London to Brighton for Rosa . . on a Brompton

2012 09 16 Sunday

At last, the day of the London to Brighton charity bike ride has arrived. It all started in February when Rosa’s neuroblastoma cancer was diagnosed and I took up the cudgel to raise funds for the charity that gave us practical support: CLIC Sargent. But we’ve come a long way since then so I’ll update on Rosa first then blog the ride.

Rosa shows no signs of her ordeal for which I am so grateful. She never did really. The medical tests and the operation to remove the tumour were the bits that caused her grief. Six months on she’s a normal three year old. She’s completed her first week at nursery school and is loving it. Attending each day with her friend Joey she’s oblivious to the tears that afflict so many in the first days of their new school. In her Royal blue and yellow uniform with her red hair scraped back off her face she looks so beautiful and grown up. Rosa strongly resembles her granny Gill, who would have been 66 today, and her great grandma, Gill’s mum Cora and I’m glad of that legacy. I’m also glad her flaming red hair contrasts beautifully with her uniform. Lucky! That’s one thing a schoolgirl can only hope for.

CLIC Sargent Fundraiser Part 1 was in April when, with a little help from my friends I walked out of the door at home and cycled the Trans Pennine Trail, and back home again to increase the challenge, over 400 miles in total. The daily blogs below describe that journey. Now, I’m off again, on my own this time on CLIC Sargent Fundraiser Part 2. Strictly, this is a dream I’ve grown up with from my first viewing of the legendary film Genevieve. But now it’s a romantic interlude, of a 1950’s idyll rather than the Kenneth More and Kay Kendall variety! There the similarity ends. This London to Brighton cycle ride is a one day event organised by DOITforcharity.com. It follows a largely back road route over 54 miles of the Surrey and Sussex Downs and Weald. And let’s hope the analogy isn’t rekindled by my breakdown somewhere en-route!   

Planning to cycle the event on one of my standard bikes would have involved a great deal of additional work. The intention was to use the L2B opportunity to stay over for a few days with Rosa and family. For many reasons I mostly travel to London by bus and trains now so, the answer was very simple: to do it on my folding Brompton which is like a suitcase, both bus and train friendly. Its three speed Sturmey Archer gears are restrictive but, with some training ride preparation, I feel ready and I can always walk up severe hills if I have to!

And so it was, I travelled down from Lancashire yesterday and need an early start today to register at Streatham before the 09:00 deadline.

Alarm set for 05:00 I pre-empted it and was out of the house by 05:30 cycling the three miles to Heathrow Terminal 5 to catch the first underground train of the day at 06:05. Unbelievably, half a mile into my first leg and I was thwarted by closure of Sutton Lane at the M4 bridge for the recovery of a vehicle. Significant traffic round and about amounted to postal workers changing shift and it was one of them walking home that alerted me to the problem ahead, a serious crash in the early hours. Good job I knew my bearings from "playing out" in Langley. It would mean a longer journey but was the quickest alternative, diverting westwards to the corkscrew-ramped pedestrian overbridge to the Honda roundabout. I reassured myself that I was early enough to be able to miss the first train and still be at Streatham for registration before 09:00. Who needs pressure?!

It was seriously dark but my new lightweight bike light regime was working well: a 1 watt headtorch and the tiny but powerful seat stem back light birthday present.

I made Heathrow very easily following the Colnbrook/ Poyle route I've become familiar with this year during the Olympics. It was still dark when I arrived at Terminal 5 and, while I thought I knew where I was I couldn't find the entrance to the Underground Station. Eventually I realised I was disorientated because I’ve only arrived by train and never departed like today. Terminal 5 and Heathrow generally is quite something, very impressive, but big. So much so it has even become a “day out” for our family. There’s nothing quite like seeing the planes and riding the automatic pods and trains for amusing the grandchildren . . . and me, but I must concentrate. I’m only passing through this morning!

Following freely offered advice about the location of the down escalators to the Station the dash to the platform resumed! Who said southerners were unhelpful! Panic! The train was pulling in as I tried to retrieve my Oyster Card to open the barriers. It was buried in my upside down bag, under the truly squashed banana. Would I? Wouldn't I? With one minute to spare I did.

As I fell into my seat my phone went with a text. It was from my girl . . and, at 06:05 that’s dedicated support. It set me off with a spring in my step.

As I was sitting on the train thinking about the next step I was glad of the early start. I'd not reviewed the journey properly. I thought I needed to change for Waterloo but had totally forgotten my pre-purchased ticket was from Victoria. A quick look at the paperwork revealed the error. I found I needed to change trains and cycle from Sloane Square to Victoria.

Considering the early hour on a Sunday morning I thought it was very busy. Lots of people on the Underground and milling about Victoria station when I arrived there including a host of cyclists on the same train. Not long now. Only a short ride from Streatham Common station to the start. By now dawn had broken and the day had started very grey and cool.

Discovering the time of my arrival at Sainsbury's was 07:50 and finding the queue of cyclists waiting to register was out onto the main road I was relieved I wasn’t any later. There was an inevitable delay while everyone was processed and I lost 40 minutes. Unbelievably, by the time I came back out of Sainsbury’s car park at 08:30 the queue was over a quarter of a mile longer.   

Bearing the number 2741 I was off, following the orange marker arrows as instructed. Even without the orange arrows we could have managed by following the plethora of rider numbers stuck to the road. In the absence of pins they were falling like flies.

The weather continued grey and cool so I left my trademark dayglow orange windjammer on but I would want to remove it at some point to display the CLIC shirt I was wearing.

Oh boy, was it good to get going! The initial terrain was very suburban, residential streets with traffic bumps, then a main road or two. After about 5 miles it eventually became a leafy uphill lane that arrived in Chipstead. Many cyclists were walking up the hill so I felt quite good staying on the Brompton and exerting myself to get it the top. At the summit many were taking a rest on the Green. As I took a celebratory photo one of two three-man trandems reminiscent of the Goodies that I’d overtaken on the hill summitted. Now, that did look hard work. The reward for our efforts was the long downhill on the other side. It was the first of many. (to be continued)