Date and LocationDate: Fri, 25 Mar 2022
Distance: 160 km (100 miles for the uninitiated)
Climb: 1,086m (flat)
Start Time: 22:00 (late)
Starting from: [REVISED 09/03/2022]
Victoria Station car park, London (meet opposite bike racks at car park entrance to Victoria Place mall - see
Google Street view)
Routehttps://ridewithgps.com/routes/38655094TLDRGroup DIY night ride around London. Starts at 10pm from Victoria Station (for pre-ride food, the 2nd floor McDonalds closes at 11). Post-ride brekky at Victoria Station Wetherspoons where I can confirm the taps turn on at 8am (opens at 6). A great ride to acclimatise to cold night riding, test lights/gear, all safe in the warmth of the city. This is an X-rated event - i.e. no manned controls.
GenesisIn late March 2020 we went lockies. Four weeks later the PM would announce “we are past the peak” of the pandemic. This ride seeks to replicate what it was like for the exercise-inclined during these unprecedented times. A bit weird, quiet streets, circuitous. Staying local was the (legal) order of the day. Non-essential travel was shamed. Hair grew long. We all know this so why am I saying it? Because it's sentimental!!
Accepting the guilt that if I rode outside the M25 I could be “hit by a car and take an ambulance from someone who needed it”, I set about creating and sourcing local London routes. If I were hit by a car locally, at least I could walk myself to a nearby hospital, the thinking went, or maybe the driver would take me if I were nice. The London Fixed Beers missions were a particular highlight for me—giving riders a curated tour of London’s boroughs while taking advantage of the empty streets (but for the ominous queues starting to form outside supermarkets).
I rode the first version of this “strava art” in April 2020, and one year later extended the route with the needle in commemoration of the vaccine. Ironically, as I rode down the Mall while tracing “the needle”, I went right through an anti-vaccine march.
Touring London’s boroughs on empty streets turned out to be actually quite nice. But daylight scenes reminiscent of Danny Boyle’s
28 Days Later are unlikely—though not impossible—to return this year, and I don’t want to lose half a lung riding 160 km through London traffic, so this year I’m doing the ride at night.
FeeThere is no fee but I ask that you make a minimum £6 donation to
the Lewisham Bank of Things. An admirable project some of you may have seen on the news in recent weeks.
“The Bank of Things is a new Young Mayors Project working in partnership with Lewisham Local aimed at Young People aged 11 to 25 living in Lewisham. Former Young Mayors have used their budgets to develop the Bank of Things to address the issue of poverty and lack of resources for young people in the borough. We now supply everyday necessities to any young person facing hardship living in Lewisham.” - Lewisham Bank of ThingsUpon donation, please message me at “ kowalskimark [at] gmail [dot] com ” to inform me of your intention to ride.
FinishI would appreciate if you confirm back to me you finished (Strava/Komoot/ebrevet). I won’t be publishing a list of finishers anywhere but I will record you as having completed it for my own records. If the ride is popular enough, the idea would be to turn it into an annual Calendar event.
Riding in LondonBe safe, bring a decent lock or bring your own food. Let me know your average speed and I can try and match people in groups. Though the Friday night streets of London may provide plenty of company!
Group DIY RegistrationThis ride has been registered as a DIYSE Group Perm with myself as organiser. Please use the AUK Entry Form for DIY Perms with MANDATORY routes, select Paul Stewart as organiser, and set the start and 1st/last control as 'DIYSE13609' (150 km distance). The route details will then be copied from my Perm registration.
The RidewithGPS Track has been registered for this GPS/DIY Perm detailing the route to be followed. It is expected that you will follow and complete the track as closely as possible. Failure to complete the track may result in your brevet not being validated. If you find that you are required to divert from the track or take an alternate route because of road closures or other conditions, please provide details when you submit your track for validation.
The route controls are : Victoria Station McD’s, Sydenham McD's, Bow McD's, Holloway McD's, Victoria Station Weatherspoons
Haven't I seen this post before?The mod moved it to a different sub. Consider this a rebellion.
