Set off from home 6am in mizzle. Got to Clapham Common in 30min, which is good by my standards, and Waterloo in 50min.
- Waterloo? Your commute doesn't go past there!
Ah, but it did today. On to Kings Cross, in fact, then, after a bit of confusion about a one way not marked on the map, up Caledonian Rd, past the Emirates stadium, through Finsbury Park, and on to Hornsey, where I delivered an important form to ERS which needed to be in by lunchtime today.
Looking at the map for this trip, I'd noticed the proximity of Alexandra Palace. Just been reading about this in Stuart Maconie's latest book, so I thought I'd have to visit.
Well. Could have been easier. Hard to find the route through to the Park (a kind local schoolboy helped me
), then the paths I'd hoped to ride on turned out to be completely fenced off. I roughstuffed along the fence, only to realise it was blocked off down the hill as well.
I almost despaired of getting to see the Palace, but I felt I couldn't leave it there, so I backtracked, found a path I could ride which took me to a bastard hill with Vauxhalls speeding by and vans pushing through pinch points. Lovely. But I grimped to the Palace, and stopped, turning to admire the wonderful view Maconie writes of.
Well, I'm sure it is lovely, but it wasn't apparent this morning. All I saw was the houses in the vale disappearing into mist and another wave of light rain.
Never mind. Job done. And enough time wasted. So off to
work find a toilet first. I spied a small pavilion and made my way there. Nope. All locked up.
Emerging from between the two old corrugated sheds next to the Pitch & Putt, where I'd *ahem* sheltered out of the wind to refold my map, I remounted, and then rode up the steepest bit of tarmac I've seen South of Ashbourne. I dismounted when my front wheel left the ground, but I was pleased with how far I got.
Down the hill, over to Crouch End, and off to town! I had known it would be rush hour by the time I was heading back south. And I knew that I would be going back ino the wind which had been so kind previously. And I knew that North London is much lumpier than my ridiculously flat commute Sahf of the river. But I hadn't counted on the radial roads being quite so indecisive in their ambition to get to the City. Nor quite the weight of traffic. It seems car/bus ratios are much higher in the North compared to, say, Streatham or Clapham. Oh - and the lack of bus lanes is a PITA, too. Poor sods up there, commuting every day through that lot. I didn't really get a clear bit of road till I got to Farringdon Road, where I managed to zoom down the bus lanes.
I knew by now I was going to be late. Not just later than when i normally come in the door, but probably late for my start time even before I got changed. That's offset by regular early mornings, so I don't mind. But, as I rolled closer to work, I had a dilemma. I was almost up to 50km, and on 19.9kph. If I sprinted, I'd be frustratingly short on distance and speed. But if I added a short loop, I'd be a minute late. Of course, I chose the latter option.
North London's all right for a visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.
