B2B route day one (part one): Lambeth Palace to Old Woking

Good morning bikers,

As some of you will be aware, because of the numbers involved in the ride we will need to do parts of the journey as slightly smaller groups. As such we have asked for volunteers to lead groups. We will be putting all the route details into a single document with important contact details etc before the off, but it might be good to start familiarising yourself with the route. Whilst this part below only covers until just after lunch on the first day, it is by far the most complex part of the journey - and even that is nearly all on cycle route 4...

(Google maps route is here:  http://goo.gl/maps/NwAWJ )

Section 1: Lambeth Palace to Putney Bridge

1. From the start point at Lambeth Palace, turn left on to Lambeth Palace Road and then immediately right at the roundabout over Lambeth Bridge. Once over Lambeth Bridge, turn immediately left.
2. This bit is easy. Keep following the road along the river, with the Thames on your left. Don’t cross any bridges! Straight on, straight on…
3. After approximately two miles the Thames road begins to turn inland. Almost immediately, turn left by Martin & Co estate agents. There is also a blue sign for Cycle Route 4, signposted Putney Bridge and Richmond Park. As this suggests, Cycle Route 4 will take us all the way to Putney Bridge.
4. B2B HOTSPOT! Although we are purely following Cycle Route 4 at this point, it’s a pretty wiggly route through the back streets towards Putney Bridge and at times feels counter intuitive. So take your time here, this route keeps us out of the heavy traffic. Look out for blue Cycle Route 4 signs and follow them. There are a couple of small roundabouts (left towards Chelsea harbour at the first, then right under the bridge through the barrier), but it should be quite obvious where to go – other roads lead off into supermarkets, car parks etc. At one point, at some traffic lights with The Hurlingham pub in front of you, don’t be tempted to turn left. Keep straight on.
5. Arrive at Putney Bridge (T-Junction).

Section 2: Putney Bridge to Roehampton Gate, Richmond Park

1. At Putney Bridge, turn left and cross the bridge.
2. Continue straight along Putney High Street. This is really our one encounter with riding in heavy London traffic, so take care, stick to the left, take your time!
3. Cross the A205. Keep straight on for roughly half a mile. Then turn right down Putney Heath. A member of the B2B support team will be present here to point you in the right direction!
4. Continue past the Green Man pub on your right. You’ll quickly reach a mini-roundabout. Bear right/straight on down Putney Heath. At one point, you have to bear left on a one-way system at a little village green. Follow it all the way down to a T-Junction with a main road (the A306).
5. B2B HOTSPOT! The A306 is very busy. If it’s safer, don’t be afraid to get off your bikes at this point, cross the road, turn right, and then immediately left down Danebury Avenue.
6. Follow Danebury Avenue until it comes to a T-Junction (near the end of Danebury Avenue, there is a lane with No Entry signs, but go straight through). Turn left at T-Junction and enter Richmond Park through the Roehampton Gate.

From this point, we are going to be following Cycle Route 4 all the way to Hampton Court Palace. Sounds easy – and most of the time it is, but there are moments when it’s also very easy to go wrong. So keep your eyes out for blue Cycle Route 4 signs all the time – and keep these directions in mind!

Section 3: Roehampton Gate to Kingston

1. Enter Richmond Park through Roehampton Gate. Go straight over the roundabout and up the right hand path. Keep cycling for roughly a third of a mile, then take the first turn left up the hill. It may be marked Restricted Access – but this is for cars.
2. Follow the track up a small hill. Pass the White Lodge on your left. You’ll shortly come to a car park and café on your right. Immediately afterwards, turn right down a smaller track, again marked with Cycle Route 4 signs.
3. Reach a crossroads. Go straight over, following signs to Ham Gate.
4. Ham Gate. There are public toilets here. So take five!
5. Leave Richmond Park via Ham Gate. Carry straight on along Ham Gate Avenue. Reach crossroads with traffic lights. Straight Over.
6. B2B HOTSPOT! At this point, Cycle Route 4 drops into a residential area. It doesn’t take long to get through, but you have to be very alert to signs. At one point, it takes you through two lanes (alleyways) in quick succession. Your end point for this part is Teddington Lock. So look out for signs!
7. Reach the river at Teddington Lock. In front of you is a footbridge. Don’t cross it! Instead, take the path to the left of the bridge.
8. Follow Cycle Route 4 to Kingston. The most important thing to remember for this stretch is to never leave the river. It should always be immediately on your right hand side as you cycle.
9. Eventually, Cycle Route 4 will bring you out of a small riverside park on to a road. In front of you is a bridge. Don’t go under it! Instead, turn left and follow the cycle path into Kingston town centre, almost immediately crossing a set of traffic lights. Bear left through a pedestrianised zone to Kingston Bridge.

