Cycloterrain

When I ran at the Cyclopark Christmas Cracker 5k Race I was given a voucher for a free cycling session at the Cyclopark. So with a break in the rain and a gloriously sunny winter's day on the cards, I decided to use it! The Cyclopark has a number of different options for cyclists. From the smooth surface of the main circuit, to the BMX track and then the mountain bike trails - or Cycloterrain as it is called here.

map of the cyclopark - you can see the mountain bike trails marked in blue, red and black

For my first visit on the bike, I decided to try out the Cycloterrain. So I gave the mountain bike a quick once over and slung it in the car. If I was going alone I would have cycled there, but my wife and daughter were coming with me so that's why we drove.

part of the blue trail

These three different tracks all have the same entry price (adults: £3 off peak / £3.50 peak) and for each you get to play on your chosen activity 2 hours. The entry fee only covers one activity. Once you have paid, you are given a wristband as proof of payment and it shows your entry time. It's worth noting that helmets are compulsory for anybody riding any kind of wheeled device within the complex.

this was one of my favourite sections (red route)

As my daughter and wife were here, they decided to use the playground, which is called Cyclokids. This has an entry fee of £2 per family and covers the whole day and covers up to 2 adults and 3 children. My daughter had brought her scooter so in order to comply with the health and safety regulations of the Cyclopark, she had to have a helmet. These are available to hire at the main reception for £2, plus you have to leave a £10 fully refundable deposit.

scooter, daughter, helmet, reception.

After making sure my daughter was settled in the playground, I headed off the try out the 6 kilometres of trails. Although they are all linked together, there are different routes you can take depending on your skill level. The trails marked with blue arrows are the easiest, red arrows point the way for intermediate riders, and the black arrows show the experienced riders where to go.

the section of the blue trail that passes the playground

I spent my time on a combination of the blue and red trails. I did on one occasion start to follow a black arrow but very quickly remembered that I am not an advanced mountain biker and abandoned the attempt! The big difference with the black trails is that they contain quite a lot of obstacles to ride over in the shape on boulders and are quite technical.

one of the blue trail waymarkers

I spent about 50 minutes riding round the different sections before taking a break to hang out in the playground with my wife and daughter. A short while later I went out and did a second session on the trails, this time I only managed 35 minutes before realising that my two hour session was over.

So I rode back to the main building, removed as many items of wet, muddy gear as I could without becoming naked and joined the ladies for a spot of lunch in the Cyclocafe.

we had a race. she won.

We had a great time over at the Cyclopark and the thing that surprised me the most was that I didn't fall of the mountain bike (I have a habit of doing this, but it usually occurs in August, so I'm safe for now). I'll be back soon for the free, weekly 5k run - Cyclorun, but for my next visit on two wheels I plan to take the road bike for a good session around the tarmac circuit.

Dartford Crossing by bicycle

The road that passes through/over the Dartford crossing is the M25 in all but name (officially it's the A282), and as such only suitable for motorway traffic. However, if you are cycling and need to cross the river at this point, they do have a solution. Arrive at one of the crossing control points and you can be transported free of charge across to the other side of the Thames.

Kent - Essex

When approaching the crossing from the southern side of the bridge, cyclists need to head for 'Crossing Control'. The roads leading up to the crossing are not really that cycle friendly, but there are plenty of shared use pavements which will keep you away from the dual-carriageways and motorways. There are a few points where cyclists can join this path and it will take you right down to the crossing.

the start of the shared use cycle path

Upon arrival (10.30am) at crossing control, there is a 'Cyclists wait here' sign. What it doesn't tell you is that just waiting there will not get you a ride across the Thames. For this, you will have to walk around to the back of the crossing control building and pick up the telephone to ask to be collected. After finding this out, I dialled the 'cycle transport' extension number and I was collected within 5 minutes.

the path running adjacent to the motorway

The bike goes onto a rack on the back of a Highways Agency vehicle and is secured with a few straps and a clamp. It all felt nice and secure. Going into Essex, the crossing uses the tunnel and once through the other side, the vehicle takes a private road to get you to the Essex crossing control booth. Here you'll simply jump out, release your bike and continue your journey. 

crossing control (kent side)

I had a great driver and we chatted the whole way. I was very impressed and could not fault anything about the service offered on this occasion.

all secure and ready to go

On the Essex side, there is a cycle path that runs along the edge of the motorway, but I would seriously think twice about using it as it is full of all kinds of random debris, including shards of broken glass. It seems that whoever is supposed to maintain/clean this path clearly doesn't.

