland on undulating terrain as well as the deer in the background doing their thing always gives me a feelgood factor which gives me wings as zoom through Kingston, Raynes Park, Wimbledon, and Mitcham to reach my manor in Crystal Palace. I hope not to leave it too long before I am back in Richmond Park again.

Rapha Festive 500 resumé - a damp, grey vintage

This is the look of relief and satisfaction at finally completing the Rapha Festive 500 at the end of last year. It was a bit of a frustrating affair, with plans having to be amended and tinkered with along the way as weather conditions changed, and I also wanted to include other activities. 

Normally when I do the Rapha Festive I have a theme, and I focus 110% on bike riding. Last year the theme was around London Waterways. Previously I have done rail trails, parks and the spokes of a wheel.

This year, for once there was no theme. There had been a vague idea around "A Tale of Two Cities" - riding around London and then riding around Paris. But Emmanuel Macron decided to close the French borders to British people in attempt to protect the French from Covid - I'm not sure how well his cunning plan worked. In any case as the Covid Omicron variant had become extremely rampant all around Europe, I didn't feel keen to travel too far from home.

I decided I would do just "a tale of one city" - London. Also, I would not pass on the opportunity to do other activities or social activities during that week. It was going to be a case of being very organised about how I would fit in the 500k, or roughly 70km per day for eight days.

The main way to do it would be to allow flexibility on where I ride, which bike I use and potentially mixing in the commuting miles associated with when I do a non-cycling activiy. It would probably mean a less interesting Festive 500, but I was still sure I'd get in those all-important kilometres nevertheless.

My day 1 ride, on Christmas Eve was all about getting in a good slice of mileage. It's always good to get in a healthy number of kilometres on the first. Psychologically it puts you on a positive footing. My ride was to Box Hill - why not start with somewhere well-known and with a feelgood factor. Maybe I'd even doo two or three circuits of the famous ZigZag.

In fact during the ride I realised I had become a bit overambitious with my goal. My route to the Surrey Hills had involved going over a couple of hills South of Croydon and going over Farthing Down and Reigate first. But when I had only done about 20 miles I was already starting to look at my watch and I had that "Are we there yet?" feeling. My legs were also beginning to grumble and, while riding along the rolling road between Reigate and Dorking I wondered if I would even be able to do one ascension of the Zig Zag. I was already pooped. 

Mentally filing through my mental records of the bike training I had done, I realised that not only had I missed a good week of cycling, it had also been a good month since I'd ridden my bike anything longer than 25 miles! So here I was effectively reaching my limit. I was only able to ride up the Zig Zag once, and even that was more like a crawl up the 2km climb. By the time I got there cake shop was closed, and the place was deserted. So much for "the most popular hill in the South of England"! 

My ride back to South London was a sorry affair, where every little rise in the road hurt my legs and I really had to will myself along to keep turning the pedals. Instead of doing the planned 100km, I just about managed 65km. So I resigned myself to doing around that - each day and the odd 70 or 80km in order to get through the challenge.

Christmas Day was an equally challenging affair - made worse by the fact that I did the Park Run in Richmond Park that morning. During the 12-mile ride back home I stopped two or three times for a snack. My legs felt hollow.

I must say I was glad I didn't do the Tale of Two Cities Ride. One city was clearly more than enough for me.

Weatherwise, both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day had been pretty grey morose looking days, with a bit of drizzle thrown in. Boxing Day was pretty wet. I told myself I would just cycle around Hyde Park and Regents Park and go home. They seemed pretty doable rides and when the ride is just going into Central London I get a sense that it is quite doable - it's local, familiar. What could possibly go wrong. Things seemed to be going swimmingly, as I began to get used to the rain, when I felt a softening of the rear tyre indicating I had a puncture - damn!

Fortunately, it happened near the Serpentine Gallery, so I was able to find a mini shelter and change the inner tube. Unfortunately, my bike pump wasn't up to the job, and after straining every sinew in my body to pump up the tyres I think I still had only about 35PSI instead of the usual 100PSI that I run on. As it was Boxing Day there were no trains to get me home, so I did a slow, gentle ride home. I only managed 50km that day, but was determined to get in a big day for Day 4 as I was beginning to get my energy levels back - it's amazing what a bit of turkey can do for your legs, and your motivation.

