Warning: Long...
7 fixed bikes - 7!!! Out of a field of 40 finishers. That’s nearly 20% - I hereby propose a motion to rename this ride the fixed gear memorial, on account of its popularity.
The visual feast started early - driving through the morning sunrise. The sky was a muddled mix of mist and cirrus clouds painted vivid orange and red by the morning sun. Some soft aquamarine smudges of clear sky created a Turner painting amongst the concrete jungle of Brent Cross. Even tired Uber drivers slowed down and beamed at the beauty.
Essex is a very pretty rural county, full of interest to the cyclist. The countryside rolls over benign elevations. It was a joy to ride on fixed. For once, downhill was a simple matter of letting the bike go, and the legs spin.
I paid no attention to the thought of reservoirs as we have loads of them in London - but Essex reservoirs are something else. Rather than the constant thrum of Heathrow traffic - you can soak in the sounds of birds and reeds. Some sounds were rare enough to make the resident twitchers rise urgently from slumber, point binoculars and hands at invisible smudges in the distance, or along the sky line. And twitter urgently to each other in Latin. Or so it seemed.
Estuary Essex is peppered with lone buildings on high points. Behind is the vast sky of low country. The sea air is light and full of contrast. So the colours vibrate with vigour and yet they present scenes of stark contemplation. This is the stuff of Edward Hopper paintings, which surprised me in the land of Constable.
The roads into the river towns were busy on a sunny day - but they are magic places to visit. As a keen reader of estuary sailing authors, I reposed to the quaysides and took in the sounds, and smells of the Estuary. Little boats sat quietly in the channels and I played the ancient game of finding where land turns to sea and then to sky and back again. In the soft, misty light, it's hard to tell one smudge from another.
Riding uphill from Tillingham, the road opens and looks dramatically down on the Blackwater. This was another, "Oh, Wow", view. The Blackwater twinkling in the bright sun and the triangles of sailing boats moving slowly along it. Like colourful petals in a pond.
Into Maldon I was unexpectedly greeted by the banners and bonhomie of a festival. The quayside was filled with Thames Barges carrying their bunting and signal flags aloft. As I took the worlds worst picture of my bike, a couple riding bikes stopped to ask about the bike. We had a lovely chin wag, and it turns out they also ride fixed at times.
I was growing accustomed to bumping into the fixed riders at controls, but then a perfectly ordinary fellow, in his 70's, entering a shop said, "Nice bike. What gear inches?" - this is the secret handshake of our order. Essex is clearly the spiritual home of fixed gear enthusiasts.
On logistical matters - this was my first ride using e-brevet. I prefer riding slower, and lingering in places of interest. With e-brevet I can just keep trundling through smaller controls which gives me even more time to linger. It's ace.
I really enjoyed my day awheel in Essex. I had no idea it would be such a visual feast.
Thanks to the organiser and the merry band of ACME riders. It is a brilliantly run event, on a good route, with cossetting arrivee.
Hello to the riders that came and went - I saw LWaB OTP 3 times powering up hills like his trike was filled with helium. Some fella that had done 9 PBP's also leaving me for dead when I must have two decades youth on him! A bloke on a unique sjs cycles fixed bike that was about similar pace - redshift stem is the thing I recommended to reduce road buzz. Felsted at the Abberton control and many others. It was a tad hot at times, but much cooler than last week. A tiny hint of rain near the end but never a wet road. I didn't stop at the compasses, but I probably should have. The happy, raucous din from the garden was probably 50% audax riders enjoying their well earned cool pints.