The Olympic route to the capital ↑ all posts

The day began well with Maggie making a delicious (and importantly large!) cooked breakfast. Roxy wasn’t forgotten and she got her fair share of bacon scraps and toast edges. We then took her for a walk in the local woods, although to be more accurate we walked and she ran almost constantly for an hour and a half. Tired out, we returned home and planned my route into London over coffee.

The first of two cycling meetups happened just south of Guildford: Kenny Ling met me on the road and cycled with me for a few miles. Unfortunately he couldn’t stay much longer but he pointed me to the cycle route to London and managed to fill my head with dreams of 500 mile ultra-endurance cycling races through Death Valley before he left.

Next up was Dorking, where Dan Bishop was waiting for me at the train station with his bike. The chance to cycle part of the 2012 Olympic road cycling route was too tempting to pass up, so we headed for the nearby Box Hill. The Olympic route will head south from London then do 9 laps of the hill. I was pretty content with part of one lap and a slice of cake at the top. The newly surfaced ‘zig-zag’ road to the top has “GO CAV!” spraypainted in preparation. Dan and I set a blistering tim for the Olympians to beat, but they may just manage it if they don’t stop at the cafe.

Down the back of the hill and past Epsom race course, and we were into London proper. We cycled through Richmond Park where hundreds of other cyclists were out for their weekend laps, then over the iconic green Hammersmith Bridge, through congested Shepherd’s Bush, and on to Maida Vale. A quick shower and rehydration and then to the pub to meet the usual suspects: Dimic, Chris, Rach, Alex, Jonny (and friends).