After hearing good things from Nigel on his London to Southend ride a few months back,
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| All Ready To Go! |
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| First Scheduled Stop At Strood! |
we (Nigel, John v, Steve Butcher, David Morris and son George and myself) decided to do the 'fridays' London to Whitstable ride.For those of you not familiar with the fridays, they're are a cycling club that regularly do rides that leave London at midnight to all sorts of exotic coastal locations in the south east such as Brighton, Southwold, Southend and Clacton. We arrived at Charing cross station and made our way to Hyde park corner to meet the rest of the riders, about 75 in total, just in time for ride leader Simon's rigorous safety instructions.He was very insistent that all the riders were well drilled and gave plenty of warning of the obstacles ahead with the usual cries of 'HOLE, GLASS, BOLLARD, DRUNK BLOKE ETC', the fact that 75% of the riders didn't wear helmets, seemed to be largely ignored.So, we set off at midnight at a casual pace through Parliament square, along the Embankment, over London Bridge and towards Greenwich.It certainly was a unique experience to ride through a largely deserted London and apart the many drunk people along the way, one bloke who thought we were the Tour de France and car full of Yardys asking were we were going, it was largely uneventful.We made our way out of south east London, out towards Dartford and Gravesend, at a slow and sometimes frustrating pace (10/12mph average). As we stopped every ten minutes and waited for everyone to catch up with the temperature plummeting, we wondered whether this was a good idea after all.Anyway we ploughed on through the industrial delights of North Kent to our first scheduled stop at Strood at I think around 5 o'clock (things were getting a little hazy at this time), to be welcomed at the village hall with tea, cheese rolls and bread pudding. After an hour there, we finally pushed on to be greeted with a glorious sunrise across the marshes towards Faversham via more waiting and then some more waiting and finally arriving in Whitstable with 65 miles on the Garmin at about 7ish....as i said before, painfully slow.
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| Arrival At Whitstable! |
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| Time For A Nap! |
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| Steve Tries To Recharge His Energy! |
```````After a bit of expensive (coffee, bacon & egg bap with 1 rasher of bacon £6) breakfast, we went our separate ways. David and George (wisely) had left their car at Whitstable, so went on their way back to Battle.While Nigel, Steve, John and I (stupidly) decided to ride back. We decided to pussy out and do the 'Short' route back around the coast, about 90 miles.So, we made a steady pace along the coastal paths via Herne Bay, Margate, Minster, Sandwich and Deal. Only delayed briefly as Nigel punctured conveniently opposite a doughnut shop.
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| Punctures Are Always A Good Thing When Donuts Are Available! |
We then pushed around the coast westwards into a strong headwind, up and over Dover and into Folkestone.By this time the our increasing pace and the wind was taking its toll on Steve and he was beginning to lag back, so we decided to drag him along to Hythe for a lunchstop. We refuelled briefly, Nigel even had time for a quick nap, before pressing on.As we pushed on across the marshes to Appledore and up the Military Canal it was clear that Steve had bonked in Kie-esque proportions, so we took turns to shelter him from the relentless winds.We finally bid adieu and split in two as Nigel and Steve headed down Brede Hill and John and i pressed onto Battle, even finding the energy for a quick chain-gang into Sedlescombe, before our legs had been well and truly been shot to pieces with 157 miles on the clock.
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| Lee Trying Not To Think About How Many Miles Are Left! |
Over and out
Lee s
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