London Phoenix Easter Classic Reliability Ride

Tue 09 Apr 2013

Barkingside, 114km, Monday 24th March 2008

Well done to all those that finished the London Phoenix Easter Classic on Monday in the snow.
I thought it was a very well organised event, well signposted and there was a certificate for all finishers which was a nice touch. The route was undulating with only one decent hill but the pace was quite good throughout. The group was made up of a nice bunch of riders of mixed abilities.

Less than a mile into the race the entire group was pulled over by a police van, apparently one guy at the back had ridden through a red light. After a stern talking to by the policeman he decided against issuing fifty tickets and eventually let us all carry on. I think he was getting cold as he was only wearing a short sleeved shirt and it was snowing quite heavily at the time. The weather got a bit better for a while and the group all agreed to stop and water the flowers a couple of times, we also had to stop at the half way stage to get our free Easter egg and to get our card stamped by one of the race organisers. Shortly after the turnaround point the snow got very heavy and was starting to settle but at least we had a tail wind for the last 30 odd miles back to the HQ at Fairlop Waters.

Paul Upton was the first North Roader home in a time of 4 hours dead, not bad for 113km/70m. He was followed fairly closely by myself and 3 other North Roaders: Geoff Oliver, Dave Kiely and Matt. A mention should also go to Peter Stone (good friend of Alan Rochford) who put me to shame by making it look easy even though he is in his late 60's, well done Peter. All in all it was a good training ride in tough conditions; I would recommend it and I’ll be going back again next year.

 

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