Author Topic: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10  (Read 13562 times)

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #50 on: 19 March, 2010, 05:45:16 pm »
From Market Harborough to Olney I can't think of anywhere to stop for a feed. There might be a tea room at Castle Ashby and I know a pub that serves food in Sywell, but that's it. There's probably something in Olney.
I'll meet you at Mc Donalds at the A6/B6047, so I can sit in the warm and drink coffee while I wait. Unless you all get there first.


By midday I'll have been up for eight hours, so won't want my lunch too much later. Another 45km may be pushing it!

Especially if you have a headwind.

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #51 on: 19 March, 2010, 05:48:33 pm »
Especially if you have a headwind.

Don't mention it, I'm trying to pretend it won't be there. ;D
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #52 on: 19 March, 2010, 05:53:08 pm »
Especially if you have a headwind.

Don't mention it, I'm trying to pretend it won't be there. ;D

I'd better stay on the back of the bunch then.

Parp! :-[

αdαmsκι

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Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #53 on: 19 March, 2010, 06:55:34 pm »
By midday I'll have been up for eight hours, so won't want my lunch too much later.  Another 45km may be pushing it!

Having said that, hopefully I'll have had early-mid-morning break at St Pancras, and possibly mid-mid-morning break at Nottingham. ;D

No worries. Market Harborough it is.
What on earth am I doing here on this beautiful day?! This is the only life I've got!!

https://tyredandhungry.wordpress.com/

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #54 on: 19 March, 2010, 09:41:00 pm »
I don't envy you the headwind - I used your route just to Widmerpool today. Return took half the time! Had planned to accompany you that far, but I'd slow you down - so I shall come and wave you off!
Let right or wrong alone decide
God was never on your side.

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #55 on: 20 March, 2010, 04:20:49 am »
I'm now up and about, and getting ready.  The cat is pilled and fed and somewhat surprised at the time, but not looking a gift breakfast in the face.  He'll probably less pleased in a few hours time when he doesn't get another breakfast, and has to eat dried cat food for the rest of the day!

I'm just filling the bath, and checking the weather, which is apparently 11°C and Mist.  The rail services all seem OK, which is also good. :thumbsup:

I should be off in three quarters of an hours or so.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #56 on: 20 March, 2010, 11:23:38 am »
And ..... they crossed The Trent at 09.01! Good luck chaps!
Let right or wrong alone decide
God was never on your side.

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #57 on: 20 March, 2010, 12:18:47 pm »
I met up with them at Willoughby and left them at Barsby at 1100.  At that point they had averaged just less than 14 mph into a blustery headwind with a fair amount of dampness.

The only minor problem up to that point was an attempted diversion on to the A46 for resurfacing work.  We opted to ignore it and christen the brand new, warmish tarmac with some bike tracks.  :)

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #58 on: 20 March, 2010, 12:24:58 pm »
...and I should have said that it was good to meet Adamski (again), Adam and TimO.

I wish them well with the rest of the ride.  It looks like they are through the worst of the rain  -  if only that pesky headwind would abate...

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #59 on: 20 March, 2010, 05:26:38 pm »
An hour ago I got a text from Adamski the where in Olney and the headwind was making things slow.

I just did 8 miles into the wind and I'm knackered.
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #60 on: 20 March, 2010, 10:03:04 pm »
I met them at Market Harborough. They decided on Mc Donalds instead of a nice meal at the pub, so I went without and ate a cake bar. (I only said meet at Mc Donalds because I didn't think we were having a feed there ::-))
In spite of a tailwind all the way, I was only half an hour late. :-[
I was becoming ever more feeble as the miles slowly ticked by. I never ate any breakfast and the cake bar at M. Harborough was the first thing I'd eaten all day, after about 50 miles of cycling. 6 miles before Olney we stopped for Adam to turn his map over and for me to eat another 2 cake bars. Then on to Olney, about 10 miles from my home, to feed in a very nice cafe. I could have probably eaten twice what I ate, but I didn't want to hold the gang up any more. Time is miles.
On to Flitwick for a stop at Tesco. I decided to call it a day here. I'm just getting over a cough and this is my longest ride this year, so far. I was feeling pretty tired, so I thought I'd just go for my 200k. I rode with the gang to Barton Le Clay then turned off homeward bound while the gang returned to the A6 for the easier climb (and it's probably a shorter route too)
The last 10 miles were very rainy, but quite enjoyable. The road was closed in Milton Keynes because of a car crash, but the Redway wasn't, so I nipped onto that for the last few miles home. Just over 200k for the day and feeling tired but not half dead, so a good day awheel.
Cheers for the company and sorry I wimped out. I didn't fancy cycling into London just so that I could pay some money to sit on a train in wet clothes. Hope the rest of the ride went well and that Tim isn't too smashed.

woollypigs

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Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #61 on: 20 March, 2010, 10:17:00 pm »
Still waiting for adamski here in SW6, he was talking about arriving at 19:00 it is now after 22:15, it must be windy out there.
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #62 on: 20 March, 2010, 10:38:54 pm »
Tim O was getting tired. The wind eased off quite a bit after Flitwick, but if you're tired then you'll never go fast, even with a tailwind.
I thought they'd be done by now though.

