mae <
[email protected]> wedi ysgrifennu:
> MartinM wrote:
>> Humpkin <
[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:<
[email protected]>...
>>
>>> [QUOTE You can enter on the day, honest! (at least you
>>> could every time I have done it even though have always
>>> had a number beforehand, there is a tent on Clapham
>>> Common for this purpose; they will deny it but it is
>>> true. ;-)
>>>
>>> Thanks this is fantastic news.
>>
>>
>> It does seem too good to be true but it has happened
>> every year so far; in fact I've even forgotten my little
>> plastic card holder before and picked up a discarded one
>> from the registration tent. Of course you may not be able
>> to get the coach back; even though there will still be
>> the old trains they have decided not to let any riders on
>> them, and have put posters up at all the Southern
>> stations. If you could ride to another station than
>> Brighton (Lewes, Horsham, East Grinstead, Uckfield) you
>> would get on I imagine (after all how do they know you
>> have done the L2B apart from a big satisfied grin?)
>> Alternatively if going back by car meet at Patcham or
>> Devil's Dyke.
>
> could always ride back!
This is the problem I have with London-Brighton. It could
and *should* be a celebration of cycling and, in a broader
sense, cardio-vascular activity. Unfortunately, the fact
that it's a sponsored event means that there is an emphasis
on how 'difficult' it is to cycle sixty miles - after all,
it would be a real job to get friends and family to sponsor
you to do something easy.
Yet sixty miles in eight hours or so for even a moderately
unfit person is relatively easy, even if they probably would
have to walk a couple of hills.
Every time I rode the L-B I also rode to the start (ten
miles) and rode back. Yes, I could feel it in my legs, but
then my regular cycling at the time consisted solely of a
twenty mile round trip commute five days a week. I remember
going into work the next day and people being amazed that
I'd rode 'all the way to Brighton' and that I wasn't taking
the day off to recover. I didn't mention the extra eighty
miles that they hadn't sponsored me for; I didn't want to
give the poor dears a heart attack - that would be defeating
one of the objects of the ride, wouldn't it?..
--
Rob
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