Ride London 2013

Or Prudential Ride London 2013.  And More specifically the Prudential Ride London Freecycle 2013.  Not too much to say about it myself.  I saw a notification for it whilst in the states, then some paraphernalia came through the post and I went along.  Started early to try and take part in the world record attempt which went awry it seems, though there wasn't a clear understanding of where the record was actually being measured, and there were some very young kids along not as able to keep the distances between bikes constant.



Anyway, I went and got some breakfast and returned to get a load of pictures of London streets full of cyclists.






I wanted to try and get some with parliament in the background.  And handily there was a 'smile for the camera' sign just by where I intended to go, so got a few nice pictures of quite a cross section of people having fun on their bikes.









I didn't end up venturing into any of the festival zones.  But had nice memories cycling down the Mall of the last time 3 weeks ago when P2P made our triumphant return.




There was a load of racing stuff, and if I'd known the full itinerary I may well have entered the 100 mile ride, taking advantage of my current fitness levels.  But that was it for me.  There are of course other insights into the significance of the freeride.  I saw it just as a novelty day out, and something to make a focus for some pictures.  I still have bike fever and don't seem to be able to escape the whole subject.  But really I'm just someone who rides around a lot, closed roads or not.  I very much come into the 'strong and fearless' category of cyclist.  Sometimes I wonder about my being too much into it to really be able to assess what the priorities should be to get more people cycling, I mean this weekend I must have covered around 100 miles pootling around town just going about my days.

My commemorative picture from the day, how nice

Apparently one of the stated aims is to increase day to day cycling.  Well it may have sparked more desire in some interested but concerned people.  But it's still not likely to change the mind of many of the people leaving comments along the lines of 'bloody arrogant cyclists fucking up my day by having the roads - WHICH ARE MEANT FOR CARS INNIT - closed' blah blah blah.  So I'll take the fact  that it was a nice day with the opportunity to ride round these iconic landmarks in a great atmosphere with very little fear.