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #63 on: 20 March, 2010, 10:46:17 pm »
Just got a text they are at Kings Cross. Better go to the kitchen and start cooking for adamski.
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #64 on: 20 March, 2010, 10:58:16 pm »
Hope they have a decent run through town.

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #65 on: 21 March, 2010, 12:11:56 am »
Well, we're back.  Adam is presumably on a train back to Luton, I've just got off one from London Bridge to East Croydon, and Adamski is probably demolishing Peli and Woolly's supplies of comestibles.

It was quite a hard day.  Like Teethgrinder, I had had a bit of lurgy a couple of weeks back, and I was still feeling it last week on the Pootle, but thought I was over it by now.  It's possible that some remnants of it remained, which wouldn't have helped my pace.

Two fairy visitations didn't help us either, Adamski had one, and I had one not that far from the end (less than 15 miles?).  Since my tyres had done about 25 miles before this ride, it was just bad luck, but very annoying changing inner tubes in the drizzle and dark.

The weather was damp, and windy, although the wind did abate quite a bit later.  The rain didn't though.  We had on/off drizzle all day, with occasional heavier patches for variety.

I did enjoy the ride, but I think it would be improved considerably by some sunshine!

Thanks for Adam and Adamski for tolerating my tardiness.  Thanks to oncemore, JonBuoy, and Teethgrinder for meeting us along the way, it's always nice to meet some other yacf people, especially those outside of London.

I'm utterly exhausted now.  My mileage was around 146 miles, and I'm glad that I used the train to get back to and from Croydon, otherwise it would have been more like 166 (and I never would have gotten back!)

The cat has been fed and petted, which has kept him happy, now I'm going to bugger off to bed, since it's over 20 hours since I got up, and a fair few of those hours have been spent in the saddle.

I'll post some GPS tracks, and the few photos I've got tomorrow, when I feel more normal!
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Adam

  • It'll soon be summer
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Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #66 on: 21 March, 2010, 11:24:28 am »
It's a lovely day today.

Shame we didn't have that sort of weather yesterday!

As Tim & I went up on the train to Nottingham, we noted that out of one side we got see patchy cloud, whilst the other side had dark, menacing black cloud, and we certainly saw a lot more of that stuff during the day.

After navigating a mix of main roads and cycle paths out of Nottingham in the company of oncemore, we were soon out in the rolling countryside. The first 40 miles to Market Harborough* seemed to go quite quickly, despite the strong headwind.  We'd stopped in one village to put on waterproofs, and the owner of the house we stopped at, came out to have a look, and explained he was the former UK importer of Puch bikes who'd brought the first BMX bikes into the UK.  So a bit of history to go with the rain.  More hills, and we met up with Jonbuoy who accompanied us for a while, and then we were back down to 3 again.

A few more ups and downs and we ended up in Market Harborough.  Seeing as we were waiting for Teethgrinder to arrive at the MacDonalds, we forced ourselves to eat there, and TG rolled up just as we were finishing up.  By this time it had brightened up, with even a bit of sunshine, so I ended up taking my jacket off as I was getting too warm.  This whole section is full of some really nice countryside, with rolling hills, and we passed lots of fields with lots of little lambs.  On any steep hills, the wind though was really having an effect, and I could tell I was slowing up a bit, so by the time we got to Olney I was ready for some food.

Of course, by the time we got outside it had started raining quite heavily.  The A509 had been my only concern on this trip due to it being not particularly wide, and with the volume of traffic and the rain it wasn't much fun, although I went slightly wrong with a little diversion through Sherrington, which added ½ mile to the trip.  The next section I'd been over only the last weekend and it stopped raining, which made a change.  We stopped at the Tesco's in Flitwick to get some more food and drink and headed off again to find it started raining again.  

Teethgrinder left us in Barton-Le-Clay just before 6pm and we then moved off into the dusk, skirting round Luton.  At this stage, it would have been quite tempting to head off home, but I was feeling quite good, the wind had started to drop and just as I was thinking we were making fairly good time overall and might make it to London around 9 pm and how lucky it was we hadn't got any mechanical problems, I felt my rear tyre going a bit spongy.  After removing the offending bit of glass and using Tim's hi-tech pump, we were off on the back roads towards St Albans.  Although I know this section fairly well, it's a complete rabbits warren of little lanes and of course by night, everything looks different, so we had to make a number of stops to check the map and Tim's GPS.  