Holy Moly, it was manic Monday and I only got as far as Vauxhall when pssst I got that sinking feeling. A puncture again! This time I wasn't going to take up time stopping at the side ofcth road to repair it, but instead got on a train back to Crystal Palace. Then to salvage the day, and before the rain turned heavy I got out my cyclocross bike and dìd a few laps of Cator Park, followed by a few laps of Dulwich Park. It was only 25 miles recorded, and a frustating few miles at that, but that's all part of the fun of the Festive 500.

From Tuesday onwards I resolved to use my cyclocross bike, given that the weather had made the roads grubby with débris and therefore prone to causing punctures when on a road bike. I felt a bit self-consciouson the bike as it was a swanky by my standards - A lovely pimped up Specialized Crux. On top of that, my race number for the London Cyclocross League needed to stay on my bike to the end of the season. So aside from the unease that I was potentially flattening the surface of the nobbly tyres, I also began to feel a sense of 'imposter syndrome'. I don't usually suffer from this, but those feelings were definitely real given that the bike was beyond my pootle pace! But I was ready to withstand those symptoms if it meant I could get through the challenge.

On one day I used my commuting cyclocross bike to clock up about 30 miles as I cycled to Sadlers Wells theatre to see The Nutcracker. That was the best day of the Festive 500 - not just because it's an entertaining way to spend the day over the Christmas period, but also because the sun actually shone.

If Wednesday was the most pleasant day, Thursday was the longest. Rather than leave London, I made my trip about exploring South and North London, including a visit to the other transmitter at Alexandra Palace. On that day I actually managed 100km and felt fine afterwards, and the weather was on my side, even if the day was a bit grey. You have to take what you can get at this time of year. 

For my final day normal service resumed with drizzle and rain. Thankfully I only needed to do 25 miles, so that came in the form of a whizz around my local South London neighbourhood - nothing special. With that, there were no photos to show. So the above picture is the only one that was worth taking - just the one to tick the box and give a nod to Rapha, the sponsors of the event. And I must say, the jacket was pretty warm and dry.

It was a relief to have done the 500 km. There was perhaps more to celebrate than just getting the distance. 2021, like 2020 was hit by the fall-out from coronavirus. So that had meant plans having twists and turns. This 500km had been a reflection of that. Therefore a willingness to adapt to the changing situation is a good skill to have and makes me feel reassured.

Here's hoping for a straightforward 2022.

Related posts

Why I like the Festive 500

Rapha Festive 500 - Park Life tour: Day 1, Richmond Park

Stats
Kms ridden: 80
Kms left: 420

Weather: Overcast with sunny intervals; 8 degC

Parks: Richmond; Wimbledon; Norwood Country

Route on Strava


Another year, another Festive 500. It's great to get in with the spirit of this event, which has been going for 10 years now. I know some folks are a bit sceptical about it and aren't into this sort of global fad of riding 500km between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

I have to say I have a penchant for it because it's a sure fire way of getting me out of the house to ride my bike every day - especially as I'm at an age where even sniffing at food makes me pile on calories.
So I am in favour of anything that counters the middle-age spread - especially at a time when the Christmas binge is de rigueur.

Sawyer's Hill, Richmond Park

My theme for last year's Festive 500 was disused railway lines.  This year it is parks. So I will aim to get around city parks, country parks and national parks.

Today was quite straight forward as I visited parks not too far from home.

Christmas Eve is always a difficult day as I have to fit it in around last minute Christmas preparations, so my mileage tends to be fairly average.

I was glad to get in 50 miles by doing a few laps of Richmond Park and then making tracks via Wimbledon Park, and passing my local South Norwood Country Park to reach home.

I would have like to have done Bushy Park, but time caught up with me.

As usual, there were quite a few people riding laps of Richmond Park,  though numbers were a little down partly due to Christmas commitments I imagine, as well as a dodgy weather forecast.

We've had a lot of rain recently, and today also had its share. Throughout the ride, the Kingston side of Richmond Park had angry skies above it. Everywhere looked grim, and there was a sense that the rain would come bucketing down at any moment. Conversely, on the Roehampton side of the park everywhere was bathed in glorious sunshine. Commonly, both sides were pretty cold and I didn't even get hot as I huffed and puffed up Sawyer's Hill and Broomfield Hill.

Having a break at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park

The cold weather was a little downer on the day as I hadn't been expecting it, and I had become accustomed to warm rain!

The forecast for this week is once again changeable, so I may also amend my itinerary to benefit from the least unpleasant weather. I guess that's a perk of having a parks-based theme. There are parks everywhere!

Here's hoping for nice weather for Christmas Day.