Section 4: Kingston to Walton-on-Thames

1. Follow Cycle Route 4 over Kingston Bridge, and then turn immediately left. The Thames is now on your left. Keep it that way until you reach Hampton Court Palace on your right.
2. At Hampton Court Palace, the cycle path meets a T-Junction with Hampton Court Bridge. Dismount. Cross the road. Then cross the bridge via the cycle path. Once over the bridge, turn immediately right on to the A3050.
3. Follow the A3050 to Walton-on-Thames.
4. Lunch! Meeting point in Walton

Section 5: Walton-on-Thames to Old Woking

1. B2B HOTSPOT! After Hampton Court Palace, we’re leaving the leafy riverside route behind and hitting A and B-roads almost all the way to Mellow Farm. They can get pretty busy – and there will be a good amount of drivers sticking their foot down. So take extra care, stick to the left, and look out for one another!
2. After lunch, follow the A3050 through Walton-on-Thames, going straight over a set of traffic lights in the town centre. Follow signs to Weybridge, always staying on the A3050.
3. Eventually, you’ll reach a TOTAL garage on your left and a T-Junction. Turn left. Immediately, you’ll hit a strange kind-of mini-roundabout. Take the second “exit”, signposted Byfleet (B373). A member of the B2B support team will be present here to point you in the right direction!
4. Follow the B373 until you hit a T-Junction with Weybridge Station across the road in front of you. Turn left on to the B374. Follow the B374, at one point going straight over a roundabout, until you hit a T-Junction with the A245. Turn right.
5. From this point, you effectively need to keep straight on to Old Woking.

Pushing off: Important news about tuesday the 4th of September

Under three weeks to go now bikers, and I can feel my legs a-tingling at the prospect of mounting the Mighty Steed (alright, my Giant Defy), pushing off from the Big Smoke (itching to get out at the moment) and pedaling my way to the greatest festival the UK has to offer…

So many thoughts… Fancy dress on the bike, or not? A fresh pair of padded shorts? Wine in the water bottles, a la the classic days of the Tour de France? (Possibly not).

Before all of that, though, some very important information to make sure that the push-off from Lambeth Palace on the 4 September goes as smoothly as humanly possible…

All told, that morning is probably going to be the biggest logistical challenge of the entire ride – and it’s going to need some forward planning from everyone involved to make sure that we set off on time.

Firstly, and most importantly, we need everybody to be assembled at Lambeth Palace by 10.15am at the latest. Once there, we’ll be splitting into groups of six or seven and leaving at staggered times.

However, getting there is not going to be that easy for most people.

First, you’re going to be weighed down with all your kit for the festival AND a flipping bike. Second, because of the Paralympics, bikes (unless they’re fold-up) won’t be allowed on overground trains once you’re inside the London network. Third, it’s going to be rush hour and very, very busy indeed…

From our end of things, we’ve decided we’re going to position two of the three vans (one will be at Lambeth Palace) very close to Waterloo and Charing Cross stations (details to come). So if you’re arriving at either of these stations (you should be OK with your bike on the train coming into London if you live outside, but CHECK), this will mean you can dump all your kit straight in a van and then pedal to the start point (not far away).

