Report for B Group - 23rd October

Madeleine writes:

My first lead for the B group proved to be a very pleasurable experience.

I'd designed what I hoped would be a pretty and interesting meander aside, across and around the Thames - to Wandsworth and back via Hammersmith. All well and good. But the weather forecast was for mist - so the visuals were set to be rather limited.

What a difference, then, to have sunshine! Bliss. And the whole ride was made more enjoyable again by the light-heartedness and good spirits of all who joined us. The tone, of course, was set by the subleaders, who fully embraced the feel of the day. They both showed creativity and initiative in improvising their own routes along the way.

Bernard, as you will see from his contribution, slipped through some wrinkles in the space-time continuum, but somehow joined at crucial moments (notably lunch) and added good cheer to all he encountered. Ray took his group on a wonderful tour, though a mystery one to me! The groups’ battles for places in the running order meant more interaction and a bit of photobombing - but it was nice to see what the others were up to.

Despite our research, lunch at the Ship and cost us dear on time. I’m glad to say that most of us got back before dark…apologies to those who needed their lights to see their noses.
 
Thanks to the members of my group for their humour and free facts: John & Anne C,
Paul & Maggie J, Alan C, Jane G & Colin G.
Your company and encouragement was much appreciated.

Thanks also to Bernard for being his own redoubtable self. And Ray deserves double points for inspiring some of the most interesting parts of the route - and taking on  leadership for the 3rd group with 15 hours to go!

For those who would actually like to know where we went (or at least where Ray took his group) please see his account, below….”

Madeleine

The Ship

A little cyclamen glade that only my group saw

My group in the Cyclamen grove

Colliding groups at the National Archives

Ray writes:

We started by cycling and walking our bikes along the path at the end of Middle Lane, Teddington, before starting our ride to Bushy Park where we were greeted by a pair of stags guarding the entrance. A quick tour around Bushy Park was then completed using paths in a different order to our normal approach. Well done Maddie!!! On leaving the park, it was a quick ride across Kingston bridge and onto Richmond Park that we entered at Kingston Gate and left at Roehampton Gate. Then onto Barnes Station where I missed a turn and decided that I would not go back, a poor decision on my part, which took us up a slight hill to turn around at the top and cycle back to the bottom again. At the traffic lights a new route was discovered that quickly brought us back on to the correct route. On to Queen Elizabeth Walk to the Thames where we had a bumpy ride before entering a road section that took us past several sailing clubs and rowing clubs before arriving at Putney Bridge. A quick dog leg through the traffic lights, past the Rocket and then along to Wandsworth Park where a van was blocking the entrance. Having squeezed past the van, we found that they were fitting some railings to stop bikes riding down the slope into the park. Along the riverside and then a quick deviation from the course to ride further along the river using Nickols Walk, rather than riding further along Smugglers Way. By using this devious route, we arrived at the pub right behind the second group who couldn’t get past the van at the entrance to Wandsworth Park and so took a route away from the river to the pub. It then become apparent that both groups had overtaken the first group, as they had yet to arrive. They soon turned up but where they had been remains a mystery.

The service in the pub was quick but, unfortunately, the preparation of the food was slow. But the time passed with the waitress bringing us food that we didn’t order or calling it a different name to that shown on the menu. All entertaining.

We set off on the wrong foot by entering a McDonald’s drive-thru due to missing a turning on the left, so a quick U-turn was required that took us over Wandsworth Bridge and along Carnwath Road to the Hurlingham Club, around the roads and into Bishops Meadow and onto Hammersmith Bridge. Here, somehow, we managed to overtake the second group and lead them to the National Archives just before Kew Bridge where several switch backs and turnings kept us on our toes. At Kew Bridge we tried to find a way under the bridge to no avail, so took to the roads to cross the bridge with a lot of other traffic. Then an inspired route to avoid Brentford High Street took us to Syon Park and onto the river path to Twickenham. Here Rob had a puncture that was finally resolved by taking the bike to a local repair shop, having first tried to get the tyre off the rim with the help of a number of other people in the group. Having spoken to the rest of the group, who all seemed to know where they were going, it was decided to forget tea and for everyone to go home using their own routes.

The route was well designed by Maddie and in my group, with company from Ann, Ian, Stephen, Gill and Rob plus our intrepid back marker Tim G, it made an enjoyable and fun day out.

Ray

Bernard writes:

Having been on a ‘course for leaders’ my confidence was high.  Today my team were going to be led like never before.  Preparation was the key and I had prepared a hand drawn map… symbolizing, for me, the coming together of my two great hobbies; art and cycling… a map which spoke as much to my artistic soul as to my route planning skills.  As I showed it around to the club members I thought I heard gasps of admiration and astonishment.  I allowed a certain puffing out of my chest.

My drawing of the route…Not to scale.  I call it “Route Thames No 45 Symphonica” (This has no meaning whatsoever… but I like how it sounds!)

Essentially as ‘No 45 Symphonica’ (for short) shows we would ride along the South Bank of the Thames in an easterly direction to Wandsworth bridge and then back along the North Bank with some confusing zig zagging and multiple bridge crossings to Kingston.  We were the first group and my pride as today’s sub leader made me determined to ensure that our group came in first before the other two groups.

So there we went… swooshing through Kingston and down to the river where we were watched like mice by a giant cat.

A cat mural down by the river’s edge

We were a peloton… perhaps not ‘Le Tour’ but definitely ‘the Tour of the Thames’.  The leading group and machine like… clockwork.