Essex - Kent

Arrival (approx 11.55am) at the Essex crossing control booth is via the extremely badly maintained cycle path. However, there is another route which involves going through the adjacent retail park, and while the roads aren't the greatest, they are certainly not filled with the amount of debris that I found on the main route.

the cycle path on the Essex side (full of debris, I'm afraid)

I used the phone to request the vehicle and waited. And waited. And waited. After about 25 minutes I picked the phone up again to remind them that I was still waiting. Again I was assured that someone would be there soon. Another 10-15 minutes went by and a fellow cyclist arrived. He uses this crossing daily to travel between home and work and told me that it is not uncommon to have to wait 40 minutes or longer to be picked up.

the signs opposite crossing control (Essex side)

After a third phone call to the Cycle transport people, they finally sent someone over to collect us. This time the service was a little less friendly, with no real enthusiasm and no chatting. For the journey back across into Kent, I felt like I was a passenger in a racing car rather than in an official highways agency vehicle. I expected a calmer, more relaxed kind of drive from a representative of a motoring agency.

crossing control (Essex)

Something that I did not know about beforehand was that this service is not available at all times of day - fortunately I avoided the times with 'no service'. I found the following trial notice posted at the waiting points (I would draw your attention to where it says 'for the benefit of cyclists' - I think someone will need to explain the benefit of not being able to use the crossing at certain times of the day from Monday to Friday), but I am told that it is now permanent due to them receiving no negative feedback at the end of the trial. This is despite the fellow user of the service telling me that he did give them some well written negative feedback - this is someone that has to use this crossing twice-per-day to get to and from work and he sometimes has to leave home 3 hours before starting work to get to work on time despite only living a few kilometres away.

the revised timings of operation

Despite my initial positive impression of the service, I have been left with on overall feeling that cyclists aren't really welcome here and are an annoyance to some of the staff that have to deal with our requests to cross. Plus, it is clear to me that whoever is in charge has no problem with cyclists that arrive at 9am waiting for 90 minutes before they'll even get a chance to cross - Could you imagine the outrage if they tried to treat motorists this way? And, if the restricted timings mean that cyclists have a more efficient service, how is it that I had to sit in the cold for an hour waiting to be picked up?

This was never intended to be a review of the service, but rather a guide of what to do if you want to use the crossing. The fact that it got sidetracked by a bad experience is unfortunate but something that I can't just ignore.

Brands Hatch Bike Ride 2013

I found out about this event by pure chance when the wife spotted a flyer while sitting in a cafe having some lunch in Dartford. It was a two hour charity bike ride around the Brands Hatch circuit and took place on a Friday evening in September (the thirteenth to be precise!).

Considering my love of parkrun, I was a tad aprehensive about taking part in an event on a Friday evening, but I considered it for a while and figured that because it was a cycling event, it wouldn't carry too much risk of missing the following morning's parkrun (I didn't miss it btw).

Registration was of the old fashioned variety - Fill in a form and send it to the charity, who by the way were Action for Children. Once registered I set up a fundraising page, which is still open for donations by the way, and let everyone know about the 'how many laps' competition! The entries for this competition were;

Dad - 50 laps

Mum - 45 laps

Mathias - 20 laps

I arranged to work half-day on the day of the event and arrived at Brands Hatch in good time to sign in at the Kentagon bar-restaurant, attach my number to my shirt, give the bike a once over and pose for some photos. Also quite good was that there were some motorbikes out on the track so we had a little time to watch some action before the start of the ride.

The weather had not been kind and it had been raining before the event - leaving the track wet, and there was rain forecast throughout the ride with it forecast to be heavier towards the end. We sat in the car to avoid the light rain for as long as possible.