You will need to be at these dropping-off points by 10am AT THE VERY LATEST. SORRY FOR THE CAPITALS.

What else can you do to ease the load? Perhaps you know someone who wouldn’t mind sticking all your gear in the car and bringing it into town for you. Maybe you’ve got mates/family nearby who wouldn’t mind putting you up on the Monday night and helping you lug your things to the vans…

A quick (annoying) recap:

You must arrive at the start point by 10.15am at the latest.

If you’re dropping off bags at Waterloo or Charing Cross, you must be there by 10am at the latest.

I used to be a teacher, you know. Does it tell?

…But please do have a proper think about how you’re going to get there.

Can’t flipping wait, by the way.

Warren

videos from the second rehearsal

We had a lovely old time at the second biketobestival musical jamboree!! I made the videos from the last meet-up have credits and all that, but with so little time left I decided to post them raw.

At this meet-up we had some of the guys from last time... but we also had some extra people too... and it still sounded fine...in fact a little better for the extra people

Usual excuses for sound quality but have a listen fellow bikers....

(Sorry Vera we did this after you had to go to work)

Make me smile (come up and see me)

 

The Lord Knows I'm Drinking

The Bear Neccessities

Weird bike stuff

Whilst we were out on Sunday a couple of things occurred to me about cycling that I thought it might be good to share. I appreciate some of you regularly do long rides, but some of you might not

False flats
This is the name given to sections of a road race course that were you watching it on the telly box, or indeed riding it, you would assume are flat but are in fact not. Going from the flat to a hill in open countryside (where you have a horizon, objects to work out scale and distance against) is one thing. You can judge your speed and gear selection before making a measured approach.

On slightly more closed in roads (overhanging trees or high hedges) you will often get a false impression of the incline/decline of the road. On occasion you will be convinced that you are going down a gentle incline to a little hill at the bottom when in fact you are already climbing and it's about to get steeper. Your eyes will only tell you so much. You need to trust your legs.

A short section of the ride on Sunday conformed to this type and it gets really tempting to try and work it all out. In reality a better approach is to relax and see what happens.

Bottomless puddles
Water collects in depressions in the road to form puddles. During a rainy part of the ride several cars went through the same puddle at speed. Each one of them made a crunching/slapping sound as they grounded the bodywork into the water. Under the puddle was a pothole the size of a car wheel.

Where possible avoid riding through puddles on roads you don't know, especially those on un-edged country roads as who knows how deep they'll turn out to be.

Never pass up the chance to use an actual toilet
You never know where the next one will be. Ditto for filling up water bottles, buying extra fig rolls etc. If you get a chance...take it. I went on a ride to Brighton and spent ages looking for the perfect pub lunch... only to find they'd all stopped doing food and I had to go to a tearoom instead as it was all that was open. Hardly a hardship, but in Holland I very nearly missed the chance to eat for a whole day by forgetting to buy food before I joined a cycle route through the middle of nowhere.

Anyway... That's all for now

Dominic

Odds n ends!

Hi guys and gals,

Hope the training is going well and you've all been inspired by the Olympics to get out on the bike and do some miles!!

We've finally had a confirmation from justgiving that the event is listed on their site.  That was a long old wait, but for those of you who've had trouble setting up your page, follow this link and it should be more straight forward. Any problems refer to the previous posts on the 'how to' or drop us an email!

http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising-page/creation/?cid=2357&eid=882930

We're at the 10% mark of our target which is fab but still a long way to go.  Let's all make an effort to give that extra push over the next few weeks.

A few tips from my friend who advises charities on fundraising. 

1. Start with the story, why give to Cancer Research UK? Have a look at their website for some inspiration.

2. Don't be afraid to chase people, she advised me to send an email every week!

3. Use every method of communication you have, so tweet, facebook, email and talk about all the work you're putting into this.

On a separate note, we're still waiting to hear from some of you with your phone numbers etc, please email the following

- mobile phone number

- emergency contact name and number

- dietary requirements, if none please still tell us, then we know how many veggies/non veggies to cater for.