Related posts
Reflections on Rapha Festive 500

Why I like the Festive 500

Rapha Festive 500: Day 2

Sunday 25th December - My Tour de Londres - Central London loop

Christmas Day, yay! I can do what I want, eat and drink what I like and lounge around - at least once I've done my customary Park run and a few miles of the Festive 500 challenge! So, given it was going to be a funpacked day I made an early start.

Midnight mass, a few hours' sleep and then 14-mile bike ride to Richmond Park for the Park run. I had never done the Park run there before, but chose this venue for Christmas as it's my favourite London park, and as it was going to be my 50th Park run I wanted to make an occasion of my run.

Riding through London on Christmas day at 8am is a dream. If only it was like this all the time. I was able to take the main roads without any problem and not think about taking a quieter alternative or a traffic-free route. Streatham High Road, Wandsworth one-way system, the South Circular were such a breeze I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!

The Park run was fun and festive, with the route being a loop set between Richmond Gate and Sheen Gate. They weren't the easiest 5kms, but they were definitely easier than cross-country races I've done in Richmond Park.

Santa ditches his reindeer to join the Park run!

Santa Claus came on the run as well, but I don't know what he was playing at. No sledge, and all the deer looking on forlornly wondering why he was running away from them!

Alistair, the run director on the day was impressed that I had ridden over from Crystal Palace. That's a long way, he said. I didn't want to blow him out of the water and say I would be doing more riding around London after the run!

Next up was my route into London via Putney Bridge, Fulham, Chelsea, Knightsbridge and into Hyde Park. Traffic did begin to get a little busier, as the Sloane rangers who brought out their Chelsea tractors also wanted to take advantage of these relatively quiet roads.

Christmas day is great for biking in London

As for the parks, Christmas seemed like any other day. Loads of people were out in all of them - Hyde Park, St James's Park, Green Park and the Mall - walking, cycling on Boris Bikes, or scootering. In the sunshine there was a real feelgood factor, and London looked lovely - just like a set in a Christmas film.

To jazz up my ride on this day, and for probably the only day of the year, I rode with my headphones on and sans helmet along the cycle superhighway from Embankment to Tower Bridge. On a day like this I couldn't not have a bit of Troika or Walking in the Air serenading me on my ride along the River Thames!

Then after Tower Bridge, I came back down to earth with a bang! The pretty buildings, the Royal Parks, the family walks were all gone, and replaced with the drudge and dreariness of Bermondsey and Deptford. And, worst of all I was welcomed by a ravaging head wind, which blew even stronger after Lewisham. There was nothing to look at, apart from the tarmac as I pedalled madly, going nowhere fast!

I guess you can't have it all. Eventually, I returned home and heaved a big sigh of relief while enjoying a well-earned glass of wine. I really appreciated my turkey roast, chocolates and mince pies.


Stats:

59.9km ridden; running total - 151.4km; 348.6km left
5km run
1 bagel, 2 Hobnobs, 3 Quality Streets
Weather: Sunny, 13degC, windy


My rides on Strava

Ride to Richmond Park

Central London loop


Related posts
Tackling the Rapha Festive 500

Rapha Festive 500: Day 1

Town and Country cycling

I have finally received the all-clear to start cycling. So, in true 2wheelchick spirit I got straight back on my two-wheeled horse.

Admittedly they have been shaky beginnings, but in any case I am just glad to have been able to get my bike out of the garage and give it a spin. It was a lovely feeling to be sitting on the saddle and rolling along, albeit slowly!

My first ride was last Sunday week. Ironically the sun had been shining all morning, and the weather was set fair for the afternoon, according to BBC Weather. However, the moment I stepped out of the house and began to pedal the sky suddenly turned dark grey and spots of rain began to fall. Within 10 minutes we had gone from bright sunshine to grim hailstones! A bad omen? "This wasn't part of the plan!" I said to myself. "Bloody typical!" In all my annoyance I adopted a defiant attitude, and was determined to continue with my plan to get to Richmond Park. It may not be the most pleasant comeback ride, but the importance was getting out and doing it.

So off I trundled. In fact, in the battle of wills it was one nil to me, for the rain soon subsided and within a quarter of an hour we had sunshine again. A bonus!