Just before 5.30pm all the cyclists were allowed onto the track and to form up on the starting grid. After a brief few words we were sent on our way (we got the full treatment as the starting light sequence was used to start off the ride!).

We were using the short version of the track, which is 1.2 miles (or 1.9 kilometres). Brands Hatch track has very little in the way of flat sections, so you are either pumping your way up an incline or whizzing down one!

The ride started on the Brabham Straight, which is gently uphill and is where the supporters were gathered. At the end of the straight the course turns right and sent us flying down Paddock Hill - I have to be honest here and admit that I used the brakes on every single lap here - maybe I would have been braver if it had been dry.

Once at the bottom of Paddock Hill you immediately have to negotiate the steepest section of the course - Hailwoods Hill, when you eventually reach the top of the hill, you turn right around the famous 'Druids' corner and then down Graham Hill - This was a fun down hill stretch and I got more confident as the ride went on, eventually I was taking the whole section and the corner without touching the brake.

Next up was a gentle incline along Cooper straight, into the Surtees left hander and then as the incline gets steeper and reached the highest point of the track, Clearways, and then around Clark Curve which, after the apex, provides some relief as the next downhill section appears.

This leads back into Brabham Straight, where it back to the gentle incline until reaching the start/finish point and doing it all over again.

The course is really quite technical - I found myself changing gears on around eight seperate occasions on every lap. It took a few laps to work out the best gears for each incline, and sometimes I'd get it slightly wrong and suffer all the way up!

So, about the rain. It was fairly light for the first hour of the ride, although when at speed on the downhill parts it actually felt like it was raining quite heavy. By the end of lap one I was completely soaked through. Half way around the second lap I removed my glasses because I could not see anything with them on.

My low point was probably at around 1 hour and 20 minute mark - It still felt like there was a long way to go, some riders had given up and at times it felt pretty lonely out there. Still I just kept the pedals turning and started to feel better - until the rain got heavier and the daylight disappeared. I was fine on the uphill sections, but when going down hill I was so so cold.

Finally at 7.25pm I got the signal that I only had one lap remaining, so I put the last of my energy into that last lap and was very happy when I reached the end and saw the wife and toddler waiting for me. The wife took my bike and sent me off to the Kentagon to sign out.

When I arrived in the Kentagon, I was a shivering wreck and was having trouble making sense out of everything. I think I chatted to the Action for Children ladies at the registration desk, but I may have imagined that. What I do know is that someone had put a medal around my neck and I somehow ended up with a bottle of water in my hand.

I headed back to the car where the wife instructed me to remove my wet clothes and put on something dry - I never would have thought of that if I was by myself. She then told me about what they got up to while I was cycling - tales of their visits to the pit lane and the VIP suite, which was warm and dry, plus they had episodes of Top Gear running in the background. Alright for some!

Once we had the heaters on in the car, I started to feel somewhere near my usual self so we made the journey back home in the rain, but not before stopping at the Indian take-away to pick up a well deserved meal!

The next day I was able to work out how many laps I did - It was 20. That's 38.7 kilometres (24.04 miles) and 736 metres of elevation. Clearly I am not meeting the performance expectations of my parents! So the winner of the 'how many laps' competition was my brother-in-law, Mathias. Congratulations!

I'd just like to thank everyone that sponsored me and I'd like to especially thank my wife and daughter for dealing with my constant need to enter these events and the inevitable standing around that ones supporters have to endure!

Action for Children bike ride at Brands Hatch

Next Friday, I'm going down to Brands Hatch race circuit to do a charity bike ride for Action for Children. We're using the shorter version of the track which is listed as being 1.2 miles long, in the photo below it's the bottom loop.

I was excited about this when I first registered but since reading the names of all the iconic sections of track I'm overflowing with anticipation. I've been to Brands Hatch once before and that was to watch something with motorbikes in it, it might have been Motocross or Supermoto - I have trouble remembering the differences between motorbike races.

The deal is that I'll ride for two hours on the evening of Friday 13 September (lets hope that's not a bad omen). It's not a race, just a ride. However it would be nice if there is enough space on the track to be able to do a few time trial laps, or should I say 'hot laps'? 

I've agreed to raise some money for the charity so if you'd like to sponsor me just click on the button below. Thank you.

