Mixing it with the cars – Sunday November 4 

We’re off to follow the London to Brighton Veteran car run, familiar to some from that old favourite wet Sunday afternoon film Genevieve. 

None of the cars in the run were made after 1905 so you can check out the new fangled machines before it all started to go kind of pear-shaped. 

No apologies for the early start – it’s needed to give us a chance of seeing a good selection of the cars and they leave even earlier from Hyde Park corner. We’ll be riding fairly fast from Greenwich to Croydon to meet up with them. 

IMPORTANT FOOD NOTE: So that we can see as much of the event as possible and keep moving bring your own food for lunch – we don’t plan to go to a pub for lunch or go hunting for food outlets. The car drivers have a coffee stop in Crawley and we may join them. We may well go for food and a drink once we hit Brighton – that depends on the consensus of the ride.  

Suitable for all bikes as we will be following the cars down by road. And, to no-one’s surprise, the old cars won’t be panting up Ditchling Beacon so the ride will be easier than some of our Brighton rides. Pace will probably be fairly fast in order to see (and overtake?) lots of cars but we’ll see how it goes. To quote a line from the film: "You'll be intoxicated by the exuberance of your own velocity." Maybe. For the less exuberant, opportunities to drop out at various points and return by train. 

Official site of the event: 

http://www.lbvcr.com 

If you want to get in the mood, check out a version of Larry Adler’s famous theme at: 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci95dILGo_o 

Total distance about 65 miles. Train back.  

Meet 7:45 Cutty Sark Gardens, Greenwich 

8:15 Ladywell Fields PROMPT DEPARTURE 

A Lewisham Cyclists/LCC ride 

More info from Paul: 07957 209322. NO TEXTS PLEASE

Report

"You'll be intoxicated by the exuberance of your own velocity” said my initial invite, simply quoting one of the characters from Genevieve – little was I to know how true this was – a crazy day – at least twice I ended up frantically chasing my own ride.

 7:45 I joined two at Cutty Sark Gardens who’d come over (or under) the river, three more at Ladywell Fields. No Bill as we’d expected but I got a quick call from him – “I’m in Croydon – they’re steaming through”. I’d been wary of starting too early in case folk couldn’t get out of bed and needed some sort of decent turnout for the inaugural run – always knew we’d be behind the first group of starters, but now the race was on. Met Jurek at Forest Hill train station by special arrangement. Rode like the wind to Croydon a bit worried I was going to wreck the group before Purley, to Croydon where I threw a slight hissy that Bill wasn’t there as promised.

 Met him then off - still lots of cars coming through – down through Purley, Pete stopped to take some pics – the rest of us flew - I got left by the rest of the field and eventually caught them by the turn-off for the M23 - before I got there one of our party did a good turn by chasing after an old car that took the wrong turn. Regrouped. Excellent signs by the RAC made navigating a doddle so we were content to leave folk behind and periodically regroup, though 7 of us pretty much rode it together most of the way.

 Wonderful atmosphere on a sunny blue-sky-day – down lots of big fast A23 – no other day could you ride this on a bike without getting lots of grief from modern drivers but today was different – wonderfully different – pretty much no road rage – saw one jammed modern car driver hop out to help push an old crock up a hill as it steamed its last – fair number of conked out cars littering the route – never ridden so long and hard and fast in my life – the road just rolled on and on – overtaking old cars, new cars, slip-steaming various veterans.

 Regrouped in Crawley to catch our breath, check out some of the cars from behind a barrier - health and safety mate we were told though we’d been flying past countless loose collections of exposed flywheels, chains, whirring clanging things and gawd knows what else belching steam. Sensible advice from Jurek to beware of braking in front of some of these things – their 1905 vintage brakes maybe not up to the standard of your average calipers, let alone hydraulic brakes – thanks also to Jurek for periodic sensible tips on riding technique curiously interspersed with maybe less temperate exhortations such as “Ram it Paul”.

 After about half an hour in Crawley (we grazed on food we’d brought, no time for lunch) we hit the road again, more wonderful flying – we were all pretty much evenly matched and with so many cars to overtake, new and old, the pace of the day just drove us on – wonderful mix of A roads made rideable by slow cars and B roads, some of which had been made one-way for the day so that slower panting vehicles (us included) could crawl up the slow lane while some modern cars (and some surprisingly powerful old ones) could overtake.

 Bypassed Ditchling and at the bottom of a milder hill some of our party were given Toblerone by friendly folks watching outside their house. Bottles kindly refilled but no wine was forthcoming. A crock staggered in so we gave it room and pressed on.

 A particularly barmy bit of bare-knuckle riding near Brighton where a fast A23 and A27 split – it felt like riding up an M25 slip road and – unusually - we did this stretch without any veterans to slow down the traffic. But such was the nature of the day, the drivers were on best behaviour. Wonderful.

 Regrouped about 4 miles from Brighton on a roundabout for Pete to catch us then off into Brighton – jamming all the way past lines of traffic.

 Hit the pier just after 1:30 – remarkable as we’d stopped for at least half an hour in Crawley and had a fair few other roadside rest and regrouping stops. The day was beyond an Indian summer as we basked below the prom eating fish and chips and drinking beer, then back to the station for a return trip in daylight and even back home before dark.

 And if you think riding in November is just grotty, compare and contrast the beautiful day (see pics) with our last ride to Brighton in June.

 A mad mad mad ride – just recalling the blur of it all brings a smile to my face - definitely doing it next year.

 I expected maybe 3 of us for this – thanks to the magnificent pioneering 8 for a great day – see more of you next year perhaps – but get training – it’s pretty much been decided by us that this is going to be a fast and furious ride. A start half an hour earlier will help though. A bit.

 Only two regrets – we didn’t see the steam-powered thing with what looked like a chimney in the middle. But maybe just as well. Health and safety mate – health and safety. And unlike most of our rides this was 100 per cent male – some (fast) women next year will be more than welcome. We’re not (quite) as daft as the men in the film – honest.

 Oh – and a few last thoughts on the advantages of doing Brighton this way. The only day of the year even half sensible nuts like us would contemplate riding some of the fast A23, a total distance from Greenwich of only 55 miles compared to our usual route of well over 60, and no great climbs. We slipped through the North Downs without hardly noticing them, and there was no Ditchling.

 None of our usual on the move pics - we were, exuberantly, going too fast.

 Another report of the ride by Jurek (plus pics) at: 

http://www.anothercyclingforum.com/index.php?topic=42588.0

 If the link doesn’t work, go to the main page and look under “ride, touring and events”

 Honk honk

Paul