My ride through South-west London turned out to enjoyable in the end. One thing I like about my cycle rides in London is the fact that you can ride through suburban built-up areas and it is still perfectly agreeable. We are privileged to have a lot of green spaces. From South Norwood lakes, Streatham Common, Tooting Bec Common, Wandsworth Common, Putney Heath, I feel blessed to live in a big city that still has plenty of green spaces. I know people bemoan the fact that London has less greenery than it had 20 or 30 years ago,  but really I think we do well compared with other European cities.

Riding around central Milan when I worked there was flat and compact, but it was not picturesque at all. The ride out to pleasant cycling areas like Brianza or Como involved a 20-mile dismal trudge past a collage of industrial estates and disused factories!

By contrast my urban ride to Richmond Park was quite a joy. Needless to say once in this royal park I found it a delight to be there among the various other park users enjoying outdoor life - including the deer. 



For a first ride I had coped ok. However, it had been a shock to the system even just to ride up a very gentle incline that went over the railway line near me. I felt rather self-conscious going at a snail's pace over  the slightest slope and holding up all the traffic behind me! It reminded me of my trip to Peru when I landed in Cusco only to struggle with the altitude. While I had to rest in between every step I took, 70-year-old Peruvians with packs on their backs were skipping past me effortlessly. Today I felt the same embarrassment as I felt back then. This was just a less exotic setting! 

Naturally, once in Richmond Park the idea of riding all the way up to Richmond Gate and Pembroke Lodge was completely out of the question, so I stuck to riding the small loop that took me past the Royal Ballet School and Pen Ponds Car Park.

There was just enough time for me to get a quick snack at Pen Ponds and then head back to Clapham Junction to get the train home before dusk. Normally I would have ridden home, but given that my computer was showing 20 miles of riding for the day I thought it better to stop before I do myself some damage through "overtraining". I slept well when I got home!

My second ride was a couple of days ago, and this time it was out to the more rural setting of the Kent Weald. Being in Crystal Palace means having a few options - the chance of getting into Central London within a comfortable distance, but also the facility to get into the countryside and quiet lanes.

Sunday's ride took me past the increasingly used Biggin Hill Airport, with its attractive display of civilian and Royal Air Force aircraft, then I dropped down through Westerham and along the Pilgrims Way, passing a number of quaint English villages to reach Sevenoaks, and my ultimate destination - Knole Park. 

Where the previous Sunday's ride had included one significant hill around Wimbledon Park, this second ride was peppered with hills and long uphill drags. I was significantly challenged on the long climb up through Keston, and then later on when riding through Sevenoaks. In fact through absentmindedness I overshot the turning into Knole Park and ended up doing an extra mile of uphill, nearly ending up in Tonbridge! Although this ride was slightly longer and much hillier than the previous week I had coped better and already felt stronger.



This ride, although only 25 miles still left me pretty pooped at the end of the day - particularly as my body had also been working hard to stay warm in these winter temperatures we've been having. 

Knole Park is worth a visit. Like Richmond, it is set in wild, vast, unspoiled parkland with its share of deer as well as a stately home with ornate courtyard (and of course a tea room) to visit. 

So, after two varied rides I am beginning to feel like a cyclist again. In a week's time I should be able to take on the daily cycle commute to work - once I have conquered the mighty hills of Crystal Palace!


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Richmond Park - Britain's cycling Mecca!

It's official - Richmond Park is Britain's cycling Mecca!

So Strava has released its insight report on cycling and running activity in the UK for 2015. Some of the statistics confirm our perceptions: the most number of cycle commuters are in London. The hilliest cycle rides are done in South Wales (though I thought Yorkshire and Cornwall would be up there as well); the fastest rides were done in flatter regions like Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.

The statistic that is most salient are the 65,000+ rides uploaded within Richmond Park during 2015, easily surpassing the second most popular area for cycling, Box Hill, Surrey, the main battleground during the London 2012 Olympics cycle race.

This South-West London park (also included in the routes for the London 2012 Olympics cycle races) registered the highest number of uploaded Strava segments in 2015, with 33,226 rides recorded on Sawyers Hill - the climb up to Richmond Gate from Roehampton Gate, Broomfield Hill on the opposite side of the park, with 17,409 rides, and 15,042 rides uploaded for the Tour of Richmond Park.

I, like many riders have been going to Richmond Park for cycle rides for years. It's a great place to do circuits of this vast green space. For a club cyclist the 7-mile loop on the perimeter road is a good mini time trial to measure fitness. Multiple laps of the park make a great training ride or a club run. 

When I go there, I cycle the 10 miles through South London to reach Roehampton Gate, do three laps and then ride home again, thus making it a decent 50-mile work-out.  For newer riders one lap is a good start-point when getting into cycling.

