Roads to Ride – Box Hill

Box Hill, A Week After It Snowed
Roads to Ride – Box Hill

To be fair, it really isn’t one of the great roads to ride. It isn’t even the best, or hardest, of roads in its neighbourhood (I find Leith Hill both more interesting and, depending on the route taken, more challenging to ride). Yet, the zig-zag road on Box hill has developed a special place in the folklore of London & SE UK’s cyclists. No Surrey rides are marked complete without visiting this one road, and possibly gorging on some coffee and cake at the cafe in picture above. For me too, it must be the most ridden route after Richmond Park and the route to Cambridge.
So, here it is, marking a token local presence in today’s maverick collection of roads to ride.

Photo by braveheart cyclist, and a better triathlete, @TroyMaloy on Twitter.

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Clapham Jn – 8 Aug 2011

I live on a small street off the high street (St. John’s Rd) in Clapham Junction.

Yesterday, on the way back from my evening ride in Richmond Park, I was surprised to see the roads were strangely empty in Wandsworth. I was hoping the trouble hadn’t started there. Realised it was even worse – rioters and looters on our high street and around my street.

Wasn’t even sure if I could stop outside my own door given the street was full of hoods. Didn’t want to be robbed of the new bike, it’s barely 2 weeks old!

Did get off and get inside the house safely. Probably they didn’t want to mess with a brown-skinned, sweaty fella with bulging eyes :) [crass racist mention]

 

[Made public on Oct 4, 2011 17:58]

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Proud of my girlfriend…

… on her first proper ride of the year, she bravely rode up the climb from Battersea into Clapham, amongst other smaller climbs. (It’s another matter that she stopped for 10 minutes after the climb to catch her breath and drink about a gallon of water.)

On another note, badly missing my NexusOne. Got the replacement SIM and popped it into the old E71. It’s nowhere close … :'(

Proud of my girlfriend…