Season Opener
This weekend, I did the season’s first ride. First non-commuting ride, that is. On Good Friday I helped Angelos, my cycling buddy, to sort out his bike from its winter hibernation. We replaced the tires, brake shoes, gear & brake cables. So on Saturday we could go on a ride. We met at Regent’s Park at around midday. OK, it was after midday; I was late, can we move on now?
I had been to Regent’s Park, early on a Saturday morning 3-4 weeks ago for one of M’s tai-chi pushing hands sessions and I saw quite a few cyclists. It is nice, central, much closer than Richmond Park, it’s a shorter loop, but it does have a few traffic lights. All things considering it’s not a bad choice for a cycling loop. As as I left home I realised that I was slightly under-dressed but I was hoping that by keeping a high cadence I would keep warm. The other thing I noticed was that the roads were nearly empty. When I arrived outside London Zoo, I knew why; every Londoner was there!
So, since I arrived slightly late, Angelos was already completing his first lap as I arrived outside the zoo. Without further delay we started our laps (the Outer Circle anti-clockwise). Angelos went ahead with a relatively high pace for the first few laps. Then we slowed down as I had to eat an energy bar as I hadn’t had any food that day. We carried on and we did in total 7 laps (Angelos did 8). We decided on a light lunch at the café on the Inner Circle of the park and then we headed home. All in all, 53km. Not bad for a season’s start.