Just north of the South Mimms services, Tim suffered his puncture, which of course was also the rear one - I hate to think how black your hands got.  Anyway, once that was fixed we then followed the A1000 south, which Adamski knew well, and then the A1 for a bit, where I was surprised to learn the speed limit was 30 mph - doesn't London have speed cameras??  Traffic was zooming along!  Anyway, we dropped down through Camden, and got to St Pancras just after 10.30.  After Tim & Adamski headed off, I discovered the fast East Midlands trains weren't running, although there weren't any announcements, and there was only 1 slow Thameslink train.  It wasn't until I arrived back at Luton just after midnight, that I saw an announcement on the screens saying there'd been an incident with someone hit by a train at Harpenden - why couldn't they explain the reason for the delays at St Pancras?

Anyway, I got back home having done 145 for the day in 10½ hours of cycling, although the moving average on the Nottingham stretch was only 13.6 mph.  However, considering the constant headwind of 15 mph we had for most of the trip, that wasn't too bad.  Surprisingly, I didn't feel too tired and nothing ached anywhere.

In spring, on a wet & windy day, this was a good day out.  During the summer on a lovely warm sunny day, it will be even better.  :thumbsup:






* I had to use Google maps to check the distance - at the time of writing this, for some reason it can't calculate the distance by car between Nottingham and Market Harborough, but it can using the walking distance.  Weird.
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #67 on: 21 March, 2010, 12:00:31 pm »
"for some reason it can't calculate the distance by car between Nottingham and Market Harborough"

Could be because "centre" of Nottingham is no longer accessible by car - the AA Route Finder used to do this until I pointed it out and they "changed" the "centre" to a different street!

Glad it all went well despite the weather - my respect: in that wind I couldn't have done half the route in twice the time!

It's sunny here (at top of Carlton Hill!) this a.m. - but SW of City all was damp cold mist until well gone 9 a.m.
Let right or wrong alone decide
God was never on your side.

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #68 on: 21 March, 2010, 12:38:15 pm »
We've just said bye to a very fresh-looking Adamski who stayed at ours last night. He and Woolly were up bright and early, putting me to shame.  :-[

Chapeau to you all for completing a difficult ride on a wet day!

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #69 on: 21 March, 2010, 05:37:02 pm »
Adamski is far too energetic.  I'm surprised that he didn't turn around and cycle back to Nottingham!

The route (as cycled) is on Bikely, which lists it as 216 km or 134 miles, so Adamski definitely deserves his DIY 200km Audax.

My legs are a little stiff today, but they should be OK by tomorrow, when I'll be back on the bike for the commute.  I did sleep pretty well, until the cat insisted I got up to feed him at 7am.  At least I pre-emptively got my own back by waking him at 4am on Saturday!

Here are some of the few photos I took.


This was taken just outside Nottingham, whilst we were still fresh, and dry.


Adamski in the Cafe in Olney.  The camera steamed up, because something in the atmosphere seemed to increase the humidity dramatically!


For some odd reason, he found this very funny. ;D
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Wowbagger

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Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #70 on: 21 March, 2010, 05:38:36 pm »
If, from Olney, you cycled through Emberton village, you went straight past my cousin's house.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #71 on: 21 March, 2010, 05:42:18 pm »
We did cycle directly south from Olney, so yes, it looks like we did go through Emberton. Does you cousin look like you?  Should we have been on the lookout for another Santa impersonator? ;D

It was pretty damp when we left Onley.  It was light drizzle when we went in, but it decided to switch over to heavy drizzle at that point.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

αdαmsκι

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Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #72 on: 21 March, 2010, 09:50:25 pm »
A good ride, in retrospect! It was harder than I'd hoped because of the weather. Cycling south for 200 km when there's a southerly, rain bearing, wind isn't too sensible.... I'd hoped for a nice spring day! I though the route was good. It undulates between Nottingham and market Harborough, but through lovely scenery and then some great empty lanes. Thanks to Teethgrinder and JonBouy for helping with the way finding, and Adam having checked out part of the route, meant we only had to do a tiny bit of navigation south of Luton. I'd now like to do it in the sun!

Oh, and that was my longest ride of the year. By the time I'd cycled to Nottingham station, and across London, I'd done 234.1 km (146 miles).
What on earth am I doing here on this beautiful day?! This is the only life I've got!!

https://tyredandhungry.wordpress.com/

Pippa

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Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #73 on: 21 March, 2010, 10:33:15 pm »
I did enjoy the ride, but I think it would be improved considerably by some sunshine and a Pippa!

FTFY  ;)

Looks like a great ride, although the conditions weren't ideal.

Well done all. Gutted I missed this. Some other time hopefully :)

PS - adamski.....nice beard  :thumbsup:

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Nottingham to London on Sat. 20/3/10
« Reply #74 on: 22 March, 2010, 12:13:09 am »
We did cycle directly south from Olney, so yes, it looks like we did go through Emberton. Does you cousin look like you?  Should we have been on the lookout for another Santa impersonator? ;D

My cousin is slim and shaven. Apart from that she's almost exactly the same.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.