Dunwich Dynamo 16th July 18mph avg

[EdO]

I'm going to ride this with a couple of guys from work.
Details are on the link.
http://southwarkcyclists.org.uk/content/dunwich-dynamo

The meeting point is London fields. I plan to meet around 7.30 for an 8pm off.
Route information is available here.
http://www.londonschoolofcycling.co.uk/root.html

Will aim to get back on an early train from Ipswich arriving at Liverpool street.
If anyone wants to tag along let me know.


Cheers


Ed

[Lucyap]

I quite fancy doing this one, so let us know how you get on
Thinking about it for next year, may well drag the husband along . . .

Take care going over Ballingdon Bridge, coming into Sudbury. The local nutter was out last year creating havoc for cyclists, and from what my brother tells me he's still a menace

Lucy

[jptaberdo]

Hey Ed

I'm quite likely to ride this, but not 18mph. Just looking to cruise along at maybe 14-15s.

Good luck if I don't see you out there mate

jp

[EdO]

Thanks for the tip Lucy.

Hopefully I'll be wearing my ACC top JP so will keep an for an eye out for you....although you'll find it easier to spot me

There's four of us now and the conditions look favourable.

[jptaberdo]

Hi all

What a great ride! Perfect weather - no rain! Although it was a bit chilly... There must have been over 1500 riders at the start, and I was genuinely surprised at how many finished... I met two guys on a rusty tandem with MTB tyres at the start. They were doing strange stretches that didn't have anything to do with cycling; carrying about 50 bananas and 10 sandwiches; and said they only bought the bike at 3pm that day I was surprised to see them about 20 miles from the finish - well done to them

I rode off around 9pm with three friends-of-friends for a while until two of us broke away to ride at a decent pace. We averaged 16mph, which meant lots of dodging around 100s of cyclists through most of the night. There was a nice tailwind which made keeping pace almost effortless. Fantastic fun!

The food stop was a strange novelty. 10 minutes battling through the crowd of bikes and cyclists to the village hall, then 10 mins queuing to get to the front door, 10 mins to get through the lobby, 15 minutes from the lobby to the canteen area, then 10 mins to the counter! Most people would have been pretty frustrated, especially as all that was to eat were bananas, flapjacks, white bread buns and 'Soupburger' But there was something surreal about being fed by volunteers at two hours passed midnight on a Sunday that made it seem fun regardless

After the food stop we managed to catch a train of 5 riders that were flying along for about 30 miles. When they ran out of steam, we rode on and met up with the other two riders we started off with. They were carrying last year's route description, which meant they missed the food stop! They ate their last energy bars two hours earlier, so they were feeling a bit cold a hungry.

Rolling into Dunwich felt fantastic - we arrived before the local pub got too busy, and managed to have a big breakfast and tea in warm surroundings. The weather was sunny enough to get a few hours sleep on the beach amongst the 100s of riders spread out amongst the shoreline.

All in all it was a great ride. No corporate sponsors, charity t-shirts, fanfare or racing. Just a nice ride to the coast with people who like to ride bikes.

Cheers
jp

[Andrew G]

[quote="jptaberdo"]All in all it was a great ride. No corporate sponsors, charity t-shirts, fanfare or racing. Just a nice ride to the coast with people who like to ride bikes.

[EdO]

Nice write up JP.
Great route, very smooth fast roads. Bit of a tail wind too.
Stopped off at a couple of pubs which helped break things up.
The second pub we were lucky to spot after we'd overshot the food stop by 10 miles
Had some good banter going with the locked in locals and got a chance to top up our water bottles as stocks were very low.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/99828755

Another write up here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/j ... cycle-ride

Will do it again next year.


cheers

ed

[jptaberdo]

Will definitely do it next year! (well, if i'm still in the country)

Cheers
jp