The day was gorgeous… the sun was out… the sky was blue.  We glided past Fulham Football Club’s stadium on the other side of the river and on we rode.  And on… and on… in fact very on… I was in a tranquil and calm mindset where sun, sky and route gelled into an eternal bliss.  And so my mind drifted off into a heavenly dimension… I was in the ‘now’… a blank peaceful canvass where thought did not trouble me.

This painting, IKB 79, by Yves Klein, 1959 is a pretty accurate depiction of my state of mind… pure blue with an eternal mesmerizing quality.  It can be seen in the Tate Modern.

At that point I felt some squizzyness in the ground beneath my bike… a kind of sinking sensation.  For the first time on the ride I focused on what was actually before and around me.  The best and kindest way to describe it is to say that it resembled a combination of bog and scrub land.  It was at that point, tuning into reality, that I realized I was lost… that somewhere along my carefree daydreaming I had unwittingly veered off the carefully prepared route.  Very quickly I started to feel an extremely unpleasant sensation developing in the pit of my stomach… a visceral physical pain… coming to a head when one of our team asked “which way now Bernard?”  But for formidable self control on my part I would have expressed a bellowing panic stricken scream… 

An equally accurate representation of my state of mind; ‘The Scream’ by Edward Munch, 1893, where you can see in the National and Munch museums in Oslow, Norway.

I searched my mind for some direction but despite my begging it refused to assist.  It was as if my own mind was taking pleasure in my discomfort… it was quite, no… very, happy to remain absolutely silent and unresponsive.  I thought back to the leader’s course but there was nothing on what to do when you’re completely lost with no sense of direction.  Then out of the corner of my eye I saw what looked like horse hoof indentations down a narrow track to my left.  I instantly pointed in that direction… it was our only hope of avoiding the mud lands which lay ahead.  It led us out to the side of some road… which road I have no idea… there was a decision to be made, left or right.  No clues provided as to which way.  At this point relying on rational conscious thought was a non starter.  I would have to rely on the subconscious… to get in touch as Freud would say (I’m not sure if he did actually say such a thing now that I think about it!) with that which lies beneath.  I pointed right… why, I do not know… instinct perhaps but in truth sheer guess work plus a tonne of hope.

And on we rode.  Desperately I was looking out for a sign of sorts that we were on track and there it was as if I had discovered the Pacific Ocean; the Thames was on our left and Wandsworth Bridge directly ahead.  Ugly as it is the bridge shone like a beacon of joy in my mind’s eye.  Just by its side we arrived at our lunch time stop ‘The Ship’ pub.  We were on track but somewhat worryingly the other groups had arrived before us… how had that happened!

I needed to urge my riders… impress upon them the importance of a quick getaway to regain our ‘numero uno’ spot.  But they all seemed very content with how things were proceeding and totally unconcerned as to what position our group was in.  They were clearly enjoying themselves and looking forward to some (I must admit) much earned grub.  

Our riders by Hammersmith Bridge which I had somehow failed to cross!

Tony, Sabina, me, Mick (back marker), Dawn, Steph and Grant.  Brenda was also part of out team and she may have possibly taken this photo.

As we sat and waited so the minutes passed… and passed… and if I rightly recollect, it wasn’t until sixty of those minutes had dozed by that the first morsel was served.  I noticed that our group was irked by this, discomforted to the point that I sensed some real anger which rose to a crescendo with the discovery by one of our group that a lettuce leaf in one of the sandwiches was limp and of a dull dark green colour.  That was beyond the pale.  The team were spiked, seething, spitting volcanic rocks as it were.  And within me it had clicked… the way to get a team to ride, to ride with venom, hard and fast was to ensure the lunch stop was, how to put this, wanting… and the more wanting the better, dire…yes that’s it dire.

A quick look at No 45 Symphonica just to get my bearings  and off we went.  Across Wandsworth Bridge with fire in our bellies.  So much fire in fact that we missed Hammersmith Bridge.  On we cycled…what did it matter to us, South Bank, North Bank… piffle… we were heading west chasing down the other groups.  The Thames was our mistress and we were its knights in shining armour or The Thames was our Caesar and we were his glorious mistresses…or…well you get the picture…depending on your inclinations the Thames was your something and you were its other as it were; but let us not get stuck in the quagmire of political correctness.  Whatever the Thames represents to you we reached Kew Bridge and strangely enough we passed by a Banksy goat.

Banksy goat which I believe appeared in August of this year

From there it was a straight run into Kingston and still seething at the thought of having been served a limp dark green lettuce leaf (which the goat might have appreciated) we sped past the other groups, the first which had stopped for a photo shoot and the other which had ventured into some café in Isleworth.  And then it dawned on me… I  had never actually determined our exact end point beyond the vague notion that it was somewhere around Kingston… but where exactly was a mystery.  Without this we could never ever technically finish our ride but as the afternoon closed in so our riders parted ways… homeward bound.  And so the ride kind of, but never actually, ended.  In a way each of our group is forever riding this ride and so I think I shall rename my hand drawn map, aptly I think, ‘No 45 Symphonica Unfinished’.

The route was devised by Maddie and I can attest first hand that she put a lot of effort into planning this very enjoyable ride.  My group were Grant, Dawn, Brenda, Steph, Tony, Sabina, and Mick who very kindly agreed to back mark.  I can also attest that this was a great group of riders who were exceptionally gracious, magnanimous and kind in putting up with all my errors and shortcomings.  

~ Bernard