Randonax 2024 - Dave Morrison Excels!
Leader of West London Cycling, Dave Morrison always finds really interesting routes. For his Randonax on 26 August, he really excelled himself! I’d ridden in the general area but kept saying to myself “Never ridden that lane before, must include it in one of my routes”. The 70 km section from Wing, round to the north of Milton Keynes and then south to Winslow was a real gem: thank you, Dave!
There were 70 km and 100 km options. Not everyone wants to ride the 200 km route that I chose.
Varia Fails -Garmin replaces!
I’ve had my Garmin Varia RTL515 for years now. I bought the earlier version (RTL 510) which became an immediate “must have” on my rides. I’d never leave home without it.
Unfortunately the switch failed. Garmin determined that it was eligible for free replacement under warranty. The replacement seems to last better than the original did when it was first new.
Midweek Tour of the Cotswolds 104 km plus ECE
Wednesday 19 June saw my second participation in this event, starting from the village of Stonesfield a few kilometres west of Woodstock with the historic Blenheim Park. As my goal for 2024 is to achieve the Randonneur 10000 award again, I decided to use the Extended Calendar Event facility to convert this to a 200 km event by riding an additional 100 km.
The organisation, hospitality and refreshments at the start and the finish all proved excellent, as in 2023. I highly recommend this event for anyone who is free to ride midweek; it takes in beautiful countryside and some of the idyllic Cotswold towns and villages. Many thanks and congratulations to the organiser, Jackie. I heard her telling another rider at the finish that she was considering a new route for 2025: I look forward to it.
Hundred of Kingston - No Barriers
Saturday 22 June saw me ride from Ealing to the start of the 150+ km Hundred of Kingston Audax. The meeting place was the impressive Alpkit store on Old London Road in Kingston where coffee and biscuits awaited. While there were many shiny new bikes with their shiny young riders, there were also a few older cyclists (like myself), riders with a variety of body shapes and a rider with one leg (and no prosthetic) whom I had met earlier in the week on the Midweek Tour of the Cotswolds. We all made it to the finish: hence, no barriers!
A Tough Ride - RRtY 7 @ 77
Storm Henk brought rain, rain and more rain for the first weeks of January. On holiday in Penzance I did not realise the extent of flooding in the Thames valley. I was to find out on my first ride of January.
The first part of my planned route would take me to Twyford and then over the Thames at Sonning for a circuit of Reading and Tilehurst. All familiar roads and a route chosen to give me the greatest possible chance of completing the series of 12 rides I needed to achieve RRtY 7 just before my 77th birthday later in January.
It was to be a tough ride.
Limping Home to Randonneur 10,000
In my determination to achieve RRtY - Randonneur Round the Year - I did enough 200km rides to gain the Randonneur 5000 awards in 2021 and 2022. For 2023 my aims were to achieve RRtY 4, 5 and 6 but also to move up to Randonneur 10,000. For me, this was quite a challenge and involved detailed planning and record keeping with a spreadsheet to show all rides planned and completed to get me to 50 rides of 200 km.
The last planned ride was on 25 October 2023 and almost ended in disaster.
TIA - Doctor says “Keep Riding”
What’s TIA? It’s not some sort of titanium interface for a bike, it’s a “Transient Ischaemic Attack” or mini stroke. No, I didn’t have a TIA myself but on my ride home from Priscilla’s Kitchen at East Garston, I met Harry who told me about his experience.
This post is dedicated to Harry with my admiration for the way he dealt with a life threatening condition and to the medical advice to keep riding.