Box Hill

I cycled 76 Miles to the spot the photograph above shows. Box Hill is 38 miles from my doorstep and is as good a climb as one is gonna get in Southern England. I chose to go there just to get a long ride in with a bit of climbing. My first goal as stated before is to shed some weight before July. The other goal is to get comfortable with the idea of sitting on a bike for 8 hours or so trying to do 120 miles. A couple of years ago I did the London to Canterbury Cyclosportive and I think the hardest part for me was the exhaustion of sitting on a bike for such a long time and distance. My arms, shoulders, back and feet ached more than my legs.

The ride to Box Hill from my house in Arnos Grove, North London is a bit of a slog. I left at 8.30 in the morning and had to pedal through rush hour traffic. My first destination was Richmond Park, which has a great inner circular road which is 6.7 miles long if you do a complete lap. Its always full of serious road cyclists and would be a favoured destination of mine if it was not so far away. Its a beautiful park to cycle through as its full of Deer and Elk roaming freely on the grounds. After that you hit a bit of traffic going through Kingston and then another park, Hampton Court, one of the homes of Henry VIII. The ride has another highlight in that you have to Cross the Thames River 3 times. Past Hampton Court and the last Thames crossing you are in Suburbia Lite and countryside. The real joy is when you get to the village of Mickleham and boom, you start your 500ft climb to the top of Box Hill. What awaits you is a beautiful view, a nice little cafe that does nice hot drinks and cakes, and a shop that sells souvenirs to tourists.

I know I am improving because the climb was a cinch after 35 miles, and not much of a climb after climbing a couple of serious mountains in California. 

 I stayed up at the top for an hour, reading the Guardian while having some lunch. It was freezing and windy but lots of cyclists were doing the hill. I cycled exactly the way I came in but was caught in a drizzle the last 15 miles.

Here is the ride on MotionBased website.

Its strange that in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the Tour of California and the circus following Lance Armstrong is making its way past my mom's house in Fresno. My friend Gary took this photo of his hero Lance at the start of the stage in Visalia.

You have to admit that whatever you think of Lance, he is good for the sport in that he gives it a huge visibility. And it creates a big debate about Doping that I think will ultimately be good for the sport. I have no idea any more if doping plays big part in the sport.

Assuming they are all dirty, then its probably a level playing field, which means, Armstrong, Basso, Landis, Contador and Pantani are great cyclists....they should have stayed clean and cycled a couple of minutes slower. But who knows. If Armstrong is a doper, than probably Mercxx was too.

If you read your history, its been part of the cycling culture for yonks and for most of that part, no one gave a shit. They probably are trying to clean the sport but it will take a whole generation to change, why? Because the old culture has to die out first and the new one has to take root.

I love cycling...I stop giving a shit if they use drugs....Because frankly I dont know what is really going on.

finally check out the video in the middle of this link on VeloNews. Whatever you think of Lance, he never loses his cool.