Monday 7 January 2013

Misty Richmond Park Group Ride

Yesterday morning I headed back out to Richmond Park for a group ride rather than a training session, however the two frequently get merged as far as I'm concerned.

The day started with the customary meeting point of Costa Coffee adjacent to the railway station. Welcomes over we headed for the first challenge of the day - Nightingale Lane. This is a location I have passed, heard about but not yet cycled up. Recently I blogged about lovings hills, well Nightingale Lane certainly tested that.

It is a 20% gradient - in other words, it's steep! I suspect this location is a warm up for some of the roadies, as there were three in front of us when we got there. As I went through the gears, the incline got steeper and steeper. A roadie in front and clipped in was struggling in his efforts to ascend this beast of a hill. His struggle up the hill was made worse perhaps as he was passed by yours truly and two other Bromptonians. A quite lovely, warm glow type feeling!

Once at Richmond, it was as busy as it was yesterday in terms of the number of cyclist out and about. The forecast was for cloud but what we actually got was a mixture of fog, haze, dampness and drizzle. As I have written before, rain does not bother me so I enjoyed change in the scenery provided by the weather.



Luckily for today the deer kept their distance. I found rather disconcerting to see several people walking ever closer to the deer in order to obtain a better picture. Some were perilously close to them.

Again on the hills the Brompton proved itself yet again as I and a few others were able to attack and overtake a few roadies as soon as a serious incline gifted itself to us.

After over 9 miles inside Richmond we retied to a cafe within the park and chewed the fat for a while before making our separate ways. Hopefully, there will be another big ride to look forward to soon as the calendar is looking terribly sparse up until February!

For the ride data from my trusty Garmin Edge 200, please click on the link below.

Misty Richmond Group Ride Data

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for leaving a comment.