Furthermore there are various family rides, including the Tamsin Trail which is an off-road route completely removed from traffic, so great for less confident cyclists.
If you don't have a bike there is a place that hires out a variety of adult and kids bikes at Roehampton Gate.

And as you ride around there are places to stop for tea, say hello to the deer or marvel at the landscape and the views from near Pembroke Lodge.
What is there not to like about going to Richmond Park?

Well, in recent times the police have cracked down more in reinforcing the 20-mile-per-hour speed limit to all vehicles including cyclists (much to the annoyance of amateur racers). Indeed, there have been cases of cyclists being fined for speeding through the park.

In addition, disputes between motorists and cyclists have been on the rise as the roads become ever increasingly congested, particularly on sunny days at the weekend. In fact the local MP (and London Mayoral candidate), Zac Goldsmith held a meeting just over a year ago in an effort to resolve tensions between the different park users.

So with that in mind I thought that the number of cycle trips around Richmond Park would be on the decline in favour of other areas such as some of the quieter scenic roads in Yorkshire, Cheshire or the Lake District. Wrong.

All of the most popular Strava segments in this report are in the South-East of England, with the top 10 being completed by roads around Hampton Court and the Surrey Hills, plus Ditchling Beacon - a climb ridden during the popular London to Brighton cycle event. 

Perhaps the publication of this "ranking" may make people in other regions stand up for their local popular cycling areas and come out in support in order to gain "league table promotion"! Afterall, Tatton Park in Cheshire easily rivals Richmond Park in the cycling attractiveness stakes.

I have no idea if this article has incited more people to ride in Richmond Park, fewer people to ride in Richmond Park, more people to defect to somewhere else.
Mind you, looking out of the window on this grim rainy day I think it is the couch and the turbo trainer that might just be the winners!


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Rider beware: anti-social media preying on our bicycles

The Richmond Park of the North-West!

For keen cyclists based in London one of the key focal areas to ride a bicycle is Richmond Park. Go there on any Saturday or Sunday and you will be struck by how many people are riding around. 

The perimeter road of the Park is approximately 7.5 mile in circumference, so it is a convenient distance for any cyclist.
For the novice 7.5 miles could be a challenge, especially when going anti-clockwise and tackling the climbs up to Richmond Gate and from Kingston Gate. Racing cyclists enjoy practicing chain gang training rides over multiple laps of the park and challenge themselves to complete a lap in under 20 minutes (without being caught for breaking the 20mph speeding)!

I used to really enjoy going to Richmond Park, both for cycling and for running (the park is popular with hundreds of runners too!). Being there is like being in the countryside despite being less than 5 miles from Chelsea. It is peaceful, lush and there is even a bit of wildlife in the form of deer which have been there since the time of Henry VIII.

I miss Richmond Park, with its lovely trees, nature reserves and beautiful views over the suburbs of London. But the great news is I have now found the answer to that here in the Northwest - Tatton Park!

Just after the pretty, upmarket town of Knutsford is Knutsford Gate, which leads into a vast area of parkland, that gave me the same feeling of openness and freedom as Richmond Park. There are quite a few similarities between these two Parks. Both parks have listed buildings and stately homes with bijou tearooms. Both have nature reserves and green spaces where you can lose yourself away from the madding crowd. Both of them seem to be under flight paths to major airports!

There a couple of small differences. Richmond Park has a few hills, and Tatton Parks has a couple of long lakes (or meres). However, there is no doubt that on any Saturday or Sunday both parks become awash with walkers, runners, horseriders, people fishing and cyclists doing laps.

So that's where I was last Sunday with a group of cyclists from Manchester Wheelers. This club, which is quite active in the North-West had organised a women's training ride in the park. Although it was the first time I was meeting the other riders everyone was very welcoming and I felt quite at home with them within a short time of starting the ride. One lap of the park measured five miles and was largely flat, with a section of the lap going outside of the park boundary.

Around 15 of us turned out for the ride and we split into ability groups. Acouple of guys were there to give tips and advice on "through and off" and "holding the wheel". It was all useful stuff, especially as I was a little rusty on all of this given my lack of road racing activity last year.

Riding around felt like the good old days - enjoying a training ride, seeing other local cyclists and saying hello and returning home feeling motivated and invigorated to do more.

So, I think I will be back in Tatton Park before long. I get the feeling that this could become one of my local hangouts over the coming months.