- t-shirt size, orders have already been sent so if you didn't reply already we can't promise you the size you require but we'll do our best!!

Thanks and hopefully see some more of you at the social this Sunday. Bring along your instruments if you want to play along and we'll have another go at a few songs!

Sophie

Pics from our ride on Sunday.

Warren and I went out for a training ride on sunday. Were Warren writing this he'd probably have managed a pun around the word "training", and the fact that it was raining. I however am not blessed with this level of writing skill so I've had to settle for the above title.

After watching endless cycling on the telebox over the last few days (and a quick play through the songs on melodica and mandolin - suprisingly trebley!) I set out with high hopes of emulating Wiggins...

Whilst we didn't achieve that type of performancewe did get a cracking pace down after lunch. The long and short of all this is that it got me thinking about the stuff I carry with me on the bike and how (in bad conditions) we used almost all the kit.

• 3 high calorie snack bars (two before lunch and one after at the various breaks for map reading)
• Waterproof jacket (Hi-vis... cos if it's raining then cars can't see you in a road coloured jacket)
• 2 litres of water
• Pump
• Mobile Phone
• Punture repair kit
• Toolkit (Allen keys in my case although some bikes need spanners)
• Lunch
• Spare inner tube
• Sunglasses
• Sun Cream

Apart from the tools and  puncture repair kit I used all of the other items... Yes sunglasses, suntan lotion and waterproofs. I also planning on getting some waterproof socks.

One solution that works quite well in the rain is to not wear too many layers of clothing in the rain. You don't want layer upon layer of soggy clothing/fancy dress. On a bike this your cycling shorts and top. If it's warmish this is often the best. Once you stop you put a jacket on to stop the wet clothes cooling off. This worked well on the warmer days in scotland last year. I favour only putting waterproofs on when it really comes down, then not taking them off again until the sun is warm enough to dry you off in a pleasant way.

Hopefully we'll have a dry and bright trip together, but the British weather is at very best unpredictable. It only rained on sunday for an hour, and it was only roasting for two hours but without sun cream and waterproofs it would have been a potentially uncomfortable day.

As it was it was lovely.

(by the way I know photo 2 is a bit strange. This was our view from the bus shelter where we had lunch.)

Dominic

B2B start point... Doin' the Lambeth Cycle!

After a fair amount of to-ing and fro-ing and a good deal of gnashing of teeth this end, we’re very pleased to announce that we have a (glorious) start-point for the inaugural Bike to Bestival…

We’re going to be pushing off on the morning of Tuesday 4 September from the fantastic  Lambeth Palace on the south bank of the Thames, just west of Waterloo. Have a good old squiz for yourselves here:

http://www.london-se1.co.uk/places/lambeth-palace/map

A little bit of background to the behind-the-scenes wrangling on this one. Because of everything going on in central London this summer, it’s been nigh-on impossible to get permission to gather as a group anywhere of real prominence. Unfortunately, that ruled out our first choice of Trafalgar Square – and pretty much any of the Royal Parks.

Thank the lord, then (or more specifically in this case, the Archbishop of Canterbury) for the lovely Malcolm at Lambeth Palace for stepping up to the plate… It’s a great place to kick things off, too, right on the river and slap-bang on our route out of the Smoke, with the added boon that we’re going to be avoiding almost all of the central London traffic snarl up and be on our way out towards Richmond Park before you can say “Yes! We’re off to bleeding Bestival!”

More details to follow, but for those of you starting to plan your journey, we’re going to need everyone to arrive between 9.30am and 10.15am, to load up the vans with kit and get ready for the off just before 11am. We’re very aware that this could potentially be a tricky time in terms of people arriving in London weighed down with bikes, tents, rucksacks etc… We’re currently thinking of ways to try and make this easier for you. So keep ‘em peeled…

In the meantime, check out our Facebook page for details of the next social on Sunday 12 August, from 2-6, at the Royal George pub just off Charing Cross Road. Get yourselves down there friends!

Warren, Dom and Sophie