I'm also having a little 'guess the number of laps' competition for everyone that sponsors me. So if you want to play, just sponsor me and let me know (here, on Facebook, Twitter or in person) how many 1.2 mile laps you think I'll do in the 2 hours. Thanks again.

As usual I'll write a blog post about the ride and hopefully include lots of photos. I'm allowed to take as many spectators as a like so if any friends or family want to come along to hang out at this iconic place for a few hours just let me know. Of course if anyone else is interested in joining me in taking part, the Action for Children people might still be accepting new registrants via this page - Brands Hatch Bike Ride 2013.

Thanks.

BHF London to Brighton Bike Ride 2013

I've split the ride into sections based on how I logged it with Strava. I did this because I wasn't sure if my phone battery would cope with such a long ride. In the end it coped admirably with juice left to spare. You can find the GPS data for the individual sections by clicking on the Strava links below.

Mrs7t even got out of bed of early to take a quick snap of me as I was leaving the house.

Westminster to Clapham Common (6.8km) (strava)

I left Westminster at 6.30am and took a very gentle ride down to Clapham Common to find the official start area. Before the ride started I had time to find the toilets, eat a banana, soak up the atmosphere and then meet up with the rest of Team Downtown.

We were given, as requested, a start time of 7.30am - The good thing at this event is that it's not a strict start time. You can start anytime after your allocated slot. So once we had met up and queued at the start gate, we finally got to the start line at about 7.45am.

Clapham Common

L2B - Clapham Common to Carshalton (12.6km) (strava)

We moved quite slowly as the mass of riders worked their way through the pancake-flat streets of South London. The roads here were open as usual to other traffic so our pace was dictated by the traffic. An hour later we had arrived in Carshalton, where we had a quick pit stop.

L2B - Carshalton to Burstow (28.6km) (strava)

Once we left Carshalton the riders had started to space out quite a bit so we were able to pick up the pace slightly. The flatness of South London slowly started to give way to some undulating terrain. The first real hill that we encountered was How Lane, the congestion here was unexpected and despite attempting keep my feet of the ground for as long as possible, eventually I had no choice but to walk up the hill - very disappointing because I had been reading about the hills beforehand and was very excited about tackling all of them.

four fifths of the team

After this we continued on at a better pace. Every now and then the marshals were managing the junctions and it generally worked ok. As a team we mostly stayed together, but every time we hit a hill we would spread out slightly as we each rode at our own comfortable paces. So a little stop was in order every now and then to regroup.

Just after passing the village of Smallfield, we decided it was time for a quick pit stop. We ended this section at the 'First Burstow Scouts' headquarters. The time was somewhere around 11.25am.

L2B - Burstow to Ditchling Common (27.4km) (strava)

We departed Burstow Scouts' headquarters at 11.38 and it was now raining, that's if you can call it rain - it was really just spots of water in the air. In fact, it was quite refreshing. This next section was a gradual uphill drag until hitting Burgess Hill, where it got steeper. Up and up we went until we arrived in the village of Turners Hill - It's a significant psychological point as it is means you have reached the half-way mark. We stopped here, but only to regroup. The road goes downhill out of the village but soon enough you are back into the lower gears as you hit the next incline.

the pit stop before the beacon

Downhill is the general theme of the rest of this section. At 1.30pm someone in the team decided that we were due a break and the spot that was chosen was either a stroke of genius or just pure luck. We were only about 4 kilometres away from the part of the ride that most people worry about - the Beacon!

L2B - Ditchling Common - Brighton (17.6km) (strava)

The first time you see the South Downs looming in front you of is shortly after Ditchling Common and is an amazing sight. It doesn't take long to reach the point where you are shifting down into the lower gears. The road zig-zags its way up and the gradient switches between steep and very steep every now and then. My GPS data shows the steepest section as being a 30.6% gradient. I'd say that at least 80% of the people I saw on the incline had resorted to walking. Although it was hard work I just kept pushing on, and as I got closer to the top I was rewarded with the most amazing views. Then before I knew it the gradient reduced and I had conquered the Beacon!

