This weekend saw the February Tri London social ride take place. Organized by Roz, Luis & Prasoon, 25 riders showed up for our jaunt out to Windsor, despite an early-ish and not-quite-spring weather. With lots of Tri London kit on display (plus a few new faces) the scene was set for an excellent day out.
The ride through central London was nice and quiet – one of the benefits of an early start on Sunday! With little traffic to get in the way we made good time out through town, especially through Sloane square and down the King’s Road – even with an early flat just before Putney. Richmond Park was overflowing with similarly-minded cyclists making the most of the day, and at that point the contingent split into smaller groups to make it a bit easier for traffic to move past.
After getting through Kingston the route took us out past Hampton Court and then following roughly parallel to the Thames, out to Thorpe and towards Ascot with some lovely scenery, a good climb and some fast TT sections. We arrived at Windsor just after 11.30 for a refreshment stop, which covered all the bases: cake, coffee, baked potatoes and second-helpings of cake.
A few folk got the train back into London, whilst the rest of us headed back home by bike after the half hour cake bonanza! With a slightly shorter distance left to come home, the route took us through scenic Horton and Wraysbury, the less scenic Staines, and then onto the banks of the Thames back into Hampton and Richmond. The sun even deigned to make an appearance on the way back, which made the ride all the nicer (or was that the tailwind?)
All in all a great day’s riding! Even with three punctures across the groups, everyone made good time and got home tired but happy – and with just enough time left for a well-earned Sunday roast.
Many thanks to Luis, Prasoon and Roz for organising and leading the ride. The next social ride is 15th March – don’t forget to join us!
If you’d like to follow the route, it’s available here. Note that we took the opposite way round the Windsor loop to put the coffee stop a bit closer to home…
