October 20th 2010...

28 miles later...

Three bicycles...

In theory, I love the 'Mayor of London's Sky Ride'. Closing off the streets of central London to allow cyclists the freedom of the road. What's to go wrong? In practice, it's a slightly frustrating journey. The route was pretty much a straight line from Buckingham Palace to Tower Hill & St Paul's in the East, give or take a few windy roads and turns along the way. We joined somewhere in the middle and made our way east, first to St Paul's, which then loops back on itself, then to Tower Hill, and continuing along Embankment to Westminster and Buckingham Palace. However, it was pretty much the same as driving in London. Stop start cycles bunched up together going somewhere very slowly. I can't blame anyone for this, it's down to the popularity of the event. But whilst they close the roads to cars, pedestrians still cross the roads, and every few hundred metres there was a designated crossing, with volunteers holding up big Stop/Go signs, and for the first 2 hours we found ourselves stopping every few hundred metres and bunching up with another 200 or so fluorescent cyclist.

The Masses

We took a break from the route by cycling to the Tate Britain for some lunch and a quick look at Mike Nelson's Coral Reef. For the first time we actually cycled for 15 minutes without having to stop or be surrounded by hundreds of other cyclists. Following our injection of art, we rejoined the ride at about 3pm and by then it was much quieter and we were able to do a second lap of the route with much less stops and starts. Unfortunately, by then, something had gone wrong with my back tyre. I thought it was a problem with the valve which meant I had to stop to pump it up every 45 minutes or so, but it turns out it was a slow puncture. The Sky Ride route closed at 4:30pm, so we left the Mall and joined the open road, cycling up St James's St, joining Piccadilly, going up Regent St and Portland St, around Regent's Park and finally followed the canal path back to Camden.

Mike Nelson's Coral Reef

Despite the slow moving cycles at the start of the day, it was a spectacular way to spend 7 hours in London. The weather had been perfect, cloud cover to block bright sunshine and a light breeze to keep you cool. My legs were aching, and my back tire deflated again but we made back to Camden to enjoy a well needed rest. Really pleased that people have sponsored us, and so far we have hit the £70 mark, but there's no need to stop there. So keep it coming. Me and Stef contemplated cycling into London again yesterday to avoid the Tube strike, but we just couldn't face sitting on a bike again so soon...