congestion on the beacon

At the top almost everybody seems stops for a rest and you have a lot of congestion to deal with. We had agreed to regroup at the top so I pulled onto a bank at the side and kept an eye out for the rest of the team. Finally we all found each other and one of our team members opened a celebratory bottle of beer, from which we all took a well-earned sip!

the whole team at the top of the beacon

From here we had 12 kilometres of mostly downhill cycling into Brighton, but four kilometers into that we were stopped and held due to a crash somewhere ahead of us (this wasn't the first crash that had held us up, but it was the most significant - It took us 2hrs and 13 minutes to cover this last 17.6km stretch). We were here for so long that I even saw a spider had started to make a web between two other bicycles. Eventually an ambulance arrived and shortly after we were back on the road to Brighton. The very last section feels like being back in London as you start to encounter heavier traffic and traffic lights again. At around 3.45pm we saw the sea and were directed onto the final straight where the five of us crossed the line together while soaking up the cheers and applause from the hundreds (thousands?) of people that had lined Madeira Drive to welcome the riders.

In Brighton

We were greeted by one of our team member's parents, who had brought with them a home-made celebratory vegan cake - it was delicious. We proceeded to the beach where we kicked off our shoes, had some cake and relaxed in the glorious sunshine.

cake

After an hour, it was time for me to head off on my own to find the coach (and lorry) back to London which I had pre-booked a few weeks earlier. The process was all very simple. I had been given two tickets, one for me and one for the bike. Each lorry can hold enough bikes to cover two coaches full of riders, they put my bike on the lorry, I got on the coach. Two coaches and one lorry drove back to Clapham Common, where my ticket was matched with the ticket on my bike. These coaches run all afternoon and depart as and when they fill up.

all done

Clapham Common to Westminster (10.2km) (strava)

Once I had my bike back it was time for the final leg of my day of cycling. The journey to Clapham was 6.8km and the London to Brighton ride came out at 86.2km. I had already ridden further than I ever had before but I was very keen to break the 100km mark. So instead of riding straight back to Westminster I took a little detour and knocked the return leg up to 10.2km, bringing the total number of kilometres up to 103.2km. (I did about 2km more but didn't log it, so 105km is probably more accurate).

Final Thoughts

I thought the event was really well organised, and there were marshals and official pit stops in all the right places. The main downside is that the event is a victim of its own success - The vast numbers of riders and the inevitable congestion takes the shine off the event slightly. Saying that, I had an amazing day of cycling and I loved doing it as part of a team. I would definitely ride it again in the future, but would try to get the earliest possible start time in the hope of finding the roads a little clearer.

There are more photos from the day. You can view the set on my flickr page.

London to Brighton 2013 (pre-ride stuff)

Many years ago, my Grandad woke up one morning and just decided on-the-spot to ride his bike from London to Brighton. This year he sadly passed away, so when I found out that some of my friends from Riddlesdown parkrun were forming a team to take part in the London to Brighton bike ride on Sunday 16 June, it felt right to sign up with them and follow in his footsteps, or maybe I should say cycle in his tracks.

The Bike
I'll be riding my B'twin Forme 5 (aka fitness 5). I bought it back in March and the decision to do so was mostly based on my entry into this event. The only upgrade I have made is to change the tyres. I have replaced the standard b'twin rubber with a set of special edition 'London' Schwalbe Durano Plus's - They are a lot more comfortable and are designed to be puncture resistant, so I have my finger's crossed for a puncture-free ride.

Training
My training has largely been disrupted by a slightly sore knee, which ultimately means that I haven't done anywhere near the amount of training that I would have liked. Still, that element just adds to the fun. As well as being my first cycling event, this is also the first event I've taken part in where I have never covered the distance before. And to make it worse, I've barely touched any hills. So don't mention the Beacon!

This is the training distance/time I've done over the last few months:

June:	111.6 km	6:59:14
May:	197.7 km	12:34:19
April:	197.1 km	11:32:26
March:	347.8 km	20:46:38
February:	84.4 km	5:02:22

Fund Raising
The ride is organised by the British Heart Foundation, and our team leader Nicki has set up a team fundraising page. So if you feel the urge to hand over some of your dosh to the BHF you can do so here and we will all be very grateful for your support.

