The ride home was long. It was snowing and v. icy near Elephant & Castle, and trying to pick a path through the rutted ice was stressful with big trucks swooshing past. So I walked across Oval & Stockwell junctions.
It got easier up through Clapham, and was pretty much just wet by the Common, but there was a long queue of standing, close-packed traffic to negotiate, so I got stuck in line for a long long time.
Faster through Balham, but the surface got worse again into Tooting. It normally takes me about half an hour to get this far. Tonight, it was almost an hour longer. Struggled through there and found another long line of standing traffic, with emergency vehicles struggling to pass. Getting out of the way was the closest I got to an off, as I hit a pothole in a cycle lane
I took the cut across by Mitcham Common, but met another wall of motor traffic, smoke billowing in clouds through the beams from the headlights. I passed the lines of traffic, but slowly, as there wasn't much room between the opposing lines of traffic, and the white lines were very slippery.
By the time I got to turn off, it was onto a snowy road, where I was following tyre tracks, and trying to avoid the worst of the ice. I took a cut through across the top of town on a road inaccessible to cars, and I realised how much fun snow could be if you weren't forced into a narrow line full of rutted ice with an artic by your elbow.
Up the hill a bit till I had to leave the 'main' roads, I walked the next link, as there were cars playing silly beggars. Then it was a very icy road, but with enough to ride on in peace before turning in at our gate.
19km. Two hours twenty minutes. One hour forty-seven of actually moving.
I'm throwing in the towel. Train tomorrow, I think