My parents donated some of my Grandad's belongings to the BHF and they have already raised over £500.

The Dreaded Backpack
I was trying to avoid carrying a backpack with me, but the list of things to take kept growing to the point where I reluctantly gave in to the inevitable. I have a long, but hopefully not too heavy, list of items to carry. Fortunately some of the items are going to be consumed along the way so the bag will get lighter. I've been wearing the backpack on most of my rides lately so I feel much more comfortable riding with it.

GPS Logging
Also having a bit of an issue (hopefully now resolved) with GPS tracking. I am considering buying a Garmin but until I finally work out which one to buy I am still using my phone's GPS, and currently using Strava - which I am loving by the way. I'm not entirely sure that the battery will last the whole journey, so I've ordered a second battery and will log the route in sections based on the points that we stop for breaks. When the battery looks like it won't successfully log another section, I'll switch to the second, fully charged, battery. That's the plan, maybe it'll work, maybe not. Hopefully there will be enough juice to take some photos and partake in a bit of tweeting along the way! (I won't be tweeting while cycling by the way)

Lastly
Random nightmares aside, I'm feeling ok about it despite the awful training. I have no ambitions to finish in a particular time, just to make it to the end will be reward enough for me. The original plan was to book a hotel and spend a couple of days in Brighton with the ladies. However, this hasn't worked out and I have bought a ticket on the coach back to London - £24 gets me and the bike back to Clapham Common - I assume I'll have a very slow ride back to Westminster from here.

I'll write a full blog post about the day once it's all done. Thanks for reading.

Another loop around Hyde Park

For day 6 of 30 days of biking I went for a short morning ride up to Hyde Park. It's my standard short ride and I took it at a fairly leisurely pace. It's a decent route and can be ridden almost entirely off of the busy roads if I choose. I even stopped outside Buckingham Palace to take a quick snap of the bike in the sunshine.

 Here is the route as plotted with my GPS app -

The only issue is that my knee isn't feeling 100% so I might stop riding the bike daily and revert to my normal routine of having a few rest days each week. I'll see how it feels tomorrow and take it from there.

10.7km
40 minutes

New 1km personal best

30 days of biking - day 5.

I'm holding back on the total time/mileage I ride each day because this is the first time I've ever tried to maintain a cycling streak and I want to do my best to avoid picking up any niggles.

I had quite a good traffic-light free run between Vauxhall Bridge and Lupus Street so I put in a little more effort and logged my fastest ever 1km cycling split (1.51).

12.6km
40 minutes

With added sleet (day 4 of 30dob)

I was close to cancelling today's ride. It was cold and windy again, but today there was also some snow/sleet coming down. After 15 minutes of pondering I finally just got changed and went out with the bike.

I headed west along the Thames and picked up the super cycle lane (CS8) but only as far as Pimlico. I spent the next 20 minutes or so zipping around the back streets before heading back towards Whitehall.

I was blown around in all directions and on a few occasions was caught by a nasty side wind that I thought might just lift me off the ground and slam me into parked cars.

12.4km
42 minutes

If only it wasn't so windy

So. It's really windy out there. I think I may have actually picked up a tail wind at one point but it didn't last long and was I soon out of my seat furiously trying to maintain some kind of forward motion.

Today was just a slight variation on yesterday's route. I took the anti-clockwise route around Hyde Park but threw in a little extra by coming back on myself along the serpentine.

No incidents at all today, which can only be a good thing.

My GPS app says that I rode 12.64km and was riding for 44 minutes. If it wasn't so windy I would have stayed out for longer, then again considering I have to do this for 30 consecutive days it's probably wise to keep my midweek rides fairly short and not get carried away (I'll save that for the weekend)!

12.6km
44 minutes

30 days of biking - Day 2

Day 2 of 30 days of biking was just a short after-work outing up to and around Hyde Park. This is one of my staple routes during the week but I do more laps of the park if I'm after a longer workout.

The main things to report were -

• It was windy (again)
• The sun was out
• There were quite a few pedestrians walking out into the road without looking (again)

So here's the route from my GPS readings from my phone..

10.6km
40 minutes of cycling